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Reader on Shikantaza Roshi Joan Halifax 1 READER ON SHIKANTAZA ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX “All Buddhas and every Ancestor without exception arrive at this refuge where the three times cease and the ten thousand changes are silent. Not one single atom opposes us. Behold the gleaming arising from the single mind.” Hongzhi PART I: Zen Master Hongzhi Zhengjue (A.D.1091-1157) and Silent Illumination PART II: Talks by Zen Masters Uchiyama, Okumura, Loori, Shen-yen PART III: Zen Master Dogen Reader on Shikantaza Upaya Zen Center Santa Fe 2 Dear Friends, It is of questionable value to ask you to read these venerable texts about something that is “beyond thinking.” But I have compiled this reader for those of us who enjoy the encouragement and discoveries of great practitioners. Bodhidharma “discovered” shikantaza as he sat for nine years facing the wall of his cave at the back of abandoned Shaolin Monastery. Zen Masters Hongzhi and Dogen established shikantaza firmly in our lineage eight hundred years ago. Since then millions have practiced “just sitting”, but who has realized this subtle and wonderful practice? Shikantaza, or just sitting, is the most direct of practices in all of Buddhism. It is the method of no-method, and invites us to just sit in stillness and openness, perceiving things simply and directly as they are, without engaging in thought, including thoughts of motivation. An approach that requires no mediation of technique, shikantaza is a fully embodied and wholehearted practice that is direct, intimate, and uncontrived. Great teachers have expounded richly on shikantaza, but in the end and in the beginning, it is really up to you and to me to “just sit.” The words, both written and thought, have to drop away sooner or later. As you practice, you are invited to relax. These readings are a resource. They are not the source. You may realize the source if you “just sit.” Two hands together, Roshi Joan 3 PART I: Zen Master Hongzhi Zhengjue (A.D.1091-1157) and Silent Illumination 4 Master Hongzhi Zhengjue (A.D.1091-1157) Biographical information: Hongzhi Zhengjue (Japanese: Wanshi Zenji, 1091–1157) was a Chinese Chán Buddhist monk who authored or compiled several influential Buddhist texts. Hongzhi's conception of "silent illumination" is of particular importance to the Chinese Caodong and Japanese Soto zen schools; however, Hongzhi was also the author of an important collection of koans, although koans are now usually associated with the Linji or Japanese Rinzai schools). According to the account given in Dan Leighton's Cultivating the Empty Field, Hongzhi was born to a family named Li in Xizhou, present-day Shangxi province. He left home at the age of 11 to become a monk, studying under Caodong master Kumu Faqeng, among others, including Yuanwu Keqin, author of the famous koan collection, the Blue Cliff Record. In 1129, Hongzhi began teaching at the Jingde monastery on Mount Tiantong, where he remained for nearly thirty years, until shortly before his death in 1157, when he ventured down the mountain to bid farewell to his supporters. Hongzhi is the author or compiler of several texts important to the development of Chán Buddhism. One of these is the kō an collection known in English as The Book of Equanimity, The Book of Serenity, or The Book of Composure (Chinese: Ts'ung-jung lu; Japanese: Shoyuroku). A collection of Hongzhi's philosophical texts has also been translated by Dan Leighton. Hongzhi often referred to as an exponent of Silent Illumination Chán ( Japanese: Mokusho Zen). Further biographical and legendary information: His father and ancestors all converted to Zen. When he was born, it was said that there was light outside the house, and his right arm was curled up like ring. He studied Confucianism and Five Classics at the age of seven. At his father's request, he went to Jingming Temple at age 11, and took priest vows from Master Zhiqiong of Cixue Temple of Jinzhou at age 14. When he was 18 years old, he traveled around for learning and said "I will not come back without any achievement!" to his teacher on departure. After then, he practiced in Ruzhou Xiangshan Temple, Dahong Temple, Yuantong Temple, Sizhou Puzhao Temple, Shuzhou Taiping Temple, Jiangsu Nengren Temple and Zhenzhou Changlu Temple. In 1129, he reached Mingzhou and was invited to be the abbot of Tiantong Temple. At that time, Jin attacked Mingzhou and most temples were ransacked and the monks scattered, but only Tiantong withstood the attacks. 5 The master was strict with himself and others and his works were shining. He was not greedy and was generous in benefaction. During famine times, he saved tens of thousand people. Monks in the temple increased from less than 200 to over 1000 after he reached here. During his time of being the abbot of Tiantong Temple, all palaces and halls there were rebuilt, and the temple owned fields covering area of 13,000 mu. In 1157, he was sent to Lingyin Temple, but he returned to Tiantong less than one month later. On the next day, he took a bath and changed clothes and wrote a parting message to the public and Dahui respectively, then he passed away at the age of 60. He was titled Master Hongzhi in 1158 and honored as the ancestor of Tiantong's resurgence and a famous master of Zen in the South Song Dynasty. 