Good morning, everyone. So today, in addition to having our all-day sitting, our monthly sasheen, we are beginning our spring two-month practice period. So I want to say a little bit about that first. So this is a time for intensifying our practice for the sake of our practice in the world and our expression of our practice. This includes our formal practice of Zazen. So many of you will be participating in this and committing to, have committed to specific increases in amount of Zazen for this two-month period. And hopefully also with the guidance of the teaching that we'll be studying of Hongxue, kind of deepening of Zazen.

[01:07]

Also, as part of this specific Dharma study, in this case, the study of the meditation tradition of our tradition of Soto Zen or Cao Dong practice. And also with some increased commitment to Sangha work, so to working for the community in various ways, so various Sangha jobs. So we'll be developing that over the two months and various opportunities for that. And also as part of this practice period, we will have a Shuso, or head monk, so Keizan Titus O'Brien is here, from our affiliate group in Albuquerque, Valley Dragon Sangha, for the two months. And he'll be assisted by Benji, his assistant will be Matt Vogel, who's our Ina today.

[02:16]

So we'll have various programs for the two months, including discussion periods for the practice commitment period participants. Today in the Dharma talk, I want to talk about and introduce the study of serene illumination that is the focus of this practice period in terms of Dharma study, but also very much in terms of deepening and supporting arsazen. So for people who are not formally doing the practice period for two months also, just being around during this time, we'll be talking about these practice instructions from Hongzhe and how we might be nourished and encouraged in our zazen from these teachings.

[03:21]

So before I dive into some of the specific teachings, just as by way of introduction, So Hongxue was a part of this. Cao Dong is the Chinese word, pronounced Soto in Japanese. So Hongzhe lived 1091 to 1157, 12th century China, a century before Dogen, who brought this tradition from China to Japan, who we talk about often. And he wasn't a direct, he's not in the names that we will chant later in our particular lineage, but he's kind of a Dharma uncle. He was, the Dharma brother of one of the people whose names we'll chant. And his teachings were important and often referred to, cited by Dogen. And in this long tradition, which going back to Dongshan, who's considered the founder, and Shuto, whose Harmony of Difference and Sameness and Song of the Grass Hut we sometimes chant, Hongzhe particularly articulated, in a certain way, this meditation practice that we all do here.

[04:49]

So his, His meditation teaching is sometimes called silent illumination or serene illumination. You know, it echoes teachings going back to Dongshan and Shuto and the teachers in between. And it's clearly part of what Dogen is teaching. Dogen maybe emphasizes active expression a little bit more. So we talk about this meditation practice As the starting point, in a way, for the whole world of our practice, we settle into this deeper awareness through this formal sitting meditation practice. We start to recognize this space of what Hongche sometimes calls serene illumination.

[05:54]

And then we emphasize how we express that through Bodhisattva practice in our lives and in the world around us and in responding to the situations of the world. Hongzhe is particularly helpful in the way he describes this In terms of nature metaphors, in a very poetic way, the Taoist influence is very clear. So this book, Cultivating the Empty Field, that I'll be using, something I translated 30 years ago with the help of a Chinese philosophy professor. It evokes, kind of reminds us, it gives us another viewpoint of this actual practice that we experience.

[07:09]

this serene illumination. And this doesn't mean that you necessarily have experiences of flashing lights or something like that, but it's about a kind of quality of some underlying space that informs us. For the people in the practice period, there are six particular practice instructions that are offered in the material for the practice period that you're encouraged to choose one from and focus on. But we'll be talking about some of the others as well. actually read the first two today, the second of which is the first of the six in the materials for the practice period, and just talk about them a little bit, and talk about the dynamics of how these are part of our experience of zazen.

[08:32]

So Hongxia talks starts by these practice instructions by saying, the field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. So he's talking about a space, a field, that's already here. This is not something that we have to create or discover. This is part of Something we can realize that's already present. It's right under your seat. It's right around you as you sit. He says, the field of boundless emptiness. And Kastanahashi, who's going to be here later in the practice period, visiting later in May, has re-translated the Heart Sutra with Joan Halifax and translated emptiness as boundlessness. So, it's sort of repetitious, but emptiness does not mean nothingness. It means this kind of sense of openness and space. The field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning.

