Hello Steemians,
today I want to write about the concept of 心 (Xin). If you search for this character in a dictionary it‘s normally translated as heart. But it‘s way more than just the heart.
In the Chinese philosophy 心 designates the place where your thoughts are generated. You have to understand this if you want to read Buddhist scriptures like the Heart Sutra which doesn‘t make any sense if you just refer to 心 as heart. If the mind is the place of your thoughts you could also translate the Heart Sutra as Mind Sutra (心經). This Buddhist text is one of the most important scriptures in Chinese Buddhism and I will explain it more in another blog post.
At a museum in the Chinese city Wuxi (無錫, 無 means there is no, 錫 means tin), close to Shanghai (上海,上 means above, or by, 海 means sea) I took a photo of the following Chinese proverb (成語):
You have to read old Chinese characters from right to left, so it says 境由心造 (境 means area around you, 由 origin, 心 (you already know the meaning :)), 造 to produce, create). The meaning is something like: Everything around you is created by the mind
I think it‘s interesting to contemplate about these words. You will find that the mind indeed is the creator of everything: Your stress, your sorrows...and your HAPPINESS :)
If you learn to control your mind you won‘t be a slave anymore to your thoughts or emotions and you will be finally under control of your life again.
