![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2021\/02\/download-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist<\/a> Path to Natural Awakening,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Guo Gu Laoshi (available now for preorder and preview) is a wonderful expression of the buddhadharma from beginning to end. As you probably know, Guo Gu is an important contemporary Chan teacher, a successor of the great Sheng Yen. He also has one of the coolest websites around: click<\/a>.<\/p>\n In\u00a0Silent<\/span>\u00a0Illumination<\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>Guo Gu offers a strikingly fresh perspective on the significance of the phrase, silent illumination, grounded in the Chinese Chan perspective, compellingly rehabilitating and reintroducing silent\u00a0illumination\u00a0and the teaching of Zen Master Hongzhi to the English-speaking dharma world. For Guo Gu,\u00a0silent<\/span>\u00a0illumination<\/span>\u00a0is not a specific practice, but a synonym for buddha nature. And that\u2019s a game changer.<\/p>\n So <\/span>Silent<\/span>\u00a0illumination\u00a0<\/span><\/em>includes the whole path of practice and realization, from \u201cStarting from Where We Are,\u201d \u201cUnderlying Feeling Tones,\u201d and \u201cSupportive Attitudes to Cultivate,\u201d through \u201cThe Vacant Field.\u201d (1)<\/p>\n Up to this point in Western dharma literature, what we\u2019ve heard most about silent illumination is from either the Japanese Soto or Rinzai perspectives. From the Soto perspective, silent illumination, at it\u2019s best, is a samadhi practice that naturally unfolds into awakening. From the Japanese Rinzai perspective, following the Chinese Chan Master Dahui, silent illumination is about wallowing in fake emptiness, something to be avoided at at all costs. As Hakuin put it, \u201cThese days in temples throughout the country people are immersing themselves in the dead, stagnant waters of quiescent silent illumination Zen.\u201d<\/p>\n For more on this see \u201cHakuin\u2019s Blistering Criticisms of S\u014dt\u014d Zen: Who and What.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Guo Gu pulls silent illumination from the jaws of this controversy. He writes,<\/p>\n \u201cBuddha-nature<\/i>, our natural awakened nature, is really another word for silent illumination (mozhao<\/i>). Yet, many misunderstand it as an exclusive meditation method of certain sects within the Chan tradition and say that it was advocated only by Chan master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091\u20131157). But silent illumination cannot be claimed by any one tradition within Mahayana Buddhism<\/a>, and it is not a fixed meditation method\u201d (p. 3). (2)<\/p>\n Further,<\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Silence\u2019 is the metaphor for the wisdom of emptiness. So are quiescence, formlessness, spaciousness, stillness. These are all Hongzhi\u2019s poetic terms for the Mahayana teaching of selflessness. \u2018Illumination\u2019 refers to the wondrous activity of this selfless wisdom that, in Buddhism, is none other than compassion\u201d (p. 5).<\/p>\n But the book is about much more than this one point.<\/p>\n Guo Gu says,<\/p>\n \u201cChan Buddhism clarifies what awakening is and shows how to transform everyday experiences into the path. Distilled from centuries of development, Chan is the culmination and fulfillment of the Buddha\u2019s original message. However, the essence of Chan is largely absent from existing publications on Buddhism in the West, and this is especially true of the teaching on silent illumination\u201d (p. vii).<\/p>\n And so Guo Gu\u2019s aims for the book are<\/p>\n \u201c\u2026 To establish silent illumination squarely within the Mahayana Buddhist traditions. Second, to offer detailed instructions for establishing a foundation for realizing silent illumination. Third, to offer quality translations of Hongzhi\u2019s poetic writings on silent illumination\u201d (p. viii).<\/p>\n And in fulfilling the aims of\u00a0Silent Illumination<\/em>, Guo Gu also offers up some pointed and fair criticism of those in the Soto school who ascribe to silent illumination as a practice:<\/p>\n \u201cChan practitioners must have confidence in buddha-nature, our intrinsic freedom, but this confidence is not something we can rationalize. I\u2019ve met Zen practitioners who, in meditation, bring forth this faith in \u2018just sitting\u2019 as an expression of awakening or buddha-nature. It is <\/i>an expression of buddha-nature, but, when I inquire further about it, I found that what they\u2019re doing is thinking <\/i>about faith and conviction in buddha-nature while they sit. They are engaging in a monologue to remind themselves about their faith and conviction\u201d (p. 34).<\/p>\n In part for this reason, Guo Gu says,<\/p>\n \u201cI emphasize cultivating correct attitudes and being more aware of subtle feeling tones. In order to become aware of undercurrent feeling tones, we have to train ourselves to experience them. The more immersed in our inner states we are, the more experienced we become, and the more we\u2019re able to navigate them and become skillful practitioners\u201d (p. 21).<\/p>\n Indeed, the first third of the book focuses on practices for identifying feeling tones and cultivating supporting attitudes, including an important section on embodied experiencing.