In ordinary Chinese and Japanese, the word 心Chinese: xin
Japanese: kokoro
is a noun that has a very wide range of meanings and corresponding English translations. In the first place, it can refer to the physical “heart,” i.e. the organ that pumps blood. It can also mean “heart” in the metaphorical sense of the “center,” “core,” “essence,” “crux,” or “most vital part” of anything. The word 心, secondly, refers to “mind” in contrast to “body”身
Chinese: shen
Japanese: shin
, and to aspects of the human being that are “mental” in a broad sense, as opposed to those that are physical. Thus, depending on context, it may be translated as “thought,” “idea,” “awareness,” or “consciousness.” It is further used to refer to aspects of mentality that in English are called “emotion,” “feeling,” “sense,” or “mood.” Another subset of meanings is “intention,” “will,” “ambition,” or “design,” and a related set of mental functions that can be translated as “attention,” “interest,” or “care.” Finally, the word 心 can point to what may be called the “moral nature” or “conscience” of human beings, including the abstract virtues of “whole-heartedness” or “sincerity.”
Every branch of Buddhism, throughout the history of the religion, has held that individual control or emancipation of one’s own mind is the key to ending suffering. Buddhist theories of karmic retribution put a heavy emphasis on intention as a deciding factor in determining the quality of an action. Basic Buddhist doctrine holds that there are three modes of karma — that is, three spheres of action — that have real consequences, both good and bad. The three are (1) bodily actions, (2) verbal actions, and (3) mental actions, or “thought.” The third type, referred to in East Asia as actions of “mind”心
Chinese: xin
Japanese: shin
are the most important, and also the hardest to control.
In Zen Buddhism, “mind”心
also refers to the awakened “mind of buddha”佛心
, which the tradition claims to transmit from master to disciple without relying on scriptures. The Buddha Śākyamuni is said to have founded the Zen lineage in India when he bequeathed his awakening or “inconceivable mind of nirvāṇa”涅槃妙心
directly to one of his disciples, Mahākāśyapa, in what is characterized as a “separate transmission”別傳
that took place “apart from the teachings”教外
of the sutras. Mahākāśyapa later transmitted the “mind-dharma”心法
, as it was also called, to another monk, Ānanda, who became the second patriarch of the Zen lineage in India. The “buddha-mind” was subsequently handed down from master to disciple through the generations until it reached Bodhidharma, the 28th patriarch, who is credited with transmitting it to China. The latter is quoted as saying, “My method is to transmit mind by means of mind以心傳心
, without relying on scriptures.不立文字
“
