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Category: Dharma Talks

Dwelling in Subtle Forms of Identity

by tendo zenji

What are the barriers to awakening that we as practitioners put in our way. This is to turn around the questions so often raised about why the practice doesn’t seem to “work” for a given practitioner. As noted in previous talks we are typically Standing in our own Way. In this talk from the February 2023 Daylong Retreat at Tahoma Zen Monastery we consider more subtle forms of standing in our own way: dwelling in identity.

Recording of this talk

February 18th, 2023 Daylong Retreat talk: Dwelling in Identity

Non-abiding

All things are set on a nonabiding basis. The nonabiding basis is based on nonabiding. If you can. reach a thorough realization of this, then all things are One Suchness, and you cannot find even the slightest sign of abiding. The whole of your present activities and behavior is non-abiding. Once the basis is clear to you, it will be like having eyes: the sun is shining brightly, and you can see all kinds of colors and forms. Isn’t this the mainspring of transcendent wisdom?   

Yuanwu Letters (Cleary Bros)

The nature of reality is non-dwelling and thus must be our practice. This has several meanings, but in essence it is the interconnected nature of reality.  But when we rest in various things, we are resting in identity, that is what we mistaking take as ourselves. This can be very subtle and we are going to examine several instances related especially to practitioners.  At this level abiding can be seen as attachment.  Anytime we are dwelling in something at its root it is the self grasping at something that it identifies with.

The Supreme Way is not difficult 
If only you do not pick and choose. 
Neither love nor hate, 
And you will clearly understand. 
Be off by a hair, 
And you are as far from it as heaven from earth. 
If you want the Way to appear,
Be neither for nor against. 
For and against opposing each other 
—This is the mind’s disease. 
Without recognizing the mysterious principle 
It is useless to practice quietude. 
The Way is perfect like great space, 
Without lack, without excess. 
Because of grasping and rejecting, 
You cannot attain it. 
Do not pursue conditioned existence;
Do not abide in acceptance of emptiness. 
In oneness and equality,
Confusion vanishes of itself. 
Stop activity and return to stillness, 
and that stillness will be even more active. 

Xin Xin Ming, attributed to Chien-chih Seng-ts’an
from Faith in Mind by Sheng Yen.

The Chan Practice of Non-abiding

The Diamond Sutra contains the sentence, “(One) ought not abide anywhere, and there will arise this mind.” Before he became the Sixth Patriarch, the young Huineng became enlightened when he heard this single sentence. In Chan, we often use a briefer phrase, “Non-abiding, mind arising.” This phrase appears within the entrances to Nung Chan Monastery and the Chan Hall of Dharma Drum Mountain in Taiwan, as well as the Chan Hall of the Dharma Drum Retreat Center in the United States. Master Sheng Yen continually brought up this phrase during long retreats, explained the concepts behind it, and asked retreatants to practice accordingly.

 The Chan school places great importance on “non-abiding, mind arising” because the intrinsic nature of the mind is exactly non-abiding. If you wish to be enlightened, your actions must be in accordance with “non-abiding, mind arising.” Not only must you have a clear sense of this idea, but your every action, word, and thought must be in line with it. This idea that all actions of body, speech, and mind should be in accord with the concept of non-abiding is expressed in the saying by the Huineng: “As the mouth speaks, so the mind acts.”

Guo Xing, from The Chan Practice of Non-abiding

Complacency


Complacency manifests in many ways and reinforces our identity.
Resting in the form institutionally
A place of practice exists to help you let go of self, by keeping you off balance, giving you no place to dwell. But once it becomes too familiar we can rest in it. It becomes part of our identity.
Outsourcing one’s practice outside of oneself
All practices are by their nature have an aspect we can attach to. That is there is an element that we can hold on to, abide in. The benefit of the practice should outweigh this, but when a practice becomes “stale” it is because we are abiding it it in some way.

When we become comfortable in the practice then we are dwelling in it. As all practices have a graspable element it is incumbent upon us to question where we are at. Maintain beginners mind. That is not self-conscious, but fresh. In retreats we are constantly off balance and breakthrough should come early. How early? before retreats become unable to surprise us. That is before they become routine. 

Beginners Mind—How to avoid complacency

A noble one of former times [Baizhang Huaihai] has said clearly: “For example, a fly can alight here and there, but the only place it can’t alight is on top of a flame. Sentient beings are also like that. They are capable of alighting on objective supports, but the only objective support they can’t alight upon is prajñā.”  When from moment to moment [sentient beings] do not retreat from [the resoluteness experienced when they178] first produced the thought of awakening; and they take the consciousness that makes mundane defilements into objective supports and turn [that consciousness] backwards to engage prajñā: even if they don’t make a thorough penetration in the present life, at the very end of life they will most definitely not be led along by bad karma and fall into a bad rebirth path. 

Dahui, Letters of Dahui p. 84-85

Keep your mind fresh. Each moment is fresh; new. This is the lesson of impermanence, not that nothing lasts, but that everything is constantly being born. When we first encounter a new situation we are often self-consciousness, worried about doing things right, how we are perceived etc. Once we are past that but things are still unexpected, delightful, this is beginners mind. We can stay in this beginners mind in various ways. Increasing the intensity, keeping ourselves on the razors edge, works for a while.  But engaging in fundamentally non-abiding practices is what is truly required. See Non-Dwelling practices

Identity as a Practitioner

We very easily become stuck in beliefs about ourselves as a practitioner, particular in how we perceive the practice is going for us. We thinking that we are no-good, that we can’t awaken, that certain practices “never work for us,” that we are selfish, we can’t arouse bodhicitta and so on. What are these beliefs rooted in? It is essential that we practice self-questioning and look at the roots of our beliefs. Most of our issues resolve themselves in fear of death and desire to be loved. Once again the self rejecting (fear of death) and grasping (after love). If we look at a particular belief we have we can identify what it is and let the feelings run their course through us. Repeatedly doing this we can untangle these root beliefs. The danger is creating much more difficult identities, the “I’m the type of person who can’t do x, or who always does y” kind of identity. These are identities. I am like this, we say. But who you really are is unbounded.

 We establish views on how practice should be done and this again becomes entangled with who we are.

When members of the scholar-official class study the Way, most don’t really comprehend. Unless there is oral discussion and mental reflection, they are blank, with “nowhere to put their hands and feet.” They don’t believe that the state of not having anywhere to put your hands and feet is precisely the good state.  —

Dahui, Letters of Dahui, p. 167

The value of a Good Friend, is that they can point to where we re doing something for our self and not for the purpose of seeing past the self. But anytime we think things are done in a particular way, or that this resonates with us, or hold tightly to specific views, we again need to engage in reflection on that. Look for the root assumption. Is there identity here?

However, you must not abide in the state of calmness. If you abide in the state of calmness, then you will be possessed by “measuring with the dharmadhātu” [i.e., using ultimate reality as a measuring stick]. In the teachings, this is called “dharma-defilement” [i.e., producing all sorts of views about the buddhadharma]. Once you have extinguished “measuring with the dharmadhātu” and all-at-once washed away any sort of idea of “remarkable and outstanding,” then, for the first time, keep an eye on [a huatou

Dahui, Letters of Dahui, p. 168

Attachments to experience (glimpses; the awakened self) –
When we have glimpses into reality as it is, even major breakthroughs while we still have a lot of conditioning to work through these can become an identity for us. These events lead to lasting changes, but when we turn it into an experience, we reify it; it becomes a thing. Then we are just dwelling in the past (memory). At its worst this becomes an “awakened ego” that is someone fully dwelling in self who thinks they are awakened and acts accordingly. This is the root of many of the problematic teachers we have seen. But even someone acknowledging that they still have a long ways to go can still hold onto experience, to dwell in it. Then it becomes a barrier and stagnation occurs.

Working through the identity as a practitioner

Look for these tendencies and put them down. Examine the core beliefs: trace back where feelings come from, where negative thoughts come from. Why are we practicing? How are we practicing. Question of the self is essential. Non-abiding practices can help shake loose these tendencies.

Attachments to Self

Not really wanting to wake up

This manifests in myriad ways.  Attachments to self is the main issue—it of course doesn’t want to cease.  It likes the idea of the awakened self, that is, itself plus being recognized as have attained something. This is the ego.  But along with this of course is all the other identities we have.  We are fine with the path as an identity, a lifestyle, “what we do” and the aspects that surround practice.  Often those who say they can’t sit alone are in this camp.  This primarily manifest as a lack of commitment. 

