Good morning. So I'm here today to talk about a teaching in a book that I translated called Cultivating the Empty Field. It's a translations of a Chinese Zen master, Tian Tongzhi, in our Soto Zen tradition, lived in the 1100s, and his writings present and evoke and inspire the experience of meditative awareness, which we sometimes call serene illumination or silent illumination. So in his book, in his writings, he talks about this experience of this awareness and how to express it in our daily lives. So actually this book is, I translated a while ago, and some of you may know that the first edition of it

[01:02]

came out about ten years ago, eight years ago, something like that. And so this is the new edition, the revised expanded edition, and it will be available at the discussion period in the dining room after the talk to sign books if anyone's interested. I changed some of the terminology and added a bunch of new poems to the poem sections for those of you who know the book from before, and added in the appendix two of our favorite Zen songs, the Harmony of Difference and Sameness, or Sando Kai, and the Song of the Precious Mara Samadhi, the Hokyo Zamai, which we chant here sometimes in the morning, and which were very influential in terms of Hongzhe's writings. And Hongzhe's influence in Soto Zen is very strong, and he very very much influenced Dogen, the founder of Japanese Soto Zen, who we also study here, who lived in the 13th

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century. And actually I'm getting to translate much more of Hongzhe now because I'm translating with Shouhaku Okamura, who some of you know, Dogen's extensive record, which has many quotes from Hongzhe's record, so I'm getting to work with Hongzhe more. So to start, Hongzhe talks about the start, the beginning, the truth of our experience in terms of something that has been and is here from the beginningless beginning. We could talk about it in terms of Buddha nature, but Hongzhe uses the metaphor of the empty field, the field of emptiness, the field of connection, which we all live in. So I'm going to be reading some sections and talking about them. He says, the field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. You must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away

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all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. Then you can reside in the clear circle of brightness. Utter emptiness has no image. Upright independence does not rely on anything. Just expand and illuminate the original truth, unconcerned by external conditions. Accordingly, we are told to realize that not a single thing exists. In this field, birth and death do not appear. The deep source, transparent down to the bottom, can radiantly shine and can respond unencumbered to each speck of dust without becoming its partner. The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. The whole affair functions without leaving traces and mirrors, without obscurations. Very naturally, mind and dharmas, mind and our environment, emerge and harmonize. So

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what he's talking about is this fundamental experience, this fundamental reality that we somehow get a taste of in zazen, in the meditation practice we do here. And so this clear circle of brightness is here from the very beginning. And there is a way to connect, to see and hear transcending mere colors and sounds, as he says, to respond unencumbered to each speck of dust. So the practice is very natural. This is something that does not involve becoming a new person, reaching some new higher state of consciousness, going off to study in Tibet or Japan or, you know, it's right here, right now. This

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is what he says again and again and again. So it's here right now and yet there is this cultivation. And it's kind of a joke to talk about the cultivation because there's no way to cultivate it and yet we must. So he says in this section, purify, cure, grind down or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. So one of the basic teachings in the branch of Buddhism that we do here is that this Buddha nature is here already, but because of our conditioning, because of our habits, because of all of our psychological patterns, because of our greed, hate and delusion, we don't see it. We're blocked. We're obstructed from just expressing this clear, present being that is always right here. And he makes a point of emphasizing that it's always

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right here. In another section he says... Got the wrong page number here. Oh yeah. How amazing it is. Oh no, he says amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. So nirvana is not someplace else. It's right here with living, suffering beings. Amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. How amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness, unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of kalpas. Radiant and clear white, the single field cannot be diverted or altered in the three times, the four elements cannot modify it. Solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring

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throughout ancient and present times, as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation's mother. So this reality is here and yet we don't see it. This is our problem. And yet we do get glimpses of it. You all have seen it in some way. You all have some taste of this or else you wouldn't be here today. That's my deep faith. So there's this empty field that is here now. It's something that we have trouble expressing in our life and we sometimes feel very estranged from it. And yet it's here right now, all the time. This is what Hongzhe says again and again. And I translated this originally because there was a little bit that was translated and I just thought I wanted to hear more of what this guy was saying. And he talks about the naturalness of this experience,

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of this awareness. So he uses nature metaphors often to talk about it. So our mind is used to making up lots of complicated stories and strategies and schemes and techniques. And that's how we think we will get something, whether it's material or spiritual. We strategize. That's what our mind does. So what Hongzhe says is that it's just like the water flowing in the streams. So he has these beautiful kind of poetic sections where he talks about this in terms of nature. For example, people of the way journey through the world responding to conditions carefree and without restraint. Like clouds finally raining, like moonlight following the current. Like orchids growing in shade, like spring arising in everything. They act without mind, they respond with certainty. This is how