[09:36]

Then he says, you must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits. So when we first sit, when we start to sit, we realize that we have these habitual ways of responding, of thinking. We have these habits. We have these addictive qualities that these tendencies, and we turn them into habits, and he says you must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away these things. We have to recognize them, and there are various ways of dealing with them, but first we just have to recognize that we do have our own particular aspects of, we say, greed, hate, and delusion, of grasping, of anger, of confusion. But he says, then you can reside in the clear circle of brightness. Utter emptiness has no image.

[10:42]

Upright independence does not rely on anything. So this is something that this openness is not a matter of finding some thing to rely on. just expand and illuminate the original truth unconcerned by external conditions. It doesn't mean we don't care about the world around us, but without being concern, just expand and illuminate the original truth. Accordingly, we are told to realize that not a single thing exists. All of the stuff, all of the things that we get caught up in are ephemeral, are impermanent, are not real in the way we think they are real. In this field, birth and death do not appear, Hongxue says. Now this next part I want to emphasize. The deep source, transparent down to the bottom, can radiantly shine and can respond unencumbered to each speck of dust without becoming its partner.

[11:44]

The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. The whole affair functions without leaving traces and mirrors without obscurations. Very naturally, mind and dharmas, or mind and phenomena, emerge and harmonize. And an ancient said that non-mind enacts and fulfills the way of non-mind, enacting and fulfilling the way of non-mind. Finally you can rest. With thoughts clear, sitting silently, wander into the center of the circle of wonder. So the sense of wonder, the sense of not knowing but wondering, oh, what is this? Facing the wall. So going back, the deep source transparent down to the bottom. So in this tradition, often there's this language about talking about the source.

[12:47]

This is not the source like some origin that happened in history. Somebody created all of this 6,000 or 6 million years ago. This is the deep source right now. this creation, creating, arising interdependently, all of us, all of this, all beings right now. This deep source transparent down to the bottom can radiantly shine and respond unencumbered to each speck of dust, to each bit of phenomena without becoming its partner. The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. This comes up in various ways in these practice instructions, and this is specifically something that you can work with in Zazen. The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds.

[13:51]

As we look at the wall, as we hear the sound of the heater coming on, of the sound of people rustling in the seat next to you or of something going on out front or in the back or whatever. The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. It's not about some particular visual or auditory object. study the subtlety of seeing and hearing without being caught up in objects of seeing and hearing. This is a kind of practice that you can do. The whole affair functions. All of our experience is functioning without leaving traces. Very naturally, mind and phenomena emerge and harmonize.

[14:55]

What is this experience? How do we not get caught by particular objects of sound, of sight, or of thought? So in Buddhism, we say that thoughts are objects, sense objects, the same way that sounds and colors are. We don't have to be caught by the thoughts. enacting and fulfilling the way of non-mind, finally you can rest. This doesn't mean that there's no mind. It means that you don't get caught by the thoughts. This is the first section of the practice instructions. In a way, each of these practice instructions contains the whole story. Each one looks at it in a little different way. So the next one is the first of the six in the materials for the practice period. It's called The Practice of True Reality.

[15:58]

And these names at the top are names that I took from the text. They're not in the Hongxia text themselves. But he says, the practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. So that's what we do, to sit serenely in silent introspection, to look within. This is the practice of true reality. And maybe you never thought of it that way, but actually this is an opportunity to see the reality of this body-mind. Just sit serenely. And of course, sometimes thoughts and feelings and all kinds of disruptions come up. Thoughts of all the various problems we have in our life and so forth, that can come up.

