So one way to talk about this silent illumination is as a kind of objectless meditation. This applies to just sitting also. So in lots of Buddhist meditation and other kinds of meditation, there are samadhi objects. There are objects of concentration. Probably you're all familiar with some of this. Focusing on breath as an object of meditation. Focusing on posture or mudra or some particular posture or hand position as an object of meditation. Using mantra, which we're chanting the Heart Sutra tomorrow. So that's a mantra instruction. So it's okay to use mantra in zazen. But that's a kind of object of meditation. Or koans, working with a particular teaching story, a particular turning phrase in his teaching story.

[01:01]

Or all of the things that you chant in the course of your regular practice, lines from that can appear as objects of meditation. And going back to early Buddhism, there are many other objects of meditation. So samadhi means a kind of concentrated awareness. And silent illumination is a kind of samadhi. Zazen is a kind of samadhi. But the samadhi or the concentration of silent illumination or just sitting or dropping body and mind has no particular objects. So for people who first come to sit in many Soto Zen centers, this is what's kind of frustrating. And so we end up saying, oh, you can count your breaths, or offering various things to focus on. But basically, Soto Zen meditation, this kind of Shikantaza or silent illumination, is about not trying to do anything.

[02:05]

So not working to get free, not focusing on some particular object of our attention or concentration. My own sense of this, and this is maybe controversial and different teachers have different ways of expressing this, but my own feeling from studying Hongzhe and Dogen particularly is that, and just from working with students and working with meditation myself, is that in this objectless meditation, all objects are included. So whatever comes up, I mean, still, thoughts and feelings arise. We hear things, we see colors in front of us. So there are lots of objects, but the point is that we don't focus on one as a way of settling into samadhi. But whatever comes up, when the myriad, so in Genjo Koan, Dogen says, when the myriad things arise and experience themselves, that's awakening.

[03:13]

This is the kind of objectless meditation, just allowing whatever comes up, including thoughts and feelings we might think of as our thoughts and feelings, but they're just thoughts arising. So Uchiyama Roshi has this wonderful statement that when we're sitting, our stomach continues to secrete digestive thoughts, and in the same way, our brain continues to secrete thoughts. It's just more scenery. So objectless meditation is to be present with whatever appears in our awareness. And again, I want to talk more about the Hongzhi-specific instructions for how to work with that awareness and perception. But this basic objectless meditation, again, includes all objects. But practically speaking, for people to actually get to the point of, so we start with this, but then practically speaking, sometimes we need something else to settle. So I myself give people mantras, or koans, or breathing exercises, or there are libraries full of meditation objects.

[04:17]

And my own attitude about it is that practically speaking, to settle into this space, sometimes we need to use those, and that's fine. So I think that the objects can be included in this wide field of objectless meditation. But that's a kind of strategic thing. And some teachers have particular objects that they want to focus on, breathing in a certain way. So there are different strategies or house winds about that. But basically, objectless meditation is about non-doing. Again, as I was saying before, that zazen, just as this kind of celebration or ceremony or enactment of this silent illumination. so there's no particular objects of attention. Is that clear? Questions about that? Just so you know, we do all sorts of things around here. Yeah. And the way you talk about this right now really is the Kalan movement. The Buddha talks about it in very specific ways.

[05:21]

He says the second jhana is the place with no thought. Where is the body? The mind is primitive. And the sixth jhana is the realm of neither perception or non-perception. So that's really what we're talking about. He did it in graduated form in the same way. So there are many, many systems of developing focused awareness based on objects of meditation, objects of attention. I mean, I agree with you. I think that whatever helps is great, whatever works. Practically speaking, different people at different times, each of us may need different kinds of meditation aids. But to me, all of that's included within this objectless meditation, or just sitting, or silent illumination. So, you know, if you need some technique, great, let's use it. And again, we have, you know, going back to the Buddha and the early teachings, we have libraries full of, you know, the path of purification is just filled with all these meditation objects and meditation techniques, and the Mahayana Sutras too.

