Today is, this morning, we started our three-day Sashin, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. And during Sashin, I always like to talk about Zazen. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what is sometimes referred to as silent illumination. One of the characteristics of Zhao Dong, or Soto Zen, around the 13th century, it was called silent illumination. And Master Wanshi Shogaku, that's his Japanese name.

[01:03]

It's easier for me to use Japanese names for Chinese teachers, because I never know if I'm pronouncing the Chinese right or wrong. Anyway, Wanshi Shogaku was very famous He was the leading master of the time and he used the term silent illumination for what we call Zazen. As you know, there have always been two schools of, two approaches in Zen. One is Silent Illumination and the other is Koan Study. Koan Study and Silent Illumination are not mutually exclusive, but they're two different approaches.

[02:10]

And within Koan Study, there is Silent Illumination, and within Silent Illumination, there is Koan. Sometimes the teachers of the Koan approach criticized the teachers of silent illumination as being quietistic. And one of the problems that people who practice silent illumination should be careful of is not to be quietistic. So each, whatever we do, whichever approach we take, there's always a problem, has problems associated with it. And one of the problems associated with

[03:18]

silent illumination practice is that one can fall into a kind of vacuity or blankness thinking this is the silent mind. So various teachers and ancestors have always warned us about falling into a state of blankness or vacuity or sitting like a stone, something like that, without or trying to eliminate all thoughts. Silent illumination is a term which we don't use much. We usually say shikantaza, just sitting, or jijuyu samadhi, self-joyous samadhi.

[04:33]

And the term silent illumination is kind of an archaic expression. But actually, I like the expression a lot. I like what has to do with light. Illumination means light, lighting up. And in Buddhism, enlightenment is intrinsic. So there's a whole side, a whole area of Buddhadharma that's concerned with light. Many sutras, the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, are always talking about light and luminosity.

[05:42]

The practice of zazen is the practice of luminosity or enlightenment. So the practice of silent illumination is basically to quiet the mind or let the mind settle to let the mind settle and allow its fundamental luminosity to come forth. We have faith. Faith means that we have faith that our fundamental being is light. But it's like the ocean and the waves.

[06:58]

It's hard to see down into the ocean because of the waves. But the waves are part of the ocean. The waves belong to the ocean. But in order to see down into the ocean, in order to get to the bottom of things, It's easier when the ocean is calm and when the waves are still. Last week I was at Lake Tahoe. Lake Tahoe, in Lake Tahoe the water is 99.9% pure, whatever that means, but you can go way out way deep and see all the way to the bottom. It's quite wonderful. And the lake itself is very luminous. It's like a jewel, a wonderful jewel.

[08:05]

And sometimes it's blue and sometimes it's green. And the green color is the reflection of the trees. And the blue color is the reflection of the sky. But the water itself has no special color. But we are always amazed at the wonderful, clear, crisp green color. and the refreshing blue color of this lake. So this water or lake is a metaphor for our mind, pure mind.

[09:15]

pure consciousness, pure awareness. And in Zazen, we allow this awareness, pure awareness, to come forth, to manifest. So, simplistically speaking, in order to practice silent illumination we still the waves of the mind and allow the water or the lake or the ocean of mind to express its luminosity. And the activities of mind are like the trees in the sky, or a bird flying across the sky, or a fish swimming through the ocean.

[10:33]

Dogen says, birds fly like birds, fish swim like fish, endlessly. Actually, Wanshi Shogak, who said this first, this is his expression. Sometimes we feel, when we're sitting Zazen, that we should eliminate the waves. Superficially, it seems like we should stop thinking. If we really want to get to the bottom, see to the bottom, we should stop thinking. But stopping thinking doesn't mean to stop the activities of the mind. It's impossible to stop the activities of the mind. And if we think of zazen as a struggle or as a battleground, then we create more problems.

[11:42]

My old teacher, Tatsugami Roshi, used to say, Zazen is the battleground of the mind and the heart. And he wasn't wrong in saying so, because initially, when we sit Zazen, Zazen is the battleground of the mind and the heart. And until we give up the struggle, it's a battleground. until we know how to stop struggling and just let go. It's a big problem, but it's a necessary problem. Who can just let go? who can just let go and fall to the bottom of the ocean, sink to the bottom of the ocean.

[12:48]

I remember once Suzuki Roshi saying that we should be like a sieve. You throw it into the ocean, it just sinks. But we're always struggling to stay afloat. Fighting with the waves. Battling the waves. So in silent illumination, in the practice of silent illumination, we allow the mind, fundamental mind, to illuminate the active mind, body and mind actively.

[14:02]

So when a thought comes, we allow awareness to illuminate the thought. So fundamental mind, ocean mind, is aroused through awareness. So the most important thing is awareness. During zazen, What we always emphasize is awareness, not stopping thoughts, but awareness. And the luminosity of awareness on a thought will change the thought, will modify the thought, will connect the thought.

[15:10]

So there are various stages, not stages, but in the sense of going from one to another. But one stage is where the mind is very busy. And when the mind is very busy, we focus the thought, the awareness, the luminosity of awareness on each thought. As each thought comes up in consciousness, the luminosity of awareness focuses on that thought. And as the thought moves out, another thought moves in. And we focus the luminosity of awareness on this thought, and thoughts march.

[16:18]

The waves go like this. And concentration, or awareness, is to be focused on each thought, on each breath, on each moment of posture so that attention becomes stronger and stronger and light becomes more and more luminous. The luminous mind is like a mirror. It has no special desire. The mirror has nothing coming from it, but each thing that appears in consciousness appears in the mirror and is reflected in the mirror just as it is.