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perfected people behave. Then they must resume their travels and follow the ancestors, walking ahead with steadiness and letting go of themselves with innocence. So there's another poem by one of the ancestors. It's also in the appendix here. The Song of the Grass Hut. And he says, just relax completely. This is the point of our practice. It's very natural. And yet sometimes we feel like we have to work very hard at it. So this cultivation is a tricky business. How do we cultivate this experience that doesn't need any cultivation? How do we enjoy expressing something very deep in our zazen when sometimes our knees hurt? How do we find a way to live our life that expresses the reality that we are right now completely without holding back? This is the issue of cultivation.

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And yet again, it's very natural, this experience. It's always right here. So he says, just resting is like the great ocean accepting hundreds of streams, all absorbed into one flavor. Freely going ahead is like the great surging tides, riding on the wind, all coming onto this shore together. How could they not reach into the genuine source? How could they not realize the great function that appears before us? A patchwork monk follows movement and responds to changes in total harmony. Moreover, haven't you yourself established the mind that thinks up all the illusory conditions? This insight must be perfectly incorporated. So we have to keep coming back again and again to communing with this empty field, with this

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illumination, this circle of illumination that Hongzhi talks about. And it's right here, and it's very natural. And this is probably why we have a monastery in the mountains in Tassajara, and many monasteries in Asia are up in the mountains. And maybe it's easier to see the naturalness of this in a place like that, in nature. And yet, we're doing as American Buddhists this courageous practice of seeing the nature right in the middle of Market Street and Page Street, and in the middle of our lives right here. So how do we see what is natural right here? Now, it's natural, but that doesn't mean it's automatic. Actually, it's the same problem with that word natural in Chinese and Japanese, that the word natural sometimes we think of it means, oh, it happens naturally. We don't have to do anything. It'll happen automatically. If I just sit long enough on my cushion, something will happen. Well, it already happened.

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And it's not automatic. We have to keep attention. We have to keep our intention. We have to come back again and again to how do we express this empty field? How do we see this field of brightness? So this is our zazen. And, of course, our zazen when we get up from the cushion and walk out into the world and try to take care of our life. So, actually, each of these writings of Hongzhi, I feel like I call this section that I've been reading from practice instructions. And they're very lyrical and poetic kind of descriptions of this awareness, but each of them is kind of a meditation that you can actually do as a meditation. They are actually ways of orienting body and mind towards the nature of the world, connecting with this deep circle of brightness. So he talks about this in terms of how we see

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time. And I think this is very helpful and important for us, especially in our culture that's rushing around, and everything is going faster, and we're all very busy, and we think things have to happen today, if not yesterday. You know? So this section. Wandering around, accept how it goes. Accepting how it goes, wander around. Do not be bounded by or settle into any place. Then the plow will break open the ground in the field of the empty kalpa, or the empty aeon, before the big bang. Proceeding in this manner, each event will be unobscured, each realm will appear complete. One contemplation of the 10,000 years is beginning not to dwell in appearances. Thus it is said that the mind ground contains every seed, and the universal rain makes them all sprout. When awakening blossoms,

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desires fade, and bodhi's fruit is perfected self. So this sounds very ideal, you know, and lofty. Wandering around, accept how it goes. Accepting how it goes, wander around. So I want to say more later about this acceptance that he's talking about. But this sentence, one contemplation of the 10,000 years is beginning not to dwell in appearances. You know, we have this teaching in Buddhism of rebirth, that we've all been before, maybe not us exactly, but something that is part of us, maybe. It's very complicated theologically, but that we've all had many lifetimes, and that actually everybody in this room has been everybody else's, in this room's mother at some, in some form or life. You know, this is the kind of thing they talk about in Buddhism, and it's a way of talking about the 10,000 years, you know, to see our life in this perspective, and to see the things that we are accomplishing together, coming here to Zen Center.

