涅槃妙心, the wondrous mind of nirvana, is one member of the flower-sermon transmission formula. Blyth prints “the Secret Essence of Nirvana”: 妙心, the wondrous mind, is dropped, and “Secret” and “Essence” are imported. No member of the band survives.
The confrontation
The dictionary's band
Attested band verbatim from the dictionary entry 涅槃妙心
- the wondrous mind of nirvana
- nirvana's wondrous mind
- the subtle mind of nirvana
Entry Explanation (verbatim)
One member of the flower-sermon transmission formula, paired with "the treasury of the true teaching eye" (正法眼藏). In The Gateless Barrier, Śākyamuni Buddha says that he has the true-eye treasury and the wondrous mind of nirvana and entrusts them to Mahākāśyapa.
Blyth knew better
Corroboration: the formula's neighbours are faithful
Blyth renders the neighbouring members of the very same transmission formula faithfully: 教外別傳, a special transmission outside the scriptures; 不立文字, not founded on words and letters. Only 涅槃妙心 is recast, with 妙心, the wondrous mind, dropped and “Secret” and “Essence” imported; and in the same breath his 正法眼藏 loses its 藏, the treasury, printed as “the Eye of the True Law.” The recast word is the exception in an otherwise faithful sentence.
The literal reading
At the flower sermon the Buddha names what he transmits to Mahākāśyapa: 正法眼藏, the treasury of the true teaching eye, and 涅槃妙心, the wondrous mind of nirvana. 妙 is wondrous or subtle; 心 is mind. The band is uniform on the noun: it is a mind, nirvana's wondrous mind, the subtle mind of nirvana. The phrase names a quality of awakened mind entrusted.
The alteration
Blyth's rendering keeps none of the band. 妙心, the wondrous mind, is dropped; in its place he writes “Essence,” a noun the phrase does not contain, and “Secret,” a value it does not carry. A transmitted quality of mind becomes a guarded metaphysical essence: 妙心, the wondrous mind, is gone, and neither “Secret” nor “Essence” belongs to any member of the band. The recasting is the more visible because the words on either side of it, the transmission outside the scriptures and the not-founded-on-letters, come out plainly in the same sentence.