Good evening, everyone. Yesterday morning I spoke about Bodhisattva precepts in the context of current issues that are coming up in this election year. I'm going to be doing a talk, part of a panel, at DePaul University in a couple of weeks. There's more details about that, about mindful engagement during election year. And so the Bodhisattva precepts are our way of expressing our meditative awareness in our everyday activities, in our actions and interactions in the world, but also now in terms of responding to issues in our society. But the other side of that is that these precepts emerged over the years from, and we have a system of 16 precepts in our tradition, but they emerged from deep meditative awareness.

[01:18]

And in some ways, in our Sangha as a lay, non-residential, center, the middle of a big city, we're more involved in practicing in the world and responding to the suffering of the world and trying to find our way to express bodhisattva values in our lives. But also, part of our practice is the ongoing kind of deepening and settling, an exploration of deeper, ultimate, universal reality, that communion with what is, that we are all connected with and connected together with. So that comes forth from our upright sitting practice, being present and upright,

[02:25]

settling, calming, opening to deeper possibilities. And that informs our activity in the world. But part of our practice is to deepen that exploration. So I'll be talking more, I'll be talking again about the precepts and engagement with election year issues in the next week or two. On Monday night, But I wanted to talk tonight about this background of samadhi, or settling. So, actually, that's not a matter of talking, that's a matter of stillness and silence and presence. We feel it when we sit together. And we feel it when we do longer sittings. And we also, deepen that in our sustained regular sitting, doing this meditation several times a week or more, taking the time to stop and be present.

[03:44]

Feel how it feels. Feel what is happening on our seats, on our cushions or chairs, as we face the wall and face ourselves. So, talking about that, we have many Samadhi texts in our tradition. A lot of those texts are in the Mahayana Sutras, but in Zen, one of my favorite Samadhi Texts is from a Chinese 12th century Zhao Dong or Shoto lineage teacher, predecessor of our 13th century founder in Japan, Dogen, named Hongzhe. So I thought I'd read a little bit from his practice instructions in cultivating the empty field as a way of looking at how our settling, how we settle, how we deepen our awareness. So Hamsa said, vast and far-reaching, without boundary, secluded and pure, manifesting light, this spirit is without obstruction.

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Its brightness does not shine out, but can be called empty and inherently radiant. So this is his description of his awareness. And when we enter this space, it is vast and far-reaching and without boundary. It's open, this sense of openness, secluded and pure, manifesting light. This spirit is without obstruction. Its brightness does not shine out, but can be called empty and inherently radiant. So one meditation instruction is to turn the light within. So when we sit facing the wall, we're facing ourselves. We're facing this inner light and dignity. And it's not that you have to try and achieve this kind of state. This is a description of what fundamentally is.

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For each of you, each of us, this is available. He goes on, "...its brightness, inherently purifying, transcends causal conditions, beyond subject and object." So, in our usual way of being in the world, we're conditioned by subject and object. We see ourselves as subject, verbing objects out there, or trying to not be verbed by subjects out there. our mind, our consciousness, our human consciousness naturally divides things in this way. This fundamental sense of separation is built into our language, built into, well, maybe not all languages, but in our language and most modern languages, this sense of subject and object. This is one of the basic problems in terms of deepening this awareness, but yet we can go beyond that.

[07:18]

So he says this brightness, inherently purifying, transcends causal conditions beyond subject and object. Of course, we don't ignore causal conditions. We acknowledge our ancient, twisted karma. But we don't need to be caught by that when we acknowledge it. Subtle but preserved, illumined and vast, also it cannot be spoken of as being or non-being. or discussed with images or calculations. So, of course, whenever we talk, we are invoking images, and Hongzhi's writing, and most of Zen discourse is full of inspired images or metaphors. And yet, fundamentally, This illumined and this illuminated and vast reality isn't caught by images.

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It's not a matter of being or non-being, of whether or not this is or that is or not is or not or isn't. And it's beyond calculations. So he says, right in here, the central pivot turns, the gateway opens. you accord and respond without laboring and accomplish without hindrance. So as we have this experience of settling through our sustained regular daily practice, and then when we do retreats or longer sittings, we have this, we can, it's possible, we can see this central pivot that turns. opening gateway. We can turn from our concern with the things of the world and the suffering of the world, not that we need to come back to that, but we have a chance to turn, to take this central pivot, to open up to something deeper.

