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Silent Illumination: a Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening / Guo Gu

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Silent Illumination: a Chan Buddhist Path to Natural Awakening / Guo Gu Shambhala Publications, Inc. 4720 Walnut Street Boulder, Colorado 80301 www.shambhala.com © 2021 by Guo Gu (Jimmy Yu) Cover art: Blue Collectors (Stocksy) Cover design: Daniel Urban-Brown Interior design: Gopa & Ted2, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information please visit www.shambhala.com. Shambhala Publications is distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House, Inc., and its subsidiaries. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Names: Yu, Jimmy, 1968– author. | Zhengjue, 1091–1157. Works. Selections. English. Title: Silent illumination: a chan Buddhist path to natural awakening / Guo Gu. Description: First edition. | Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020013805 | ISBN 9781611808728 (trade paperback) eISBN 9780834843493 Subjects: LCSH: Enlightenment (Zen Buddhism)—Early works to 1800. | Meditation —Zen Buddhism—Early works to 1800. | Zhengjue, 1091–1157. Classification: LCC BQ9288.Y8 2021 | DDC 294.3/4435—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013805 a_prh_5.6.1_c0_r0 CONTENTS Preface Part One: Silent Illumination 1. A Parable for Silent Illumination 2. Starting from Where We Are 3. The Underlying Feeling Tones 4. Supporting Attitudes to Cultivate 5. Meditation 6. Approaches to Silent Illumination 7. Caveats and Pitfalls Part Two: Commentaries 8. The Vacant Field 9. The Investigation 10. Multitasking Part Three: Translations 11. Hongzhi’s Collected Writings on Silent Illumination Notes Index Email Sign-Up PREFACE THE EVER-EXPANDING number of books in English on Buddhism and mindfulness are shaping the way we talk about meditation. This phenomenon is a real testament to the ways in which people everywhere are increasingly recognizing the benefits of meditation. However, the majority of these publications reveal more about Western ideas about spiritual well-being than the core teachings of buddhadharma: genuine awakening and liberation from suffering. Chan Buddhism clarifies what awakening is and shows how to transform everyday experiences into the path. Distilled from centuries of development, Chan is the culmination and fulfillment of the Buddha’s original message. However, the essence of Chan is largely absent from existing publications on Buddhism in the West, and this is especially true of the teaching on silent illumination. The term chan comes from the Sanskrit word for meditation— dhyana—but in our tradition, the same word has evolved to include the realization of awakening to our true nature: our buddha-nature. The teaching on silent illumination, or mozhao, as it is called in Chinese, is both a metaphor for this awakened nature and the principle behind meditation practice. The central tenet of Chan is that we are already free. It is only through our self-referential grasping and rejecting that our natural awakened nature is concealed. To practice Chan is to engage with the complexity of daily life in order to expose the places where we are stuck and, by working through and letting go of them, reveal this true nature. Some years ago, my teacher, the late master Sheng Yen (1931– 2009), published an introductory book devoted to silent illumination, The Method of No Method, based on his commentary to Master Hongzhi Zhengjue’s (1091–1157) teachings. I translated several excerpts from Hongzhi’s discourse records, helped to edit the book, and prepared it for publication. The present volume is an in- depth teaching on silent illumination and contains my own revised translations and commentary on Hongzhi’s text. The aims of this book are, first, to establish silent illumination squarely within the Mahayana Buddhist traditions. Second, to offer detailed instructions for establishing a foundation for realizing silent illumination. Third, to offer quality translations of Hongzhi’s poetic writings on silent illumination. My comments on Hongzhi’s writing aim to clarify any confusion practitioners might have about silent illumination, its breadth, depth, and perfection in seated meditation and in daily life. The book is divided into three sections. Part One spells out the significance of silent illumination, the cultivation of correct attitudes, and the methods of practice. Part Two includes my commentaries on three specific teachings by Hongzhi, detailing pre- and post- awakening practices. Part Three includes running translations of twenty-five excerpts from Hongzhi’s collected writings. This book is the result of many people’s efforts. Special thanks to Julie Myosen Sprott, who transcribed all the talks diligently, and Sandra Fiegehen, who carefully organized the transcripts and gave the first pass at editing the transcripts. She made many editorial suggestions. I would also like to thank Liz Shaw and John Golebiewski at Shambhala as well as the developmental editor, Vanessa Zuisei Goddard. They made this book a reality. Finally, my gratitude to Chan