READER FOR: THE NATURE OF THE MIND, THE NATURE OF THE WORLD:

Liberation through Nonduality in Zen and Mahāmudrā NOV 13, 2020 — NOV 15, 2020

ROSHI JOAN HALIFAX, PROF. JOHN DUNNE • Heart Sutra The origin of the sutra is disputed by various modern scholars; it was widely known in Bengal and Bihar during the Pala Empire period (c. 750–1200 CE) in India. The stature of the Heart Sutra throughout early medieval India can be seen from its title ‘Holy Mother of all Buddhas Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom’ dating from at least the 8th century CE. MAKA HANNYA HARAMITA SHINGYO KAN JI ZAI BO SA GYO JIN HAN NYA HA RA MI TA JI SHO KEN GO ON KAI KU DO IS SAI KU YAKU SHA RI SHI SHIKI FU I KU KU FU I SHIKI SHIKI SOKU ZE KU KU SOKU ZE SHIKI JU SO GYO SHIKI YAKU BU NYO ZE SHA RI SHI ZE SHO HO KU SO FU SHO FU METSU FU KU FU JO FU ZO FU GEN ZE KO KU CHU MU SHIKI MU JU SO GYO SHIKI MU GEN NI BI ZES SHIN NI MU SHIKI SHO KO MI SOKU HO MU GEN KAI NAI SHI MU I SHIKI KAI MU MU MYO YAKU MU MU MYO JIN NAI SHI MU RO SHI YAKU MU RO SHI JIN MU KU SHU METSU DO MU CHI YAKU MU TOKU I MU SHO TOK KO BO DAI SAT TA E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA KO SHIN MU KE GE MU KE GE KO MU U KU FU ON RI IS SAI TEN DO MU SO KU GYO NE HAN SAN ZE SHO BUTSU E HAN NYA HA RA MI TA KO TOKU A NOKU TA RA SAM MYAKU SAM BO DAI KO CHI HAN NYA HA RA MI TA ZE DAI JIN SHU ZE DAI MYO SHU ZE MU JO SHU ZE MU TO DO SHU NO JO IS SAI KU SHIN JITSU FU KO KO SETSU HAN NYA HA RA MI TA SHU SOKU SETSU SHU WATSU GYA TEI GYA TEI HA RA GYA TEI HARA SO GYA TEI BO JI SOWA KA HAN NYA SHIN GYO The Sutra on the Heart of Realizing Wisdom Beyond Wisdom (trans: Tanahashi/Halifax) Avalokiteshvara, who helps all to awaken, moves in the deep course of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom, sees that all five streams of body, heart, and mind are without boundary, and frees all from anguish. O Shariputra, form is not separate from boudlessness; boundlessness is not separate from form. Form is boundlessness; boundlessness is form. Feelings, perceptions, inclinations, and discernment are also like this. O Shariputra, boundlessness is the nature of all Things. It neither arises nor perishes, neither stains nor purifies, neither increases nor decreases. Boundlessness is not limited by form, nor by feelings, perceptions, inclinations, or discernment. It is free of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind; free of sight, sound, smell, taste,

touch, and any object of mind; free of sensory realms including the realm of mind. It is free of ignorance and the end of ignorance. Boundlessness is free of old age and death, and free of the end of old age and death. It is free of suffering, arising, cessation, and path, and free of wisdom and attainment. Being free of attainment, those who help all to awaken abide in the realization of wisdom beyond wisdom and live with an unhindered mind. Without hindrance, the mind has no fear. Free from confusion, those who lead all to liberation, embody profound serenity. All those, in the past, present, and future, who realize wisdom beyond wisdom, manifest unsurpassable and thorough awakening. Know that realizing wisdom beyond wisdom is no other than this wondrous mantra, luminous, unequalled, and supreme. It relieves all suffering. It is genuine, not illusory. So set forth this mantra of realizing wisdom beyond wisdom. Set forth this mantra that says: Gaté, gaté, paragaté, parasamgaté, Bodhi! Svaha Shih-t'ou (700-790)

Song of the Grass-Roof Hermitage

I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value. After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap. When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it's been lived in - covered by weeds.

The person in the hut lives here calmly, Not stuck to inside, outside, or in between. Places worldly people live, he doesn't live. Realms worldly people love, he doesn't love.

Though the hut is small, it includes the entire world. In ten square feet, an old man illumines forms and their nature. A Great Vehicle bodhisattva trusts without doubt. The middling or lowly can't help wondering; Will this hut perish or not?

Perishable or not, the original master is present, not dwelling south or north, east or west. Firmly based on steadiness, it can't be surpassed.

A shining window below the green pines -- Jade palaces or vermilion towers can't compare with it.

Just sitting with head covered, all things are at rest. Thus, this mountain monk doesn't understand at all. Living here he no longer works to get free. Who would proudly arrange seats, trying to entice guests?

Turn around the light to shine within, then just return. The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from. Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction, Bind grasses to build a hut, and don't give up.

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands and walk, innocent. Thousands of words, myriad interpretations, Are only to free you from obstructions. If you want to know the undying person in the hut, Don't separate from this skin bag here and now.

excerpted from Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi Daniel Leighton (1991)

• Zen Master Hongzhi Zhengjue (A.D.1091-1157)

Guidepost of Silent Illumination

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.

