This is early on. It's on 32 in this edition, Performing the Buddha Work. It's the fifth one. The empty field cannot be cultivated or proven. So I was mentioning this before. So I called this Cultivating the Empty Field, kind of ironically. There is a kind of cultivation that goes on to get beyond cultivation. This is not some practice technique that we do. Basically, this empty field cannot be cultivated or proven. From the beginning, it is altogether complete, undefiled, and clear down to the bottom. Where everything is correct and totally sufficient, attain the pure eye that illuminates thoroughly, fulfilling liberation. Enlightenment involves enacting this. Stability develops from practicing it. So just sitting in, just putting yourself on the seat of the self-fulfillment samadhi or of serene illumination develops stability.

[01:12]

So practice makes perfect. It doesn't mean that it makes us perfect in the sense of invulnerable to all hindrances or totally right or correct. It just means there's something clear and round and present in this stability that develops from practicing it. Birth and death originally have no root or stem. Appearing and disappearing originally have no defining signs or traces. The primal light, empty and effective, illumines the head top. The primal wisdom, silent but also glorious, responds to conditions. That's that place of response without mind. When you reach the truth without middle or edge, cutting off before and after, then you realize one wholeness. Everywhere, sense faculties and objects, both just happen. So again, this is another reference to this exercise we were doing this morning, where we are just there with seeing and sounds and hearing and colors and so forth.

[02:22]

Everywhere sense faculties and objects both just happen. This is how we meet suchness. This is how we engage reality. The one who sticks out his broad, long tongue transmits the inexhaustible lamp radiates the great light and performs the great Buddha work from the first, not borrowing from others, one atom from outside the Dharma. Clearly this affair occurs within your own house. So the one who sticks out his broad, long tongue is Buddha, but also this expression of Buddha is happening from the very beginning in our practice, as I was saying earlier. So this performing the great Buddha work, this is just one of the references. Now I'm feeling more like I should just read through the entire text from the beginning and comments on it. How many more days of this do we have? Maybe so.

[03:29]

Yeah. Perversely because he says the empty field cannot be cultivated. But actually, he says in the same section, he says, enlightenment involves enacting this stability develops from practicing it. So there's a way in which we do cultivate the empty field. There's a way in which we do just by coming back to it again and again. And we come back to it from all of the complications of our complicated psychological mind and so forth, from all of our situations. But returning to this just being present, just as Chosen was saying before, just immediately facing and responding. And the more we get practiced at returning to this upright presence

[04:35]

we get more settled in it. And it's more available to us and vice versa. We're more available to it. And this possibility of openness is here and it's always here. Now I'm starting, I'm remembering all these wonderful sections in here. And I was thinking about doing the guideposts to the Hall of Pure Bliss. So how many more days do we have? So I don't know whether to jump around or just keep reading. I'm going to keep reading one more. Forgetting about merit is fulfillment. Unless anybody has any comments or questions on anything.

[05:40]

Oh, thank you so much. I will. Forgetting about merit is fulfillment. Separate yourself from disturbance and face whatever appears before you. Well, there it is. That sentence says the whole thing. Separate yourself from disturbance. It doesn't mean that disturbance won't come back again, but just sidestep for a bit. Put it aside. And Fukunza Zengi says, Dogen says, put aside involvements in affairs. It doesn't mean that you don't have to take care of them when you get up, but put them aside. Sidestep from disturbance and face whatever appears before you. Not one iota seeps through from outside. The two forms, that's yin and yang, have the same root and the 10,000 images have one substance. Following change and going along with transformation, the whole or wholeness is not clouded over by previous conditions.

[06:53]

So this is important, again, going back to this question about the psychological work. It's not that we don't have conditions. Of course, we have tons of previous conditioning. For as many decades as we've been walking around in this body and mind, and for many lifetimes past, there is this previous conditioning. But following change and going along with transformation, wholeness is not clouded over by previous conditioning. Then you reach the foundation of the great freedom. Wind blows and moon shines and beings do not obstruct each other. So this is sort of the side of seeing of the colors, just having colors and sounds transcending our hearing and listening. Just allow things to be as they are. Maybe only for a while while we're sidestepping our conditioning.

