Good morning. This weekend, the last three days, we've been practicing with the serene illumination meditation teachings of Zen Master Hongzhe. from this Cultivating the Empty Field book. Hongzhe lived in the 1100s, the early 1100s, was an important teacher in the Soto, or in Chinese, Hongzhe, Xiaodong teachings, lineage in China, important predecessor of Dogen, who brought these teachings to Japan. So these teachings are about, well, about our zazen meditation and about the balance of settling or serenity and insight or illumination, about the balancing of focus, calming, and spaciousness or

[01:16]

openness, open awareness. So I want to start by doing a kind of somewhat quick review of what we talked about the last couple of days. So he opens this teaching by saying the field of boundless emptiness is what exists from the very beginning. This is not something we have to discover or create or figure out. This openness, this field of awareness is right here already. It's foundational. And he says, you must purify, cure, grind down, or brush away all the tendencies you have fabricated into apparent habits.

[02:26]

So we have our human karmic legacy of habits, patterns, fabrications. that we have to deal with, but then we can reside in the clear circle of brightness. So this is what's difficult about this practice, that we see very clearly our patterns of thinking, our ways of reacting, and grasping, and aversion, and confusion, and so forth. And we have, routine patterns and habits about how we do that, and we have to see these and find ways to brush these away. But then, we can just expand and illuminate the original truth, unconcerned by external conditions, he says.

[03:32]

Doesn't mean we ignore them, but we don't have to be caught by them. And then he talks about this deep source, transparent down to the bottom that can radiantly shine and respond unencumbered to each speck of dust without becoming its partner. So he has this teaching about perception, about our awareness that we can apply as we sit uprightly, inhaling and exhaling. He says, the subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. The whole affair functions without leaving traces and mirrors without obscuration. Very naturally, mind and phenomena emerge and harmonize. So we can be aware of the subtlety of seeing and hearing without being caught by colors and sounds, without being caught by objects, without partnering with objects.

[04:36]

And then he talks about the practice of true reality. So actually just to hear the practice of true reality. This is what we are engaged in. 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. So we notice causes and conditions. We don't ignore causes and conditions. But how do we stay present in causes and conditions? This empty, white, open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating. So just reading these words, so helpful. Spacious and content without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping. Effectively overcome habitual behavior. Realize the self that's not possessed by emotions.

[05:42]

Doesn't mean we get rid of our emotions and feelings. Feel what we feel. Don't be afraid of your fear. But we don't have to be possessed by our fear or our anger or our greed. This is all very possible, very natural. He says, you can rest and become clean, pure, and lucid, bright and penetrating, immediately return accord and respond to deal with events. This is not a practice to escape from our everyday activity or to turn away from the world. respond and deal with events from this place where we can become clean and clear and not caught up in our emotions, not possessed by our emotions. And then Hong Zhou often uses nature metaphors to describe the naturalness of this.

[06:46]

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, clearly manifesting, responsive interaction like box and lid fitting or arrow points meeting. Continuing, cultivate and nourish yourself to enact maturity and achieve stability. So our practice is about sustaining this awareness, nourishing ourselves, finding the steadiness to just face these patterns that we have fabricated into a pattern, apparent habits, to just be willing to be present like clouds gracefully floating up to the peaks and the moonlight glitteringly flowing down mountain streams back into

[07:57]

the everyday activities of our world. He makes it seem so simple. We know the challenges of our life. And yet, seeing it from Hongzhi's place, from Hongzhi's space of awareness, of serene illumination, we see this possibility. And as we sit, this becomes We see how this is part of us actually, how this is available, quite readily available. So we talked about this the first day. Yesterday we talked about this teaching in this section where he talks about some very specific ways of talking about our practice. He says, to gain this steadiness, you must completely withdraw from the invisible pounding and weaving of your ingrained ideas.