Master Hongzhi, whose silent illumination teaching exemplifies the perfection of the Chan Buddhist path to natural awakening. I dedicate this book to my teacher, Master Sheng Yen. And to all of you who are holding this book in your hands, may it be your close companion on the path of awakening. May you live freely and share with all beings the wisdom and compassion of silent illumination. Guo Gu February 2020 PART ONE Silent Illumination 1. A PARABLE FOR SILENT ILLUMINATION THERE IS a wonderful Buddhist parable of a group of blind men who are trying to fathom the nature of an elephant. Each of the men touches a different part of the elephant and then makes a pronouncement about his conclusion. The first man touches its tusk and says that an elephant is like a long, hard white radish. The next man touches its ear and concludes that an elephant is like a winnowing basket. The man who touches its head says that it is like a boulder; the one who touches its trunk says it is like a pillar; the one who touches its belly says that it is like a large urn; the one who touches its tail says that an elephant is like a rope, and so on.1 Each of the men has his own idea of what an elephant is based on his limited experience. This parable is from the Mahaparinirvana-sutra, and the elephant here is an analogy for buddha-nature, the original and natural awakening within all of us. However, because of our blindness and limited perspective, we only understand and manifest that awakening partially and imperfectly. Thus, we need to find ways, principles, and methods of practice to reveal our true nature. Buddha-nature, our natural awakened nature, is really another word for silent illumination (mozhao). Yet, many misunderstand it as an exclusive meditation method of certain sects within the Chan tradition and say that it was advocated only by Chan master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157). But silent illumination cannot be claimed by any one tradition within Mahayana Buddhism, and it is not a fixed meditation method. Hongzhi, a child prodigy who at age five had already memorized the four classic books of Confucianism (Great Learning, The Doctrine of the Mean, Analects, and Mencius) was a gifted teacher. His masterful command of the Chinese language, and his fondness for poetry in particular, is evident in the poetic imagery he used to describe silent illumination, whose qualities are freedom, openness, and clarity. In other words, for him silent illumination was awakening; he never presented it as a “method” or “technique” for meditation practice. In staying true to Hongzhi’s description of silent illumination, I present it in this book as natural awakening accessible to everyone, right here and now. SILENT ILLUMINATION AS NATURAL AWAKENING Natural awakening is inherent within everyone—it is not something produced through practice. Hongzhi eloquently described it as the “vacant and open field,” the “lucid lake,” our “original home.” The point of Chan practice, then, is to regain our original freedom by clearing away our emotional afflictions and negative habitual patterns (i.e., craving, aversion, and ignorance and our tendency to perpetuate them), the accumulation of which have concealed who we are: It [silent illumination] cannot be practiced nor actualized because it is something intrinsically full and complete. Others cannot defile it; it is thoroughly pure to its depth. Precisely at the place where purity is full and complete is where you must open your eyes and recognize it. When illumination is thorough, [self] is relinquished completely —when experiencing is clear, your steps are then solid and grounded.2 Elsewhere he states: The correct way of practice is to simply sit in stillness and silently investigate; deep down one reaches a state where externally one is no longer swayed by causes and conditions. The mind being empty, it is all-embracing; its luminosity being wondrous, it is precisely apt and impartial.3 Chan practice is about investigating our intrinsic awakened nature. It requires us to remove the obscurations—self-attachment and all of its emotional afflictions and negative habitual patterns—that conceal our inherent freedom so we can express it in the midst of daily life. The transliteration of the Chinese characters Hongzhi used for “investigation” are jiu and can. Both have the meaning of “partaking,” “integrating,” and “thoroughly penetrating.” Sometimes he combined the word investigation with the term ti, which means “embodiment” or “experiencing.” For Hongzhi, investigation is not an intellectual process but embodied, actualized, and lived experiencing. Thus, while silent illumination as our original awakened nature “is something intrinsically full and complete,” we must personally recognize and live it. “Silence” is the metaphor for the wisdom of emptiness. So are quiescence, formlessness, spaciousness, stillness. These are all Hongzhi’s poetic terms for the Mahayana teaching of selflessness. “Illumination” refers to the wondrous activity of this selfless wisdom that, in Buddhism, is none other than compassion.
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