信心銘 心要連讀Inscription on Faith in Mind · Continuous Heart-Essence
信心銘Inscription on Faith in Mind
全文五層 →Full five layers →《信心銘》裡有一句話，比「至道無難」更適合拿來當這一篇的入口：「眼若不眠諸夢自除」〔T48 0376c21〕。眼睛如果不睡，種種夢自然就沒有了。這一篇不走銘的次第，只拿這一句，從頭到尾看一遍。
夢是誰做的
銘從不說世界有問題。它說的是「違順相爭是為心病」〔T48 0376b22〕——病在相爭，不在違順。它說「一切二邊妄自斟酌」〔T48 0376c19〕——二邊是自己量出來的。它說「法無異法妄自愛著」〔T48 0376c17〕——法沒有另一個法，是自己愛著。後兩句裡都有一個「自」字；第一句的「相爭」，爭的也是自己。夢是自己做的；境界沒有來騙人。這一點如果不先承認，後面『不睡』的話就沒有著落——你會一直想去改夢的內容，而不是醒。
為什麼趕不走
既然是夢，為什麼不乾脆一個一個趕走？銘用一聯回答：「止動歸止止更彌動」〔T48 0376b26〕。趕夢的那個動作，本身就是夢的一部分。想靜，是一個順逆；想空，是一個取捨；想把念頭綁起來，「繫念乖真」〔T48 0376c14〕。所以銘幾乎不教人做什麼，它教的全是「莫」：「但莫憎愛」〔T48 0376b20〕、「莫存順逆」〔T48 0376b22〕、「莫逐有緣勿住空忍」〔T48 0376b25〕、「一亦莫守」〔T48 0376c06〕。趕夢的手停下來，才是不睡的開始。
不睡，不是睜大
有人會把「不眠」聽成用力。可是銘緊接著就把這條路堵死：「虛明自然不勞心力」〔T48 0376c29〕。不睡，是本來醒著的那個東西不再被蓋住；不是另外打起精神。所以它同時說「放之自然體無去住」〔T48 0376c13〕——放，不是扔，是不去拿。眼睛不睡，和眼睛瞪著，是兩件事；前者沒有力氣在裡面。銘甚至連「空」也不許用力守：「須臾返照勝却前空」〔T48 0376c02〕——一回頭，就勝過你先前以為的那個空。
醒了以後看見什麼
醒著的人並不是看見另一個世界。「六塵不惡還同正覺」〔T48 0376c16〕——六塵還在，只是不被厭惡；厭惡一停，當下就同於正覺。「心若不異萬法一如」〔T48 0376c22〕——心不分別，萬法本來一如。然後是銘最寬的幾句：「極小同大」〔T48 0377a05〕、「極大同小」〔T48 0377a06〕、「有即是無無即是有」〔T48 0377a06〕、「一即一切一切即一」〔T48 0377a08〕。這些話不是在描述奇觀，是在說：夢除了以後，原來分開的東西沒有被拼回去，它們本來就沒有分開。
這就是信心
銘的題目叫信心，而「信」字全篇只出現兩處：「狐疑盡淨正信調直」〔T48 0376c27〕，「信心不二不二信心」〔T48 0377a09〕。信心不是先相信了什麼，再去證明；是狐疑淨了，心自然直——那個直，就叫信。所以一雙不睡的眼睛，和一顆不二的信心，是同一件事的兩個說法。最後銘把自己也放下：「言語道斷非去來今」〔T48 0377a10〕。你合上這一篇的時候，不需要記住它說了什麼；只要還醒著，它說的就都在。
There is a line in the Inscription on Faith in Mind that makes a better doorway into this piece than “the ultimate Way is not difficult”: “If the eyes do not sleep, the dreams are gone of themselves”. If the eyes do not sleep, the dreams of every kind simply are not there. This piece does not follow the order of the inscription. It takes this one line and looks at the whole inscription through it, from beginning to end.
Whose Dream Is It
The inscription never says that the world has a problem. What it says is “contrary and agreeable contend with each other: this is the mind’s sickness”: the sickness is in the contending, not in the contrary or the agreeable. It says “every pair of extremes is measured out by oneself in delusion”: the two extremes are something one has measured out oneself. It says “dharma has no other dharma; one clings to it oneself in delusion”: there is no second dharma; it is oneself who loves and clings. The last two lines each carry the word “oneself”; and in the first, the contending is also one’s own. The dream is one’s own doing; the world has not come to deceive anyone. Unless this is admitted first, the talk of “not sleeping” that follows has nowhere to land: you will keep trying to change the contents of the dream instead of waking.
Why They Cannot Be Driven Out
If they are dreams, why not simply drive them out one by one? The inscription answers with a single couplet: “stop motion to return to stillness, and the stillness moves all the more”. The act of driving out the dream is itself part of the dream. Wanting stillness—one side of stillness and movement—is an agreeable-and-contrary; wanting emptiness is a taking-and-rejecting; wanting to tie the thoughts down is “binding thought and going against the true”. So the inscription almost never tells anyone to do something; what it teaches is all “do not”: “only no hate and love”, “do not keep agreeable and contrary”, “do not chase the conditions of being; do not dwell in the acceptance of emptiness”, “do not keep even the one”. When the hand that drives dreams out stops, that is where not sleeping begins.
Not Sleeping Is Not Staring
Some will hear “not sleeping” as effort. But the inscription blocks that road at once: “empty and luminous of itself, it does not labor the mind’s strength”. Not sleeping means that what was awake all along is no longer covered over; it is not a matter of summoning fresh energy. That is why it says in the same breath “let it go and it is natural; its body neither goes nor stays”: letting go is not throwing away; it is not reaching to take. Eyes that do not sleep and eyes that stare are two different things; in the first there is no strength being spent. The inscription will not even let one hold on to emptiness by effort: “a moment’s turning back of the light surpasses the former emptiness”. One turn of the head, and it is already past the emptiness you had thought was emptiness.
What the Awake See
The one who is awake does not see a different world. “with the six sense-objects not hated, one is just the same as right awakening”: the six sense-objects are still there; they are only no longer hated, and the moment the hating stops one is right then the same as right awakening. “if the mind does not differ, the myriad dharmas are one suchness”: when the mind does not divide, the myriad dharmas were one suchness all along. Then come the widest lines of the inscription: “the smallest is the same as the great”, “the greatest is the same as the small”, “being is nothing; nothing is being”, “one is all; all is one”. These are not descriptions of a marvel. They say: once the dream is gone, the things that had seemed divided have not been pieced back together; they were never divided.
This Is Faith in Mind
The inscription is titled faith in mind, and the word “faith” appears in only two places in the whole text: “when fox-doubt is wholly cleansed, right faith is gentle and straight” and “faith in mind is not two; not two is faith in mind”. Faith in mind is not first believing something and then going to prove it; it is that when doubt is cleansed the mind is straight of itself, and that straightness is what is called faith. So a pair of eyes that do not sleep and a faith in mind that is not two are two ways of saying one thing. At the end the inscription sets even itself down: “the road of words is cut off; it is not past, future, or present”. When you close this piece, there is no need to remember what it said. As long as you are still awake, everything it said is there.