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In terms of this kind of scope, and when we chant in the morning all the names of the ancestors going back 2,500 years to Shakyamuni Buddha, and then to teachers in China and Japan, and, you know, there's a sense of this long time that people have been doing this practice. So I think it's important for us to see that this practice, and this teaching, and this tradition of connecting with this natural radiance has continued and sustained itself through many difficult ages, 10,000 years, 2,000 years, whatever. To see that time frame, to see time opened up, is one kind of practice you can do to help see this empty field. He also talks about space. He says the matter of oneness cannot be learned at all. So you're not going to get it from listening to my talking or reading lots of books,

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but maybe you can feel this oneness, this single wholeness, this integrated radiant light of emptiness. The matter of oneness cannot be learned at all. The essence is to empty and open out body and mind as expansive as the great emptiness of space. Naturally, in the entire territory, all is satisfied. This strong spirit cannot be deterred. In event after event, it cannot be confused. The moon accompanies the flowing water. The rain pursues the drifting clouds. Settled without a grasping mind, such intensity may be accomplished. So he says the essence is to empty and open out body and mind as expansive as the great emptiness of space, and I've sometimes used that in talks as a meditation, and there is a way to actually be present and sit here and feel the space of this room

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and feel the space maybe of this whole building and empty and open out body and mind. And even if you dare, you know, maybe across the street or maybe, you know, down to the hate or to the ocean or down to Civic Center. We practice right here, and yet we are connected with the air in space in many directions. So this is a kind of a classic meditation actually in Buddhism, going back to early Buddhism. But since he talks about space and time, I want to talk about that in terms of something else. And when I realized I was going to be talking today, I realized this was the first weekend Dharma talk at Zen Center in this new year of 2001. And at least for people in my generation, that date has an instant association. So I want to talk a little bit about Stanley

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Kubrick and how he relates to Hongzhi. So I should ask first of all, how many people have seen the movie 2001? How many people have not seen the movie 2001? Okay, so I'm not going to give away the ending. But I want to talk about it a little bit anyway. It was an important movie for me. I really liked that movie. And I actually looked at it again. I rented the videotape and looked at it again this week, and it's pretty good. And this is actually an opportunity to mention that this year, one of the things that Zen Center is doing is having a series of films, Dharma films. So I don't know all the titles. I think 2001 is not in it, right? But some of my favorite Buddhist films like Harp of Burma and Groundhog Day are going to be shown. So, Michael, maybe

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you can make an announcement about this later. It's really a neat program. So I'll kick it off with saying a little bit about 2001. And actually, mostly I wanted to talk about just one cut in this movie. So actually, I used to be a filmmaker. I was a film editor for numbers of years and studied film as I was becoming a filmmaker. And I gave up that career more than 20 years ago to go work at Tassajara Bakery and work for Zen Center. But I still like films. And as an editor, I particularly appreciate just one edit in 2001, and probably some of you know what I'm talking about. The first 19 minutes of the film is a sequence called The Dawn of Man. So most of you have seen this. And it shows a bunch of apes. And I don't want to say too much. But anyway, there's the arising of intelligence. And how that's

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portrayed is that one of these apes sees a bone of a, I don't know what kind of animal they are. Maybe they're some kind of pig or something. They're kind of hanging out with these apes who the original man, I guess. Anyway, there's this bone. And one of the apes picks it up and kind of looks at it and learns how to use it as a weapon. So he can kill some of these animals to eat them. And then he kills one of the apes from another band who are trying to take over their waterhole. And so Stanley Kubrick has a very dark vision of humanity. He's an incredibly wonderful filmmaker. But this vision of the beginning of human intelligence as the discovery of weapons is actually, he does this amazing thing because there's a, I'll tell you about this part of the

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film. There's a scene where after this ape has triumphantly killed his enemy with this bone, he flings it up into the air. And it goes up and up. And then actually there's a cut and it starts to come down. And then it turns into a spaceship in the year 2001. It's white against a blue sky, then white against outer space. It's an amazing cut. All of human history in one cut. From the dawn of man to 2001. And here we are. Just, I don't know. It's so amazing to think of condensing all of human history like that. And of course it's a very, in a way, kind of dark view of humanity. And that's part of Kubrick's vision in others of his really fine films like Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange and The Shining and Full Metal Jacket and anyway. But just to think about what does this mean about

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our greed, hate, and delusion. This whole history like that. And then something happens, and I won't tell you what, that happens in 2001. But there's a discovery on the moon. And that leads into a mission to Jupiter. So continuing with this question. And actually we could say it's a dark vision of humanity. But maybe it's a dark vision about the nature of our intelligence. Maybe it's a criticism of our, what does Hung Shih call it, of our tendencies that we fabricate into apparent habits. Anyway, there's this mission to Jupiter. And the mission is led by a computer. And actually I'm not going to talk about the technological aspect of it, but apparently NASA scientists say that that even more than all the wonderful films that were inspired by it, like the Star Wars and the Star Trek and so forth, that 2001 is the most accurate film about the actuality of space travel