[06:24]

But I think just to have the idea of objectless meditation is important as a context for seeing this silent illumination. There's another side of that, that there's no, objectless meditation means there's no objective of meditation. There's no particular goal that we want to get a hold of through the meditation. It's objectless in the sense that there's no kind of particular place we're trying to reach. So this is this non-gaining activity, not manipulating our world or our experience or our body and mind to get to some place. So in both of those senses, there's this objectless meditation. Just one place from Hong Xiu that I think relates to this on page 39 of this edition. In the wind abode, clouds and dragons harmoniously follow each other.

[07:27]

Very naturally, from the first, they do not need to express their intentions to each other. And this word for intention also is one of the words for mind. Similarly, patchwork monks are accommodating and based on causes and conditions can harmoniously practice together. Arriving without display, emerging unconcealed, the wondrous clouds and dragons enter the whole scene and cannot be confused. Casually hanging above the 10,000 features, each distinctly presents a spectacular image Complete without a hair's difference between them, springing forth with spontaneity, they clearly exemplify coming home, but still must investigate until they have eaten their fill. Clouds disperse and winds die down, the autumn sky clears and the moon sets. The waters of heaven are limitless. Where the ground is on its own, the brightness begins to be realized. So to me this is, well, this is also obviously an image of Sangha and the working of Sangha.

[08:29]

But also it speaks to me about this kind of non-gaining activity, just to, not to need to express our attentions to other, just to be present together. harmoniously practicing together, arriving without display, emerging unconcealed, entering the whole scene without confusion, casually hanging above the 10,000 features. Each practitioner distinctly presents a spectacular image or each cloud and dragon. So this kind of gives another flavor to this idea of meditation without objective, just here we are, this kind of ceremony or celebration of practice. So again, there's this objectless meditation where we don't have a particular kind of meditation object or awareness object, and then there's this objectless meditation where there's no objective.

[09:30]

But then it's important to turn that So, in Suzuki, we actually talked a lot about non-gaining activity and no goal. This does not mean there's not a purpose to our meditation. So, can anyone say what is the purpose of our practice? We'll hear some testimony. Okay, clarity is okay, although Zhao Zhou or Zhou Shu, who said Mu, once said, I don't take refuge in clarity. That's an important part of it, obviously, yes. But more, what is the purpose of our practice? Yeah, what's the purpose of realizing Buddha nature? Okay. To see that we're free. To see that we're free. To see that who's free? Okay, good. For who? Okay. That which is aware. Buddha sees Buddha.

[10:32]

Buddha sees Buddha. And which Buddha sees which Buddha? There's just seeing. There's just seeing. But what's the purpose of our practice? Is there a purpose? Yes, there is. There's no goal. There's no particular objective. There's not some thing that we're supposed to get out of it. So all of your answers were fine. But when we talk about Buddha nature and celebrating this empty field of Buddha nature, which is how Hongxue talks about it again and again, the context, the background, the kind of sponsor of all of this is universal liberation or universal awakening. And so when we start to see, when we start to realize our own mind or to all of the answers that you gave, who's that for?

[11:34]

So universal awakening means that we want to inspire everybody to save all sentient beings, to bring this awareness of Buddha nature, this whole event of silent illumination into the world. For the sake of who? Well, of course, for ourselves. We have to start with ourselves, maybe. But I'll go back to the Lotus Sutra. My next book's on Dogen and the Lotus Sutra. In the Lotus Sutra, it says the one reason for the Buddhas appearing in the world is to help others enter into the path towards silent illumination, or towards Buddha nature, or towards realizing Buddha-ness. So even if you're here practicing together as the Sangha, I don't feel this here at all. Some sanghas, you can sort of feel this kind of insulation, kind of, you know, that the walls are really thick.