6 Guidepost of Silent Illumination by Hongzhi Zhengjue Silent and serene, forgetting words, bright clarity appears before you. When you reflect it you become vast, where you embody it you are spiritually uplifted. Spiritually solitary and shining, inner illumination restores wonder, Dew in the moonlight, a river of stars, snow-covered pines, clouds enveloping the peaks. In darkness it is most bright, while hidden all the more manifest. The crane dreams in the wintery mists. The autumn waters flow far in the distance. Endless kalpas are totally empty, all things are completely the same. When wonder exists in serenity, all achievement is forgotten in illumination. What is this wonder? Alertly seeing through confusion Is the way of silent illumination and the origin of subtle radiance. Vision penetrating into subtle radiance is weaving gold on a jade loom. Upright and inclined yield to each other; light and dark are interdependent. Not depending on sense faculty and object, at the right time they interact. Drink the medicine of good views. Beat the poison-smeared drum. When they interact, killing and giving life are up to you. Through the gate the self emerges and the branches bear fruit. Only silence is the supreme speech, only illumination the universal response. Responding without falling into achievement, speaking without involving listeners. The ten thousand forms majestically glisten and expound the dharma. All objects certify it, every one in dialogue. Dialoguing and certifying, they respond appropriately to each other; But if illumination neglects serenity then aggresiveness appears. Certifying and dialoguing, they respond to to each other appropriately; But if serenity neglects illumination, murkiness leads to wasted dharma. Whe silent illumination is fulfilled, the lotus blossoms, the dreamer awakens, A hundred streams flow into the ocean, a thousand ranges face the highest peak. Like geese preferring milk, like bees gathering nectar, When silent illumination reaches the ultimate, I offer my teaching. The teaching of silent illumination penetrates from the highest down to the foundation. The body being shunyata, the arms in mudra, From beginning to end the changing appearances and then thousand differences share one pattern. Mr. Ho offered jade [to the Emperor]; [Minister] Xiangru pointed to its flaws. Facing changes has its principles, the great function is without striving. The ruler stays in the kingdom, the general goes beyond the frontiers. Our school's affair hits the mark straight and true. Transmit it to all directions without desiring to gain credit. 7 Preface to The Art of Just Sitting: Hongzhi, Dogen and the Background of Shikan taza Taigen Dan Leighton Preface to the book, The Art of Just Sitting, edited by Daido Loori, Wisdom Publications, 2002. One way to categorize the meditation practice of shikan taza, or "just sitting," is as an objectless meditation. This is a definition in terms of what it is not. One just sits, not concentrating on any particular object of awareness, unlike most traditional meditation practices, Buddhist and non-Buddhist, that involve intent focus on a particular object. Such objects traditionally have included colored disks, candle flames, various aspects of breath, incantations, ambient sound, physical sensations or postures, spiritual figures, mandalas including geometric arrangements of such figures, or of symbols representing them, teaching stories, or key phrases from such stories. Some of these concentration practices are in the background of the shikan taza practice tradition, or have been included with shikan taza in its actual lived experience by practitioners. But objectless meditation focuses on clear, non-judgmental, panoramic attention to all of the myriad arising phenomena in the present experience. Such objectless meditation is a potential universally available to conscious beings, and has been expressed at various times in history. This just sitting is not a meditation technique or practice, or any thing at all. "Just sitting" is a verb rather than a noun, the dynamic activity of being fully present. The specific practice experience of shikan taza was first articulated in the Soto Zen lineage (Caodong in Chinese) by the Chinese master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157; Wanshi Shogaku in Japanese),and further elaborated by the Japanese Soto founder Eihei Dogen (1200-1253). But prior to their expressions of this experience, there are hints of this practice in some of the earlier teachers of the tradition. The founding teachers of this lineage run from Shitou Xiqian (700-790; Sekito Kisen in Japanese), two generations after the Chinese Sixth Ancestor, through three generations to Dongshan Liangjie (807- 869; Tozan Ryokai in Japanese), the usually recognized founder of the Caodong, or Soto, lineage in China.
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