And I guess we could do various styles, the kind of just steady style or usually do this kind of more. Excuse me? Let's just chant it silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you. When you reflect it, you become vast. This is kind of steady tone. No, it should be sort of continuous tone. Although, maybe we each can take breaths at different places, but just this kind of continuous tone. Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you. When you reflect it, you become vast. Where you embody it, you are spiritually uplifted, spiritually solitary.

[01:01]

And shining inner illumination restores wonder to in the moonlight. A river of stars, snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping. The peak in darkness, it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest the crane dreams. The wintry mist, the autumn waters flow far in the distance. Endless kalpas are totally empty. All things completely the same when wonder exists. Serenity, all achievement is forgotten in illumination. What is this wonder alertly seeing through? Confusion is the way of silent illumination. and the origin of subtle radiance, vision penetrating into subtle radiance, weaving a gold on a jade, loom upright and in cloud, yield to each other, light and dark are interdependent, not depending, sense faculty and object at their right time, they interact,

[02:16]

Medicine of good views beat the poison smear drum. They interact, killing and giving life are up to you. Through the gate the self emerges and the branches bear fruit. Only silence is the supreme speech, only illumination. the universal response responding without falling into achievement speaking without involving listeners at ten thousand forms majestically listen and expound the dharma all objects certify it everyone in dialogue dialoguing and certifying they respond appropriately to each other. But if illumination neglects serenity, then aggressiveness appears. Certifying and dialoguing, they respond to each other appropriately.

[03:22]

But if serenity neglects illumination, murkiness leads to wasted dharma. When silent illumination fulfilled the lotus blossoms the dreamer awakens a hundred streams flow into the ocean a thousand ranges face the highest peak bees preferring milk like bees gathering nectar when silent illumine reaches the ultimate. I offer my teaching, the teaching of silent illumination, penetrates from the highest down to the foundation, the body being Shunyata, the arms in mudra, From the beginning to end, the changing appearances and 10,000 differences share one pattern. Mr. Ho offered jade.

[04:22]

The emperor minister, Shangru, pointed. to its flaws, facing changes as its principles. The great function is without striving, the ruler stays in the kingdom, the general goes beyond the frontiers. Our school's affair hits the mark, straight and true, transmitted to all directions, without desiring to gain credit. So we all have this in front of us, so I thought we'd take some time to look at this. This is one of actually the few places where Hongxue actually mentions the term silent illumination, or it could be translated as serene illumination. He doesn't talk about this a lot, but there's this one poem and his meditation became known as silent illumination or the meditation he started.

[05:23]

And again, just sitting later on for Dogen in Japanese, so to say. But in this phrase, silent illumination, there is this idea of meditative balance. So, it's not exactly the same, but it's certainly reminiscent of the idea of, in Chinese, Tiantai meditation of Chaguan, or Shikan in Japanese. That's a different Shikan from Shikantazata. And this goes back to the early Indian Buddhist meditation of Samatha Vipassana. So rather than talking about it in technical terms, I just want to talk about it in terms of seeing this sense of balance in our meditation.

[06:25]

One aspect of zazen is settling. So shamatha means literally stopping. But in terms of the idea of silence, you were talking about the quiet that you feel sometimes. This is one part of our practice, and it's important. And usually, I was talking about meditation objects and objectless meditation. The point of those meditation objects is usually in shamatha practice, in stopping practice, or in settling, or the side of silence. So again, this silent illumination that Hongju's talking about is not exactly the same, but it has the same kind of dynamics. So I'll talk about it that way before we get into the text itself. So the side of settling, slowing down, this is necessary for our zazen, for our awareness, to actually find a way to be relatively comfortable or to find a way to remain relatively stable in the midst of discomforts, you know, for 40 minutes or however long you sit.

[07:33]

Do you do Tongariro here? No. Oh, okay. Not yet. Uh-huh. What's that? Maybe we'll start it next week. This means if you're coming into residence and you take a day or sometimes a few days or a week and you sit by yourself. In Tassajara, five to 10 days. Nothing but this. Well, it comes from the, gee, I'm sorry guys, now I'm giving them ideas, but it's like sitting all day except there's no kin in. So you take meals with everyone else and you have a break after meals. If you need to get up to use the bathroom, you can. but it's just sitting all day. It comes from the old tradition of entering the monastery in China or Japan where you'd sit at the gate or in the gatehouse proving your sincerity until you're let into the monastery.

[08:34]

So it's kind of wonderful because you learn things about zazen that you can't learn any other way. I mean, no one would do this if they didn't have to. But actually, it's a wonderful practice. But that's an example of learning to settle, learning to be really comfortable, or willing to be present anyway, whether or not you're comfortable, in your zazen, in your posture, on your seat, on your cushion or chair. This is one side of silent illumination. The other side of illumination goes back to the side of insight, of vipassana. So some of you have heard of vipassana meditation? So there's a tradition of that in South Asia and there's a movement of Vipassana meditation in America that's actually very loosely based on that from people who had studied a little bit in Thailand. and the Institute of Meditation, what is it called, IMS?