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still, according to NASA scientists. But there's this computer that runs this mission to Jupiter named Hal. And Hal has a serious problem. And Hal actually can do things that modern computers can't, but then there are things that modern computers can do that Hal couldn't do. But one thing about Hal, he's interviewed in the beginning of this section, and he says, and the interviewer asks, and Hal has this voice, it's an interesting voice, I don't think I'm going to try and imitate it, but the interviewer asks Hal if he's enjoying himself or if he's happy on this mission. And he says, yes, I'm being put to the fullest possible use. This is all anyone can ask. That's pretty good. But then he says something else. He talks about how the Hal 9000 series is incapable of error. So Hal has a serious problem. He feels

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like he's incapable of error. And so you might want to see this movie to see what happens when you think you're incapable of error. And then there's this, then the last part of this that I'll comment on is the ending could be interpreted as a very positive vision of human transcendence. And I won't tell you what happens or how it happens, but there's a kind of, we could say, an evolution of humans into a higher state, a kind of transcendence. And I think in some ways that this movie was made in 1968, during which a lot of other interesting things were happening, and in a way it was a powerful vision. But there's a way in which that part of the movie I feel is very un-Buddhist. There's a kind of deus ex machina. There's this kind of feel, this kind of idea in this movie, and of course it comes from the book by Arthur C. Clarke, but that somehow this transcendence

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comes from outside, from outer space, maybe from alien beings. I won't say too much, but somehow that this has been, this intelligence has been implanted in humans from outside. And so that when this transcendence comes, I felt seeing it again like it was kind of, it wasn't honoring the root ignorance that it shows in that one cut of the history of human beings. It was kind of ignoring the karma. This is kind of a problem in our practice, so that our cultivating the empty field includes looking at ourselves, seeing ourselves, seeing our apparent habits, seeing our conditioning and our greed, hate, and delusion. So the transcendence in 2001 felt a little funny to me. It was like, it was kind of cheating. In Buddhism, as Hongshu says, right in samsara, right amid living beings is the place of nirvana. It's not somewhere else out in outer space. It's right here in this confused world.

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So this practice of silent illumination that Hongshu talks about so eloquently, and this practice of serene illumination that we sometimes do down in the basement here, is not an escape from the world. In fact, Hongshu during his own life and the period after, this practice was attacked by some other Buddhists, some other Zen people, as being quietistic, as being a way of escaping, as being something in which you could just kind of hang out in this nice peaceful space, and that's it, and that's the point of it. And that's not the point of it. So in some ways, to suddenly reach some transcendence without having cultivated the stuff that's in the empty field is kind of a problem. So it's not an escape. Sometimes we do need to put things aside, to put aside parts of our lives, to take some time to go and

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look within and see the naturalness of the illumination that we actually all already are expressing. And that may be blocked by our own confusion about it. So sometimes we need to do that. Some people come and sit here for a day or a week. Some people go to Tassajara or Green Gulch or do a practice period for a few months. Or you might just sit in the morning a little bit. And this is part, this is this putting aside, but we can't escape from the world. That's not the point of it. So Hangzhou also talks about this very clearly, but poetically. He says, when you have thoroughly investigated your roots back to their ultimate source, a thousand or ten thousand stages are no more than footprints on the trail. In wonder, return to the journey. Avail yourself of the path and walk ahead.

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In light there is darkness. Where it operates, no traces remain. With a hundred grass tips in the busy marketplace, graciously share yourself. Wide open and accessible, walking along, casually mount the sounds and straddle the colors while you transcend listening and surpass watching. Perfectly unifying in this manner is simply a practitioner's appropriate activity. With a hundred grass tips in the busy marketplace, graciously share yourself. So the point of our practice is not just to find some peace and serenity. That's half of it. And that's a very important half of it for us in our world today. But then how do we graciously share ourselves? How do we function in the world informed by this communion with this deep radiance?

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How do you graciously share yourself? And in some ways I think that's also very natural. The stream just flows down the mountain. And yet it involves some consideration, some reflection, some care. So I wanted to read one of the new verses, one of the parts of this that are new for people who know the book from before. There's a series of poems I translated that are dedicated to particular bodhisattvas. This one is to the poem to complete enlightenment bodhisattva. Returning to the seat at hand and holding the guiding orb, throughout long ages enter the earth spirits flow. After awakening, continuity is the function of self-dropped away. Enlightenment comes in private

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and many difficulties gather. The ten directions satisfy grasses on snowy mountains. The single color totally fulfills oxen in dewy fields. Winds sweep over the waters of heaven and worldly dusts disperse. Reed flowers gleam together in the bright autumn moon. So again this is a lofty vision and may seem very distant from the sirens going by. And yet this is in a way the heart of our meditation practice to connect with this serene illumination. And then somehow we graciously share ourselves and maybe that's just getting up and going out from the meditation hall, going out and doing your life, whatever it is. And this is also part of cultivating the empty field. How do we shape it again and again

