Good evening, everyone, and welcome, everyone. So we're sort of in the middle of our spring practice period. For people who aren't formally doing that, we're studying or playing with some teachings from a Chinese master named Hongzhe, who lived in the 1100s, was an important influence on Dogen, who brought this tradition from China to Japan in the 1200s, founded what's called Soto Zen. And his teachings are very evocative and poetic and often using nature metaphors to describe and express and encourage this meditative awareness that we settle into and and get some connection with it in this meditation this he called it silence illumination so he wrote the guidepost of silent illumination we just chanted

[01:15]

So in this practice period, we have six of these excerpts from his practice instructions that people who are participating in that are looking at. I've talked about three of them so far in talks, and those are available on the website, ancientdragon.org. Tonight, I want to talk about one that actually Kezan R. Chouseau talked about last week, and I want to follow up on his talk and say a little more about it. This one's called Investigating Wonder. So I'll just read through it first and then say something about it. So, well, I'll just start. In clarity, the wonder exists. with spiritual energy shining on its own. It cannot be grasped and so cannot be called being. It cannot be rubbed away and so cannot be called non-being.

[02:17]

Beyond the mind of deliberation and discussion, depart from the remains of the shadowy images. Emptying one's sense of self-existence is wondrous. This wonder is embodied with a spirit that can be enacted. The moon mind with its cloud body is revealed straightforwardly in every direction without responding to signs or symbols. radiating light everywhere, responds appropriately to beings and enters the sense dusts without confusion. Overcoming every obstruction, it shines through every Dharma, every empty Dharma. Leaving discrimination, discriminating conditioning, enter clean, clear wisdom and roam and play in Samadhi. What could be wrong? This is how one must genuinely investigate the essence. So I wanna talk about that and go back over it. And these are just little prose poems to express and encourage aspects of what becomes available, what we may get some taste of as we do this sitting.

[03:34]

And I encourage people to, do this sitting regularly, and something comes up. And this is something that people who meditate regularly, it evokes something, and we recognize something. So I'll go back and go over each of these lines. Hongshu says, in clarity, the wonder exists. with spiritual energy shining on its own. So there's something wonderful and there's something we can wonder about when we find some clarity when, you know, often when we're sitting, it may feel fuzzy and muddled and our thoughts are coming and sensations and, and that's okay. This is not about, this practice is not about reaching some perfect state of being or some perfect state of awareness, but to actually pay attention to what's happening.

[04:40]

But right in the middle of whatever's happening, the wonder exists, something, something we can wonder about, something wondrous, something beyond our usual way of seeing the world. And with spiritual energy, it shines on its own. So as we sit, as we settle into being present in this body-mind, some energy is available. and without knowing how necessarily or why or what it is, it shines. It's possible. And how it shines may look like, you know, colored lights or something, but maybe it's just, you know, maybe it shines darkly. We don't know. Anyway, this is what Hamsa says, in clarity the wonder exists with spiritual energy shining on its own. It can't be grasped, so it can't be called being.

[05:41]

We can't say it actually exists because we can't get a hold of it. It can't be rubbed away, so it can't be called non-being. So as we do this practice and settle into it, we can't get rid of it. There's something here. There's some energy that we connect with, some possibility of, well, we can call it light. But it's not exactly, you know, it's not like the electric lights. It's something deeper than that. It cannot be rubbed away, so it cannot be called non-being. Beyond the mind of deliberation and discussion, depart from the remains of the shadowy images. So our usual discriminating mind, our usual mind of calculation, our usual mind of discussion and conceptions, this is the way we usually think. He says, depart from that. Let go of that. beyond the mind of deliberation and discussion, depart from the remains of the shadowy images.

[06:47]

We have all these ideas, all these images in our calculations, in our deliberations. And it's not that we have to get rid of them, but put them aside, as you said. They remain somewhere, but let go of that. And then he says this strange and wonderful line, emptying one's sense of self-existence is wondrous. So we all have that. We all have some sense of self. We all have a story about ourself. And Buddhist teaching of non-self doesn't mean that we don't have a self. It just means that that self is Not completely real.

