I thought it would be appropriate today to read one of Master Hongzi's practice instructions on silent illumination. He says, in the daytime the sun, at night the moon. Each in turn does not blind the other. This is how a patch road monk or a Zen student steadily practices naturally without edges or seams.

[01:06]

In this particular instruction, I guess you call it, I think he's specifically talking about zazen. the sun and the moon alternate with each other. At night, in the daytime the sun comes out and at night the moon, but they don't interfere with each other. It's like when the moon comes, at night when the moon comes out, although the moon is a reflection of the sun, it's just nighttime. and everything is dark and in shadows. And in the daytime, when the sun is out, there's only daytime, and the nighttime is hidden.

[02:15]

Daytime doesn't obscure night, and nighttime doesn't interfere with daytime. So, When it's daytime, just be daytime. When it's nighttime, just be nighttime. This is a practice of shikantaza, means just doing. Shikantaza is just, we say just sitting, because it applies to zazen. It also applies to other activity, but strictly speaking, zazen is shikantaza, which is sitting for the sake of sitting, without any ulterior purpose, and sitting with whatever comes up.

[03:25]

When it's daytime, the whole world is covered by daytime. When it's nighttime, your whole world is covered by nighttime. When it's daytime, don't long for nighttime. And when it's nighttime, don't long for daytime. Daytime will appear in its cycle, and nighttime will appear in its cycle. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is who you are, where you are, what you are. When there's painful legs, they're just painful legs. When there's great comfort and ease, there's just great comfort and ease. Within painful legs,

[04:31]

there is great comfort and ease. And within comfort and ease, there is always something painful. So he says, this is how a Zen student steadily practices naturally without seams or edges. without seams or edges means that one's activity is seamless. It's like a glass jar which is round and has no seams or edges. and is always reflecting the same surface.

[05:36]

Even though there may be many changes on the surface, variations on the surface, it's still one surface. So whether front, back, or sides, one is always oneself. So even though there's this side of the jar and that side of the jar, it's still all one plane. To gain such steadiness, you must completely withdraw from the invisible pounding and weaving of your ingrained ideas. To gain such steadiness, you must completely withdraw from the invisible. I don't know what invisible means, but maybe inward. Inward pounding and weaving of your, you know that stuff that goes on in your mind?

[06:43]

ingrained ideas, stuff that you hold on to, opinions, half-baked ideas, partiality, so forth. If you want to be rid of this invisible turmoil, you must just sit through it and let go of everything. Just sit through it and let go of everything. That's interesting. He doesn't say, well, he says two things that are interesting. He says, sit through it and let go of it, which seems kind of contradictory. But actually, to sit through it is to let go of it.

[07:53]

You say, well, how do you let go of it? If you try to let go of it, try to push it away, it just keeps cropping up. It's like the acanthus plant. Acanthus is actually the Roman plant, the Roman symbol. But once it roots itself, that's it. It just keeps growing. And even if you dig in the ground and take out all the roots, next year it still comes up. So one has to be very careful digging out the roots. So, as much as we try to get rid of, we have a very hard time completely getting rid of.

[08:55]

So one has to sit with whatever's there. Don't try to get rid of it. put your effort into, just put your effort into sitting, into zazen. And take your turmoil, just let the turmoil be there. And then there's some space between you and the turmoil. some distance between you and the turmoil. And you can see the turmoil going on without attachment. Just like you can see the pain without attachment.

[10:05]

You can let things be there. And when they fall off, they fall off. But if you try to push them away, they just come out much stronger. Resistance and fighting doesn't help. When we resist and fight, we create a self. and the self becomes much more attached. Resistance and fighting create attachment because then we make something real. If you want to be rid of this invisible turmoil, he says, you must just sit through it and let go of everything.

[11:20]

So letting go means letting go of trying to get rid of it, letting go of resisting it, and letting go of self. That's what letting go of self is. letting go of resistance and letting go of attachment. And then he says, attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly light and shadow altogether forgotten. Light and shadow forgotten means dualistic thinking. Light and shadow means attachment to pleasure and pain, liking and disliking, picking and choosing.