[09:32]

You accord and respond without laboring and accomplish without hindrance. So this sentence, there's so much there. So how do we accord with this deepest reality, this inner uprightness and dignity? And then we respond. So this is not about passivity. This is not quietistic. The point of this is from this deepening experience, then we can respond. The precepts can guide us to respond to the difficulties of our world. But we have this basis from which to respond. So I was talking yesterday about one basic practice being not being caught up in hatred. So even for the people who are spread of hate, hate doesn't help.

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How do we see this deeper reality where we can accord and respond without being caught, without laboring, and accomplish without hindrance. So there are all kinds of causal conditions in our own lives and in the world. There's all kinds of harmful patterns and traditions, and we're all caught up in our culture and the chronic legacy of slavery and racism and all kinds of divisive traditions that are part of our world. And yet, we can accord and respond without laboring and accomplish without hindrance. Sahaja goes on everywhere, turning around freely, not following conditions, not falling into classifications.

[11:41]

We don't need to be caught by the harmful patterns in our world and in our own psychology. We have to witness them, acknowledge them, in order to not be caught by them. But from this place, from this deep place that we explore in our practice. He says, everywhere, turn around and think freely, not following conditions, not falling into classifications. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. So, you know, this practice is not a way of withdrawing from any reality. It's not a way of Escape from the difficulties of our own lives and the difficulties of the world around us.

[12:45]

It's the way of actually being able to more deeply engage in our world, in our life. Face everything. When we sit and face the wall, that's not a wall to keep out, you know, people we don't like or things we don't like. It's a way of... It's a mirror. It's a window. It's a way of seeing ourselves and seeing all the others who are ourselves, who are part of who we are. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. So, all the places where we get caught, And this is really the difficulty of this practice. It's not, you know, managing to sit still for a long time or getting our legs into some funny position, but actually just facing everything and letting go.

[13:48]

Letting go is kind of, I would say, the essential art of Zazen. It's not, and letting go doesn't mean pushing away or getting rid of, it means, okay, I can be with the difficulties of my own life in the world, from this place of openness, from this place of settledness, let go and attain stability. So we try and find a sitting position. The Zazen is kind of the place where we learn this, where we learn this posture or attitude, to attain stability, to be able to sit and be steady and be present. not have to move around. And if you need to change your right position during the period, that's okay, but don't do it reactively. See if you really need to do it. Facing everything, let go and attain stability. And he says, stay with that just as that.

[14:53]

Stay with this just as this. That and this are mixed together with no discriminations as to their places. So this is a basic teaching. I think the Sutra talks about this. Stay with that just as... See each state just as it is. Stay with this just as this. So as we sit, thoughts and feelings naturally arise. Awareness arise. Sensations arise. Sounds out on the street or upstairs or wherever are part of the environment of what's happening on your seat. So just be with that. See this. Stay with that, just as that. Stay with this, just as this. That and this are mixed together with no discriminations as to their places. So when we are sitting, we can be present with everything. Thoughts, feelings, perceptions, sensations.

[15:54]

It's all part of one presence. That is you. So Homeliefer says, so it is said that the earth lifts up the mountains without knowing the mountain's dark steepness. A rock contains jade without knowing the jade's flawlessness. This is how truly to leave home, how homeliefers must be enacted. Homeliefing must be enacted. So homeliefing is the phrase for for monks, but for us as lay practitioners in the world, too, there's a sense of letting go of our traditional, even though we're householders and living in the world, letting go of attachment to that. So it is said that the earth lifts up the mountain without knowing the mountain's dark steepness.

[16:58]

This is very natural. This is the way the earth is. Mountains and valleys, rivers. The earth lifts up the mountain without knowing the mountain's dark steepness. So, especially for us in Chicago, when we see a mountain, But for the earth that gives rise to, out of which comes forth the mountain, it's just, this is the natural lifting up of the earth. Tectonic plates smash together, something. And yet, we can say, we can see, if you're riding towards the Rockies and suddenly see the, ooh, A rock contains jade without knowing the jade's flawlessness.