Lack of commitment

This is the true Way of training of all the Buddhas, and is true Zazen. Speaking or silent, moving or still walking, standing, sitting and lying down are our everyday actions. In this our everyday life we must keep working (on the Koan) resourcefully, from moment to moment, constantly and continuously. 

Forgetting it for most of the time and only occasionally recalling it and then just giving it a try at Zazen only invites a host of wild fancies. And to go to Sanzen only when one feels like it is just not on! And even though you have forgotten to work on the Koan, you must never lose the power of the vow and the strength of faith. It is like learning archery. Shooting the arrow, you cannot possibly expect to hit the target right away but you must practice and practice. 

The training calls for great energy and great perseverance, neither being put off by a bit of pain, nor getting easily bored. Even after devoting themselves to the Way for twenty and thirty years, the old masters found it far from easy. 

Zen Master Daibi, commentary to Torei zenji’s Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamps of the Zen School

We make our excuses, too busy or whatever, we just occasionally practice, but the commitment to what it takes to actually wake up just isn’t there.

Inquire into your motivations

So what to do? First one really needs to understand what motivates your practice. Be honest and don’t worry about ones motivations. These change just like everything else. Inquiry into motivations

Abiding in Groups

Sometimes the distortions that can come out of being part of a group have little to do with the group or its members and a lot to do with you. Some good questions to ask yourself are: “What do I really want to get out of being part of a group?” or “What am I really expecting or hoping for by being part of this group?” It’s important when asking these questions that you remind yourself there are no wrong answers. For instance, if the answer is, “I want to belong,” or “I want to be liked,” or “I want to find a romantic partner who is spiritual,” then you have to acknowledge that motivation and be honest with yourself. If you tell yourself and others that you’re there for spiritual awakening, but your real motivations are hidden even to you, then you will have cognitive dissonance. You will be frustrated on both accounts. Authenticity is the key here.

Angelo Dilullo,  Awake: It’s Your Turn (p. 168)

Clarify Your Aspiration 

To clarify your aspiration means knowing exactly what it is that your spiritual life aspires to, not as a future goal but in each mo- ment. In other words, what do you value most in your life—not in the sense of moral values, but in the sense of what is most important to you. Contemplate this question. Do not assume that you know what your highest aspiration is, or even what is most important to you. Dig deep within, contemplate, and meditate on what the spiritual quest is about for you; don’t let anyone else define your aspiration for you. Look within until you find, with complete clarity, what you aspire to.   

The importance of this first Foundation cannot be overemphasized, because life unfolds along the lines of what you value most. Very few people have Truth or Reality as deep values. They may think that they value Truth, but their actions do not bear this out. Generally, most people have competing and conflicting values, which manifest as both internal and external conflict. So just because you think something is your deepest value does not mean that it actually is. By deeply contemplating and clarifying what you value and aspire to, you become more unified, clear, and certain of your direction. 

As your realization and spiritual maturity deepen, you will find that some aspects of your aspiration remain steadfast while others evolve to reflect what is relevant to your current level of insight. By reflecting on and clarifying the issues relevant to your current level of understanding, you stay focused on the cutting edge of your own unfolding. 

Adyashanti, The Way of Liberation 

Ultimately Non-Dwelling

There are many places in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch that refer to how one should practice non-abiding. For example, the chapter “Samadhi and Wisdom Are One” says that those who practice non-abiding will see the emptiness inherent in virtue and evil, beauty and ugliness, enemy and friend, demeaning and argumentative language. Such a person does not engage in or think about reward or injury. Thought after thought, he or she doesn’t engage in or think about the previous condition. If the previous thought, present thought and future thought continue without stopping, this is called “bondage.” If, in regard to all dharmas, thought after thought continues with non-abiding, this is called “unbinding.(emphasis mine) 

Ven. Guo Xing from The Chan Practice of Non-abiding

Engage in Self-Questioning. Examine your beliefs. Stay in the present, do not dwell in past experiences. Do not let things become routine. Engaging in Non-Dwelling practices can keep things fresh as they don’t give you anything to hold onto. Work with good friend who will point out where you are fooling yourself.

References

The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue 
Jeffery Broughton and Elsie Yoko Watanabe
Oxford University Press; Annotated edition (August 1, 2017)
ISBN: 0190664169

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji  with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Download pdf: here 
Purchase: here

Faith in Mind
Chan Master Sheng Yen
Shambhala (October 10, 2006)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1590303970

The Way of Liberation
Adyashanti
Open Gate Sangha; 1st edition (January 1, 2013)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1937195171

Awake: It’s Your Turn
Angelo Dilullo
SimplyAlwaysAwake.com (May 25, 2021)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1737212323

Online articles

Chan Practice of Non-abiding, Ven. Guo Xing

Inscriptions on Trust in Mind (Xin Xin Ming)

Calming and Contemplation part 3

by tendo zenji

Instructional Talks Downloads

December 10th, 2022
Non-Abiding: Instructional Talk

Non-Dwelling

While there is reason and value to dwell in emptiness, ever open, the essence of the awakened mind is Non-dwelling. Our normal view is from the self, we dwell in this sense of separateness, that we are this and everything else is that. The awakened mind is not in such a static viewpoint, it is the energetic, generative, continual transformation that is reality. In the midst of thought, no-thought. We can practice this in our sitting, but go beyond this to all our activities. In any action we aren’t attached to any particular view or outcome. Thus we are able to respond freely.

We can see how this is explained in core treatises and sutras below and how to engage in this as a practice in the next section. Do see the recorded talk for a detailed examination of all of this.

The “Treatise on Awakening of Faith” says, “If you would practice cessation, stay in a quiet place, sitting straight with proper attention; do not rely on the breath, do not rely on physical form, do not rely on space, do not rely on earth, water, fire, or air . . . do not rely on perception or discernment—dismiss all conceptions as they come to mind, and also dismiss the conception of dismissing. As all things are fundamentally without conception, instant to instant they are unborn, instant to instant unperishing. Nor should you pursue outside the mind to think about objects. Then dismiss mind by mind. If the mind races and scatters, you should concentrate and bring it back to right mindfulness.”” In the contemplation of there being only mind and consciousness, all delusions will naturally be transcended.” For ordinary people and beginning students false and true are not yet distinguished; the net of delusion enters the mind and fools the practitioner. Without an adept teacher to ask, they have nothing to rely on; they take the effects of the four demons to be the right path:” as days and months pass, over a long period of time, false views become so ingrained that even meeting with good conditions they become difficult to change; sinking in the ocean of suffering, there is no way of escape. You should look into this on your own part; do not allow a moment’s deviation. This teaching is as expounded in the “Treatise on Awakening of Faith.”

Entry Into the Inconceivable p. 164-5

The Diamond Sutra and Platform Sutra

Chapter 10

Therefore, Subhuti, fearless bodhisattvas should thus give birth to a thought that is not attached and not give birth to a thought attached to anything. They should not give birth to a thought attached to a sight. Nor should they give birth to a thought attached to a sound, a smell, a taste, a touch, or a dharma.

The Sixth Patriarch Sutra says, “Once, when the Fifth Patriarch was reading the Diamond Sutra, when he got to ‘They should give birth to a mind that isn’t attached to anything,’ the Sixth Patriarch (Hui-neng) was suddenly enlightened and said, ‘How could I have known my own nature was already pure? How could I have known my own nature was neither created nor destroyed? How could I have known my own nature was already perfect? How could I have known my own nature does not change?’ The Fifth Patriarch said, ‘Not to recognize your own mind is to study the Dharma to no avail. If, as I was speaking, you recognized your own mind and saw your own nature, you are a leader of men and gods.’”

Hui-neng says, “People who dwell on the sights they see and give birth to thoughts about sights are deluded. People who remain detached from the sights they see and do not give birth to thoughts about sights are awake. People who give birth to thoughts about sights are like a cloud-covered sky. People who do not give birth to thoughts about sights are like a cloudless sky where the sun and moon shine.”   

The Diamond Sutra translated by Red Pine(p. 149-151).