[17:05]

But we can also just, including those, sit serenely in silent introspection. One of the basic meditation instructions, Dogen repeats it, and it appears in places in Hongzhi, to take the backward step to turn the light inwardly and illuminate the self. So when we sit facing the wall, we're actually, you know, we're turning the light within. We're looking at, what is this body-mind sitting here? We're facing the wall, but we're facing ourself, or we're letting the wall see us. Then he says, when you have fathomed this, when you get to the bottom of this, you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. Well, of course, we all get turned around by external causes and conditions sometimes, but sometimes we can experience not being turned around by external causes and conditions.

[18:15]

Just, okay, there's some situation, we can see that, We don't have to be turned around. We don't have to be caught up or confused. We can just see conditions, causes, the stuff of the world, the stuff of our life, even the painful, difficult stuff of our life. So this is not about, so one of the things I want to, I might have said this in the introduction, talking about Hongzhe, this practice was criticized, not so much Hongzhe himself, but some of his later successors, for being quietistic, for people who did this being not responsive to the world, and being just, you know, uncaring about the world. So that's not what Hong Xiu is saying, and we'll see that, that he is talking about responding to the world.

[19:18]

But there's this part of this balance that comes from this serene introspection that allows us to be more responsive, and that's the point for us, of us looking at this material. That's the point of this practice, actually. is that we can, as he says, respond unencumbered to each buck of dust, to each bit of phenomena. So this is subtle. How can we settle and be calm, but still be responsive? It's not about being indifferent and uncaring. He says, so, when you have fathomed this, you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide-open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. Illuminating also means to see clearly. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions.

[20:32]

So this goes back to seeing these tendencies fabricated into apparent habits. How do we not be possessed by emotions? It doesn't mean that we get rid, necessarily that we get rid of emotions at all. We have feelings, we have thoughts. How do we not be caught by them and react to them and possessed and obsessive based on them? You must be broad-minded, whole, without relying on others, Such upright, independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. We don't have to go there. Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. So this practice, you know, he was talking to, he was talking, Hongzhu lived in a monastery, Changchun Monastery, up in the mountains. So he was talking to monks or lay people who came up to this monastery for a while.

[21:35]

This is challenging for us, practicing in a non-residential storefront temple in the middle of a big, difficult city. with lots of carnage and more carnage threatened by our government and so forth. And yet, we have this opportunity to do this practice and to take two months to focus on doing this practice. Such upright, independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. Here you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid. And the next part I want to emphasize. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return accord and respond to deal with events. So this is not about being unresponsive and uncaring. But from this place of settledness, of

[22:37]

not being possessed by emotions of being clean, pure, and lucid, you can immediately return, accord, and respond to deal with events without being caught up by them from a place of communion with something deeper, with some centeredness, with some balance. And then he uses one of his nature metaphors, everything is unhindered. Clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting responsive interaction like box and lid or arrow points meeting. So that's a reference from the Harmony of Difference and Sameness we sometimes chant. So box and lid fitting, just this sense of things meeting appropriately.

[23:45]

the entire place is brightly illumined and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting, responsive interaction." So, you know, we might feel like Hongje is speaking from this, you know, he is, he's speaking from this very lofty place where he's been doing this practice for a long time. So, we might, you know, we might well feel this is beyond us, but yet this is something that we all partake of, we can partake of, when we do this practice of settling into this serene illumination. And maybe we can't perform this perfectly all the time, but we can get a sense of it, a sense of this deeper background space of the ultimate, of the universal, and then see how we can try and respond to events from this place of where we can clearly manifest responsive interaction.

[24:55]

Then he says, continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability. This is an endless practice. It's not that we get this at some point and then we've got it. We have to keep coming back. It's a lifelong practice of turning within, settling, communing with this creative energy, this deep source, and seeing how then we can express responsive interaction. And, you know, rather than feel like, oh, I can't live up to what Hongxia is saying, please feel this as encouragement to find how you can express this in the situation you're in. That's what this is about. He says, continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability.