[12:33]

When we are free of dualistic thinking, then illumination comes through. That's what he's saying. Illumination will come through by itself when dualistic activity, dualistic thinking is no longer present. And then he says, drop off your skin, drop off your own skin, and the sense dusts will be fully purified, the eye readily discerning the brightness. Skin is like our outer coating, right? Skin is like our protective coat. In Zazen, we have to take off our clothes.

[13:41]

But he says, take off your skin. Drop your skin and be totally vulnerable, totally open. Accept your function. Accepting your function, Accept your function and be wholly satisfied. What is our function? Accept how things are. Just accept everything that comes along. Totally be open. Accepting function means to be totally open. And respond. to whatever is present. You know, what is our true function and what is our true form?

[14:48]

We say, the artist says, form follows function. That's the old Bauhaus formula. Form follows function. What is the form for the function? What is our true form? You might say, what is our true function? What is our purpose? What is our reality? True form is no special form. What is the form of our nature? No special form. Right now, This is an expression of our true form. This body-mind complex is an expression of true form, which is no special form. But right now, for this moment, this is the expression.

[15:55]

Each moment it changes, each moment this form, this body-mind, this conscious state changes moment by moment by moment. And to accept this change moment by moment is our true functioning. Our true function is to accept and realize the changing, the transformations, moment by moment, and to be aware. Suzuki Roshi used to say,

[17:04]

Zen practice is just living your life little by little. Little by little. One moment at a time. We tend to think in terms of broad units of time, which are determined by our ideals and our desires, but actually we're living our life one moment at a time. In Zazen, that's all there is, is one moment at a time. When zazen becomes difficult, you realize there's just one moment at a time.

[18:28]

There's only this moment. If you start to think ahead, you're lost. You're off your place. So in zazen, you have to be totally in time, totally in time. You can't be ahead of time. or behind time. You have to be totally in this moment of time. When you're in this moment of time, then you can be in the next moment of time, and then you can be in the next moment of time, which will be this moment of time. It's not waiting there for you, but it's just this moment, this moment, this moment. as soon as you start to think too much ahead or get attached to thinking ahead, you're lost.

[19:29]

Lost in anticipation. Anticipation is one of the biggest hindrances. It's not one of the five, but it's the sixth. Anticipation is the sixth hindrance. because in anticipation we lose our place. I often watch the Doan waiting with the beater to hit the bell in anticipation and when they do that they can never do it right because you're not And with it, you're not settled in yourself. You're already waiting for something. So without waiting, to just be settled in yourself in time, in this time. And then when it's time to strike the bell, just strike the bell.

[20:36]

And then you go back to not doing anything. That way, you're always settled within yourself. And then when you do strike the bell, you do it within the rhythm of the movement that you're involved with. We're always moving in rhythm with things. Always moving in rhythm with things. We're not isolated. So we take our cues from all of the movement around us and all of the players in our moment-to-moment drama. And when we're moving in rhythm with the players in our moment-to-moment drama, we have to forget ourself. By forget ourself, I mean forget

[21:41]

our self and allow ourself to flow with that rhythm. That's what makes things work smoothly. And then our life is, has a more universal feeling rather than an egotistical feeling. So life is dance and life is music. And dance and music are just an expression, an artistic expression of what our life is. So how to be in sync with things, with our surroundings, is our practice. And when we sit in zazen, very still, not moving, where this is an activity which is in total sync with everything.

[22:53]

When you can just let go of yourself, let go of the entanglements, the mind entanglements, the body entanglements, the attachments, the desires, then illumination will arise because illumination is the expression of that harmonization. Without doing anything special, you harmonize with everything. So he says, drop off your own skin, and the sense dusts will be fully purified, the eye readily discerning the brightness.

[24:06]

Accept your function and be wholly satisfied. In the entire place, you are not restricted. The whole time, you still mutually respond. So in the entire place, meaning in your surroundings, in the total surroundings, there is no restriction. No restriction means that there's no one to be restricted. When you are in total harmony, there is no restriction because you do your part naturally. There's no hindrance. Some people are always hindered. Everything is a hindrance, everything is a problem, everything is an obstacle, but for someone else, every event is an opportunity to flow with life.