[17:32]

When the mirror once reaches out to grab something or reaches out to modify, then it's no longer a mirror. It turns into something else. As long as awareness remains a mirror reflecting each thought, each feeling, each emotion, without trying to change it, without trying to grasp it, without saying, I like this, or without saying, I don't like this, or I would rather be someplace else, or I hope this doesn't go away. This is no longer a mirror mind. Mirror mind just reflects everything as it comes and goes without any desire.

[18:35]

This is reaching the bottom of the ocean and illuminating. Sometimes there's nothing coming up. Sometimes there's no thought, no ideas. no emotions, no special feelings, just pure consciousness, just the consciousness of awareness being aware of itself, its own object. Eyes are open and just see. Ears are open and just hear. but no special ideas. This is a wonderful state of awareness where consciousness is aware of itself in purity.

[19:53]

But I hesitate to use the word purity because it sounds like when there's a lot of stuff going on in the mind that that's impure. which is not right, so I won't use the word purity. Purity doesn't mean that the waves have stopped. It means that whether there are waves or no waves, there's no interference. So we must be very careful not to be attached to the state of no thinking or no thoughts. And we must be careful not to be attached to the state of agitated mind, busy mind.

[21:00]

This is very difficult. When we practice this silent illumination, we begin to really see how the mind works. And we see how we get caught by desire. We see how we get caught by attachment. to liking and disliking, right and wrong, good and bad, acceptance and rejection, grasping and rejecting. At the time when there are no thoughts, no special feelings, just heightened awareness or luminosity, we can taste the feeling of great serenity.

[22:13]

But this is a very dangerous place to be attached to great serenity. After great serenity comes many thoughts, many feelings, many emotions. So sometimes the sea is very serene. The surface of the ocean is really calm. And we can look way down to the bottom and see the fish. And sometimes it's really choppy. The wind comes up. And it's all we can do to handle our little boat without getting swamped.

[23:24]

Both sides are equal. When it's calm, we enjoy the calmness. When it's choppy, we deal with the choppiness. Same way, without discriminating. This is true luminosity. When we can deal with anything that comes in the same way, then our mind is luminous and open. and non-discriminating. This is called silent illumination, not just some special state of mind. In the early days of Buddhism, and even today, Buddhist meditation leaned toward

[24:33]

producing special states of mind, called the jhanic mind states, or other mental states. And nirvana was thought of as a special state of mind. which was free from agitation. So if you eliminated all of the disturbing problems and practiced concentration, you could reach nirvana. But people later realized that this dualistic attitude was not nirvana, but just a special state of mind.

[25:48]

When you can maintain calm serenity through any situation without grasping or aversion or desire, perhaps nirvana will appear for you. it doesn't depend on some special circumstances but when we sit in Zazen in this way and when we have Sashin

[27:21]

We allow ourselves to do just this one thing. It's pretty hard to do otherwise. We should be able to manifest this practice in our daily life, to shine the light of awareness or luminosity on all of our activity. But pretty difficult. So we have an opportunity. We take the opportunity to just do this one thing. Allow ourselves this opportunity After all, what is important in this world?

[28:26]

Many things are important in this world, but reaching true mind or allowing fundamental mind to manifest cannot be trivial. when we reach our sink to the bottom of our mind, we can find our truly peaceful place.

[29:39]

And if we want to find enlightenment, we must practice enlightenment. But if we seek for it, it's elusive. So, because it's not an object, So today, as we deepen our zazen, as we continue to sit through the day, the most important thing is to bring forth our non-discriminating mind.

[31:26]

and to allow our mind to settle. Little by little, our mind will settle. We need strong effort. This is a Labor Day weekend. While many people are taking, relaxing, taking day off, taking the weekend off, we're actually working. Celebrating Labor Day by working, because this is actually our work. And we can't be lazy. And to sit sasheen in this way takes big effort, total effort.

[32:33]

Some of us have too strong an effort. Our effort is we're working too hard. And if we continue to work too hard, we'll tire ourself out. And some of us are not working hard enough, just kind of sitting there getting by. Both of these are two extremes which we should guard against. If you're working too hard, if your body is stiff and inflexible, you should learn how to settle more. Your job should be to settle without losing your effort to learn how to help yourself to be more flexible and settled.

[33:41]

And if you're getting too lazy and just kind of getting by, your effort should be to exert more strength. and to find that middle place where you can sit well and comfortably and with good form but without tenseness or tightness or rigidity. I can see that some of you are tending toward rigidity. So, please be careful not to be too rigid. When you find yourself being tense and rigid, that's a warning.

[34:45]

And if you find yourself being too loose and your back is not straight and you say, this is good enough, that should be a warning that you're tending toward a kind of blankness. Sazen is not to just keep a blank mind or to just let things come and go without effort. Awareness goes hand in hand with strong posture. If you have strong posture and maintain good strong posture, then the light of awareness will be there. But if you feel lax, don't make that effort.

[35:51]

The light of awareness is very dim. So I really urge you to make good strong effort. But I don't mean to become rigid. So this is our koan. How to make good strong effort and at the same time not to be rigid. Where do you find that? place. That's what we should be looking for all the time. Each sitting should be started anew. You should see each period of Zazen as something new, not the continuation of something else.

[36:55]

So allow yourself to be renewed moment after moment. And the way we allow ourselves to be renewed moment after moment is to be completely present, completely here with total effort. And in the process, our effort will be refined. and our luminous mind will appear. Basic fundamental luminous mind will appear when we have total exertion. Total exertion brings forth

[38:09]

luminous mind. And luminous mind is the foundation of total exertion. So they're not two different things. One is the expression of the other. So this is our work. but it's also our enjoyment. Please enjoy your work. Thank you.

[38:54]

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