[08:00]

But when wind blows and moon shines, beings do not obstruct each other. Afterwards, settle back within and take responsibility. So again, this is turning the light within, settling the side of, so it includes both the insight and the, right in there, there's silence and illumination. Do you hear that? Settle back within, just in those three words, there's this. There's this settling and turning within. There's this silence, this quiet, and this illumination. And then take responsibility. So again, we have to do something about this. We have to ask questions. We have to look at this. We have to pay attention. Wisdom returns and the principle is consummated. When you forget about merit, your position is fulfilled. Do not fall for occupying honorable stations, but enter the current of the world and join with the delusion.

[09:06]

Transcendent, solitary, and glorious, directly know that transmitting is merit, but having transmitted is not your own merit. So I think this is a really wonderful one and really helpful, and maybe we should just talk about this the rest of the week. Say that again. Right. Do not fall for occupying honorable stations, but enter the current of the world. Come back into the flow of the world. We return back to engaging with the world and responding and joining the delusion, but not from delusion. We're joining from this place where we've forgotten about merit. We're not trying to get anything out of it. We're not investing in ourselves just to, you know, what was that Dylan quote? We're not doing what we do just to be something more that we invest in. We're just meeting from this place of clear presence and awareness, forgetting about merit.

[10:12]

So, you know, the obstacle to fully accepting our self and our position and our function is that we all have this, we all want to be appreciated, we all want to be loved, we all want to love, we all want to. You know, we want some, you know, the world is built on status and rank. So this is what Linji Renzai was saying when he said the true person of no rank is always coming in and out of the portals of your face. This is a description of the true person of no rank, given up trying to get merit. So at the end of, We did the guidepost for silent illumination. At the end he says, our school's affair hits the mark straight and true, transmitted to all directions without desiring to gain credit or gain merit. And at the end of this, he says, transcendent, solitary, and glorious, directly know that transmitting is merit, sharing this.

[11:13]

So this is the word for Dharma transmission, but it's also just our expression of our Zazen heart right now is meritorious, but having done that, it's not your own merit. It's not from you. It's not from me. I'm just passing along what Hongzhi says. And Hongzhi was just passing along what he learned from his teacher. And so it's not that we get, it's not that we get anything out of it. It's, and yet, it's wonderful to express yourself. It's wonderful to express this serene illumination. So, Shogun-san, you had a question. Like me, he talks a lot about functioning. Uh-huh. And I, this is sort of a historical question. I'm wondering how insular Tian Tong would have been, and would his training have had the ability to actually function in situations He had many lay patrons who came and visited him there.

[12:14]

Historically, he spent 28 years. Once he got settled at Shandong, he never left until, did I talk about this already? Until just before he died, he went down to the town at the bottom of the mountain and paid his respects and visited a lot of his patrons and supporters and lay students. And he'd never been into their houses because he'd been living for almost 30 years up in the mountains. But there was, yeah, there were people coming back and forth. And sure, his students would, you know, there were monks wandering. He had a large monastery, I think 1,500 people at one point. So there were monks who were coming and visiting him. So in the description at the beginning of the practice instructions, it talks about lay people and scholars as well as wandering monks coming to ask him questions. And there were students going around to different teachers. Students must have been going back and forth between him and Dawei.

[13:15]

I'm not sure that he ever met Dawei. He must, probably he did, but Dawei, who criticized silent illumination, he eventually, he turned over the running of his monastery too. So, you know, anyway, he had some interaction with lots of people. But of course, he wasn't in the city, you know, kind of doing that all the time. He was just up in his, in Mount Shantung. So people had to come see him. It's kind of the traditional way it worked. Oh, he did, yeah. Yeah. He did have, in fact, there's a lineage of, his lineage lasted a few, at least several generations. And there was even one, let me find it, there was one, I think two guys who went to Japan and actually started a Hongzhe lineage in Japan for a while.

[14:16]

There was another set of lineage not from Dogen that, let me find it here. One of them is one of the guys who did the most famous verses for the ox-herding pictures, who was like three or four generations after Hongzhe. There's something about them in here. And that lineage did not survive that long in Japan, but for a few generations it lasted in Japan too. I can't find it right now. Oh wait, here it is, probably in here. Yeah, so it's kind of curious that he passed along the running of his monastery to Dawei rather than to his own successors, because he did have some. So I don't know what happened. I don't know why that is the case. But yeah, he did have several generations. Yeah, he says... Graciously share yourself with the thousand grass tips in the market space.