[09:02]

If you want to be rid of this invisible turmoil, you must just sit through it and let go of everything. So, of course, when we do this practice of sitting for a day or two or three or even a period, we start to see this invisible turmoil, this invisible pounding and weaving, our ingrained ideas, our ways of seeing ourself and the world, our habits of grasping and anger and confusion, not just our own personal patterns, but our whole societies, you know, deeply ingrained ways of being involved in greed and grasping, our deep karmic legacy of racism from a society built on slavery.

[10:06]

For example, these patterns of greed, hate, and delusion are deeply ingrained. They're collective and societal as well as personal. He says, just sit through it and let go of everything. Well, this is a challenge that our world needs to face. But this is something we also can do personally. Just sit through it. Let go of everything. This is our practice. Let go of everything. This letting go is not the same as trying to run away from it or get rid of it. This letting go is the subtle essential teaching of this practice. How do we let go while facing it? He says, attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly.

[11:08]

Light and shadow altogether forgotten, drop off your own skin and the sense dust will be fully purified, the eye readily discerning the brightness. So this drop off your own skin foreshadows Dogen talking about dropping body and mind as a way of talking about zazen and total enlightenment. Dropping body and mind doesn't mean getting rid of this body and mind. It means letting go of our attachments to our own personal satisfaction, our own personal well-being. See that this self is not separate, is not isolated, is not estranged from the world, from each other, from the collective self, the greater self that is all beings. We have this precept to benefit all beings.

[12:10]

We face the wall not to hide from the problems of our life and the world, but as a way of seeing ourselves and our patterns of grasping. The wall is a mirror to see ourselves. The wall is a window to see our connection and communion with all being. Drop off your own skin. Drop off your own separation and the sense dust will be fully purified. The eye readily discerning the brightness of all things. We sit in the samadhi of all beings and all times. We sit together with the whole universe. We can only see and feel and hear and think a tiny bit of it. We have limited perceptions.

[13:13]

We only see a limited part of the color range. So as he says, The subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. We can't see all the forms and colors and sounds that are going on in this room right now. And yet we have our own seeing, we have our own hearing. Accept your function and be wholly satisfied. In the entire place, you are not restricted. The whole time, you still mutually respond. A solitary boat carries the moon at night, and it lodges amid the reed flowers, gently swaying in total brilliance, right amid particular grasses and reeds of our world. Accept your function and be wholly satisfied.

[14:21]

Accept your limitations. except your particular situation. So this, as I spoke about yesterday, is one, this accept your function is one name of our zazen, GGU Samadhi. The self accepting its function, the self fulfilling itself or refreshing itself, realizing itself, enjoying itself is the self that receives our function. that accepts our dharma position, our situation. Just for each of us, and I think also for us all collectively, to occupy and abide in the situation and position we're in, to take on this life, this person, this world, This problem we have.

[15:30]

Situation on your seat, in your place, in the meditation hall. Your position in relationship to Buddha sitting in the center. Buddha sees you. Buddha sees you as Buddha. Accept your function. Accept your dharma position. Enjoy it. Take it on. Including its limitations, including its problems, including all the sadness and difficulties of our own lives and the world. This is how to enjoy ourselves and fulfill ourselves and realize ourselves.

[16:35]

There is so much to do. We each have good work to do, each in our own way. We each have our own way to be helpful in the world and in our lives. So we sit upright, and we take another breath, and then we exhale. And we enjoy the space at the end of the exhale, and then hopefully we take another inhale. And it's wonderful. And it's terrible. And here we are. So that was a review of the first two days. So I want to go a little further today. So in this next section, Hongzhe talks about what it's like

[17:47]

Well, this is maybe after sitting five days of Sashin. We don't have that opportunity, or six days, or 20 days. Empty and desireless, cold and thin, simple and genuine. This is how to strike down and fold up the remaining habits of many lives. When the stains from old habits are exhausted, the original light appears, blazing through your skull, not admitting any other matters. So here in this storefront temple, the middle of this big city, we have to kind of concentrate our effort. We have a few more hours today to just sit and really dig into how is it to accept our function, accept our place in the universe, Vast and spacious like sky and water merging during autumn.