[12:38]

And I don't feel that at all here. People are coming and going, and this is an available space for people to learn to express their Buddha nature. But the point of our doing this is to be an available space. So in the Lotus Sutra it says the only reason for Buddha's appearing in the world is because of suffering beings. If none of us ever suffered, we wouldn't need Buddha. But of course, we live in this world of corruption and cruelty and materialism and consumerism and preemptive wars and so forth. This is kind of the background sponsor. And so if I talk about objectless meditation, I have to kind of talk about this purpose. So again, as Hongzhi says, right amidst living beings is the place of nirvana. Transcendence is not somewhere outside of

[13:46]

all of the inner critics and all of the other complexes and confusions and all that stuff that we as human beings have in whatever culture we're in. And Sangha specifically is the vehicle of liberation. Sangha is kind of this going back to the order of monks and nuns that the Buddha founded. Sangha is this kind of counterculture, this alternative to the world of war and corruption and so forth that, of course, exists around us. So we present this alternative to the world of greed and cruelty and so forth. So there is a purpose. And it's not just about taking care of other people. So it's not about just going around and being good and trying to help everybody else. It's something that happens in the connection between ourselves and others. So we work on our own cushions, but also we're...

[14:52]

your responsibility as sons and daughters of Buddha is to help all such beings, to include all such beings. It's not just the Buddhists we care of who express Buddha nature. How do we take care of Christians and Muslims? How does our expression of Buddha nature on your cushion help those people enter into their own path towards awakening? So, there is a purpose. Again, the attack against silent elimination that Dalai made was that it was quietistic, that people would get so... engrossed in this process of seeing their Buddha nature and feeling this illumination that they would forget about the rest of the world, forget about everybody else. And it is a danger. We can do that. We can kind of hang out in emptiness or hang out in blissfulness or really get good at this practice of silent illumination.

[15:55]

And that's not good enough. So they say that Shakyamuni Buddha only got 50%. We need to express this. And so you have people coming here from, you know, the area on Sunday, right? Other people come who maybe they aren't even Buddhists. Do you kind of make them sign a Buddhist loyalty oath when they come in? So you're extending this awareness of serene illumination to the people around you. So that doesn't mean that you have to try and figure out how to do that. This doesn't happen from calculation. It's the natural expression of what we're doing here. So this is the whole realm of precepts and functioning in the world and how do we take care of ourselves in the context of our relationships with others and our responding to the problems of our society and so forth.

[17:03]

So I'll just read, just to close maybe, I'll read a passage about that from Cultivating the Empty Field. And I'm gonna come back to this too because it has in it this part of this specific Zazen instruction about working with perceptions, but I wanna read it now anyway in this context of this purpose of Zazen. It's on page 55. In the great rest and great halting, the lips become moldy and mountains of grass grow on your tongue. Is that the sixth or seventh day of Sishin? Anyway. Yeah, right away it could happen, yes. And the great rest and great halting. you know, which is wonderful, you know, that we actually stop and settle. So I'm gonna talk, I hope I'll get to the silent illumination poem tomorrow where he talks about the balance of silence and illumination, of turning within and radiance and shamatha and vipassana and all of that.

[18:07]

But in the great rest and great halting, the lips become moldy and mountains of grass grow on your tongue. Moving straight ahead beyond this state, totally let go, washed clean and ground to a fine polish. Respond with brilliant light to such unfathomable depths as the waters of autumn or the moon stamped in the sky. Then you must know there is a path on which to turn yourself around. So this is like Sekito's or Shuto's turn, turn the light in to illuminate yourself and then just return. There is this turning, there is this transformation that happens in our practice naturally but You have to take responsibility for it, not automatically. So you must know there is a path on which to turn yourself around. When you do not turn yourself around, you have no different face that can be recognized. Even if you do not recognize your face still, nothing can hide it. We can't actually hide from the world. We can't actually run away from ourselves and the fact

[19:10]

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