Where: China.
When: Presumably before 606 CE.
What: Chinese text, of the Chan (禅, Zen) school.
Title: Xin Xin Ming (信心銘, sometimes Hsin Hsin Ming).
Who: Attributed to Jianzhi Sengcan (僧璨) (died 606 CE), the "Third Chinese Patriarch of Chan after Bodhidharma and thirtieth Patriarch after Siddhartha Gautama Buddha."
Thanks to Python and CEDICT (link), I have magically equipped nearly every Chinese character in the Xin Xin Ming with (modern!) pronunciations and definitions. Mouse-over one to see a list of [pinyin] /meaning/.../ entries from the dictionary.
The translation is one I selected from a number I've come across over the years. I obtained permission from the translator, Richard B. Clarke, Founder and Zen Teacher of the Living Dharma Center, to reproduce his translation here.
三祖僧璨大師信心銘
Verses On the Faith Mind
Translated by Richard B. Clarke
至道無難
The Great Way is not difficult
唯嫌揀擇
for those who have no preferences.
但莫憎愛
When love and hate are both absent
洞然明白
everything becomes clear and undisguised.
毫釐有差
Make the smallest distinction, however
天地懸隔
and heaven and earth are set infinitely apart.
欲得現前
If you wish to see the truth
莫存順逆
then hold no opinions for or against anything.
違順相爭
To set up what you like against what you dislike
是爲心病
is the disease of the mind.
不識玄旨
When the deep meaning of things is not understood
徒勞念靜
the mind's essential peace is disturbed to no avail.
圓同太虚
The Way is perfect like vast space
無欠無餘
where nothing is lacking and nothing is in excess.
良由取捨
Indeed, it is due to our choosing to accept or reject
所以不如
that we do not see the true nature of things.
莫逐有縁
Live neither in the entanglements of outer things,
勿住空忍
nor in inner feelings of emptiness.
一種平懷
Be serene in the oneness of things
泯然自盡
and such erroneous views will disappear by themselves.
止動歸止
When you try to stop activity to achieve passivity
止更彌動
your very effort fills you with activity.
唯滯兩邊
As long as you remain in one extreme or the other
寧知一種
you will never know Oneness.
一種不通
Those who do not live in the single Way
兩處失功
fail in both activity and passivity,
遣有沒有
assertion and denial. To deny the reality of things
從空背空
to assert the emptiness of things is to miss their reality.
多言多慮
The more you talk and think about it,
轉不相應
the further astray you wander from the truth.
絶言絶慮
Stop talking and thinking,
無處不通
and there is nothing you will not be able to know.
歸根得旨
To return to the root is to find the meaning,
隨照失宗
but to pursue appearances is to miss the source.
須臾返照
At the moment of inner enlightenment
勝卻前空
there is a going beyond appearance and emptiness.
前空轉變
The changes that appear to occur in the empty world
皆由妄見
we call real only because of our ignorance.
不用求眞
Do not search for the truth;
唯須息見
only cease to cherish opinions.
二見不住
Do not remain in the dualistic state
慎莫追尋
avoid such pursuits carefully.
纔有是非
If there is even a trace of this and that, of right and wrong,
紛然失心
the Mind-essence will be lost in confusion.
二由一有
Although all dualities come from the One,
一亦莫守
do not be attached even to this One.
一心不生
When the mind exists undisturbed in the Way,
萬法無咎
nothing in the world can offend,
無咎無法
and when a thing can no longer offend, it ceases to exist in the old way.
不生不心
When no discriminating thoughts arise, the old mind ceases to exist.
能隨境滅
When thought objects vanish, the thinking-subject vanishes,
境逐能沈
as when the mind vanishes, objects vanish.
境由能境
Things are objects because of the subject (mind);
能由境能
the mind (subject) is such because of things (object).
欲知兩段
Understand the relativity of these two
元是一空
and the basic reality: the unity of emptiness.
一空同兩
In this Emptiness the two are indistinguishable
齊含萬象
and each contains in itself the whole world.
不見精麁
If you do not discriminate between coarse and fine
寧有偏黨
you will not be tempted to prejudice and opinion.
大道體寛
To live in the Great Way
無易無難
is neither easy nor difficult,
小見狐疑
but those with limited views
轉急轉遲
and fearful and irresolute: the faster they hurry, the slower they go,
執之失度
and clinging (attachment) cannot be limited;
必入邪路
even to be attached to the idea of enlightenment is to go astray.
放之自然
Just let things be in their own way
體無去住
and there will be neither coming nor going.
continue on to the conclusion of the Xin Xin Ming (only because it wouldn't fit in one node)