[18:54]

Here we are. Like snow and moon having the same color. This field is without boundary, beyond direction, magnificently one entity, without edge or seam. So again, there's the focus and the settling, and there's also the opening. all the way to Lake Michigan, all the way to the prairies, all the way up to Wrigley Field, all the way down to Hyde Park. Here we are. Further, when you turn within and drop off everything completely, realization occurs. right at the time of entirely dropping off to liberation and discussion are 1,000 or 10,000 miles away. There's nothing to say about it. Still, no principle is discernible. So what could there be to point to or explain?

[19:56]

People with the bottom of the bucket falling out immediately find total trust. There's nothing to calculate. Just trust, trust yourself, trust Buddha. Let go completely. So we are told simply to realize mutual response and explore mutual response, then turn around and enter the world. So the world is offering you many things. You are offering the world many things. How do we find mutual response? At lunchtime the server comes and scoops some rice and we hold out our bowl and receive it. How do we find mutual response? The dawan hits the bell and we bow and we stand up.

[20:58]

And so we are told simply to realize mutual response and explore mutual response, then turn around and enter the world. Romp and play in samadhi. So on your cushion or when you get off from your cushion, roam and play in samadhi. Here we are. In our settledness, find the way to play in this situation. in this terrible, wonderful situation. Accept your function. Roman play in Samadhi. Sound and form, echo and shadow, happen instantly without leaving traces. The outside and myself do not dominate each other, only because no perceiving of objects comes between us. You don't have to, you know, it's just this immediate response. You don't have to categorize or calculate what you hear and see.

[22:07]

It's just this. Face the wall. Face what comes up in front of you. How do you respond immediately? Only this non-perceiving encloses the empty space of the Dharma realm's majestic 10,000 forms. just enact and fully investigate this field without neglecting a single fragment. So again, he says the subtlety of seeing and hearing transcends mere colors and sounds. But he also says, and I'm going to come back to this, wide open and accessible, walking along, casually mount the sounds and straddle the colors while you transcend listening and surpass watching. So we are walking fields of energy, aware, aware, aware, pay attention.

[23:16]

Sounds and colors are all around us. How do we engage our world? How do we meet our world? How do we be kind in our world? How do we meet each other? So we're all in communion. in the samadhi of all beings. And yet there is this self sitting on your seat. There are so-called others sitting on other seats. How do we engage each other, even though each other is part of this same larger self?

[24:21]

This is a strange situation when we accept our function. Roaming and playing in samadhi. Settling into our place. In the whole world of all of it. Can you hear me back there, Aishan? Settling into our place in the whole world of all of it, is that what I said? It could be. It could be.

[25:23]

It could be. It really could be. Maybe in fact it is. And now it's gone, but here it is again. And the breeze coming from the air conditioning, well, there are various winds coming off the lake, coming down the avenues. They say this is the windy city. How do we deal with these winds? Maybe very tumultuous in this week coming up. We'll see. So Hongzhi says, in the wind abode, clouds and dragons harmoniously follow each other. Very naturally, from the first, they do not need to express their intentions to each other. We're all here.

[26:25]

We can trust that. Similarly, Zen practitioners 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." Can you imagine that? Let me read that whole thing again. In the wind abode, clouds and dragons harmoniously follow each other. Very naturally, from the first, they do not need to express their intentions to each other. Similarly, Zen practitioners are accommodating. And based on causes and conditions, that's how we got here, they can harmoniously practice together.

[27:26]

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. Look around and see all the spectacular images. 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.

[28:29]

When the ground is on its own, the brightness begins to be realized. Ah. Yes. Excuse me. I'll read that again. Thank you, David. Clouds disperse. 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 there's this romping and playing of clouds and dragons. There's this flying about. There's this spaciousness. There's this openness of insight and illumination.

[29:33]

And then there's the ground, which is on its own. There's the settling. There's the earth, which we sit on. Just sitting. Calm. And this brightness begins to be realized, to be put into reality. So the last part of what I want to say this weekend from Hongxia, is the point of all this.