[07:49]

It's real conventionally. We all have ways we identify ourself. We have names, we have stories, we have, you know, social security numbers or whatever. But emptying one's sense of self-existence is wondrous. When we can let go of all of those ideas about ourself, There's something wonderful about that. It doesn't mean we forget who we are. It doesn't mean amnesia or something. When we come back to our ordinary, regular work in the world, we know who we are, we know what we have to do anyway. But there's something wonderful about this. And this wonder is embodied with a spirit that can be enacted. We can take it on, this possibility of something new, something different from our usual stories about ourself. So this emptiness is also a kind of wonderment.

[09:01]

new possibilities. The world isn't what we think it is. We are not limited by what we think we are. We're not limited by how we see the world. This becomes available as we do this practice regularly, this serene illumination that he's talking about. Then he gives one of his poetic nature examples. The moon mind, with its cloud body, is revealed, straightforwardly, in every direction, without resorting to signs or symbols, as what my translation says. But looking back at the characters again this week, literally it's tracks or traces. And I interpretively and read it as signs or symbols, but literally tracks or traces.

[10:06]

The moon mind with its cloud body is revealed straightforwardly. So, to say the moon mind, the moon as a, referencing the round moon, there's something about our mind that is whole like the moon, when we're not caught in self-descriptions. And this cloud body, This body that is, you know, we think of our body as having a, as a skin bag with sharp boundaries. And, you know, in some ways that's true. But as we're sitting here, what is the boundary? It's a cloud body. And this also refers to practitioners as wandering around. you're all hearing the sound of the voice coming from this seat where this cloud body is. Where is that sound?

[11:08]

Is it here? Is it in your ears? Is it in the space between us? Is that part of your body? Well, it enters your ears and somehow it's something. Some sound is absorbed. Anyway, the moon mind with its cloud body is revealed straightforwardly in every direction without resorting to tracks or traces. We don't have to, you know, we're right here now. You don't have to try and remember the mind or body that you were three minutes ago. What is the moon, mind, and cloud body on your seat right now? Well, of course, it's affected by the moon, mind, cloud body that was on your seat 30 minutes ago while we were sitting.

[12:13]

And it's also affected by the moon, mind, cloud body that was walking down the street just before it entered Ancient Dragon's End Gate earlier. You know, right now, how are we? Radiating light everywhere, it responds appropriately to beings and enters the sense dust without confusion. This Moonlight and Cloud body Radiating light everywhere, it responds. So in all of these practice instructions, Hongsha mentions that it responds. There's some experience that we share, that we have, that is evoked by these descriptions of meditative awareness. So radiating light everywhere, it responds appropriately to being. So it's not just that we settle into some meditative state, there's a response involved. And he says it responds appropriately.

[13:16]

Literally, the characters there could also be read as, it responds without guile, without strategies, to beings, and enters the sense dust without confusion. Sense dust just means sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and thoughts. We are present in the middle of this world of phenomena. So what does it mean to respond appropriately? without trying to manipulate things. This response is important, so I want to come back to that. Then he says, overcoming every obstruction, it shines through every empty dharma. Overcoming every obstruction. It shines through every empty dharma. To say every empty dharma just means in every experience, in every situation, every empty dharma.

[14:17]

Dharma here just means in all things, in all phenomena. But we could also see it as all truths, all teachings. And they're all empty, and they're all shining, is what he says here. All things have their energy. And then there's this wonderful sentence, leaving discriminating conditioning. Of course, this is what our mind is doing all the time, but letting go of discriminating conditioning, enter clean, clear wisdom and romp and play in Samadhi. Wonderful phrase, or it could be roam and play in Samadhi. wander and play in samadhi. Samadhi just means meditation, as Kesavan was saying last week, but also it has this technical flavor of concentration, particular focus. So to say romp and play in samadhi is a little funny.

[15:17]

One side of our practice is concentration, focus, settling, calming. And it's what I think many people come to meditation for, to find some peace, some inner peace, some calm, some settling. So Samadhi is about that, and there are, in the Zen literature and in the sutras, many specifically named Samadhis. We have a chant about the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, and there are some sutras with pages of names of different Samadhis based on different concentration objects. And it's sort of a technical way of talking about Samadhi. But samadhi is about being really focused and settled. But then he says to romp and play in samadhi. So right in the settledness, right in this focus, let go, roam and play. Use your imagination to play in the middle of settledness, to give free reign to imagination, to the mind wandering.

