With palms together,
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen Master Hongzhi says, “Contemplating your own authentic form is how to contemplate Buddha.” And later, “Purity without stain is your body; perfect illumination without conditioning is your eyes. …The eye inside the body does not involve sense gates; the body inside the eye does not collect appearances.” 1.
What is this authentic form, this stainless body? It is not the body of the senses. It is not the eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, or mind. This body is the body of the Universe. It is the body of all buddhas. We might call it God, provided nothing of a noun is involved. We might call it the Ultimate or the Absolute or, as another teacher of Hongzhi’s era suggested, “Equality” or “Sameness.” 2.
When we reside in this body, we see everything as it is. Seeing “things as it is” 3. is understanding the true relationship of the Buddhist Two Truths. What is it to see without conditioning?
Contemplating our form points us in this direction. We sit upright, body, mind, and environment one. To use horseman terminology, we are collected. As we practice, we begin to ‘see’ without looking and be without being. There is no effort, there is no try, there is only this. As this happens, our true form emerges from the mud 4. of our “shiki” mind. “Ku” appears.
Ku is the Sino-Japanese character for emptiness. Shiki is the character for the material world. It isn’t that shiki or ku are separate, they are not. But it takes residing in ku to experience that. Here’s the thing, that ‘eye that sees’ is the gate to the unconditioned, the eternal, ever-present state of everything. As such, it, itself, is conditioned. This is why we say that there is no path, no wisdom, and no attainment. The True Dharma Eye is always there, it is our choice of a conditional gate and willingness to step through it that is a question. So, we Zen teachers ask, what is your practice?
1. Leighton, Dan Taigen, “Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen”, Tuttle, 2000
2. See Shitou’s Harmony of Difference and Equality.
3. Suzuki, Shunryu. He is often quoted as using this phrase.
4. Remember the after meal chant? “In this world of emptiness, may we live in muddy water with the purity of the lotus.”
Good Morning Everyone,
Zen Master Hongzhi says, “Contemplating your own authentic form is how to contemplate Buddha.” And later, “Purity without stain is your body; perfect illumination without conditioning is your eyes. …The eye inside the body does not involve sense gates; the body inside the eye does not collect appearances.” 1.
What is this authentic form, this stainless body? It is not the body of the senses. It is not the eye, ear, nose, tongue, skin, or mind. This body is the body of the Universe. It is the body of all buddhas. We might call it God, provided nothing of a noun is involved. We might call it the Ultimate or the Absolute or, as another teacher of Hongzhi’s era suggested, “Equality” or “Sameness.” 2.
When we reside in this body, we see everything as it is. Seeing “things as it is” 3. is understanding the true relationship of the Buddhist Two Truths. What is it to see without conditioning?
Contemplating our form points us in this direction. We sit upright, body, mind, and environment one. To use horseman terminology, we are collected. As we practice, we begin to ‘see’ without looking and be without being. There is no effort, there is no try, there is only this. As this happens, our true form emerges from the mud 4. of our “shiki” mind. “Ku” appears.
Ku is the Sino-Japanese character for emptiness. Shiki is the character for the material world. It isn’t that shiki or ku are separate, they are not. But it takes residing in ku to experience that. Here’s the thing, that ‘eye that sees’ is the gate to the unconditioned, the eternal, ever-present state of everything. As such, it, itself, is conditioned. This is why we say that there is no path, no wisdom, and no attainment. The True Dharma Eye is always there, it is our choice of a conditional gate and willingness to step through it that is a question. So, we Zen teachers ask, what is your practice?
1. Leighton, Dan Taigen, “Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen”, Tuttle, 2000
2. See Shitou’s Harmony of Difference and Equality.
3. Suzuki, Shunryu. He is often quoted as using this phrase.
4. Remember the after meal chant? “In this world of emptiness, may we live in muddy water with the purity of the lotus.”
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