[09:43]

Yeah, anyway. And a lot of that is actually shamatha practice. But anyway, there's these two aspects. So aside from the technical thing, there's these two sides to just sitting. There's these two sides to serene illumination. And the point that Hung's just emphasizing here is this kind of balancing. This balancing of settling, and then the other side is maybe We could say the more active side or the investigating. I was talking about, I was reading Hongxia talking about investigating wonder. This inquiry, this awareness, the arising of insight or creative energy. This is more the illumination side. But as he says in this poem, we need both sides. So, In various ways here he's talking, he's presenting kind of the balance, the full balance of this just sitting or dropping body and mind of Soto Zen meditation awareness.

[10:53]

So why don't we get into the text a little bit. Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you. This already in the very first line has both sides. So there's this side of just really settling, being calm and serene and quiet, forgetting words, not being caught up in all the thoughts. The thoughts may be going on just like the sounds are going on, but kind of let go. And when that happens, bright clarity, illumination appears. So these go together. They're not two separate things, actually. When you reflect it, you become vast. Where you embody it, you are spiritually uplifted. So reflecting it, expressing it, has that spatial dimension that we just did that exercise with.

[11:59]

So please, as I'm going through this, raise your hands if you have questions or comments. Good, Yuka-san. I don't know, what do you think it means? What does it mean to you? To be happy? What do you mean happy? Well, what just came into my mind is that maybe by embodying, I guess I don't really know what it means, but by, I guess, my first understanding might be that it's that maybe it's reflecting or talking about the joy that comes from embodying more than just this particular small self, starting to include. That's what makes it up.

[13:03]

Good. Yes, and in this case, more than one self, that which makes it up, is this serene illumination. So the subject is this serene illumination or silent illumination. And so the spiritual uplifting side is kind of the side of arising energy of illumination. But it's actually both. So partly what this is talking about is how they're connected. When we're really settled, this possibility of illumination and awareness arises, and they're mixed together. It's not exactly the same, but it reminds me of it in the Platform Sutra, the Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor. There's a chapter where he talks about samadhi and prajna as one and the same. In a way it's the same. Prajna sometimes is translated as insight, sometimes as wisdom.

[14:04]

Prajnaparamita and so forth. But really wisdom or prajna or insight in Buddhism is not It's not about knowledge. It's not the wisdom that you get from reading lots of books or going to lots of dharma talks or retreats or whatever. It comes up together with samadhi. It's like this. They're not two separate things. So right in the middle of settling in zazen, This awareness, this insight, it is uplifting in the way you said. It's illuminating and we feel buoyant. We feel lighter. We feel a bit more spacious. Anything I say or anything any of us says about it doesn't quite get it, but we can talk about it still. So this happens in our settling in samadhi. So samadhi and shamatha are slightly different words, but this attention

[15:04]

whether it's objectless or whether there's a specific object, connects with prajna. The sixth ancestor says samadhi and prajna are not separate. They come up completely together. So that's also what he's saying, what this silent illumination is about, that right in this settling, this serenity, this silence, there is this arising energy. So I was mentioning before, emphasizing Not that there's something that you have to get or figure out or some special state that you have to reach or some experience you have to get. But still, there is some responsibility, some work that we all have to do. but it arises right in the middle of Samadhi. This is why all of the commentaries by any Zen teacher you've ever heard and all of the texts from Dogen and Hongzhe and all these other great ancient masters are just commentaries on Zazen. On your Zazen,

[16:06]

So a lot of people, somebody here told me they really, they carry this book around with them and they really like this book because they resonate with it. It's not about understanding what Hongzhi is saying, it's about recognizing something. And that is that quality of arising illumination, I would say. And yet we only, we recognize that we, comes to us in this settling. They're not separate. And the emphasis in this particular teaching poem is how they are intimately connected. So I'll go on a little bit. But again, please raise your hand if you have questions or comments just at any point. spiritually solitary and shining. Inner illumination restores wonder. Due in the moonlight, a river of stars, snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping the peak.

[17:12]

So this inner insight, awareness, illumination, it is luminous, it is radiant in a subtle way. restores wonder. So one of the great tools for all Zen students is this sense of wonder, just the sense of awe and appreciation, gratitude for the ancient teachers, gratitude for Sangha, appreciation of, and Hongxueh mentions it in the context of nature around us, dew in the moonlight, a river of stars, that refers to the Milky Way. That's what they call the Milky Way, they call that the river of stars. Snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping the peak, just this sense of being in the mountains and really appreciating that. And how we love, so I read something earlier about Dogen's poem about loving the mountains.

