Neo-Advaita or Radical Nonduality

A Radical, New “Xin Xin Ming” (‘The Truth Mind’) of Zen Buddhism

The classic text of Chan / Zen Buddhism is re-interpreted from a contemporary radical nonduality perspective.

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CONTENTS [1] Introduction [2] A Radical Xin Xin Ming [3] About Xin Xin Ming [4] Key Neo-Advaita Concepts [5] Sources [6] Related Articles

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[1] Introduction

I offer this re-interpretation of the foundational Chan/Zen Buddhism text, Xin Xin Ming (The Truth Mind).

Xin Xin Ming was probably written in the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) and is considered the first text to define Chan Buddhism in China. It has a strong nondualism perspective, similar to the Taoism of Lao Zi (around 300–500 BCE) and Zhuang Zi (around 200–300 BCE). It is also similar to Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, which was heavily influenced by Mahayana Buddhism (200–300 CE) in India. Chan/Zen is part of the Mahayana school of Buddhism.

My re-interpretation is ‘radical’ because I have re-written the 36 versus of the Xin Xin Ming from a Neo-Advaita (or Radical Nonduality) perspective. I consider Neo-Advaita the “New Zen”. The original Xin Xin Ming (like the Tao Te Ching) tries to describe the indescribable. So, it only took a little tweaking to make it more radical than it already was.

The main difference is that Neo-Advaita/Radical Nonduality completely rejects any possibility that there is a separate “I” (or egos-self) that can seek and reach spiritual liberation. Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta also believe the no-self is the ultimate truth. But they start out with more dualistic assumptions, which Radical Nonduality rejects. (At least that is how I see it.)

A list of the key concepts that I have introduced into the Xin Xin Ming from Radical Nonduality is at the end of this article, along with links to main sources I used for my re-interpretation.