Platform Sutra

The scholar-monk Qisong (契嵩) also noted in his foreword of the Platform Sutra:

The formless is the essence. (無相為體 wúxiang wei ti)
Non-thought is the tenet. (無念為宗 wúnian wei zong)
Non-abiding is the fundamental. (無住為本 wúzhù wei ben)

Non-abiding leads to prajñā (wisdom), as it enables one to consider that worldly issues are empty, so there is no point in retaliation or disputes.

from the Wikipedia entry on Non-Abiding

Non-Dwelling practices

Practices success as Silent Illumination or Shikantaza when done correctly are non-dwelling practices. See this article from Dharma Drum on Non-Abiding which gets into Silent Illumination as a non-abiding practice: Non-Abiding

Ocean Seal Samadhi

Visualization practice for openness. We use the Ocean Seal Samadhi as a technique toward increasing openness. See part 1 for description and guided meditation in this technique. The essence here is to get a feel for increasing openness and to let go of the words and then the visualization. Once one is able to just allow oneself to open up, then you can move on to

Increasing openness 

We relax ourself, settle into sitting, settle into our breath, move into our bodies and increasingly open up. Any point that we find ourselves resting into a modality we let it go. In the chan understanding of this, we simply ‘put down’ any attempt to rest anywhere: in the breath, in the body, in thoughts, in feelings, eventually in openness itself. Put it down.

References

Entry Into the Inconceivable
An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism
by Thomas Cleary
University of Hawaii Press· Honolulu, 1983
ISBN 0-8248-0824-X

Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles
A Companion for Practice
Dream Mountain Press 2020

Diamond Sutra
translated by Bill Porter (Red Pine)
Counterpoint; Revised ed. edition (November 18, 2002)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1582432562

Platform Sutra
Hui-neng translated by Bill Porter (Red Pine)
Counterpoint (November 28, 2008)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1593761775


Calming and Contemplation part 2

by tendo zenji

Instructional Talks Downloads

November 12th, 2022
Cultivating Openness, Ocean Seal Samadhi: Instructional Talk
Ocean Seal Samadhi Guided Meditation: Guided Meditation

Contemplation

Align your mind

From a calm and focused mind we move into contemplation, the active work of the practice of engaging with what is actually happening. At this moment we are siting, calm and aware. In the contemplation that we are investigating here we are cultivating increasing openness, the active awareness that is the functional of reality as it is. This is development of the unified mind, that is empty of a sense of a separate self, but fully engage, fully aware.

Openness
Openness can’t be forced, you must ease into it naturally. We become increasingly open by cultivating the Still Pool and settling into awareness of our entire bodies. Then we can open up further by Listening, letting sounds in without discrimination, without placing attention on them. This brings our sense of awareness beyond ourselves.
Likewise the Gazing practices bring us to a place of greater and greater openness. Using the channels of eyes and ears and skillfully applying focus we become in tune with the landscape that is in our visual and auditory sensorium.
With practice we become increasingly open, open to sounds, sights, sensations, open to our bodies and surroundings, open to what is. By not chasing thoughts, by not naming or commenting upon what we see and hear, by not indulging in sensations, by not forcing everything into our story, we open even further and effortlessly remain open. Thoughts simply rise and fall uncommented upon and over time diminish. Our narrative fades and our sense of a separate self recedes. It is in this open condition, where we are mostly just a presence in landscape that are are in alignment with Empty Awareness. We find ourselves increasingly in tune with what is.

excerpt from Openness in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

Ocean Seal Samadhi 


The Ocean Seal Samadhi is a practice that was core to the Hua-yen school of Chinese Buddhism. Its orientation is toward totality viewed in a a holographic way of the complete interconnection and interpenetration of all phenomenon. This can be seen as complete openness.

The oceanic reflection concentration, or oceanic reflection of the interdependent origination of the universe, refers to the clear, mirror-like mind, like the placid ocean, reflecting everything at once. In this holistic awareness everything is part of everything else, so that when one is brought up all are included. The Ch’an master Matsu Daoyi likened this awareness to bathing in the ocean-at once using the waters of all tributa­ries. 

Entry into the Inconceivable p. 217

Ch’an Master Sheng Yen developed a visualization practice in an attempt to reconstruct the Ocean Seal Samadhi which is not described in practical terms in any Huayan texts. I had learned a variant of Sheng Yen’s method about a decade ago under the name ‘The Eye of the Tatagata.’ This name is apropos in that you are visualizing seeing as a Buddha sees, the totality of all things, which is the orientation of Hua-yen. This practice I further developed into a non visualization practice of ever increasing Openness, which is Non-Dwelling, practice that we will return to in Part 2 of this series.

I was reacquainted with the visualization practice, in it’s proper context via Guo Gu’s talk and practice on Hua-yen Buddhsim in his excellent 16 week class From Indian Buddhism to Chinese Ch’an. In his discussion of it he translated a more theoretical description of the practice from the primary Hua-yan patriarch Fazang. Guo Gu summazrizins the practice thusly: “The focus is on the interplay of the images on the surface of the ocean—the unobstructed interpenetration of each and every phenomenal reality, or shishi wuai.”

From Reflections on the Mind that Journeys throughout Huayan Dharmadhātu by Fazang 

It is like the reflection of the four divisions of a cakravartin’s troops on a vast ocean. Although the reflected images differ in kind, they suddenly appear simultaneously on [the surface of] the ocean in their proper order. Even though the appearances are many, the water [that reflects them] remains undisturbed. The images are indistinguishable from the water, and yet [the water] is calm and clear; the water is identical from the images, and yet [the images] are multifarious. Both are utterly clear without past and present, and it is difficult to fathom where one begins and the other ends. Abundant and profuse, [the images] are quiescent and formless—simultaneously and instantaneously manifesting. Appearing and disappearing—their forms are difficult to fathom; interfusing and mutually penetrating—they are without constraints. The images harmonize with each other where conceptualizations are extinguished. How can they be apprehended? According to the Avataṃsaka, “This is the inconceivable [realm of reality]; that which can be conceived of cannot be apprehended. To deeply enter the inconceivable is to contemplate the un-contemplatable quiescent extinction.”  

Fazang translated by Guo Gu

The above passage gets at the essentials of Hua-yan thought that you are visualizing in this It continues on to state: “The sūtra also discerns that it is called “ocean” because its various reflections multiply endlessly and their limit is impossible to fathom. To investigate one of them thoroughly is to pursue the infinite, for, in any one of them, all the rest vividly appear at the same time.” It is this, the investigation of the all in the one and one in the all that is the heart of the contemplation. Thus it extends the “Eye of the Tatagata” from one of completeness openness to totality, to the ramifications of this understanding of reality in which all phenomenon is embedded in all other phenonoment.,

For this reason, it is called, “ocean.” It is called “seal” because all the images appear simultaneously within it without distinction of past and present. The myriad diverse kinds [of images] penetrate each other without obstruction. The one and the many are reflected in one another without opposing each other.

Fazang translated by Guo Gu

The guided meditation above goes through the visualization technique of increasingly opening oneself up to totality. This technique takes a while to develop a feel for it and it is essential to develop that feel. For you want to be able to increasingly open up in this way without the need for the words to guide you and eventually without the visualization. An essential aspect of this, as with any of the openness techniques is to note the silence, the stillness that seems vibrant with energy. This is a living practice, engaging with the dynamic process of reality as it is.

References

Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles
A Companion for Practice
Dream Mountain Press 2020

Entry Into the Inconceivable
An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism
by Thomas Cleary
University of Hawaii Press· Honolulu, 1983
ISBN 0-8248-0824-X

How to Practice Zazen
Comments on the Zazengi
Mumon Yamada Roshi
Institute for Zen Studies; January 1, 1980
ASIN: B000VUMOZ8

Calming and Contemplation part 1

by tendo zenji

Instructional Talks Downloads

October 15th, 2022
Relaxation, Openness, Outside Practice: Instructional Talk

What is that we are doing when we are practicing? Mumon Roshi succinctly summarizes the aims of stillness-sitting thusly: align your body, align your breath, align your mind. In traditional Buddhism this is understood as Samatha-Vipassana or calming and contemplation. Let us consider this method of practice, which is the orientation of all Buddhist practice, from both of these categorizations.