[16:21]

So this gets back to this question, what is happening in our thinking, with our thinking while we're sitting here? Are we trying to control our thoughts or get rid of our thoughts? Trying to get rid of all thinking is one classic trap of meditation. Our brains continue to secrete thoughts just as our stomach continues to secrete digestive juices as we sit. But yeah, there's an aspect of our sitting that is focused, settled, calm, quiet. This is in the Guideposts for Silent Illumination. There's the serene side, the serenity side, and there's the illumination side. That's the side of imagination, of radiance, of playfulness. And here, in this one sentence, in this one phrase, Hongzhi's putting those together. So we need both sides, as he says in the Guideposts for Silent Illumination.

[17:27]

As we're sitting, there's the calming, but there's also this playfulness. Allow the thoughts to wander, and then bring them back to this posture, to this inhale and exhale. Insight or illumination arises naturally in samadhi. This is something that In some ways, the founder of Zen, the sixth ancestor in China, talks about the oneness of samadhi and prajna. Samadhi is settling, and prajna is insight. Prajna doesn't mean exactly wisdom like book learning. It means to see clearly, right now, what's happening. So we sit facing the wall, and we settle. And insights arise, you know. Probably some of you, maybe all of you, in some ways have experienced this as you're sitting. Whatever problem is on your mind this week, whatever difficulty you're facing this month or this lifetime, some insight may come up.

[18:40]

This is natural. This is part of the process of romping and playing in samadhi. And then he says, what could be wrong? So this is how one must genuinely investigate the essence, investigate what's fundamental, to romp and play, to roam and play, right in the settleness. So I want to talk, hear your comments and questions about this, but I want to go back to this idea that this isn't just about And what we're talking about this practice period, about finding this serene illumination, finding this dynamic practice of settling and playfulness in the middle of it, is about also responding appropriately to beings and entering the sense dusts without confusion.

[19:41]

Sense dust just refers to the phenomenal world. All of it. So I want to have a discussion about what Hongzhe says, but I want to also talk about response. And I want to talk specifically about an opportunity for response this Saturday. There's a climate march. And this month, in general, there's opportunities for response. And this month and this year and this lifetime, there are situations that call for response. And there's so many that it's hard to name them all. But there's this climate march that's happening in Washington, DC. and in cities around the world.

[20:43]

And the situation of the climate of the world is quite serious. And so there's going to be an event in Chicago noon this Saturday at Federal Plaza down at Dearborn and Adams. Some people from Buddhist Peace Fellowship Chicago are meeting. if you want to meet up with us at 11 or a little after at Starbucks on LaSalle and Monroe. There's so much to say about this, but I want to read a little bit about a report today I've talked about Darja Mal, who gives monthly reports at Truthout, just the latest report of what's happening to the world's climate. So part of, you know, part of practice period is taking, is kind of focusing on practice.

[21:48]

And so I'm trying to focus on Hongzhi's teachings and how we've settled into that practice. But also, he keeps talking about responding appropriately to beings and entering into the sense dust without confusion. So I just want to read a little bit about what's happening. Dar Jamal, who's this very fine reporter, says, I've been writing these climate dispatches every month for over three years, and every successive dispatch becomes more difficult to write than the last. As the impacts of anthropogenic climate disruption, ACD, becomes increasingly severe. Two months ago, I spent some time researching and writing in Australia and visited the Great Barrier Reef. So that's the main thing he's talking about initially. He talks about reveling in the majesty of intact towering coral structures flourishing with marine life. Yet I was also devastated during this visit.

[22:49]

Again and again, I happened upon bleached out and silently dead areas of barren coral wasteland, which not long ago teemed with living beings. Roughly 20% of the coral on the outer reef was already bleached and on their way towards death. He talks about snorkeling in the reef. The last afternoon he was there and getting the signal to return to the boat. So I just want to read some of the highlights. And actually, I left a copy of the full report out front for anyone to read. I was preparing to break the story of this year's Great Barrier Reef bleaching event. I knew the reef was likely on its way out of existence, stunning as that may seem, given that the Great Barrier Reef is the single largest coral ecosystem on the planet, spanning 1,400 miles and easily visible from space.

