And, without shikantaza, just sitting, as Dogen called it, or silent illumination as Hongzhi called it, we\u2019re also lost, playing games with enlightenment. Hongzhi clearly understood this, writing in his Guideposts, \u201cIf illumination neglects serenity (the potential shadow of over emphasizing koan practice) then aggressiveness appears\u2026 (and) if serenity neglects illumination (the potential shadow of over emphasizing just sitting) murkiness leads to wasted dharma.\u201d<\/div>\n
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So, what is the middle way of the Zen disciplines? What is our boundless way?<\/div>\n
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Well, it is about the whole of our lives, it is about life and death and everything in between. It is about healing the great hurt that lives near most everyone\u2019s heart.<\/div>\n
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We sit not just for ourselves, but for the whole world.<\/div>\n
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It requires diligence. And it isn\u2019t without cost. <\/div>\n
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As I\u2019ve recounted elsewhere I first learned breath counting, a related practice to silent illumination, while sitting at Shunryu Suzuki\u2019s temples. It was several years later when I took up with Jiyu Kennett that she told me to stop counting and to just sit. I did, but really, at first I didn\u2019t really get it. The samadhi aspect, I got quickly. I was living in community and sitting a lot. And those lovely states just come naturally when you sit a lot. <\/div>\n
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Fortunately I wasn\u2019t given a lot of time to wallow.<\/div>\n
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I\u2019ve told this elsewhere, but it seems particularly germane for this talk. Myozen was a South African who went to Japan to study karate. She was attractive and to the Japanese exotic and soon had a boyfriend. She also came from a fairly strict Calvinistic Afrikaner family, and didn\u2019t believe in fooling around outside of marriage. But when she declined his repeated requests to have sex, for her out of the blue, he killed himself. <\/div>\n
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Not long after that his ghost starting visiting her. She went to the local Shin priest and told him about this. He said this wasn\u2019t really up his alley and that she should go to the Zen temple. Kennett Roshi was the abbess there. She told Myozen she could fix the problem, setting the young woman to sitting in shikantaza for long periods of time. <\/div>\n
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I don\u2019t think a lot of instructions were involved. Sit down. Shut up. Pay attention. However, the roshi would, at irregular times come into the zendo and use a kyosaku, the awakening stick, to beat her violently on the shoulders. Eventually the ghost moved on the easier pickings.<\/div>\n
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Some years later, in San Francisco, when the roshi left the temple we sat at for a visit to England, she left Myozen in charge. I was set to sitting for long periods of time, and she would come in at irregular times and beat the shit out of me.<\/div>\n
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It drove me into a real presence.<\/div>\n
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I wasn\u2019t just sitting, dreaming. I was sitting aware of everything, particularly the door into the zendo.<\/div>\n
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It was lively.<\/div>\n
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It was presence.<\/div>\n
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And it worked.<\/div>\n
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Now, we don\u2019t need such things to get to the power and immediacy of just sitting. There are more gentle pointers. For instance case 67 of the
Book of Serenity<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cNow when I look at all beings everywhere, I see that each of them possesses the wisdom and virtue of the Tathagata, but because of their attachment and delusion, they cannot bear witness to it.\u201d<\/div>\n
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The little secret is that we\u2019ve never, ever been separate from that intimate wisdom.<\/div>\n
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So, come on, bear witness.<\/div>\n
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It is all already here; we just need to notice.<\/div>\n
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All we have to do is to let go of attachments to this or that. Only for a moment, only for a heartbeat, or two. Certainly don\u2019t worry; the attachments will come back. But worry about that when it happens. Right now. Right here. Let go of the stories that have sustained your ideas of reality. I\u2019m not good enough. I\u2019m way too good for this. Whatever. Let go, just for a moment, turn the eye inward, and just notice.<\/div>\n
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Be present.<\/div>\n
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Bear witness.<\/div>\n
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In the
Grass Roof Hermitage<\/i> our direct ancestor Shitou calls us to \u201cturn around the light to shine within and then just return.\u201d Hongzhi calls us to \u201cturn within and drop off everything completely, and realization will occur.\u201d Dogen tells us to \u201ccease practice based on intellectual understanding, pursuing words and following after speech, and learn the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate yourself. Body and mind of themselves will drop away and your original face will be manifest.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
You don\u2019t need a stick beating you into the moment. <\/div>\n
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Just turn the eye inward, look and notice.<\/div>\n
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The whole thing will reveal itself.<\/div>\n
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As it has for many over the many years.<\/div>\n
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For instance, this becomes the stuff of Dogen\u2019s awakening. When his master Rujing found the young monk sleeping, he says \u201cTo study the way is to cast off body\/mind. Why are you engaged in single minded sleeping instead of single minded sitting?\u201d With these words Dogen saw into the fundamental matter.<\/div>\n
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Bearing witness.<\/div>\n
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Don\u2019t cling to this or that.<\/div>\n
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Just notice.<\/div>\n
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Still not clear?<\/div>\n
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Directly to the point of the case, at early in his training, while at Shangshan Temple, Hongzhi heard a monk reciting from the Huayen Sutra, \u201cThe eyes which our parents give us can behold three thousand worlds.\u201d Hearing this he had his first awakening.<\/div>\n
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You can do the same. Just listen with your full being.<\/div>\n
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Cast off attachments to body as something special, or to mind as something special. Just be here. These eyes, these ears, this body beholds the three thousand worlds.<\/div>\n
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Just this. <\/div>\n
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Just this ordinary body that you were given by your parents. Here\u2019s the secret. Your body has within it a full and complete capacity to know the Buddha\u2019s wisdom and virtue. Not someone else\u2019s body. Yours. And it isn\u2019t found some other place. Here. Just here.<\/div>\n
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Always, just here.<\/div>\n
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The practice of our way is the practice of presence. This is silent illumination. This is just sitting.<\/div>\n
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Need a little more? How about some practice instructions from our master Hongzhi?<\/div>\n
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A person of the Way fundamentally does not dwell anywhere.<\/div>\n
The white clouds are fascinated with the green mountain\u2019s<\/div>\n
foundation. The bright moon cherishes being carried along with<\/div>\n
the flowing water. The clouds part and the mountain appears.<\/div>\n
The moon sets and the water is cool. Each bit of autumn contains<\/div>\n
vast interpenetration without bounds.<\/div>\n
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This is silent illumination.<\/div>\n
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This is just sitting.<\/div>\n
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This is the way.<\/div>\n
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Any questions?<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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