[2] A Radical Xin Xin Ming

1. Pure witnessing, without a witnesser, is effortless when there is no self, no you with preferences and a story. It happens when you and your attachments to the story end. That is how truth reveals itself. Anything other than pure awareness is self-delusion.
2. Preferences, attachments, and stories happen. If you identify with them, truth becomes as divided as heaven and earth. Truth is not in the attachments, opinions, and stories of the mind. The essential truth lies eternally undisturbed by beliefs of the mind.
3. There is only what is, always full and complete. There is nothing more and nothing less than this. The apparent you, choosing stories of love and hate, veils the truth, and the oneness of this remains unseen.
4. Oneness remains unseen because a “you” grasps and rejects things to prove its existence. Invisible and unknowable by “you”, witnessing is nothing being everything and every-thing being no-thing.
5. A self is seduced by the apparent diversity of the world. A self even becomes attached to seeking apparent spiritual emptiness. Oneness is beyond stories of the world and of emptiness. In that oneness, the you and its seeking are seen as temporary dreams.
6. Even when you try to be the silent emptiness, that effort strengthens the story of a self. The story of a self creates the opposite not-self, and oneness remains unknown.
7. The apparent me will either assert or deny the reality of the universe in the story it tells. To deny the perfection of all stories is to miss no-thing being every-thing; To assert the perfection of existence is to miss every-thing being no-thing.
8. The more you think and talk about the story-dream, the more truth remains unseen. When the dream and story of you stops, the reality of no-thing in every-thing is revealed.
9. The essence of eternal truth is the source of the you and the self. A seeking you can arise, but will never find that source. The witnessing essence of the source has no witnesser. It is the essence beyond form and emptiness.
10. The random oscillation of energy is how emptiness appears as form. Energy becomes form when the story-dream takes on purpose and reality. Waking from the dream cannot be done by the dreaming you, It only happens in allowing the you to end.
11. Experiences and thoughts happen within an apparent you. Witnessing that, with complete detachment, is transcending the you. Even a trace of me and not-me, this and that, right and wrong, and oneness remains unknown.
12. Every-thing is from no-thing. But do not cling even to no-thing (nonduality). When the infinite truth beyond is revealed, no-thing makes perfect every-thing just as it is, with no judgment.
13. In perfection, there is no one and nothing to blame. There is no subject (me), and there is no object (not-me), they are the same and they are no-thing (nonduality). When the subject (me) vanishes, every-thing becomes no-thing.
14. When there is an apparent other (not-me), then an apparent self arises. When there is an apparent self (me), then an apparent other arises. These are all one energy and one story, arising from emptiness, and creating every-thing from no-thing.
15. Energy contracts to become every-thing, and expands back to no-thing. In nonduality, no-thing is every-thing, and every-thing is no-thing. Every experience, thought, and thing is a perfect arising of no-thing. This is the truth for the eternal witnessing awareness.
16. That truth is total freedom, all possibilities, and no limits. And it is perfectly ordinary, nothing changes as the witnessing is revealed. But this abiding peace remains hidden from the seeking you, ever creating more stories to perpetuate the self.
17. So seek without seeking. Know that the desire for enlightenment only strengthens the you. Stop all grasping and become completely effortless in your awareness! Be the unknowable essence of no-thing and the arising of every-thing.
18. Be the truth of witnessing awareness, with no you, me, I, or witnesser. Those happen in every-thing, but they are not the truth of no-thing. Stories of suffering are real for the you and the me, but not for the no-thing.
19. Pain and suffering are experiences happening to a me. But the witnessing is beyond experiences, not seeking or rejecting them. Become the simple and effortless witnessing, beyond body, mind, emotions, senses, and experiences.
20. Allow all sensations, experiences, and responses to happen as they arise. That itself is true Enlightenment. The witnessing awareness is empty, unbounded, and without purpose. The fictional self has purpose, within the bounds of a limiting story.
21. There is only this one truth, not many. Diversity arises from stories of the apparent self. Using the apparent self to know the True Self is impossible, though it may arise effortlessly in a story, which is as it is.
22. Identifying with the self creates dualities of peace and conflict. Truth is beyond all dualities of like or dislike. Duality arises as the drama of the stories that create a you. Identifying with truth allows the stories to arise and fall.
23. Dreams, illusions, and flowers in the air, are temporary, finite, and ever-changing stories, with no substance. Like gain and loss, and even right and wrong, they create and justify the imaginary self.
24. In witnessing without a witnesser identification with stories and dreams naturally cease. In effortless awareness with no attachments, all things happen as they are, but in total oneness.
25. The unknowable mystery of oneness is free from all stories of cause and effect. When there is no witnesser to differentiate, you no longer exist. You are both no-thing and every-thing, simultaneously, in every moment.
26. The universal energy exists, whether in rest or in motion. As each is a mirror of the other, all dualities disappear. When all dualities disappear into a single oneness, even that oneness disappears.
27. Truth is impossible for you to know because no rule or description can contain it. Witnessing becomes a perfect, effortless, and ordinary world when the witnesser disappears.
28. Suffering and fears arise in the illusory self, but the witnessing awareness knows there is no you to suffer and be afraid. You have disappeared into total freedom and limitless possibilities. Attachments arise, but no you is attached to those changing experiences.
29. All is no-thing, the unknown void beyond description. And no-thing is simply the ordinary every-thing, without any effort. For the no-thing, passing thoughts, feelings, and sensations are seen as the story-dreams they are.
30. In the true reality of no-thing, there is no me, no not-me, no self, and no not-self. To align with that be not-two (nonduality).
31. In not-two, the experiencer and the experience are inseparable. All experiencers and experiences are a single, one thing, arising from the universal energetic vibration of oneness that underlies all time and space.
32. The not-two is eternal and infinite, knowing no time or space. It is neither a moment nor a thousand years. It is not here and not there; it has purpose and no purpose. And it is always and everywhere, the normal reality before your eyes.
33. Large and small, and good and bad, arise as experiences of the self, and are seen in the witnessing awareness. But the story-dream reality of the self becomes unbounded when definitions and limitations disappear.
34. The every-thing of existence and the no-thing of non-existence are the same, everywhere and nowhere. Arguments and debates of the thinking self will never grasp this unknowable truth.
35. Nondual reality is no-thing being every-thing and every-thing being no-thing in every instance. Effortless witnessing is the silent, empty, and infinite not-two truth. It has no purpose, but is the end of the suffering self.
36. Talking ends here. The truth of not-two requires the self to have faith and trust beyond words. For the no-thing in every-thing and every-thing in no-thing exists beyond the past, the future, and even the present.

After completing my re-interpretation of Xin Xin Ming, I was reminded of the famous last line of the Buddhist Heart Sutra,

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha

Gone, Gone, Gone to the Opposite Shore, Gone Completely Beyond to the Opposite Shore, That is Enlightenment

The Heart Sutra explains the Mahayana Buddhist concept of emptiness. Going “completely beyond” means to transcend the self and enter the emptiness beyond manifest reality.

The Heart Sutra was probably written in India and entered China about when the Xin Xin Ming was written. In it also is the statement: “form is emptiness, and emptiness is form”, which is a lot like “every-thing is no-thing, and no-thing is every-thing.”

[3] About Xin Xin Ming

As mentioned above, Xinxin Ming (or Hsin Hsin Ming) (信 心 铭) is considered the first text in China to describe Chinese Chan (Zen in Japanese) Buddhism. It is attributed to Sengcan (or Seng’tsan, 鑑智僧璨, 496–606 CE), although scholars believe others wrote it after his death.

There are many translations and interpretations available, including different English titles. I like “The Truth Mind”, though none of the titles really captures the Chinese, which is hard to translate.

My Chinese is not good enough to read the original, so I selected 3 English versions to base my re-interpretation on. One is a close translation of the original Chinese text. Another takes poetic license in its interpretation. And the third is between those two.