Calming

In order to truly engage with the subjects of contemplation our minds must be settled. What is meant by a “settled mind?” This means that wandering thoughts have diminished to where they no longer are an issue. Thinking is what our brains do and at no point in the practice are we suppressing thoughts, or trying to stop this behavior. The almost random, brain driven thouights that come up when we are being still are know as scattered thoughts. If we purse these they are wandering thoughts This can be things like commenting on how things are going, what we will do later, dwelling on physical sensations and so on. Other forms of thoughts can be discursive where we analyze, plan and other types of reasoned through and narrative where we develop scattered thoughts into stories.

Align your body

We begin calming by aligning the body. This is our posture the physical form of our stillness-sitting. In Zen they say you have to “find your seat” which can take a long time to do. This is necessary for extended sitting but also applies in differing forms if we are walking, standing or sitting outside. There are many treatises on the physical aspects of sitting (see Mumon Roshi’s own in How to Practice Zazen) but the essence is:

Begin by sitting comfortably erect, back straight and naturally curved, eyes level, nose vertical, Chin tucked in. Shoulders should be slightly back, arms slightly open, hands resting in your lap.  Eyes should be just slightly open. Settle into your seat.

excerpt from Breath Guided Relaxation in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

Align your breath

From a solid foundation we already have begun to settle our minds. We settled into our bodies when we align them and what we mean we when say settle our minds is that our minds no longer feel separate from our bodies. We further this though the second part of Mumon Roshi’s tripartite practice.

We must be fully relaxed for our minds to truly settle and for us to truly “find our seat” Relaxation is the next step of the process. It settles us into our bodies, eases that duality between body and mind and prepares us to focus on our breath. The body scan method is the most effective way to search your body for tension and to let that tension go. There are numerous guided body scans one can find for this and in the guided meditation link here includes this before going into to it. Below is the essentials for the body scan, using our breath as a natural guide for letting go of tension.

Breath Guided Relaxation
For each breath we naturally exhale until we automatically inhale. There should be no effort involved. The breaths will naturally deepen and lengthen as we relax. As we exhale we slowly sweep our gaze from the current object downward as described.
Place your awareness on the top of your head and exhale, letting all tension go, sweeping down toward the eyes
Relax the eyes, paying attention to the space between the eyebrows, the eyelids and the eye sockets.
Sweep down the face, checks, up the jawline ending with a very slight smile on your lips.
Return your gaze to the top of your head and sweep down and back over your neck.
The shoulders can be especially tense, as you inhale your can deliberately increase this tension, slightly raising them up, them letting them relax as your gaze sweeps down shoulders toward your arms.
Let your awareness slide down your arms, elbow and hands.
Next we feel our inhale in the chest and sweep down to the abdomen, fully relaxing these muscles.
Then the back. Begin with the back of the shoulder blades and sweep down to the middle back.
Moving our gaze to the lower back, we relax down to the hips.
Continuing from the hips and slide your awareness down your legs, knees and feet.
Finally we we settle into our seat, exhaling from the top of our head down into our seat. Rooting ourself into the earth. Cultivating the Still Pool.

excerpt from Breath Guided Relaxation in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

It can take us quite a while to truly relax into our bodies. Our circumstances are such that we float through this world from our heads and there are many stressors and difficulties. It can be hard to relax. So in an extended period of stillness-sitting one many go through the body scan over and over again as one continues to feel tension and separateness. As the relaxation method presented is guided by the breath, one is engaging with this essential aspect of our beings to increase calming and the setting down of pursuing our scattered thoughts. To truly do so, we must begin to cultivate concentration through the practice of focus.

Focus
It is essential to be able to focus our awareness, to naturally let energy flow to a single point concentrating our minds. Through practice we can develop this skill which is the basis of so many methods.  
We begin as always by cultivating the Still Pool.  Shifting our awareness to our abdomen, feel the rise and fall of the breath. It is vital that this is the focus, that we remain alert and attentive to the breath moving through our bodies. Naturalness is equally essential: we don’t force the breath or by will attempt to control it.  Simply keep ones awareness directed toward the abdomen.  Thoughts may arise, note that and place awareness back on the breath. If we notice that have followed a thought for a period of time, we do not castigate ourselves, simply return our awareness to the breath.  If our thoughts are too scattered to stay with our breath in this manner we employ strategies that require ever more attention. Counting exhalations from one to ten is the most basic. We can increase the complexity of counting by counting by twos, by odd numbers, backwards and so on.  We do this to engage the conceptual mind until it settles down. Then we simply place our awareness on the rise and fall of the abdomen.

By doing this we build up the skills of noticing when we are unfocused, of placing our awareness without commentary and over time deep concentration.  These abilities will serve us well in other endeavors but is a practice that can be deeply pursued in its own right. 

excerpt from Focus in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

Contemplation

Align your mind

From a calm and focused mind we move into contemplation, the active work of the practice of engaging with what is actually happening. At this moment we are siting, calm and aware. In the contemplation that we are investigating here we are cultivating increasing openness, the active awareness that is the functional of reality as it is. This is development of the unified mind, that is empty of a sense of a separate self, but fully engage, fully aware.

Openness
Openness can’t be forced, you must ease into it naturally. We become increasingly open by cultivating the Still Pool and settling into awareness of our entire bodies. Then we can open up further by Listening, letting sounds in without discrimination, without placing attention on them. This brings our sense of awareness beyond ourselves.
Likewise the Gazing practices bring us to a place of greater and greater openness. Using the channels of eyes and ears and skillfully applying focus we become in tune with the landscape that is in our visual and auditory sensorium.
With practice we become increasingly open, open to sounds, sights, sensations, open to our bodies and surroundings, open to what is. By not chasing thoughts, by not naming or commenting upon what we see and hear, by not indulging in sensations, by not forcing everything into our story, we open even further and effortlessly remain open. Thoughts simply rise and fall uncommented upon and over time diminish. Our narrative fades and our sense of a separate self recedes. It is in this open condition, where we are mostly just a presence in landscape that are are in alignment with Empty Awareness. We find ourselves increasingly in tune with what is.

excerpt from Openness in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

Transitioning from focus into openness
In the same way that one can transition from the Still Pool into openness, one can move from focusing on the breath into openness. When we engage in a period of stillness-sitting we always begin by relaxing and settling into the Still Pool. Once settled we place our awareness on the abdomen as it rises and falls. If our minds are particularly scattered engage in the necessary counting practice. As it calms down we return our awareness to the abdomen, always focusing awareness there when we are distracted. As distractions fall away we simply increase the field of our awareness from the rise and fall of the abdomen to our entire bodies and from there to the experience of sitting, increasingly open. 

Every time that we engage in stillness-sitting we should transition into Openness. Until focus is deeply developed this might just be for short periods of time, as we return to the breath as we lose focus. But the practice of focus like all of the practices leads to increased Openness bringing us into alignment with what is.

excerpt from Focus in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

Cultivating Openness

There are myriad ways to cultivate openness, aligning ourselves with reality as it is. In these talks we are examine sitting, but also engaging with the wider world though outside practices. There are myriad outside practices, that both cultivate dwelling in openness and the non-dwelling that is the mind of empty awareness. These can be found in the Outside Practices text Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles and we will consider both sitting outside and a visualization technique for sitting here.