[23:54]

Coral reefs can rebuild from bleaching events but typically need 10 to 15 years between events in order to recover. This was the second mass bleaching event in the last two years and no sign of a let up. Several weeks ago, news in Australia reported that scientists are giving the Great Barrier Reef a terminal prognosis unless man-made climate disruption is slowed dramatically. By April, scientists were in shock, realizing that two-thirds of the entire reef was now bleached out. Some of them declared that the Great Barrier Reef has reached a terminal stage, describing the situation as unprecedented. Thanks to this man-made climate damage, Earth has lost approximately half of all its coral reefs in just the last three decades. A quarter of all marine species depend on the reefs.

[24:56]

The recent bleaching events of the reefs are so severe there is no analog in the thousands of years of ancient coral cores scientists use to study past bleaching events. And he quotes a marine biologist from the University of Victoria saying, this isn't something that's going to happen 100 years from now. We're losing them really quickly, much more quickly than I think any of us could have ever imagined. We're losing them right now. and the World Meteorological Organization released its annual State of Global Climate Report. It's thought that the climate damage is in uncharted territory. Earth is a planet in upheaval due to human-caused changes in the atmosphere. In general, drastically changing conditions do not help civilization, which thrives on stability. I'll share with you a little bit more of this.

[26:01]

As the reefs are dying, ice is rapidly melting away in the globe's northernmost region. Arctic sea ice has set a low record for the third year in a row. A report in the journal Nature Communications says that future climate forcing potentially without precedent in the last 420 million years The atmosphere could revert to values of carbon dioxide not seen since the early Eocene, which was 50 million years ago. It could reach those levels by the middle of the 21st century. That's this century. The early Eocene was much warmer than today. Global mean surface temperatures was at least 18 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than today. There was little or no permanent ice. Palms and crocodiles inhabited the Canadian Arctic. So that's a little bit about what's happening to our climate now. So responding appropriately.

[27:09]

So we don't know what's going to happen. There was a Paris Agreement. Our current administration is pretending that science doesn't exist. Some of us went to the science march this last week. Saturday, millions of people around the world are responding, and this may have an effect. So we don't know the future. But anyway, when Hongzhi talks about responding appropriately to beings and entering the sense dust, It might be that responding appropriately would include going to the climate march this Saturday. One particular action isn't going to fix anything, but paying attention to what's happening and letting Congress people know how you feel about it.

[28:12]

about what the government's doing by ignoring science and reality can make a difference. So, end of commercial. Hongzhi says, leaving discriminating conditioning, enter clean, clear wisdom, romp and play in samadhi. overcoming every obstruction, it shines through every empty dharma. In clarity, wonder exists with spiritual energy shining on its own. This is what we connect with in our practice, this possibility. And that exists independent of governments, you know. Here we are. And of course, climate is just one of the problems of suffering and injustice that the world faces. That's the one that's on the menu this week.

[29:15]

So I'll stop. And we have a little bit of time for people to respond to what Hongshu is saying or anything else. Please feel free. Questions, comments? Yes, Chris. Yeah, we're right over. that they are like bacon.

[31:21]

Good. Thank you. I think you've made your point well. So I think that's part of it. And it's not clear, you know, there's no one right solution to all of this. Absolutely. And that's why I say, I hate to repeat this, because like, it's not as clear, nothing that is black and white or fanatical movement is ever on point. So anyway, yeah, thank you. Appreciate that. Other comments? I just respond to what you said at the beginning. because the media didn't cover it.

[33:36]

They marched in D.C., in New York, in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in Atlanta, and many, many, many, many thousands of people, and nobody knows about it except a few people. I saw something about it on local NBC5, so there's some coverage. Well, we don't know that. You know who knows about it? The 40,000 people who are there and all their family and all their friends. I have this tremendous funny situation because there was recently a school board election in Albuquerque where I live and I voted. 1% of the out-of-competition population. That was everybody that I knew. It was really funny. But I don't know, maybe there's a bigger dream. You know, in my social media where it's just, you know, I don't read mainstream news anymore.

