What is Cheng Hsin?

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Justin Adler-Swanberg
New York, NY
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[Justin (Cheng Hsin instructor in New York city, and level three apprentice) and I have been having a dialogue recently. I thought it might be useful for Newsletter readers to share with you a small part of this dialogue.]

Peter,
Q1: In your words, what is Cheng Hsin? (simply; I am not expecting a miracle of clarity, just what you would say?)

PR: Cheng Hsin itself is the source of the "communication" of Cheng Hsin, which manifests as a practice or study (or way of inquiry) that has produced the "body of knowledge" that comprises the bulk of the Cheng Hsin work. This inquiry is pursued in the arts of Cheng Hsin that have been adopted for this purpose.

I imagine that you are asking about the source or Cheng Hsin itself, so I will respond to that aspect. Cheng Hsin is Consciousness, or the nature of Being -- which is the origin or source of consciousness, awareness, intelligence, and the "rationale", as it were, of existence -- in other words why body, physics, mind-forms, etc. make sense -- and so is the "mother" of the principles that found everything. Cheng Hsinis the genius of being. It is Nothing and it is Absolute. It is the source of everything. But I doubt this will really make much sense, or be very useful.


Q2: In my own experience and interpretation, Cheng Hsin refers to the actual nature of all things as they actually are.

PR: Yes, but we can't presume to "know" what that is. It is not thinkable or perceivable, even in the abstract. So whatever image, notion, sense, etc., we come up with will not be it and, although sometimesuseful, should be known as an inadequate symbol, a "place holder" at best. Really. It cannot be thought. It cannot be perceived. I know this is unacceptable to the human mind, but don't blame me, I didn't make it that way.


Q3: This is an absolute principle which so far as I have been able to tell is not altered in any way by any possible situation or condition. I have only been aware of this to this level since the camp, by the way.

PR: This is true. It is really impossible to communicate about the "source" or "Nothing" from which the Cheng Hsin communication comes, so I don't try. There is just no way anyone would understand this correctly. They must find the way there themselves (with a lot of assistance). It is of the nature of "blah, blah, Ginger" (if you are familiar with that Larson cartoon). Much can be said but then a leap in consciousness must be made. This consciousness generates what is said, but it not what is said.


Q4: In other words, as far as I can tell, I have had a clear experience of what Cheng Hsin itself asa principle actually is but this has not suddenly made me an expert, or even significantly more skillful, inthe arts that you teach.

PR: Cheng Hsin itself isn't actually a principle, it is the mother of principles. If you grasp the unifying principle of the principles of Cheng Hsin, then it should show up in your practice. However, the arts must be grasped on their own terms, and practice as well as study is necessary. An insight can certainly help, even speed up the learning, but doesn't provide skill automatically.

An insight of Cheng Hsin itself is as true of cooking and talking and laughing as it is of martial interaction. It's an opening and doesn't necessarily provide something concrete; rather it provides the opening, the nothing, the space, the honesty, and usually the sensitivity and intelligence to learn, become more skillful, to investigate and discover what is true.
Peter