Sitting Outside
When out of doors we are naturally in our bodies, by being aware of our bodies, centering ourselves in the abdomen, rooting ourselves in the earth, breathing naturally, we can truly inhabit them. As we move amidst the natural environment with all of its continual change we can become increasingly aware of silence. Behind every sound, behind the incessant activity is a deep silence.  At twilight, when birds come to rest and people are generally not out and about, you can feel a hushed stillness, that points to a yet deeper silence.  Paying attention to these conditions facilitates seeing past the self.
When sitting out of doors our movement often noisy and careless, disturbs our surroundings. Stillness Sitting out of doors integrates us into the surroundings and the wildlife our rough behavior alienates will feel comfortable in our presence. Birds will fly right by, small mammal scurry right up to check us out, deep amble by unconcerned with our presence. As one’s stillness matures one becomes merely another feature of the landscape. We spend much of our lives distancing ourselves from our surroundings and in this way become a disturbance when we move through our environment. Being still outside teaches us how to naturally move through it.
When we are seated outside, or where we can see the outdoors, this is not an opportunity to ‘watch’ or to attach to additional stimulus. Gazing at what is in our field of view is not different from gazing at the floor in front of us. We engage in outdoor sitting in order to facilitate Empty Awareness.
Sit as you normally would, eyes mostly closed, gaze downward. Let the increased sounds of the outdoors flow through you. Let go of the environment and relax into awareness, cultivating the Still Pool. When thoughts have subsided open your eyes, fully utilizing your peripheral vision. There should be no distinction between them open and closed. The Still Pool, deeply clear, undisturbed by thought, sensations and feelings, brightly mirroring all that shines in.

excerpt from Being Outside in Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles

References

Dewdrops on Stinging Nettles
A Companion for Practice
Dream Mountain Press 2020

Entry Into the Inconceivable
An Introduction to Hua-yen Buddhism
by Thomas Cleary
University of Hawaii Press· Honolulu, 1983
ISBN 0-8248-0824-X

How to Practice Zazen
Comments on the Zazengi
Mumon Yamada Roshi
Institute for Zen Studies; January 1, 1980
ASIN: B000VUMOZ8

Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – 2021 Talks

by tendo zenji

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji
with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Download pdf: here
Purchase: here

Previous Talks

Part 1: Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks July-Oct. 2020

Part 2: Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks Oct/Nov 2020

Part 3: Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks Dec 2020

2021 Talks

22 ) January 10th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo visit
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 36-37 p. 88
The Middle Way between asceticism and hedonism is still pretty ascetic. How much deprivation is necessary? The text begins to really talk in a terms of these monks really going all out and becoming very harsh in their training.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 22

23 ) February 9th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo visit
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 38 p. 91-93
Toyo Eicho
Chan took on various Confucian and Taoist elements that the Japanese stripped out leading to a more simplified practice while adding in their own Shinto aspects. There also is a tendency toward order leading to a lack of flexibility and rigidity. In the west we also stripped out things and added our own character. These Japanese patriarchs were all about increasing the harshness and sacrificing our bodies. Contrasted this to Chan teachers where there was decades of innovation.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 23


24) March 9th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo visit
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 39 and 40  p. 93-95
Taiga Tankyo, Koho Genkun, Sensho Zuisho
Transmission in China and how Japan codified and shifted the system: more ceremonial, more bureaucratic, more rigid.  The skillful means of kindness v. the “samurai zen” style of Rinzai Zen.  Noted that while more kindness could be apropos there is one kinds that is not: giving people a pass, “helping” or “pushing” them through koans, not holding them to standards.  This decreases the fidelity of transmission and you won’t even have “half a dharma heir” much less a full one.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 24

25) March 16th, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 1
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 40 and 41  p. 95-98
Ian Chisatsu, Tozen Soshin, Yozan Keiyo, Gudo Toshoku
What should our orientation toward lineage, teachers, patriarchs, schools, form, etc be? Tools to be used and let go of; be wary of attachments in these areas! Quoted Krishnamurti on Truth is a Pathless land and Dahui on attaching to the sayings of the patriarchs.  Reading from the text there was talk of fidelity in transmission and the issue of teachers giving Inka to those not up to mettle. Teachers skill-in-means and style and finally our debt and gratitude toward teachers.  Avoid attachments but be thankful for the effort they put toward our training. This is how we should understand the lineage.
Jiddu Krishnamurti, Truth is a Pathless Land
Jeffery Broughton, The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue,  p. 64-65
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 25

26) March 17th, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 2
Chapter 1 – Lineage part 42, 43  p. 98-104
Shido Bunan, Shoju Rojin, Hakuin Ekaku, Torei Enji
Completed the Japanese lineage through Hakuin. All Rinzai Zen descends from Hakuin.  In this talk discussed all-at-once awakening and gradual refinement. which comes up throughout Torei and Daibi’s comments. Also Zongmi’s grounding things in the sutra’s, the multiple branches of Linji Chan, the Gozan School in Japan and the other 20 some lineages that died out. Hakuin stories and elucidations of Daibi’s comments. Ended with Not-knowing. Torei says he doesn’t know what is transmitted and of course this is because there is nothing to transmit. Nothing essential can be conceptualized or explained and thus in the end our practice is one of not-knowing.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 26


27) March 18th, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 3
Chapter 1 – Lineage Questions and Answers, part 48-50  p. 104-106
Considered the lineages in terms of societal impacts on Indian Buddhism as it transmitted: Chan being Chinese Buddhism, Zen being Japanese Chan. Read a quote from Harada Roshi on “Dojos” which talked about that Zen training monasteries are super rigid and the Japanese society informs that. On the text reading from the Q&A portion of chapter 1.  The question was on awakening and various barriers too same. Considered intellectual barriers and how the Chan approach is non-intellectual. Read from Dahui on intellectual barriers and how to practice. Talked of Gazing practices and taking the backward step.
Harada Roshi, On Dojos
Jeffery Broughton, The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue,  p. 64-65
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 27

28) March 19th, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 4
Chapter 1 – Lineage Questions and Answers, part 50-55  p. 106-110
Discussed how Zen Students in their more advanced practice needed to learn the sutra material. Note how it tallies with Chan teachings. Read from Zongmi’s Chan Prologmenon to this affect.
Jeffery Broughton, Zongmi on Chan
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 28


29) March 20th, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 5
Chapter 1 – Mantra school, part 56-63  p. 110-116
The Exoteric and Esoteric: there is nothing hidden in Chan or the Sutra schools. Related story of my learning Zazen thinking there was some secret to it, to be revealed at a temple. Not so. Western understandings of esotericism are as revealed word, secretive magic texts that can reveal it all. The Buddhist esoteric school is the Shingon sect, concluding with a comparison of Zen and the sutra schools noting that Zen teachings are indirect with layers of meaning. 
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 29


30) March 21st, 2021
Vernal Equinox Retreat day 6
Chapter 1 – Mantra school, part 63-64  p. 116-120
Nagarjuna, Huayan and Zen as the true Buddha way inlcluding a long digression of the mythical story of Nagarjuna receiving the Huayan scriptures with a look at this metaphorically.  I related this to the Diamond Sutra where there is great density and a lot to unpack. Layers of meaning and reference.  Daibi then considers this in Zen terms and this gets at the All at Once Awakening followed by Gradual Practice. Seeing into emptiness and then into form.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 30

31) April 10th, 2021
April Weekend Intensive
Chapter  1 – Mantra school, part 65-66  p. 121-123
Considered Rinzai Zen practice as engaged with right now. Differences between the Zen approach and the Sutra schools approach.  The essential aspect of seeing into ones own nature and the post awakening work. Becoming attached to the joy of awakening. Danger of post awakening reassertion  of self. Thus the gradual training though koans. See the moon directly.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 31


32) April 13th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter  1 – Zen  v. Sutra Schools, part 67-72  p. 123-130
More on the differences between the sutra schools and Zen. Zen is the path of seeing it directly, for yourself. The sutra schools are more religious, more ritual oriented, more indirect, they describe the waters qualities where zen just tastes the water. However the myriad paths fit different minds and so are necessary as a way in for all people. Metaphors from Torei about how one can talk about something versus actually having that thing.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 32


33) May 12th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter  1 – Zen  v. Sutra Schools, part 73-77  p. 130-134
Uses several analogies to expound on Flexibility,  responding to circumstances. This is the only way to be able to serve the multitude of differing beings.  This is difficult and we are always practicing and improving. The source is within.  Torei returns to Sutra Schools noting that while students in the past would also study Zen, now they are just mired in sectarianism. The sutra schools become corrupt and  lay people are more interested in practice than the  ordained.  But Lay people easily put on airs and to quickly think they are beyond where they are at. Not so different today!
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 33


34) May 29th, 2021
May Weekend Intensive Chapter  1 – Zen  v. Sutra Schools, part 78-83  p. 134-138
Some monks in sutra schools realized the “direct pointing”  and would practice Zen. Not anymore. People put on airs and think too much of little insight. You have to really do it go all the way. And Rinzai in the Hakuin style is all about breaking yourself at the wheel to do so. End of Chapter 1
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 34


35) June 8th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 84
Talked about Faith and that Trust is usually a better word. Talked a bit about ‘Great Faith, Great Determination, Great Doubt’. Read through the first part and discussed primarily the found erroneous views. Ultimately these all come down to mistaking ones own view for reality.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 35