[15:23]

But well, he's always talking about this balance. But I'll look towards the end and see. I found the section I was looking for that was in one of the notes. Okay. Just to answer Hogan Sun's question. Oh yeah, on page 17 of the introduction. So one of his direct successors was named Sudo Huihui, and from him there were two successors, four and five generations later, who went to Japan, Dongming Weijie and Dongling Yongyu. The latter died in 1365, so that's already 200 years after Hongzhe himself. And they developed the Wanshiha in Japanese means the Hongzhe school. And they actually didn't have much contact with Soto school from Dogen.

[16:26]

They were hanging out and they were connected with some of the Rinzai schools because they were bringing Chinese culture. And so the cultural centers were in the Rinzai schools. But they were involved more in kind of the Chinese Saodong, like study of the five ranks and so forth, than a lot of the Soto school from Dogen. But they lasted a while. Yeah, their lineage survived well into the 16th century. So Hongzhe died in 1157, so 400 years later, there were still his successors in Japan. So you were asking about this, about graciously sharing yourself in the marketplace. So maybe I should read a few from the sort of the end of the practice.

[17:29]

He has a section about Bodhidharma and a section about the sixth ancestor, which are sort of more specific in terms of addressing particular situations. I'm just trying to see if there's something that really addresses what you're talking about particularly. Well, let me read this one, The Genuine Field. This is the next to the last one. It's a little bit long. How late can we go tonight? So we're going to have to save the guideposts for the Hall of Pure Bliss. We have a little session tomorrow morning? Okay. Okay. So maybe we'll do that unless you have a lot of questions or other requests. Maybe I should stop and say, are there any other questions or comments now? That would be a good thing to do. So we'll do that before we close. But let's look at the last couple, because I think your question is really a good one.

[18:33]

He's talking about this settling within, but he's also talking about then graciously share yourself. So I think part of the answer is that the starting point is the settling within, this developing stability through practice in our experience of just engaging the world and the senses and so forth. So in a way, it's like before he says graciously share yourself, he's really worked out on how do we just meet this inner serene illumination and the balancing of that. So I think that is, in a way, that's the answer to your question, the response to your question. But let's look at the end of this. The primal mind transcends conditioning. The primal dharma does not speak. But all Buddhas and all ancestors are not detained here. In the second gate of meaning,

[19:35]

They engage in dialogue and energy is aroused, which is instantly extracted and dispensed both to the first-class practitioner and to the dull person. So this second gate of meaning is the side of phenomena and speech as opposed to the ultimate and silence. So... So again, the primal mind transcends all conditioning. The primal dharma goes beyond speech. But all Buddhist ancestors are not detained here. So this is again going back out from the silent illumination, or expressing in the world from silent illumination. In the second gate of meaning, that of phenomena and speech, they engage in dialogue and energy is aroused, which is instantly extracted and dispensed. So even though speech doesn't reach it, we can't pin it down by speech, we're still talking.

[20:42]

And all Buddhism ancestors do that and arouse energy to express and share this and bring forth our creative expression. So again, he's talking about Buddhas and ancestors, but for Zen students, that's all of us. We all have to, each in our own function, each in our own situation of body and mind, we are doing that. That's what it means to be a Zen student. And he says this is extracted instantly and dispensed, not just to the first class practitioner, but also to the people who come Sundays. And even to the dull persons. Therefore, he cites Deshan Tokson. Deshan says that our school has no language and also has not a single dharma for anyone. There's nothing to say and there's no teaching to share. Originally, the people arrived at the truth themselves and affirmed it themselves.

[21:48]

Then they began to discuss it only in order to straighten up and clean out forthrightly obsessive thinking and distraction." So all of you, in some ways, realized it on your own. And then you came here to learn about psychological conditioning and the inner critic and so forth. OK, anyway, he says, originally the people arrived at the truth themselves and affirmed it themselves. Then they began to discuss it only in order to straighten up and clean out forthrightly obsessive thinking and distraction. Well, I mean, that's what he's saying, that once we glimpse this, then we do have to do the work of looking at the particular patterns of our condition and obsessive thinking, our obsessive distractions, all of those tendencies we have fabricated into apparent habits, which can be so pernicious. Right. If such contamination is purified, then vast radiance without barriers has no middle or edge.

