Amazing Living Beings
Jikoji March 11, 2017
Today I would like to speak to and with you about one of Hongzhi’s Practice Instructions from Cultivating the Empty Field, the Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi.
As a refresher, Hongzhi is our 12th century ancestor who also taught at Tiantong Monastery, the same place Dogen’s teacher, Tiantong Rujng, taught. It is where Dogen awakened to his question of why practice if we are already enlightened. (Practice-Realization) The title of the Practice Instruction is “The Amazing Living Beings.”
As we go through this text be aware of Hongzhi’s teaching style that is similar to Dogen. That is, within the same sentence Hongzhi will present both relative and absolute images. It is up to us to discern his references. Let’s read it through.
“The Amazing Living Beings
Our house is a single field, clean, vast, and lustrous, clearly self-illuminated. When the spirit is vacant without conditions, when awareness is serene without cogitation, then buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear transforming the world. Amid living beings is the original place of nirvana. How amazing it is that all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity. In darkness unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow. One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of kalpas. Radiant and clear white, [the single field] cannot be diverted or altered in the three times; the four elements cannot modify it. Solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times, as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation’s mother. This realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings, all appearances merely this [field’s] shadows. Truly embody this reality.”
What initially caught my attention about this practice instruction is the title. We have been studying Norman Fischer’s book on cultivating compassion through Lojong practices. His preliminaries include becoming aware of the preciousness of our human life, particularly in its relationship to other beings, insects, birds, fish, and bacteria. So, it’s important to listen to Hongzhi and hear why he thinks living beings are so amazing.
In looking into the first sentence, “Our house is a single field, clean, vast, and lustrous, clearly self-illuminated.” Can you determine what Hongzhi is referring to in his terminology of “house”?
How is it, “When the spirit is vacant without conditions, when awareness is serene without cogitation, then buddhas and ancestors appear and disappear transforming the world. Cogitation – concerted thought or reflection.
In the next line Hongzhi states a fact: Amid living beings is the original place of nirvana.”
Why is it that …”all people have this but cannot polish it into bright clarity.” Could it be most people are first not informed of Buddha Nature, secondly, not aware of how to enter (in Buddhism we have practices to aid us in entering the path). What kinds of practices help us enter? Meditation, chanting, bowing, following the precepts, mindfulness practice are examples. In our compassion training, we encountered several slogans that could help:
See everything as a dream.
Examine the nature of awareness.
Do not get stuck on peace.
Rest in the openness of mind. (zazen, not thinking) formal meditation
Post meditation be a child of illusion. (emphasis on everyday living to awaken) present with what is arising RIGHT NOW. Childlike innocence about the world transfused with LOVE, happiness is possible in our everyday life. There is a freshness from a child’s perspective that can help us free ourselves from habitual ways of seeing and experiencing our world. We need to drop our autopilot and breathe, smell the roses, see the greenness of the grass, the blossoms on the trees, the movement of the clouds. Listen to the sounds of nature, of the voices on the street.
The phrase “…cannot polish it into bright clarity” is also a reference to a famous story of a Mazu polishing a stone to make a mirror, with the teacher Nanyue saying how can you become a Buddha (aka enlightened) by sitting in meditation?
“In darkness unawakened, they make foolishness cover their wisdom and overflow”. What clues for the absolute are present in this sentence? What is the “foolishness” referring to? What is “overflow?”
Hongzhi gives us hope with the next sentence, “One remembrance of illumination can break through and leap out of the dust of kalpas.
Illumination = insight Hongzhi is the ‘Silent illumination” teacher.
Hongzhi is most kind in his next sentence, “Radiant and clear white, [the single field] cannot be diverted or altered in the three times [past, present, future]; the four elements cannot modify it.” What are the Three times?, the four elements? Why cannot they not modify it?
Solitary glory is deeply preserved, enduring throughout ancient and present times, as the merging of sameness and difference becomes the entire creation’s mother. We have a wonderful chant, Sandokai, that is the Merging of Difference and Sameness. Do you understand the teaching here?
Just to be clear, Hongzhi spells it out with the next sentence, “This realm manifests the energy of the many thousands of beings, all appearances merely this [field’s] shadows.” Here the interplay of relative and absolute is clear. Out of emptiness, comes the 10,000 things.
And now, his final instruction, “Truly embody this reality.” How do we embody this reality? Please share your experiences.
Thank you.