36) June 8th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 85-87
Text was a long discourse on chiliocosms and other more abstract symbolic things from the Huayan sutra. I related this to our experience of time our relationship with infinities and seeing into emptyness and form.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 36


37) August 10th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 88-89
Talked about the connection between repentance and working on our conditioning, including societal and unconscious conditioning. I talked about Trust, Determination of Great Fury and Great Doubt. Primarily about Trust and Determination which the text covered.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 37


38) October 12th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 90-92
Talk on Faith, the text finally introduced faith.  Some reference to Great Trust, Great Determination, Great Doubt. Talk of the Xin Xin Ming, the Inscription on Faith in Mind.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 38

39) November 9th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 93
Sutra of Complete Enlightenment. All things express buddhahood. Seeking outside oneself. Following ones own path versus doing ones own thing.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 39


40) November 9th, 2021
Water Moon Dojo Visit
Chapter 2 – Faith and Training part 94  p.151-154
Trust in the process. Great Trust, Great Determination, Great Doubt. Prison Barrier. Daibi goes through 10 areas of trust.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 40

References

1) The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 1996)
ISBN: 0804830878
Download: here Purchase: here

2) The Letters of Chan Master Dahui Pujue
translated by Jeffery Broughton
Oxford University Press, 2017
ISBN: 0190664169

3) Zongmi on Chan
Jeffery Broughton
Columbia University Press
ISBN-10: ‎ 0231143923

4) Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings
Andy Ferguson.Wisdom Publications. Expanded edition (February 22, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9780861716173

5) Shattering the Great Doubt: the Chan Practice of Huatou
Ch’an Master Sheng YenShambhala, 2009
ASIN: B00C5KK738

6) The Chan Whip : A companion to Zen Practice
Jeffery L. Broughton with Elise Yoko Watanabe
Oxford University Press 2015 New York, NY
ISBN: 0190200723


Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks Dec 2020

by tendo zenji

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji
with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Download pdf: here
Purchase: here

For the 2020 Autumn Training period we are studying The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp by Torei zenji. This is primarily through dharma talks at sesshin and other opportunities held via Zoom due to the pandemic and thus are being recorded. Periodically these will be posted here along with the basic information on each talk and the material covered.

Previous Talks

Part 1: Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks July-Oct. 2020

Part 2: Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks Oct/Nov 2020


14) December 1st, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 1
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  16-17 p. 63-67
Northern and Southern Schools, Hui-neng, Nanyue. Considered myth, history, teaching value of archetypes. The archetype of the unlearned zen master. The teaching value of tearing down support.
this talk wasn’t recorded.

15) December 2nd, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 2
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  18-19 p. 67-71
Baizhang, Huangbo, Linji
Began by talking about Rohatsu and lineage, how the great effort is put into Rohatsu ala the historical Buddha. The debt owed to the lineage. Not worshiping the ancients but gratitude. Considered the Baizhang Monastic Regulations and sam and the great succession of Matsu, Baizhang, Huangbo and Linji. With the Linji note how essential his teachings are, both in how we function but also directly as koans. Read from the Linji Lu on the costume a teacher puts on and discussed his core teachings such guest and host, person of no-rank and so on.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 14

16) December 3rd, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 3
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  19-21 p. 71-73
Wrapped up Linji section and continued on with the lineage through Koke and Nanin. It is vital to grasp the importance that the Recorded sayings of Linji has to all of Chan and the very conception of Zen. Capped the Linji section with a selection from a Hisamatsu lecture on the True Person of No Rank.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 15

17) December 4th, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 4
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  23 & 24 p. 73-75
Sekiso Soen, Yogi Hoe
 Read Practicing Mu at 27 Degrees Below Zero ( Sheng Yen, Shattering the Great Doubt p. 98) and noted the privations and suffering in practice and how we have experienced that at Tahoma and Sogenji. Commitment can be simulated by a stressful schedule, giving one no choice. In a virtual sesshin, like all sesshin, that commitment has to be genuine. If one genuinely sits even for one sitting it is far more fruitful than hours of artificial commitment.  This lead into the text, where I read through the lineage so far with the Chinese names I had dug up (see here: Linji Lineage). Then read the entries on Sekiso Soen, Yogi Hoe. Sekiso Soen was the fellow who kept himself up stabbing himself with an awl. This story related in the Chan Whip inspired Hakuin to keep on the Zen path.  Yogi (Yangqi) was the founder of the two main lines of Linji Chan from Sekiso Soen. All Linji and thus Rinzai lines descend from him. Read a little from Zen’s Chinese Heritage on Yogi to flesh out his contributions to the line. Talked about the use of poetic language to arose some of the feelings that can arise from the ineffable. Concluded with an exhortation to sit severely and experience “The clear moon of the universe. The clear wave of the blue ocean.”
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 16

18) December 5th, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 5
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  25-28  p. 75-80
Haku’un (White Cloud), Goso Hoen, Engo Kokugon (BCR Biyan Lu)
This talk delved into mediation, the Social Construction of seeing past the self which is this construction. Mediation in texts and mediation in how the practice is done. At first it was direct, then it was increasingly mediated. That is at first teachers confronted students directly, then they began to use the words of previous teachers, then they collected those encounters and then we worked with those collections. In Japan this became systematized and further mediated.  Talks are on this past events and original nature is seen through that lens.Examined the three lineage holders concluding with Kokugon who was like a sleeping tiger, but beware of his claws and fangs. Noted that this is the way of a master, they may seem meek and compassionate but they are uncompromising where it counts. Pushing students toward awakening their commitment is total.  Zen in the west is often compromised, But our own commitment doesn’t have to be.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 17

19) December 5th, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 6
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  29, 30  p. 80-81
Kukyu Shoryu, Oan Donge, Mittan Kanketsu, Dahui, Huatou Chan. The literary period had another peak surrounding the development of the koan collections and Huatoa. Last real devices created. Looked at the mediation with Dahui though where Chan masters mostly reference older Chan Masters. How much more so today!  Considered the complicated issue of the lineage surround Kukyu Shoryu, Oan Donge, Mittan Kanketsu and Dahui. These students worked with teachers of multiple generations, Dahui had gotten “the robe” from Engo Kokugon and gave it to Oan for safekeeping and then allowed it to pass on to Mittan. Is there a straight lineage here? Does that even matter much. Considered Dahui and the impact of Huatoa.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 18

20) December 7th, 2020
Virtual Rohatsu day 7
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part  31 and 32 p. 82
Sogen Sogaku, Unman Fugan,  Kido Chigu
Spoke about the practice of Chan at this time and the next period. Gongfu, the dominance of Huatoa Chan. The importance of koans to Rinzai zen, this independent practice that can be carried from place to place. Read from the Chan whip an example of a monk going from place to place and working on huatoa.  Koans infuse the Torei text embedded in these stories and then the focus of later chapters.  The direct encounter with a master becomes one with a text. Completed the Chinese lineage with Sogen Sogaku, Unman Fugan and Kido Chigu.
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 19

21) December 19th, 2020
Virtual Solstice Observance
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 33-35 p. 82-88 Nanpo Jomyo (Daio Kokushi), Shuho Myosho (Daito Kokushi), Kanzen Egan
Enmity between the Tendai and Zen sects. Kokushi means National Teacher. Hanazono – retired emperor who found Shuho under the bridge and brought Kanzan back from the farm to lead Myoshin-ji.These three founded the bedrock of Rinzai Zen: Daitokuji, Myoshinji and the “retired emperor” Hanazono, the Rinzai University was named after. Shuho – Wrote a Koan collection of 120 koans that evolved into Entangling Vines. Entangling Vines – contains koans involving Nanpo, Shuho and Kanzan
Download talk: Discourse Talk part 20

References

1) The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 1996)
ISBN: 0804830878
Download: here Purchase: here

2) The Record of Linji: A New Translation Of The Linjilu In The Light Of Ten Japanese Zen Commentaries
by Jeffrey L. Broughton
Oxford University Press, USA; (December 11, 2012)
ISBN: 0199936439

3) Critical Sermons of the Zen Tradition: Hisamatsu’s Talks on Linji
Edited by Christopher Ives and Tokiwa Gishin
Univ of Hawaii Press (January 1, 2002)
ISBN:  0824823842

4) Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings
Andy Ferguson.Wisdom Publications. Expanded edition (February 22, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9780861716173

5) Shattering the Great Doubt: the Chan Practice of Huatou
Ch’an Master Sheng YenShambhala, 2009
ASIN: B00C5KK738

6) The Chan Whip : A companion to Zen Practice
Jeffery L. Broughton with Elise Yoko Watanabe
Oxford University Press 2015 New York, NY
ISBN: 0190200723


Standing in Our Own Way

by tendo zenji

[Download or Listen to this talk: Standing in Our Own Way]

In our study of the lineage from Torei Zenji’s Record of the Transmission of the Lamp we are following a thread of men who have broken through to their original nature and then continued with the practice deepening and maturing. This presents to us the essence of the Buddhism of Zen, that is awakening to our Original Nature. This is continuously emphasized in Rinzai Zen where the talks, interviews and constant exhortations are to see past our small selves and confront reality as it is. Other approaches and sects have come to downplay awakening, to focus on other aspects of the practice. But it is the case that all methods, in fact practice itself, are merely upaya, skillful means, to assist us in this endeavor. To quote Dahui  “...in investigating the ultimate principle take awakening as the standard.” (Letters of Dahui, p. 288)

This continual exhortation toward awakening can create its own barrier.  That is it gets entangled in our egos and becomes reified.  “Break through” becomes an object that one must attain, an object to seek after, grasp and hold onto. The self employs many strategies in order to hold on and seeking after this shiny object in order to become an awakened ego is a prime example. Think of all the glory and benefits of being able to casually drop into idle Zen chatter ones attainment.  Then at other times it turns it around and rejects it.  “It ain’t no thing”, “it’s overblown,” “this is all just old talk” and so on. One can become sullen about the whole thing, one can rationalize it claiming that “I’m just here for the samdahi, resting in emptiness is TRUE meditation” and on and on.

Hearing other peoples stories can inspire us or it can be disheartening. It’s one thing to hear about great Chan masters one after the other “crushing samsara,”  but as the years add up knowing that there are those who have had insight or deeper insights or more insights can lead to these negative thoughts.  There is always something more, some reason for our selves to use to desperately hold on.  But the question comes up again and again is why do some practitioners “break through” and others do not? The canonical answer would be that the causes and conditions are not ripe. We can’t of course really know for any given individual what the causes and conditions for awakening are, but there are some features that crop up again and again.

Read the rest of this entry »

Wayseeking Mind

by tendo zenji

What is it that draws us to practice and why does it seem to be more effective for some and not others? No-knowing is the only answer to that. There is a long history of trying to understand and explain these questions but it is pretty hard to say there has been any definitive answer. I certainly don’t have one. When one considers those who have traversed the path and plumbed the depths there are some salient features.  Deep commitment, deep questioning and a certain flavor of skepticism. And yet there are so many outliers that it becomes difficult to make any claims of universality.  In the role that I find myself in these days, I am periodically asked questions that boil down to “why hasn’t this worked?”  No-knowing is the only honest answer. Sure one can suggest techniques, or practices, or even bodies of teachings, or one can point towards degrees of commitment, or issues of the self or various other blockages. But in the end there is only no-knowing.  

Whenever any of us on the path speaks about such matters it is incumbent upon us to speak within our experience.  If we stay within our experience we can provide some insight to others that are on the path.  Everybody’s path is unique, but again there are these commonalities.  One of these commonalities is what I’m going to refer to as Wayseeking Mind.  That combination of determined questioning and skepticism is how I’m defining Wayseeking Mind.  Many of those who have followed to the path to its outer reaches have this quality.  Following my own advice I’m going to speak about this in terms of my own experiences, which are certainly limited, but give an example of Wayseeking mind—but only only one man’s path, no claims of universality or even utility here. 

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Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp – Talks Oct/Nov 2020

by tendo zenji

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji
with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Download pdf: here
Purchase: here

For the 2020 Autumn Training period we are studying The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp by Torei zenji. This is primarily through dharma talks at sesshin and similar opportunities but also through a number of planned open discussions. All of these talks and discussion will be held via Zoom due to the pandemic and thus can be recorded. Periodically these will be posted here along with the basic information on each talk and the material covered.

The first series of talks from July through September 2020 can be found here:
Discourse Talks July-Sept.

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
October and November 2020 Dharma Talks

9) October 13th, 2020
Reading for the monthly Virtual Watermoon Dojo gathering
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 7 & 8 p. 46 to 48
Discussed the value of knowing the ideas and history of early buddhism as well as the risks of attaching to these notions. As always it is a middle way. We don’t wish to wallow in this kind of material and in many ways it is immaterial to the direct practice. The issue of the self and how our orientation to practice needs to be for awakening for all things and not toward the self. Where traces of the self remain.
Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 9

10) October 16th, 2020
October Virtual KoSesshin day 1
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 9, 10 and 11 (Torei Only) p. 49 to 54
Spoke about the Prajna Paramita, the wisdom of emptiness. Talked about how there is this view from Torei and Daibi that you can look at the evolution of the Buddhist teachings as the course a practitioner takes: begins selfishly, sees into imperamance, needs encouragement, sees into emptiness then buddha nature.Talked a lot about teaching to mixed audiences, about the mythological “buddha eye” how to reach the whole audience in the teacher. Exposed teaching device of generalities and admonitions to practice. Talked about working one on one with a student giving them what they need. This can be seen as medicine for some simply expressing Buddhanature like in the Flower Sutra can suffice.
Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 10

11) October 17th, 2020
October Virtual KoSesshin day 2
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 11 – 13 p. 54 to 59
So this was on the Flower Sutra, transmission, working with koans, koan checking questions and so on. Embodying realization, seeing into original nature and working through the entire koan curriculum. The point of transmission is to know that a teacher has gone through this process. Working with the teacher in sanzen. Don’t attach to these talks.
Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 11

12) October 18th, 2020
October Virtual KoSesshin day 3
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 11, 12 & 13 p. 54 to 57
This talk is a condensed version of the previous talk coverage the same sections of the text. It was for a slightly different audience and is shorter thus more compressed. While there is some variance in examples and emphasis if one has listened to the previous it can be skipped.
Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 12

13) November 19th, 2020
Virtual WMD Visit
Continued Chapter 1 – Lineage part 14&15 p. 57 – 63
Concluded the Indian Lineage, Bodhidharma, 1-5 patriarchs, Hui-neng
Noted that the Indian lineage is largely mythological. Discussed the mythologies around Bodhidharma including martial arts and Qi Gong. Talked about Qi in Chan. The story with Hui’ko and commitment and also the mythological aspects. Discussed the self, the utility value of the self and not identifying with it. Some discussion of Sosan Kanchi and the lack of historical reference.  Chan teaching as about removal and the use of the historical record to remove supports.  What remains.
Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 13

References

1) The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 1996)
ISBN: 0804830878
Download: here Purchase: here

2) Zen’s Chinese Heritage: The Masters and Their Teachings
Andy Ferguson.
Wisdom Publications. Expanded edition (February 22, 2011)
ISBN-10: 9780861716173


Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp

by tendo zenji

The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji
with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Download pdf: here
Purchase: here

For the 2020 Autumn Training period we are studying The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp by Torei zenji. This is primarily be through dharma talks at sesshin and other opportunities but also through a number of planned open discussions. All of these talks and discussion will be held via Zoom due to the pandemic and thus can be recorded. Periodically these will be posted here along with the basic information on each talk and the material covered.


1) August 10th, 2020 
Talk for the monthly Virtual Watermoon Dojo gathering
Read through the Forward by Myokkyo-ni of the London Zen Centre
and the Forward by Master Daibi
Began the Preface by Torei Enji reading the initial comments by Daibi
Discussed the translation, which is basically an amateur production with some questionable choices. This is especially seen in the choice to unformly render  心 (hsin/shin) as Heart. As David Hinton notes while there is no distinction in classical Chinese between Heart and Mind it should almost universally be translated as mind as it refers to the mind empty of all conceptual content, not specially the emotional content that just using heart implies.

“…in Ch’an 心 should almost always be translated as “mind” because the emphasis is on consciousness empty of all contents, rather than emotions.”