[30:44]

And again, he evokes, he starts by invoking the practice of settling, the practice of settling like So much so that in the great rest and great halting the lips become moldy and mountains of grass grow on your tongue. Like being silent for a month. Try it sometime. But then he says, moving straight ahead beyond this state, totally let go, washed clean and ground to a fine polish. So there's this rhythm to our practice, whether we go up to a mountaintop for a month or whatever, or a year, or just come and sit for a period or a day or three in a storefront temple in Chicago.

[31:54]

Moving straight ahead beyond this, washed clean and ground to a fine polish, totally let go. Respond with brilliant light to such unfathomable depths as the water of autumn or the moon stamped in the sky. So we're here in the waters of autumn, and have any of you seen the moon stamped in the sky? Probably you think the moon is circling the planet, but maybe you've seen it stamped into the sky. Anyway, then you must know there is a path on which to turn yourself around. When you do 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. This is penetrating from the top most all the way down to the bottom. So there's this rhythm that he's talking about here.

[32:59]

We take the backward step and turn the light within. We settle. We stop. All of the busyness of our world. all of the multitasking and running around and trying to get this and get rid of that. And, okay, we stop and we just sit and face the wall. And breathe and sit upright. This is penetrating from the topmost all the way down to the bottom, when you have thoroughly investigated your roots back to their ultimate source. There's that source again. A thousand or 10,000 sages are no more than footprints on the trail. In wonder, return to the journey, avail yourself of the path, and walk ahead. where this operates, no traces remain.

[34:02]

With the hundred grass tips in the busy marketplace, graciously share yourself." So this practice of settling. is in rhythm with going out. And, you know, whether you do it by going to some mountain monastery for three years and then going out, or whether you spend three days sitting and then, you know, there's this rhythm turning within. And then how do we share our awareness, our settleness in the busy marketplace graciously? with a hundred grass tips in the busy marketplace, graciously share yourself. And then he says, wide open and accessible, walking along, casually mount the sounds and straddle the colors while you transcend listening and surpass watching. So here he's saying, go for the sounds and colors.

[35:08]

Be right there with those. Get over your own listening and watching. Perfectly unifying in this manner is simply a Zen practitioner's appropriate activity. OK, so all of this might seem very lofty. And yeah, Hongxue's been. was talking after he spent 30 years, 50 years, whatever, sitting on a mountaintop in China. But lots of people came from down below to practice with him, and he was engaging with them. I think this has something to say for our practice, being right a few feet from the busy marketplace on Irving Park Road. How do we find our way to settle and open and accept our own function, each of us, individually, particularly, and together?

[36:19]

How do we accept our function? Collectively, how do we each find our own way to respond helpfully? And then there's this practice of serene illumination, settling, settling, calming. Down to earth. And then opening up to all the winds and the breezes and their roaming and playing. the openness, the spaciousness, not stifling our thoughts and feelings, allowing our imagination and playfulness to roam and play, and then coming back. from this settled place, we can respond helpfully.

[37:35]

So for people who were here for the whole day, we will have a question ceremony later this afternoon, where each person will come up and ask a question for everyone else. But it's Sunday morning and thank you to the people who've joined us for the morning. So we'll take a little bit of time now. If anyone has any comments or responses or questions now, please feel free. Whether you're here for the talk or have been here for three days. Haitian.

[38:56]

I've heard it said that 50% of baseball is half mental. So. 50% of baseball is half mental? Yes. OK. So does that mean that athletes are ranting and slaying, and Samadhi itself makes someone really mental? Well, I'm not an athlete, but I like watching them perform. And sometimes it seems like their attitude and yeah, I think 100% of their performance is half mental. Yeah, it seems. But does anybody else have any comments about that? Yes, Carla. Who won?