[26:03]

If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, like the white bull or wildcat helping to arouse wonder, that's a reference to the Jewel Mara Samadhi, which we'll be chanting on Monday night some of the time. If you can do that, you can be called a complete person. So we hear that this is how one on the way of non-mind acts, but before realizing non-mind, we still have great hardship. And maybe we do have great hardship, but there's also this beginning to realize, this letting go of holding on, letting go of being possessed by emotions. letting go of these tendencies we fabricated to apparent habits.

[27:09]

So maybe I'll read that whole practice instruction again. Maybe I'll say a little bit more about it. So the practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When you have fathomed this, you cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. This empty, wide-open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. Spacious and content, without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self that is not possessed by emotions. He must be broad-minded, whole, without relying on others. Such upright, independent spirit can begin not to pursue degrading situations. Here, you can rest and become clean, pure and lucid. Bright and penetrating, you can immediately return, accord and respond to deal with events.

[28:18]

Everything is unhindered, clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks, the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams. The entire place is brightly illuminated and spiritually transformed, totally unobstructed and clearly manifesting responsive interaction, like box and lid or arrow points meeting. So it's very important to just continue, to settle into this practice of serene illumination, to sustain this. Not to worry about where you are in the process of clouds floating up to the peaks or moonlight flowing down mountain streams. Just to continue, wherever you are. Continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability.

[29:28]

So this is a process that, you know, part of enacting maturity and achieving stability means recognizing your immaturity and your instability. If you accord everywhere with thorough clarity and cut off sharp corners without dependence on doctrines, like white bull or wildcat helping arouse wonder, you can be called a complete person. So I would say, even when we feel our incompleteness, some part of us is, right now, a complete person. So we hear that this is how one on the way of non-mind acts, but before realizing non-mind, we still have great hardship. So here we are. So for those who are sitting all day today, we'll be having some time this afternoon to talk about this more.

[30:39]

Thank you for those of you joining us this morning. I want to take a little bit of time for discussion now. But again, I want to say a little bit about this deep source that he talks about. As we sit, we start to recognize this place. To call it a place, it's a metaphor. possibility of creative energy that is available always and that we connect with some of the time in the middle of our sitting and that we can nourish and nurture so this practice gives us the opportunity to nourish something that connects with whatever other creative activities you are involved with.

[31:53]

So, time for a couple comments or responses or questions. Anyone, please feel free. Yes, Dave. A little louder. Thank you for this talk. While you were speaking, I noticed a question about the word response.

[32:58]

I think traditionally, in my practice, I've always thought about response as like a decision, I guess. But I think we're always responding at all times. Good. Yes. So it's more about how your consciousness or your understanding of how you respond at all times. How you steer things. How you? How you steer that response. I don't know, just something to it. Good, yeah. So we're always, yeah, a large part of our practice is attention. We're always, Abhidharma teachings, the early Buddhist psychology says we're always paying attention to something. we're always attending to something. And I think you're right, we're also always responding in some way. And so we have the capacity to, steering is an interesting word, maybe, maybe steering or maybe just to encourage certain response, to guide.

[34:14]

Maybe steer, I don't know. I think that's a good question for us to consider in the practice period. What is the quality of response? And I'm throwing in, how is it that we are paying attention to the quality of our attention? Because I think they're related. Yeah, Nicholas. reacting rather than responding, and so that what I'm hoping to do is to respond instead of to react. Good. Yeah. Because I think, so I sometimes talk about those two qualities, that sometimes we react out of our habits, sort of unconsciously or not. not informed by that deeper source. Whereas if we are paying attention, we have more of a possibility of actually choosing how to respond.

[35:19]

So yeah, that polarity of reacting and responding is important. We do react, sort of out of our habits often. But we can also respond from a deeper place. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, I think that's right.

[36:20]

Yeah, not being caught by the object of sight or sound or thought. It's not that you're not recognizing it or not aware of it, but you're not controlled by it. You're not steered by it. You're able to respond from some more center, deeper place maybe. Yeah, but these are all, so rather than settle on any definition of any of this today, these are questions to carry through in the practice period to look at, to work with in terms of this passage. Maybe one more, if anyone has another comment or response or reaction.

[37:43]

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