[22:53]

Circling and spreading out, the light is glistening white, its illumination pervading the 10 directions. Now partly, I mean, that's also a response to your question, that the work of taking care of oneself as one expresses it is to look at the obsessive thinking and distractions and study our delusions and study the self. And this is the yogic study of self, working through this. I mean, there's also the psychological analytic way of studying the self. But Zen is about this other side of just being present and upright, you know, facing the wall or facing the floor, just being upright in our body, taking another breath, watching this obsessive thinking and distraction and becoming familiar with it and forgiving ourselves for being human and being, you know, having families from whom we have conditioning, and we start to let go of that.

[23:59]

And sometimes, as Westerners, doing psychological, analytical, therapeutic work is very helpful as a complement to that. But there's also the yogic side of the study of the self. And in a way, that's the balance that we need to do when we're also going out and expressing ourselves. So he says, circling and spreading out, the light is glistening white, its illumination pervading the 10 directions. Sit in meditation and entirely cut off causes and conditions and language of the three times. Reaching this, you cannot attach to a single dust mote. Only in silent serenity is the self known, full spirited in its own glory, no stranger to sages, not diminished with worldly people. So we don't need to make distinctions between sages and worldly people, actually. We don't need to act differently in a way. We just, how do we meet them at where we are?

[25:01]

From the beginning, only this is the single affair of the old home. How can you possibly attain anything outside yourself? So, you know, ideas we might have about wonderful attainments and wonderful experiences and all these other stages of I don't know, Buddha something or Bodhisattva something or whatever. How could you get something that's not already part of yourself? That doesn't make sense. But here we are. This is called the genuine field where awakened people immediately can respond to the 10,000 changes and enter every realm. wondrous function and spiritual penetration naturally are without any obstruction at all. So when we are willing to just respond to the 10,000 changes, and this is why we have to keep coming back to study our own patterns of conditioning, but also to come back to this serene illumination, because there are the 10,000 changes, there are the 10,000 grass tips, there is in each situation a new set of phenomena that are

[26:11]

Suchness. So the process of meeting suchness is, in a way, always the same. But it always has a new, brand new, fresh, particular configuration. that we need to again and again bring it to. So it's not enough to have some Kensho experience or have some deep understanding even of enlightenment or Buddhism or whatever or of Hongzhi. The point is that we have to again and again turn within, settle down, and allow this inner light to shine. So there's this ongoing work that we're all responsible for. And it's a big responsibility, but all of you can do this. This is available and immediately present. And you may feel, sometimes you might feel overwhelmed, and then you should just take a break.

[27:15]

This is not a practice for, you know, only for Brad Pitt and superhuman, you know, special beings. This is, you know, something that people can do. Well, our body gets tired. Well, sleep or, you know, take a bath, go for a walk. If we're out in the world, you know, go to a movie Stretch, stand up if you've been sitting too long. Sit down if you've been standing too long. So this is not, you know, again, it's not some superhuman thing. It's about, so, you know, your question is really excellent. How do we take care? You're actually asking the basic question of the Soto school. Dongshan says this dharma, this teaching of suchness is intimately transmitted and conveyed to you by all the Buddha ancestors.

[28:26]

Now you have it. Preserve it well. And so your question is how do we take care of it? How do we preserve it well? And going back to the discussion earlier of meditation techniques, use whatever helps to allow you to settle, to allow you to meet your inner light, to let go of your inner critic, to just be present with whatever's happening. So what's happening now is I'm going to read the very last part, and then we're going to chant the Guideposts to the Hall of Pure Bliss in preparation for talking about that maybe tomorrow morning, and we'll see what else. But the very last section of the practice instructions is casting off all duality. Purity without stain is your body. Perfect illumination without conditioning is your eyes. The eye inside the body does not involve sense gates. The body inside the eye does not collect appearances.

[29:28]

Oh yeah, this is a really funny one. The eye inside the body does not involve sense gates. This is about that third eye. Because we were talking about sense gates earlier, right? Seeing and the colors and the hearing and the sounds. And he's saying that this inner, the eye inside the body, our ability to sense within this settling is not about sense gates. So this is, he's getting kind of mystical here. The body inside the eye does not collect appearances. So we don't need to try and remember everything we've seen. So it is said that there is no wisdom outside suchness that can awaken suchness. Moreover, there is no suchness outside wisdom that can be awakened by wisdom. This may be called Buddha is the Dharma family's Buddha, and Dharma is the Buddha family's Dharma.