David Hinton, China Root, p. 140

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 1


2) Sept 15th, 2020
Reading for the monthly Virtual Watermoon Dojo gathering
Continued Preface by Torei Enji  & Master Daibi, p, 12-18
In the preface Torei somewhat obliquely describes the content of the ten sections of the book, which Daibi much more explicitly lays out at length.  Topics that come back throughout I discussed as embodying realization, bringing our practice off the cushion. Discussed ‘Great faith,  Great determination, Great Doubt’ as how this wasn’t an ideological stance but and actual description of the practice of working with Huatoa (Jp: Wato)

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 2

3) Sept 22nd, 2020
Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 1
Reintroduced the text and the plan for reading it this autumn. Reiterated the  Heart/Mind translation issue and read a bio of Torei Enji from Zen Masters of Japan by Richard McDaniel (p. 254-6, 259-60)
Began Preface by Torei Enji  & Master Daibi
Only made it through the first part where Daibi goes over the ten sections.
Bio Notes
Note that Gasan Jito was a Dharma heir of Torei Enji though he began with Hakuin. Torei became abbott of Rutaku-ji – the Japanese monastery of the lineage I ordained in which has life-sized statues of Hakuin and Torei in their ancestor hall. Consider Torei’s dedication to his Great Vow even beyond death.

Preface Notes
The preface briefly summarizes the ten sections of the book and noted its emphasis on embodying our realization. This is the fundamental orientation of Mahayana Buddhism. 

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 3


4) Sept 23rd, 2020
Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 2
Preface part 2 to p. 21Continued Preface by Torei Enji  & Master Daibi Discussed zeal, Great faith, Great determination, Great doubt similarly to as before: that is as an actual practice technique.  Torei goes through Koan study, advanced practice and maturity in the text, in the sections that we read about. Some of the fundamentals of Linji and Rinzai practice such as All at once awakening vs. Step by Step practice and how those are used together.
Advanced Practice – Nanto Koans and the final koans one does after completing the regular koan curriculum.

Different teaching lines appear to use it in different ways. Some employ it from the early stages of koan training, combining Kattōshū koans with those from better-known works like the Wumen guan [Gateless barrier], Biyan lu [Blue cliff record], and the Linji lu [Record of Linji]. Others use it at a more advanced stage, subsequent to work with the other koan collections. According to monastic friends who have worked extensively with the Kattōshū as an advanced-level text, the emphasis—even more than in the other collections is on eliminating the last attachments to dualistic thought. The koans are thus often approached in ways quite unexpected even to experienced Zen students. As one monastic friend commented, “If there’s anything you can say about the Kattōshū koans, it’s that your first response is certain to be wrong.”

Entangling Vines by Thomas Yuho Kirchner

On Advanced practice and maturity, note his use of the Prison Barrier which I first read of in Sheng Yen. In Ch’an they saw three stages in practice: the initial barrier, the multiple barriers and finally the prison barrier where the last vestiges of self are let go of. Very few get past the prison barrier.

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 4

5) Sept 24th, 2020
Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 3
Finished Preface (p.21-26) and Started Introduction (27-32) by Torei Enji & Master Daibi 

Some Notes
Strength of breakthrough – noted how depth of awakening clears away more conditioning and gives us strength.

Long Maturation — Very few get past the prison barrier, even less engaging in the Long Maturation. This is ‘returning to the Village with helping hands. Traditionally this would be the 30 years after enlightenment. Daito Kokusho in the example is from our opening chant.  There have been many masters who worked with people, became doctors, lived with the homeless, and so forth.  This is where you hone and mature your practice in the real world. You practice responding to all circumstances until this is your natural way of being. Rarely done now anywhere.

Transmission – Benefiting all beings is our great vow.  While we can help people in the relative, the ultimate way that we help all beings is through helping them reach liberation. This is why we vow to liberate all beings, even though as the Diamond Sutra states there are no beings to liberate and nothing to be liberated from. Transmission is this process in action.  A teacher has done everything they possibly can to support a student in reaching this liberation and then certifies them to do the same. This is Turning the Wheel of Dharma.

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 5


6) Sept 25th, 2020
Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 4
Concluded Introduction (pp.27-32) and began Ch. 1 by Torei Enji & Master Daibi 

Introduction
The call to hermitage and polishing our insights. Talked about austerities and renunciation that renunciation is an important practice that it can be taken too far as Torei did causing physical injury

Chapter 1 – Lineage
Discussed words and their potential for hindrance and help. That they never get at reality. That there is always at least two meanings in a masters words.

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 6

7) Sept 26th, 2020
Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 5
Chapter 1  p. 36 to p.42. Torei ended partway into section 6 – Four Noble Truths, Chain of dependent origination
Talked about words and their dual nature. That they never can get at it, yet it is all we have.

“Words, words! They’re all we have to go on”

Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.


Chapter one goes through the lineage, began history of the buddha and his teachings. These are the foundations of Buddhism and understanding the original teachings allows you to better understand the Mahayana which gives the proper orientation for Ch’a and Zen.

Download Audio: Discourse Talk Part 7


7) Sept 76th, 2020
Zazenkai / Autumnal Equinox Virtual Sesshin Dharma Talk 6
Chapter 1  p. 42-46. through part 6, Chain of dependent origination and Prajna Paramita
Also read this note from the editors that talked about the practitioners of greater and less abilities. It noted this was the heart of the so called Northern and Southern school splits. This is a way of looking at that that I hadn’t considered.  But it makes sense, for the practitioners of great ability the sudden teachings are efficacious, for those of lesser the gradual.  Read from Hui Neng on people who learn “fast or slow” and how Linji tackled students of different abilities.

The Master told Chih-ch’eng, “I’ve heard that when your Zen master teaches people, he only gives instruction in morality, meditation, and wisdom. Tell me, what does your master teach people about morality, meditation, and wisdom?”
Chih-ch’eng said, “Concerning morality, meditation, and wisdom, Master Shen-hsiu says not committing evil is morality, doing good is wisdom, and purifying one’s thoughts is meditation. This is what he means by ‘morality, meditation, and wisdom.’ This is his explanation. What is the Master’s view?”
Hui-neng replied, “This explanation is wonderful, but my view is different.”
Chih-ch’eng asked, “How is it different?”
Hui-neng replied, “Understanding can be fast or slow.”
Chih-ch’eng then asked the Master to explain his view of morality, meditation, and wisdom.
The Master said, “Listen to my explanation, and you’ll see how I view them. When the land of your mind is free of error, this is the morality of your own nature. When the land of your mind is free of confusion, this is the meditation of your own nature. When the land of your mind is free of ignorance, this is the wisdom of your own nature.”
The Master continued, “The morality, meditation, and wisdom of your master are intended for small-minded people. My morality, meditation, and wisdom are intended for people of bigger minds. Once people realize their own nature, they don’t differentiate between morality, meditation, and wisdom.”
Chih-ch’eng said, “Could the Master please explain why they aren’t differentiated?” The Master said, “Our nature is free of error, free of confusion, and free of ignorance. Prajna shines in every thought and is forever free of attributes. What is there to differentiate? Our nature is something we cultivate directly. It doesn’t have any intervening stages, so we don’t differentiate any.”
Chih-ch’eng bowed and did not leave Tsaohsi Mountain. He became a disciple and was never far from the Master’s side.

Red Pine. The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-nen

(Note: failed to record this talk)

References

1) The Discourse on the Inexhaustible Lamp of the Zen School
by Zen Master Torei Enji with Commentary by Master Daibi of Unman
Translated by Yoko Okuda
Tuttle Publishing (September 15, 1996)
ISBN: 0804830878
Download: here Purchase: here

2) The Platform Sutra: The Zen Teaching of Hui-neng
Hui Neng, translated by Red Pine
Counterpoint (November 28, 2008)
ISBN: 1593761775

3) Zen Masters of Japan: The Second Step East
by Richard McDaniel
Publisher : Tuttle Publishing (November 1, 2016)
ISBN: 0804847975

4) Entangling Vines: A Classic Collection of Zen Koans
by Thomas Yuho Kirchner
Wisdom Publications; Annotated Edition (June 11, 2019)
ISBN: 1614296154

5) China Root: Taoism, Ch’an and Original Zen
David Hinton
Publisher : Shambhala (September 29, 2020)
ISBN: 1611807131