<\/p>\n Guo Gu says,<\/p>\n \u201cOne main method for silent illumination is what I call embodied experiencing. It\u2019s an antidote to the fact that most people live in their heads. They are top-heavy, so whatever method they use, they tend to turn it into thinking. Embodied experiencing, particularly in sitting meditation practice, counters this as we experience the presence of the body moment to moment. Experiencing the body is not about thinking. Instead, it is being in <\/i>the body, with <\/i>the body, and experiencing <\/i>it concretely. It is an embodied experience.\u201d<\/p>\n In the second third of Silent Illumination<\/em>, Guo Gu shares three passages by Hongzhi with his own insightful commentaries: \u201cThe Vacant Field,\u201d \u201cThe Investigation,\u201d and \u201cMultitasking.\u201d This last one rehabilitates multitasking for post-awakening practice.<\/p>\n Hongzhi says,<\/p>\n \u201cMultitasking amid chaos, manifesting in places of encounter\u2014none of these are realms outside of yourself. Heaven and earth share the same root; the myriad forms are of a single body. Adapting to changes and transforming freely without being manipulated by those who curry favor\u2014 this is to actualize great freedom. Traveling like the wind; illuminating like the moon; encountering things without obstructions.\u201d<\/p>\n Guo Gu concludes his commentary on this passage with this:<\/p>\n \u201cOnly through practicing in life, mingling with all kinds of people, will we be able to deepen our Chan practice. Stopping is not an option. Even after awakening, we still need to work on subtle habit tendencies. Practice continues on and on\u201d (p. 117).<\/p>\n In the last third of Silent Illumination,<\/em> Guo Gu offers twenty-five of his own translations from The Extended Discourse Records of Chan Master Hongzhi<\/em>, previously known to the English reader mostly through Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton and Yi Wu\u2019s work in\u00a0Cultivating the Empty Field<\/i>.<\/p>\n After praising this work, Guo Gu says,<\/p>\n \u201c[Leighton\u2019s] reading also places Hongzhi\u2019s teaching squarely within the Japanese Soto Zen perspective of shikantaza<\/i>, or \u201cjust sitting\u201d practice. I see Hongzhi\u2019s teaching as belonging to a shared language of Chan. As I show in the introduction, many Chan masters\u2014including those from other lineages\u2014also articulated practice and awakening in similar language. While rendering Hongzhi\u2019s teaching through the lens of Soto Zen practice is useful, it also unintentionally reinforces sectarian divides and limits the broader significance of Hongzhi\u2019s message.\u201d<\/p>\n I find Guo Gu\u2019s spirited translations of Hongzhi limpid and lucid. \u201cHow to Proceed,\u201d for example, he has this:<\/p>\n \u201cWhen your realization is far-reaching and exhaustive, you multiply in response to the multitude of circumstances.\u00a0<\/span>As illumination issues forth through your sense doors, the sensory objects appear like cast shadows. You will then realize that all things flow out from yourself. The hundreds of thousands of situations\u00a0<\/span>are no longer the causes or conditions that oppose you. Thorough and penetrating right through your whole being\u2014 this is how to proceed!\u201d (p. 129).<\/p>\n I hope that in the future Guo Gu will share more Hongzhi translations with his helpful commentaries.<\/p>\n In conclusion, this is a wonderful book. Both old dharma hands as well as newer students will find instruction and inspiration here, as well as a profoundly wholistic approach to the Way.<\/p>\n (1) From the blurb that I offered to Shambhala, most of which appears on the back cover.<\/p>\n (2) All quotes are from\u00a0Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening<\/em><\/a>. Page numbers appear in parenthesis.<\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d, with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n D\u014dsh\u014d Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teaches with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach \u014csh\u014d, with the\u00a0Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training<\/a>, an internet-based Zen community. D\u014dsh\u014d received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri R\u014dshi and inka sh\u014dmei from James My\u014dun Ford R\u014dshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. D\u014dsh\u014d\u2019s translation and commentary on\u00a0The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is now available (Shambhala). He is also the author\u00a0of\u00a0Keep Me In Your Heart a While: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri<\/i>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Silent Illumination: A Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening,\u00a0by Guo Gu Laoshi (available now for preorder and preview) is a wonderful expression of the buddhadharma from beginning to end. As you probably know, Guo Gu is an important contemporary Chan teacher, a successor of the great Sheng Yen. He also has one of the coolest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2021\/02\/IMG_7707_raw-150x150.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/88\/2020\/12\/81A5972-2-150x150.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n