My interpretation is unique because I am not seeking close accuracy with the original Chinese text or its meanings. Instead,

I extended and changed the original meaning to reflect what it might look like if the author had been exposed to a Radical Nondualism / Neo-Advaita perspective.

Advaita translates as not-dual or “not-two”, and Buddhism in general, and Chan/Zen Buddhism in particular, already has strong overlaps with Hindu Advaita Vedanta (the origin of Neo-Advaita). So this exercise was more of a “tweaking” of the original text, rather than a complete dismantling of it.

For example, I removed all references that imply a “you” can or should take some action to achieve enlightenment or truth. That a “you” exists and can do something is acceptable in the teachings of Advaita Vedanta. But Neo-Advaita completely rejects that a “you” exists that can affect anything. (More on that below.)

I resonate with the Radical Nondualism perspective. The original Xin Xin Ming is amazingly succinct and insightful. But I believe this re-interpretation presents a more accurate portrayal of the nonduality spiritual reality of our human condition.

This exercise was also a meditative learning experience for me.

[4] Key Neo-Advaita Concepts that I inserted into my re-interpretation

1. In nonduality, there is no separate self, no separate you, and no separate me. There is only witnessing existing without a witnesser. — Witnessing is an action (or verb) without a subject. It is only the action of pure awareness, beyond subject-object duality. — Witnessing is permanent, eternal, and formless. It is invisible, empty, silent, and unknowable. But it contains all manifest creation within its awareness. It is like the concept of turiya in Advaita Vedanta. — Witnessing is the no-thing that is every-thing. The no-thing is sometimes called Oneness, Source/God, the Tao, Truth, the True Self, and more, although radical nondualists often reject all those terms. — A witnesser (self, you, or me), along with its world or reality, is temporary, finite, relative, seemingly comprehensible, and constantly changing from moment to moment. It has no absolute substance. It is sometimes called the ego or the small self, which is how I use the word self in my re-interpretation.
2. Things appear to happen, including a self and experiences. Those experiences, and the apparent self they are happening to, are single, inseparable phenomena. In nonduality, the experiencer is not separate from the experience — they are one thing happening.
3. Things that appear to happen are manifestations of the universal energy that underlies all creation. All physical, mental, and emotional happenings are relative, temporary, and changing forms of the constantly shifting oscillations of that energy. That energy drives manifest creation. — The energy is held as an unexpressed/unmanifested/potential state in the witnessing. It temporarily expresses/manifests/activates in what appears as physical, mental, and emotional forms. These include our bodies, world, personalities, egos, thoughts, experiences, and knowledge.
4. Universal energy becomes physical, mental, and emotional forms through stories. It starts out oscillating randomly with no purpose as it contracts and expands, although there is cause and effect as energy pushes energy. Stories emerge from the innate intelligence within the witnessing. — The apparent me carefully picks certain aspects of the random oscillations to create a story, while ignoring most others. A “you”, an “I”, a “life”, and a “universe” temporarily come into existence as dreams based on these stories. — Some say this is how the unmanifested no-thing (Source / God / Universe) comes to know itself through the experiences of every-thing.
5. Absolute truth, the pure witnessing source, is always present. But it cannot be felt, known, or sought by a temporary self, you, or me. It is eternal, infinite, and unbounded. It is total freedom because from it, everything emerges and anything is possible. — Because anything is possible, becoming the witnessing/ absolute truth can happen. But we cannot know how, why, or when, although many stories are created around this. (Meditations on “not-two” and “neti-neti” are examples of ways that traditional, non-radical, teachings point to this state of turiya consciousness.)
6. When becoming the witnessing/absolute truth happens, it changes nothing. Every-thing remains as perfectly ordinary as before. The story continues as before. But the witnessing changes, as identity is no longer attached to a self. And that changes everything. It brings what some call an effortless abiding peace, even when the apparent you or I suffer physical, mental, or emotional pain in the story. — There is an awareness that every-thing is no-thing, and the temporary story-dream of life is perfect just as it is, in each changing moment. It cannot be any other way.

[5] Sources

As noted above, these are the 3 English versions of the Hsin Hsin Ming that I consulted for my re-interpretation:

(5.1) HsinHsinMing.pdf — by Eric Putkonen — This was the first version I was exposed to. It is the most poetic interpretation, based on several English translations.

(5.2) The Zen Site: Hsin Hsin Ming — by Richard B. Clarke — This version was translated directly from Chinese. It presents a mix between poetic interpretation and accuracy in translation.

(5.3) Hsin Hsin Ming — The Great Way — by Zen Moments — by Prof. Dusan Pajin — This is a scholarly version seeking an accurate translation from Chinese. It was originally published in an academic journal and includes an extended commentary on the translation challenges encountered. This is the version I relied on the most.

[6] Related

• For more on Nonduality (Advaita), see this collection of articles.

• For more on my understanding of Buddhism & Hinduism, see this collection of articles:

• Note that the articles in the two collections above are behind the Medium paywall. For paywall-free access to my articles, go to www.AlanLew.com, linked below.

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