(Opposite) Seated Luohan, Chinese, 907–1125 You Are Already Enlightened Guo Gu, a longtime student of the late Master Sheng Yen, presents an experiential look at the Chan practice of silent illumination. ilent illumination is a Buddhist prac- Silent illumination is the simultaneous practice tice that can be traced back not only to of stillness and clarity, or quiescence and lumi- Huineng (638–713), the sixth patriarch nosity. It is similar to the practice of shamatha of Chan, and other Chinese masters but and vipashyana, as long as we don’t consider also to the early teachings of the Bud- these sequential to each other, first practicing Sdha. In the Chan tradition, silent illumination is shamatha and then practicing vipashyana. In referred to as mozhao, from the Chinese char- silence there is illumination; in stillness, clarity acters mo (silent) and zhao (illumination). It’s a is ever present. term that was first used by a critic of the practice, ISHIDA Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163), an advocate of the N method of “observing critical phrase” (huatou in We Are Already Enlightened HIHO C Chinese; wato in Japanese). Hongzhi Zhengjue The Chan tradition does not usually refer to GUO GU (Jimmy Yu) received (1091–1157), the Chinese master most often steps or stages. Its central teaching is that we inka from the late Chan Master associated with the practice of silent illumina- are intrinsically awake; our mind is originally Sheng Yen in 1995 and served as his assistant and translator tion, liked the term and adopted it. without abiding, fixations, and vexations, and until Sheng Yen’s death in In the West, silent illumination is usually pre- its nature is without divisions and stages. This is 2009. He is the Sheng Yen sented through the lens of Soto Zen practice as the basis of the Chan view of sudden enlighten- USEUM Assistant Professor of Chinese shikantaza, a term coined by Dogen Zenji to ment. If our mind’s nature were not already free, M Buddhism at Florida State describe the embodiment of awakening. How- that would imply we could become enlightened RITISH University and the founder of B © the Tallahassee Chan Group. ever, shikantaza is not a distinct category of prac- only after we practiced, which is not so. If it’s ITE) His new ebook is tice, and while it is a part of silent illumination, possible to gain enlightenment, then it’s possible S The Essence of Chan. it cannot encompass it. to lose it as well. (OPPO 38 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly WINTER 2012 My teacher, Master Sheng Yen, first intro- This method does not involve duced this way of practicing silent illumination in the 1970s. His students liked the method very contemplating, observing thoughts, much, but no one was able to practice it—they or continually scanning the body. just couldn’t get a handle on it, so the method fell It involves minding the act of into obscurity. In the early 1990s, through trial and error, Sheng Yen began to break down the sitting, staying with that reality from practice into stages. He spent a decade teaching moment to moment to moment. and exploring silent illumination with his stu- dents during seven- and ten-day intensive retreats in both the West and Taiwan. I translated many Consider a room, which is naturally spacious. of Hongzhi’s teachings on silent illumination to However we organize the furniture in the room accompany Sheng Yen’s commentaries, which are will not affect its intrinsic spaciousness. We can now published in several books. The latest and put up walls to divide the room, but they are most representative of his teachings on silent illu- temporary. And whether we leave the room clean mination, The Method of No-Method: The Chan or cluttered and messy, it won’t affect its natural Practice of Silent Illumination, was published in spaciousness. Mind is also intrinsically spacious. 2008. Master Sheng Yen died soon afterward, in Although we can get caught up in our desires and February 2009. aversions, our true nature is not affected by those As Master Sheng Yen’s personal attendant vexations. We are inherently free. monk, I was one of his first students to begin In the Chan tradition, therefore, practice is following his method of silent illumination as my not about producing enlightenment. You might main practice. He would often use me as a guinea wonder, “Then what am I doing here, practic- pig: I would report to him whatever state or ing?” Because practice does help clean up the experience I was going through as I went deeper “furniture” in the “room.” By not attaching to into the practice. I practiced silent illumination your thoughts, you remove the furniture, so to under his guidance for about sixteen years, until speak. And once your mind is clean, instead of I began using the huatou or gong’an (koan in fixating on the chairs, tables, and so on, you see Japanese) method. its spaciousness. Then you can let the furniture The stages of silent illumination as taught by be or rearrange it any way you want—not for Sheng Yen are not set in stone. They are a means yourself, but for the benefit of others in the room. to an end and signposts. It’s important to have a teacher to guide you, as each individual will have a different response to this method, grow- The Teachings of ing according to his or her own spiritual capacity Master Sheng Yen and karmic disposition. The ultimate way to practice silent illumina- tion is to sit without dependence on your eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or mind. You sit with- Three Stages of Silent out abiding anywhere, fabricating anything, Illumination or falling into a stupor. You neither enter into The practice of silent illumination taught by meditative absorption nor give rise to scattered Master Sheng Yen can roughly be divided into thoughts. In this very moment, mind just is— three stages: concentrated mind, unified mind, wakeful and still, clear and without delusion. and no-mind. Within each stage are infinite However, for many practitioners, such a stan- depths. You need not go through all the stages, dard can prove too high. nor are they necessarily sequential. 40 buddhadharma: the practitioner’s quarterly WINTER 2012 Concentrated Mind If One Can Be Thus The first stage of practice is learning to sit in an The twelfth-century Chan master Hongzhi describes uncontrived way, not trying to get this or get rid the qualities of enlightened mind. of that. You just sit with clarity and simplicity in the moment. In Chinese, this is called zhiguan Wide and far-reaching without limit, dazuo, which means “just mind yourself sitting.” pure and clean, it emits light. To just sit is to be aware that you are sitting. Its spiritual potency is unobscured. When you’re sitting, can you feel the presence Although it is bright, there are no objects of illumination. of your whole body—its posture, weight, and It can be said to be empty, other sensations? “Just sitting” means, at the yet this emptiness is [full of] luminosity. very least, you know clearly that the whole body It illumines in self-purity, is there. It doesn’t mean minding any particular beyond the working of causes and conditions, part of your body—just your legs, arms, or pos- apart from subject and object. ture—or feeling every sensation of the body. The Its wondrousness and subtleties are ever present, idea is to be aware of the general totality of your its luminosity is also vast and open. sitting experience. The body is sitting; you know Moreover, this is not something that can be conceived of this. This means your mind is sitting, too. So the as existence or nonexistence. body and mind are together as you’re sitting. If Nor can it be deliberated about with words and analogies. you don’t know you’re sitting, then you’re not Right here—at this pivotal axle, following the method. opening the swinging gate and clearing the way— This method is subtle; it’s not like counting it is able to respond effortlessly to circumstances; breaths from one to ten, which is very concrete. the great function is free from hindrances. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to do. At all places, turning and turning about, There is definitely something to do: Sit! it does not follow conditions, This method does not involve contemplating, nor can it be trapped in models. observing thoughts, or continually scanning the In the midst of everything, it settles securely. body. Instead, it involves minding the act of sit- With “that,” it is identical to what “that” is; ting, staying with that reality from moment to with “this,” it is identical to what “this” is. moment to moment. When you mind your sit- “This and that” interfuse and merge without distinction. ting, your body and mind are naturally together. Therefore it is said: You don’t watch the body or imagine it, as if “Like the earth that holds up a mountain, you’re looking in from the outside, which is some unaware of its steepness and loftiness; kind of mental construct. like the stone that contains jade, When you practice single-mindedly and unaware of the flawlessness of the jade.” intensely, with no gaps, for half an hour, your If one can be thus, this is truly leaving home. body might become drenched in sweat. But this People who have left home must get hold of the essence in this way.