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in the situations we meet in each context in our world? So that's actually the end of my dharma talk today. But sitting here today I feel like I need to share with you a personal problem, a personal koan. And this is also one of Zen Center's koans. So the Zen Center mission statement or vision statement starts out, the purpose of Zen Center is to express, make accessible, and embody the wisdom and compassion of the Buddha. So the Zen Center president has suggested that I tattoo that on my liver, that sentence, but I Anyway, I will try and memorize it. Basically what we do here is to try and provide everyone to make accessible

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the expression of this empty field, to help everyone find their own connection to this possibility of the radiant circle of brightness that I've been talking about. So we want to be accessible to all people. We want this to be a safe place to practice and develop serene illumination for everyone. So the Zen Center board, of which I'm the chair, has been discussing diversity and multiculturalism and how to support that at Zen Center in lots of ways. So, given what I want to talk about now, I want to first say that I hope that many of you are Republicans. And I know that's maybe unlikely in San Francisco, but anyway, Republicans are very, we want Republicans to feel very welcome here. And we also want people of color to feel welcome here, and minorities of all kinds.

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So Sangha, the spiritual community, the Buddhist idea of community, is about, is exactly about different kinds of people coming together and together trying to find this expression. And being able to talk together and hear each other. And hear each other's voices. So it happens that today, January 6th, actually as we've been sitting here right now, the Congress has been meeting to affirm the electors from the Electoral College to install Bush as the next president. And actually, as we started the talk, they were starting. And the House Black Caucus has announced that they will unanimously change the election. Challenge the electors from Florida. So for us, I think part of the context of this is our own karma as Zen Buddhists.

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So there was a book that came out a couple of years ago called Zen at War. And it was very critical of Japanese Zen. So in Asia, in most of Asia, the Buddhists kind of accommodated themselves to the powers that be. And particularly in Japan, there were some people who objected. But a lot of the Zen establishment was supportive of what led to the militarism that led to World War II and was supportive of Japanese Army in World War II. Even more than they maybe had to be, some of them. So a lot of Americans have been very upset to hear this about our Japanese Zen ancestors and very critical of Japanese Zen because of this. But I feel like if we're going to talk about that, then we must be responsible to respond to problems in our own society.

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Somehow, we must graciously share ourselves with problems of our own society. So it seems to me in many people, and there's increasing evidence that Gore received the most votes in Florida as well as in the United States. And that there was a concerted effort to obstruct minorities from voting. And then also not to count their votes. And these votes were not counted due to various means, legal obstruction and also physical intimidation of the vote counters. And then the five Supreme Court judges selected Bush. And three or four of them had clear, well, at least apparent conflicts of interest. So as I've said, most of the history of Zen has been under military rule or with rulers and emperors. And democracy is a pretty new idea in the world. Dogen and Hongzhe both lived under emperors and rulers and military rule in some form. And somehow they managed to keep alive this tradition.

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So the tradition of liberation can survive no matter what happens. And our job here is to keep that accessible and alive. But I wanted to say about acceptance that Hongzhe talks about accepting, wandering around accepting how things are. But acceptance doesn't mean resignation. Acceptance is not quietism. We must express this empty field by graciously sharing our experience of it, each of us, with our own voice, in our own way. We must hear each other and share ourselves with our society. So there's an old teaching in Buddhism of the four sicknesses of spiritual practice. Pretty interesting. One of them is trying to practice by just going with the flow. This is one of the sicknesses of practice. So acceptance doesn't mean just passivity and resignation. And this was the criticism of serene illumination in Hongzhe's time,

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that it could be used that way. So this wonderful practice where we can connect with something vast and wonderful, we also have to have this other side of graciously sharing ourselves. So I know some people feel that in some ways we haven't had democracy for a long time here and that the candidates are funded by special interests and so forth. And yet one of the things we do here is practice forms, bowing and wearing funny clothes and sitting in particular positions. And so democracy in the United States has had its forms, like counting all the votes. So anyway, I just felt that given that this is happening right now in Washington, DC, and that we want to be inclusive of everyone, both Republicans and people who've been excluded from voting, that I had to say something. And if you want to say something about it, two Saturdays from now on January 20th,

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there'll be a gathering at the day of the installation down at Civic Center. So you can go there and express your disapproval just by being there. So excuse me for adding this on to the serene illumination. And those of you who haven't seen 2001, I think it's coming out again this year. And it is visually spectacular still. And you might see it on a big screen. And I wish for you all that you will continue to develop your own serene illumination. And please graciously share it. Thank you.

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