[18:15]

This comes from our settling. So both Hongxun and Dogen write about loving the mountains, settling in the mountains. And this means, and of course the mountains refers to teachers, but it also refers to what's all around us here. And when we are settled, he says, spiritually solitary. So again, this isn't something some teacher can give you. We each on our own chair or cushion find this quiet, as you described it. Tell me your name again. Mary. Yeah, Mary described it very well this morning. The sense of quiet and calm and serenity, and you know, we can use all those words, but this sense of stillness. Out of that, this is something we do alone, it's solitary, and yet then out of that arises this, this sense of wonder, I think, is a good way to talk about it, this awe. It's beyond our ideas, it's beyond our thinking, and yet we feel that sense of gratitude and appreciation.

[19:23]

And then he says, in darkness it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest. This goes back to the harmony of difference and sameness or the, how do you say, the identity of absolute and relative. Yeah, where he talks about light and dark. And so maybe you all have studied this and know this, but the darkness there refers to oneness or merging. When the lights are completely out and there's no lights at all, we can't distinguish anything. It's just all one. When the lights come up, we see different people, different objects. We notice the particulars and the differences. So in this literature in Soto Zen of ultimate in particular, or universal in particular, there's oneness is represented by dark and light represents differentiation. Here he says, in darkness it is most bright. So in oneness we sense this illumination, this radiance.

[20:26]

And so this, as I was saying before, turning the light to shine within, taking the backward step and turning the light inwardly to illuminate the self, this is the instruction for settling, for stopping, for quieting down. And as we talked about last night, sometimes it helps to have some particular samadhi objects, some particular object of attention, breath or mantra or koan or many things. But it also can happen in this objectless way, where whatever appears is sounds and sights and so forth, just to settle into that spiritually solitary and shining. In darkness it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest. So it is hidden. We can't get a hold of it. It's hard to talk about. Anything we say about it kind of misses.

[21:28]

So it's mysterious. The character that's used here for hidden also means kind of mystery, mysterious. And then again, he uses these poetic images, the crane dreams in the wintry mist, the autumn waters flow far in the distance. Cranes or herons in Zen poetry have a number of associations. Sometimes it's just the whiteness of the crane, like the white ox or the heron in front of the moon in the Jomar Samadhi. Also cranes are, live a long time. So they're an image of longevity, which was a kind of Chinese Taoist ideal. So there's a kind of a sense of wisdom. And the crane dreaming in the wintry mists, there's a kind of mood there. The white crane and the wintry mists are probably snow.

[22:31]

The autumn waters flow far in the distance. Endless Kalpas are totally empty, all things completely the same. So this is talking about the side of oneness. And in a way, this is like the side of settling or quieter. He's creating this context for serenity, for the side of stopping, for the side of settling. when wonder exists in serenity, when this questioning, this inquiry, this awareness, this alertness, this energy of wonder. So there's also a whole way of talking about this in terms of Taoist energetics and our working with our energy is part of our zazen too. So there are tricks in zazen probably, Hogan Sun and Shosen have talked about this in various ways, but if you're feeling sleepy, there are things you can do.

[23:41]

You can raise your gaze if your eyes are open. If you're feeling If there's lots of thinking and you're feeling agitated, you can kind of lower your gaze. I can see it in people sitting just from the angle of their chin. When people are thinking a lot, it goes like this. When they're sleepy, it's like this. So you can just bring your head back to upright or in your mudra. I noticed this morning, I wanted to ask, that you sit with your mudra underneath your robe? Is there some white plum thing about that? Well, under a rock suit, but even when you're sitting with- I see. You put it underneath your robes? Your chroma? Oh, your sleeves. Oh, I see. Anyway, okay. No, but I just noticed you were all doing it, and I just thought that might be some hostile or something.

[24:43]

Good. Well, at any rate, whether you can see them or not, you can feel if you're paying attention. When you're sleepy, the thumbs come apart. And if you're thinking a lot, it goes like this. So you don't have to do anything to your mind. You just bring it back to this oval shape, and it takes care of it. So these are examples of how in zazen we attend to our energy. And so part of what he's referring to here is this balancing of this energy. It's very practical. So, when wonder exists in serenity, is already this silent illumination. There's the arising of wonder and all achievement is forgotten in illumination. So, with real illumination, you're not thinking about, you know, what stage am I at?

[25:48]

And if you start thinking about what stage am I at and where, you know, then it's, the illumination goes away. Then you're just back in categories and in status and so forth. But when this illumination arises and you're actually settled, then achievement is forgotten. You don't need to try and figure out how well you're doing or if you're doing it right or whatever. Ah, here we are. And so there's this illumination. And then the way this is a kind of, actually, if we get to it, we'll do the guide poster for the Hall of Pure Bliss too. There's this way in which there's kind of linking of lines. But I'm wondering if we're getting too settled and maybe for the sake of our energy, we should take a little break. Are people ready for a break? Yeah. I see.

[26:53]

Okay, well we should restore wonder. So, what is this wonder? Alertly seeing through confusion is the way of silent illumination and the origin of subtle radiance. So we'll come back and talk about the origin of subtle radiance after a little break.

[27:17]

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