[18:05]

So there are these geodes or rocks or various kinds of rocks which have beautiful crystalline forms within them. The various cells have all kinds of possibilities within them. So the rock doesn't need to, we might say this jade is flawless or this gem is beautiful, but the rock doesn't make distinctions, it's just part of the rock. So this is how truly to enact suchness, to be present in these states. So I could read a little bit more, well there's a lot more to read from Maybe I'll just read quickly another little passage, but then I want a chance to just talk and if you have comments or questions.

[19:12]

In another section he says, cast off completely your head and skin. Thoroughly withdraw from distinctions of light and shadow. Where the ten thousand changes do not reach is the foundation that even a thousand sages cannot transmit. This belongs to you. It's not something you get from someone else. Simply by yourself, illuminate and deeply experience it with intimate accord. The original light flashes through confusion. True illumination reflects into the distance. Deliberations about being and non-being are entirely abandoned. The wonder appears before you, its benefit transferred out for ages. So, these are expressions from this eloquent Chinese master of what it's like settling most deeply into this reality.

[20:18]

And this may seem lofty or whatever, but actually, It's a way of describing what you all just experienced during sasa. We may not realize it this way, but it's there, it's available. So again, part of our practice is exploring that, deepening that, settling into that, opening that up in our lives, in ourselves, in our awareness, in our meditation, formal meditation practice. But then also, how does that get expressed? And we have all kinds of teachings, the precepts and the transcendent practices of Paramita's to help us share this deeper communion in our lives and the world and with all of the difficulties of our society. So we have a little bit of time. If anyone has comments, questions, responses, please feel free. Thanks for that talk, Tegan.

[21:30]

I really like and I think I need the reminder that facing everything and letting go aren't things that you do one after the other, but things that you do at the same time. I think I often, facing all the stuff that comes up and I'm waiting for it to go away and I can be some other place. And at times, I can also just let go and watch that stuff come up and feel like my thoughts are thinking me. But I think I need to continually remind myself that you face everything and you let go, and as you're letting go, you have to face other things and you have to let go of them, that they're two processes that go together. Yes. Thank you. Yes, exactly. So Hongzhe's meditation practice is described sometimes as silent illumination or serene illumination.

[22:33]

So there's the side of serenity or settling, and then there's the side of illumination. This is very traditional kind of polarity in Buddhist meditation, sometimes called calming and insight. But yeah, it's not that, and as you were saying, it's not that you do one, then the other. It's not that if you become fully enlightened, then you can pay attention to trying to be helpful in the world. they go together. In fact, they help, they support each other. And it's not that you should forget about spiritual practice until you've fixed everything, and then, well, it's not that either. So our practice has both sides, always, that we are settling and exploring more deeply this settling and this opening and this deeper communion. How do we do that? How do we express that amidst the suffering of the world?

[23:37]

So we test ourselves that way. But then, with the suffering of the world, we have to come back to the settling, which really supports us to be more effective and more skillful and less reactive and less caught up in anger and so forth. Other questions or comments? Thanks for the nice talk again. So in Hamza's The Silent Illumination, is it like you settle and then illumination comes, or settling and illumination happen at the same time? Is there energy put forth into illumination that's different than energy put forth into settling? Yes, yes, that's a good question. So that's a good question for But it's not that... They're not the same, but they're not separate.

[24:39]

And it's not that you do one and then you do the other. There's this dance between this process of samadhi. And insights come out of that. The Sixth Ancestor is teaching about prajna and samadhi, what we were talking about. These are one. So, practically speaking, When you sit and you do zazen, when you settle, it happens, that insights arise. Maybe it hasn't happened for you yet, or maybe you haven't noticed them yet, but out of our settling, insights arise. And you don't have to go off and think about that and calculate it and take notes about it. It's just, they come together. And with these insights, a deeper settling is possible. So there's this reaction there, this interaction between them. But please explore that interaction.

[25:41]

For you. Jerry. Thank you for the talk. I was struck by the kind of let go of everything and obtain stability. Sometimes I notice if I don't sit for a while, I'm reminded that I haven't said, by my own behavior, like I get more caught up in more. I find myself a little more frantic or a little more worried or a little more rushed and I think, oh, I haven't said. It's a, you know, at first it sounds a little wrong to me that you could let go, I mean, I think you gotta hold on to something. I'm not going to get stable, but it could be true. I think I'd give it a try. Thank you. Kishin. I think it's so helpful to be reminded of Samadhi, and I think it's easy to lose track of that.

