Know Your Characters: A Zen Glossary
Editor’s note: This an occasional series introducing some of the basic words and expressions used in Zen practice in their original form, as Chinese characters. Although the Kwan Um School of Zen is a Korean school, the root vocabulary of Zen is classical Chinese, shared by all traditions in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam (and now around the world).
Character 2: Shim, 心
What makes everything?
Shim (Korean)
Xin (Chinese, pronounced “sheen”)
In Chinese, this character means both “mind” and “heart.” Although generally Zen teachers and texts use the English word “mind,” in the original vocabulary of Zen (as well as classical Chinese thought generally) there is no distinction between the two. “Mind” in the Buddhist sense includes our emotions, memories, associations, and analytical or conceptual capabilities. It is much more expansive than the conventional Western concept of mind.
Like the English word “heart,” shim can also be used to refer to the core or essence of something. For example, the
心經
or “Heart Sutra” (shim gyong). (This is actually the shorter form of the original title, which is “Heart of the Prajnaparamita Sutra”).
References to shim occur in many of the major kong-ans and teaching texts we use in the Kwam Um school. Here is a very simple example (case 30 of the Mu Mun Kwan):
Tae Mae once asked Ma Jo, “What Is Buddha”?
Ma Jo answered, “Mind is Buddha.”
In the original Ma Jo’s answer is
即心即佛
to say / mind / [is] to say / Buddha
In the 33rd case of the Mu Mun Kwan, Ma Jo clarifies his answer:
A monk once asked Ma Jo, “What is Buddha?”
Ma Jo answered, “No mind, no Buddha.”
Here the original is
非心非佛
not / mind / not / Buddha
So remember, 心 makes everything, but don’t make 心.