[30:32]

Patch road monks arrive here, he almost sounds like Dogen here. Patch road monks arrive here and then know that to follow Buddha's utterances and to follow Dharma's blossoming is to attain Buddha Dharma. So, if you want to attain Buddhadharma, just follow Buddha's utterances and follow the blossoming of suchness, of the teaching of reality. Restoring upright reality, they all sit and cut off any duality. Only this is what people from ancient to present times have needed to celebrate fully. So this whole practice of serene illumination is about, it's really a kind of party. It's this, you know, it seems like, you know, it may seem very kind of stoic and, you know, solemn and serious, but actually we're just celebrating this possibility of meeting ourselves and sharing that with the whole world.

[31:35]

And so we do that. So, you know, in Zen centers and monasteries and places like this, you know, we go in the morning and all sit together and celebrate that here we are. And that's the perfect segue to the guideposts for the Hall of Pure Bliss, which, do you have another copy of the? I have it in the book. You have an extra copy? And this is a kind of neat way to talk about what the meditation hall is. The hall of pure bliss. So Yuka-san, please introduce. do it in a one-note chanting style? Well, if you're used to doing it one way, the way I would do it is by seeking appearances and sounds one cannot truly find the way.

[32:41]

The deep source of realization comes with constancy, bliss, self, and I know your style is more like as if there was a mokugyo. Okay. Well, I'm flexible too. We can do it. Anyway. Okay. Whatever. Let's go. By seeking appearances and sounds, one cannot truly find the way. The deep source of realization comes with constancy, bliss, self, and purity. Its purity is constant, this bliss is myself. The two are mutually dependent like firewood and fire. The self's bliss is not exhausted. Constant purity has no end. Deep existence is beyond forms. Wisdom illuminates the inside of the circle. Inside the circle, the self vanishes, neither existent nor non-existent.

[33:47]

Intimately conveying spiritual energy, it subtly turns the mysterious pivot. When the mysterious pivot finds opportunity to turn, the original light auspiciously appears. When the mind's conditioning has not yet sprouted, how can words and images be distinguished? Who is it that can distinguish them? Clearly understand and know by yourself. Whole and inclusive with inherent insight, it is not concerned with discriminative thought. When discriminating, thought is not involved. It is like the wheatweed flowers shining in the snow. One beam of light's gleam permeates the vastness The gleam permeates through all directions from the beginning, not covered or concealed, catching the opportunity to emerge amid transformations that flourishes, following appropriately amid transformations

[34:51]

The pure bliss is unchanged. The sky encompasses it. The ocean seals it. Every moment without deficiency, in the achievement without deficiency, inside and outside are interfused. All dharmas transcend their limits. All gates are wide open. Through the open gates are the byways of playful wandering. Dropping off senses and sense objects is like the flowers of our gazing and listening falling away. Gazing and listening are only distant conditions of thousands of hands and eyes. The others die from being too busy, but I maintain continuity. In the wonder of continuity are no traces of subtle identifications. Within purity is bliss. Within silence is illumination. The house of silent illumination is the hall of pure bliss. dwelling in peace and forgetting hardship, let go of adornments and become genuine.

[35:57]

The motto for becoming genuine, nothing is gained by speaking. The goodness of Vimalakirti enters the gate of non-duality. The endlessly flowing streams of cause and effect have brought us here together in this time and place. The vows of our ancestors continually manifest through our practice here together. Enchanting the Guideposts for the Hall of Pure Bliss, we celebrate the teachings of the Buddha Dharma which bring light and hope to the many realms of suffering and lead to ease and joy. These teachings are offered in this place because of the goodness and generosity of our benefactors. We offer the merit of evening chant and study to those who aid and support the monastery, to their teachers, parents, and loved ones.

[36:58]

May they gain wisdom and compassion from everything they meet, and may our sincere vows to practice and realize the enlightened way be accomplished together. All good throughout the age and time. All honored ones. Gauri Sadbha, Maha Sadbha, Wisdom beyond wisdom, Maha Purajna, Prabhupada Nityananda.

[38:01]

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