[39:56]

Oh, the Cubs won. So the picture of Kyle Hendricks, like throughout the whole game, at least that's the way it seemed, center, very, you know, no, you know, emotion on his face and, you know, and it was like, Maybe that's where the mental part comes in. But it's almost like he was working from the center. And it's really very interesting to see that. And of course, you can imagine the incredible tension and pressure. And yet, he seemed to be, I don't know, he seemed to really be able to access the center target himself or act or engage on that.

[41:03]

Thank you for that report. Yeah, I've heard about him and seen him. I was here so I couldn't watch that game, but I did hear about it actually. Yes, the Cubs are going to the World Series, hurrah. But yeah, he's very interesting because he shows no emotion and yet performs Exceptionally. So yeah, that's an example. Yes. Nicholas. I've been thinking about what it feels like to accept my place in the dark world. Good. Comforting values on the one hand, and how humbling it feels. It's related to, I guess, all my habits of mind.

[42:11]

I think I'm supposed to be here, who I think I actually am. And yet, by drawing a place in the world, it's like this sort of broken down mind that's kind of like, you know, I'm surviving and trying to be here. And then I have this idea that I'm this great person who shouldn't sit down, just going to a samadhi. Yeah, that's really interesting. So did you all hear him? So yeah, accepting, so there's this, as you said, humility and, I don't think you said joy, I forget what. Comfort, yeah, comfort, that's a good word. Humility and comfort in just accepting your place in the dharma world, and yet there's this kind of sense of loss about giving up our, habits and patterns. And I think we have those habits and patterns because we like them on some level. So giving up some of those habits and patterns that actually get in the way, there's a loss there.

[43:20]

I think that's really insightful. I don't know that it means giving up all our attachments. But we can choose. But yeah, there's a kind of renunciation. There's some things that we like that we give up when we accept our place in the Dharma world. I think that's right. And there's a kind of sadness there. But also, non-attachment doesn't mean detachment and non-feeling. So I think the example Carla gave, I think Kyle Hendricks was feeling a lot as he was pitching, but he just, he was so centered. This is my imagination, okay? But that he was so centered that he was able to not show any of it. That's how I imagine it. I don't know. Maybe he didn't feel anything. He was just a machine, but I don't think so.

[44:21]

In fact, I heard some of the other players later saying that he felt a lot. But that's, We do have attachments. We do have aversions. Non-attachment doesn't mean getting rid of attachments. It means knowing our attachments. And then we have this ability, we have the chance to choose. So how many people here like vanilla ice cream? How many people here like chocolate ice cream? Okay, some people raised their hands twice, some people didn't raise their hand for either. Niazan, you don't like either. But he doesn't really care, either way. He likes them. Okay, so you can like... You know, not care so much. Or you can take your place in the dharma world and still like vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream or both or neither.

[45:29]

So it's what do you do with those? What do you do with your attachments? If you really settle into serene illumination and take your place in the dharma world, how do you respond rather than react to your attachments? So some attachments maybe, you know, it's not so helpful to act on that or to even think about that. So, you know, even if you feel sad about not, you know what I'm saying? So it gets kind of subtle, but you don't have to lose your personness, your humanity. I think this is a practice for human beings. Maybe it's also a practice for dogs and cats and reindeer and, you know, caribou and, I don't know, Asian? is may they remain serene throughout these transitions.

[46:58]

And I just love that. There's something about all of the turmoil that you're going through, and yet maybe there's a wish that you could still hold on to a little bit of serenity within all that turmoil, all the pressure, all the pain. So I always sort of repeat that to myself periodically when I'm going through a stressful situation. May I remain serene throughout this transition. Yeah, and doing this practice gives us more of a capacity to remember this serenity and this illumination right in the middle of difficult situations. The point isn't to find the perfect situation. is to accept our function and to accept the situation we're in. And then, when there's a difficult situation, we have some practice in being present and upright and breathing and settled.

[48:05]

So, any, one more comment or question? If there is one. Yes. Yeah, well, there are Zen masters everywhere, even if they're not formally Zen masters. So, we'll pause now.

[48:37]

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