[34:41]

I don't pay any attention. I don't have cable. I get to select things and social media, and it's all in the Guardian and the BBC. The New York Times, and all the things that I'm reading, there are big stories about it. And everyone I know can see the March story. It's post-missile. So I feel like sitting out there, so I'm just going to be polite. David? all the ways, all the things that can have impact.

[36:21]

I don't know. It's like our practice. We don't know the effect of our practice. We don't know the effect of our practice, but I know there is an effect. I know people who've come and sat at Ancient Dragon, and I see an effect, and I see an effect in myself. We don't, you know, when Sukhirasi talked about non-gaining attitude, it's not that there's not some beneficial effect of practice. We just don't know what it is. And we don't see the outcome. And I think it's the same in terms of how do we create social change. We don't know. But have you all heard me tell the story from Dan Ellsberg about Richard Nixon? You've all heard that, so I don't need to tell that again about demonstrations. You didn't hear that? It's good enough, period. So Dan Ellsberg, who put out the Pentagon Papers, which actually led to Richard Nixon's resignation because he got so freaked out about it.

[37:30]

He's verified this story. This was after Nixon got elected and during the Vietnam War. And during the Vietnam War, some of us may remember, there were many, many demonstrations of hundreds of thousands of people, like the mass demonstrations that are happening now. And there was one of those demonstrations in Washington, D.C. That day, Richard Nixon was sitting in the Oval Office with Henry Kissinger. And again, Dan Nelson, who I got to know the year before I moved here, has verified that this happened, that Richard Nixon decided to drop atom bombs on Hanoi. But then he looked out the window and there were 100,000 people outside the White House demonstrating. And he said, maybe I shouldn't do that. Those people went home and heard on the news that Richard Nixon said, oh, he didn't even know there was a demonstration.

[38:37]

He was watching a football game. And probably some of those people, anyway, might have felt discouraged that they didn't have any effect. But they actually stopped an atomic bomb attack. So anyway, that's the story. Yes? And also something that's important to know Time is a funny thing. Each of these actions that happen is a ripple. Sometimes the effects don't manifest what we think of as a medium. You have the work of Marcus Garvey and Malcolm X, and when their projects end, or they're assassinated, there's a sadness that there's a movement that's ending or something. But the Black Panthers come as well, and the anti-apartheid movement. but none of them couldn't happen without the other.

[39:39]

It's all a stream. The Stonewall riots happened many, many years ago, but where we are now in terms of gender and sexuality and the consciousness that we have about it wouldn't have happened without Stonewall, even though they didn't know. Sometimes those ripples So, you know, it's always important to do the right thing. Saturday at the Science March. It was wonderful. There were wonderful creative signs and pictures. There were signs of pictures of women who were important scientists and quotes of Marie Curie. What's the quote? Do you remember that, Gautam? The quote about, oh, I can't. Anyway, there were wonderful signs, really creative signs. But there were also lots of kids, lots of young kids and lots of young people. So just speaking to your point. But while very few people turned out for that election, the rest of us swept the school board elections.

[40:50]

Like I said, everybody I know went out and voted, and we all pushed it on social media, and those are the people who turned out. In clarity, the wonder exists with spiritual energy shining on its own. Yes, Brisha. And I can think of that for a lot of different reasons.

[42:03]

Good, thank you. Yeah, I think talking about the environment is talking about justice because the people who are being most harmed by climate damage are the people in the poorest countries, definitely. The starvation in Africa and in the Middle East, the poorest countries are most affected by this. We don't see it as much, although it's going to be affecting us more and more. The refugees that Trump wants to keep out are often refugees from climate damage. So yeah, it's definitely a social justice issue. But I think you're right that sometimes it hasn't been framed that way. And we need to talk about it that way. in Pilsen, yeah.

[43:57]

So rather than go on about this, we have relevant announcements, but does anybody want to have something to say about Hongzhe's investigating Winter before we stop? This is about Hongxia? This isn't about Hongxia. Okay, quickly, if you can do it very quickly.

[44:27]

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