• Eihei Dogen (19 January 1200 – 22 September 1253): King of Samadhis (Trans: Kazuaki Tanahashi)

To transcend the world directly, to manifest the magnificence of the buddha ancestors’ house—this is sitting in the meditation posture. To leap over the heads of outsiders and demons, and become a true person inside the buddha ancestors’ room—this is sitting in the meditation posture. To sit in the meditation posture is to transcend the deepest and most intimate teaching of buddha ancestors. Thus, buddha ancestors practice this way without needing to do anything else.

Know that the world of sitting practice is far different from other worlds. Clarify this for yourself, then activate the aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana of the buddha ancestors. Study the world at the very moment of sitting. Is it vertical or horizontal? At the very

moment of sitting, what is sitting? Is it an acrobat’s graceful somersault or the rapid darting of a fish? Is it thinking or not thinking? Is it doing or not doing? Is it sitting within sitting? Is it sitting within body-mind? Is it sitting letting go of sitting within sitting, or letting go of sitting within body-mind? Investigate this in every possible way. Sit in the body’s meditation posture. Sit in the mind’s meditation posture. Sit in the meditation posture of letting go of body-mind.

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Rujing, my late master, Old Buddha, said, “Practicing Zen is letting go of body and mind. It can only be done by wholehearted sitting; incense offering, bowing, chanting Buddha’s name, repentance, and sutra reading are not pivotal.”

Rujing is the only one in four or five hundred years who has plucked out the eye of the buddha ancestors, and sat down inside that eye. There are few in China who can stand shoulder to shoulder with him. Perhaps there are some who have understood that sitting is buddha dharma and buddha dharma is sitting. And perhaps there are some who have personally experienced that sitting is buddha dharma. But there is no one else who has personally experienced that sitting is sitting, and so there is no one else who upholds buddha dharma as buddha dharma.

Thus, there is sitting with the mind, which is not the same as sitting with the body. There is sitting with the body, which is not the same as sitting with the mind. There is sitting letting go of body-mind, which is not the same as sitting letting go of body-mind. To experience this is to merge the practice and understanding of the buddha ancestors. Maintain this insight. Investigate this awareness.

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Shakyamuni Buddha said to the assembly, “When you sit in the meditation posture, you realize samadhi in body and mind, and give rise to an awesome virtue that people respect. Like the sun illuminating and refreshing the world, this sitting removes obscurities from the mind and lightens the body so that exhaustion is set aside. Enlightenment becomes as natural as a dragon curled up at rest. A demon is frightened

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even by a picture of someone sitting in the meditation posture; how much more so by a living person who realizes the way sitting motionless and at ease.”

As the Buddha said, a demon is startled and frightened by even a picture of someone sitting in the meditation posture and even more frightened by a living person sitting that way. So we

know that the merit of such sitting is immeasurable. This ordinary everyday sitting is itself boundless joy.

Shakyamuni Buddha continued speaking to the assembly, “Therefore, you should sit in the meditation posture.”

Then the Tathagata, the World-honored One, taught his disciples how to sit and said to them:

Some outsiders try to practice by standing on tiptoes, others by standing continuously, and still others by adopting the yoga posture of hooking their feet over their shoulders. These people develop unbalanced minds that founder in an ocean of delusion because their postures are unnatural. Why do I teach my disciples to sit up straight in the meditation posture? Because it is easy to regulate the mind when the body is upright. If the body is straight, the mind is not dull. Instead, the mind is forthright, the intention is true, and mindfulness is present. If the mind scatters or the body leans, gather together your body-mind and resume the upright posture. If you want to manifest samadhi and enter it, you should gather together all distracted thought and scattered mind within this posture. Practice in this way and you will manifest and intimately enter the king of samadhis.

Thus, we clearly know that sitting in the meditation posture is itself the king of samadhis. It is itself entering realization. All other samadhis serve the king of samadhis.

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Sitting in the meditation posture is a forthright body, a forthright mind, a forthright body-mind, a forthright buddha ancestor, a forthright practice-realization, a forthright top of the head, and a forthright life stream.

When you sit in the meditation posture, the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of a human being are immediately vivid in the king of samadhis. The World-honored One always sat in this meditation posture, and all his disciples authentically transmitted it. The World-honored One taught humans and devas how to sit in this meditation posture. It is the mind seal authenticaly transmitted by the Seven Original Buddhas.

Shakyamuni Buddha sat in this meditation posture under the bodhi tree for fifty small eons, sixty great eons, and innumerable unclassifiable eons. Perhaps he sat for three weeks, or maybe only for a few hours. In any case, the Buddha’s zazen is the turning of the wondrous wheel of dharma; his lifetime guidance is contained within it . Nothing is lacking. The yellow scrolls and red rolls of the sutras are all here. In this moment of sitting, buddha sees buddha and all beings attain buddhahood.

Soon after Bodhidharma, the First Chinese Ancestor, arrived from India, he sat zazen facing the wall in the meditation posture for nine years at the Shaolin Temple, Shaoshi Peak of Mt. Song. Since then the head and eyeball of his practice have prevailed

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all over China. Bodhidharma’s life stream is just this sitting in the meditation posture. Before he came from India, people in China had not truly known sitting in the meditation posture. But after he arrived they came to know it. Thus, for one lifetime, for myriad lifetimes, from head to toe, without leaving the monastery and without concern for other activities, wholeheartedly sit in the meditation posture day and night—this is the king of samadhis.

Presented to the assembly of the Yoshimine Temple on the fifteenth day, the second month, the second year of the Kangen Era [1244].