[25:09]

by knowing how to mutually respond to circumstances. And then he says, right in light there is darkness. Right in darkness there is light. This is a quote from Sandokai. In darkness there is light and in light there is darkness. It's also a way of saying right in stillness, there is great dynamic activity. And within your activity at the core is stillness. When we sit in zazen, in stillness, This stillness is dynamic and total.

[26:33]

The great activity. And in every moment of our dance, there's complete stillness. And if you have this calmness in your life, within your activity, that's zazen. And when you sit in zazen, when you let go of everything, there's the great dynamic activity of the universe expressing itself. And then here he kind of describes Zazen. He says, a solitary boat carries the moon.

[27:39]

At night, it lodges amid the reed flowers, gently swaying in total brilliance You feel that way? That's the way you should feel in zazen. Solitary boat carries the moon. The moon is like illumination or enlightenment. You should feel this illumination. in Zazen. At night it lodges amid the reed flowers, so in the dark. Darkness is withdrawn from phenomena into absolute Samadhi.

[28:43]

And gently swaying, total brilliance. In other words, there's only light. Taking the backward step and illuminating, allowing illumination to When, you know, Zazen is like walking the very, the razor's edge, you know? The razor's edge is like, you don't fall into grasping, and you don't fall into rejecting.

[29:57]

You stay right there in the middle. And when you can stay right there in the middle between not picking and choosing, but just letting everything be, that's called comfort. As soon as you fall off into wanting things to be nice, you suffer. As soon as you fall off to the side of not wanting things to be the way they are, you suffer. But as long as you can stay right in the middle, you can walk the razor's edge. And when you can do that well, it becomes a broad street. And then you feel illuminated because you haven't fallen into duality.

[31:09]

You just flow with things as they are. So this is our effort in zazen. Do you have a question, Paul? Well, no, I didn't say anything like that. When you are attached to grasping, that's one side. When you're attached to pushing away, that's the other side.

[32:19]

Mark. Yes, there is a point where we let go of creating karma. through discrimination and picking and choosing, and open up to our true nature, non-discriminating true nature, which is illumination.

[33:44]

I don't know whether that's a summary or not, but I like what you said. Mark? I don't really get these words, brilliance and illumination and light. Well, maybe because you have an idea of them. They seem like an idea. Every time we speak, we speak with ideas, right? So speaking is ideas. So we make a mistake on purpose.

[34:49]

Nevertheless, when you sit tazen, when you sit tzishin, and then you go out the door and you look around, the world is more brilliant than it was before, usually. But it's not, really. It's just that you see because your eyes are open. or your mind is open, you're seeing a reflection of your own mind, which, when you see everything is brilliant, you're just seeing a reflection of your own mind. It's a point of saying that it's not, why do I say it? If it's not what?

[35:59]

It's not that yet. Oh, well. Why say it? Well, because it helps us to understand what we're doing. It may not help everybody, but it helps some of us. Yeah, that's right.

[37:14]

Yeah, so we always have to be reminded to... We always have to be reminded of what we're doing. I've been daydreaming a lot, as everybody does. Yeah, the only thing that was not correct in what you said, as far as Aizen goes, was to say, this is wrong.

[38:21]

But there is a preference for being in the present moment rather than being in a daydream. Yeah, but that's not called a preference. That is not called a preference. That's called... because it's not something personal. No, it's not. In other words, the desire to do right zazen is not a preference because it's not egotistical. Well, in zazen, you are not trying to do something.

[39:27]

Buddha is doing something. Buddha does zazen. Yes? You said we should sit for the sake of sitting. Yes. Yes. That's the same. To see things as it is is just sitting for the sake of sitting. Well, seeing Seeing is a metaphor for understanding.

[40:31]

We say seeing because hearing things as it is, or feeling things as it is, or as it is, not being fooled by things, that's what it means. It means knowing reality as it is. So there is a difference between I am trying to do zazen and Buddha doing zazen. We should let Buddha do zazen and not interfere with I am doing The thing about light is that light doesn't look like our idea.

[42:02]

We have an idea of light or we have an idea of illumination. But that's not what light or illumination is. It's not like the light of a light bulb or the light of a candle or something that you can imagine. Light is Everywhere, even in the dark. And it has no special shape or form. And since we don't recognize it, we give some hint about it.

[43:07]

So, When you experience it, you'll know what that is.

[43:34]

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