[27:06]

Our culture is so focused on measuring success. Everything has to be measurable to be real. That's what we're told. So it's so helpful to have that image, that powerful image, just bring our awareness to it like it is. It's a hard thing to talk about and a hard thing to think about. So it always sounds like poetry when you're talking about it instead of I don't have an idea, but that was very helpful tonight. Thank you very much. Yeah, and we chanted the Jom-Ere-Samadhi tonight, but there's a chant we sometimes do from a poem by Hong-Chun that is exactly about that balance.

[28:16]

The guy posts for Silent Illumination. He says, So that's on page 14 and 15. I'm not going to go over the whole thing, but there's this one line that I wanted to mention. It talks about wasted insight. Yeah, at the bottom of 14, if illumination neglects serenity, then aggressiveness appears. So if our insight gets activated too much, we have all these wonderful ideas, a head full of ideas that drive us insane, but then we forget the subtleness. The other side, if serenity neglects illumination, murkiness leads to wasted dharma. Wasted teaching, wasted reality.

[29:19]

So there's this balance. And each of us, at different times, has a different kind of balance point. And maybe different sanghas have a different balance point. And I think for us, For people who are doing residential practice, in some monastic context, up in the mountains or in some beautiful setting, there's a tendency to focus on samadhi, and that's very helpful, but then they can lose sight of the need to express that in the world. It can become insular. So that's a problem in those places. For us, I think, You know, I talk about social issues and so forth, and we're all involved in being in the world, but maybe as a lay, non-residential practice place, we might tend to neglect the settling side, the serenity side. So it's really important to sit regularly for each of us, and then we have monthly sittings to have a chance to settle a little more deeply, and that really helps.

[30:29]

and we're always sort of off-balance, we're always sort of leaning one way or another, and that's okay. Tsuki Roshi talked about losing our balance against a background of perfect balance. So that's what Holmes is talking about in Quotidien du Field, he's talking about that background of perfect balance, and it's great to hear about it. And it's okay that we lose our balance, but then, okay, how do we stop and slow down and settle? And when we get too... It's hard to do when you're living in the city, but if you're too caught up in that, then you have to remember the suffering around us and within us and how to respond to that. So there's this kind of balancing dance. Any other comments? Yes, Jen. This thing in the... precious mirror samadhi that bothers me. It starts right at the beginning. A silver bowl filled with snow, a heron hidden in the moon.

[31:35]

Taken as similar, they are not the same, not distinguished, their places are known. I don't want to say that that basically makes no sense, because it does make sense, but, well, maybe it doesn't. Because I don't know why it says, not distinguished. Their places are known. For some reason, this is sticking in my mind during the discussion tonight. Good. Good. Yeah, that's about the dynamics of that balance. And there's a chapter in my book on Dokshin about the Jewel Mara Samadhi. So you might consult that, about that line as I go through. do it line by line. But yeah, thank you for that. They're not the same, and yet They're similar. So, specifically, A Heron Hidden in the Moon, for example.

[32:40]

This is a classical East Asian theme in poetry and in painting, you know, like the white moon and the heron flying in front of it, and they're both white, and they sort of merge, but they don't. We can see foreground and background, just to take that example. So we know the difference and yet we don't. And that kind of, maybe it's not attention, that kind of place of seeing both the sameness and the differences, kind of tender place from where we can feel both sides of this balance of going deeper and seeing distinctions. So, yeah, I'm glad that you're caught by that line. Please continue to study it. The heron hidden in the moon.

[33:43]

You know, I always thought that was so much nicer an image than the man in the moon. And I'm thinking, it doesn't necessarily have to be a heron flying in front of the moon. It can be something we've seen. That's right. So there's also, in East Asia, they don't talk about the man in the moon. I checked that out, and I think that comes from... Was it from Persia or from Siberia? Anyway, that's a Norse image, actually. That's right. It's the man in the moon. And, you know, we can all see that, but there's also a rabbit in the moon. Oh, you can see anything you want. Well, but there's things that people see traditionally. Yeah, you can see the rabbit as a heron, but actually, you know, it's a rabbit. So I have a chapter on that in that book, too. So anyway, so we see many things. The moon represents this kind of ultimate universal background. But we can see many things in the foreground.

[34:46]

And there's this dynamic relationship. Thank you for that.

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