Keeping in mind my translation suggestions above, pls do a translation for the following: [Chinese original text moved to bottom]

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Shikantaza - A Talk by Teacher Hong Wenliang

 

(Reposted from Zhengfayan Zang Forum: http://www.hongzen.com)

Teacher sitting down, a monk asked: "What are you contemplating so deeply?"

The teacher replied, "I'm contemplating that which is beyond contemplation."

The monk asked, "How can you contemplate the un-contemplatable?"

The teacher said, "It's non-thinking."

From the Record of the Five Lantern Meeting - Master Yao Shan Wei Yan

Someone asked Master Yao Shan Wei Yan how to practice zazen (just sitting).

Yao Shan said to contemplate the un-contemplatable.

Thinking about the unthinkable?! The questioner was baffled. How do you think about the unthinkable?

Once you think, you've already activated thought. Using thought to contemplate the unthinkable, how is that possible?

Master Yao Shan answered in three words: non-thinking.

Zazen is about being in this state of non-thinking. Achieving this is true zazen.

What then is the state of non-thinking?

non-thinking is a state of true and uncontrived reality, not a fabricated, imaginary, or conceptual state. It is the mind of no-thought, the state before the arising of discriminatory consciousness. What is the state before the arising of discriminatory consciousness? We have all forgotten it from our infancy, before thoughts began to differentiate; we do not know when this consciousness started to function, beginning to know this and that. We have forgotten all this. If we can return to this state, we can see our true face. Don’t think this state can be reached through inference; what is the state before thought stirs? Pursuing it with thought is a mistake again.

So, what to do? You can consult your ears and eyes, learn from them. I ask you all, when the ears hear a sound, do they discriminate whether it's good or bad before hearing? No! The eyes see whatever they encounter; do they choose what they like or dislike, what to see and what not to see? No! Therefore, the state before the six senses' discriminatory consciousness moves is the state of non-thinking. non-thinking doesn't mean nothingness. How do you know there’s nothingness? When you know there's nothing, isn't that your consciousness moving?

Buddha said in the Agama Sutras (Soh: Referring to Bahiya Sutta): "In the seen is just the seen, in the heard is just the heard." Our six senses are naturally free and unobstructed. So, in sitting meditation, just sit like that, letting the six senses function naturally and freely. Don't interfere with them, not even non-interfering interference. In essence, there isn’t an "I" watching or listening there. Thus, zazen is about allowing all phenomena to prove there's no you, not about you proving there's no you. The key is here; don't get it wrong. When you try to prove there's no you, an "I" is already there proving it. Is that forgetting the self? No!

So, how do all phenomena prove there's no you? What exactly are these phenomena?

The seen forms, heard sounds, smelled scents, tasted flavors, felt sensations of cold and heat, the arising and passing thoughts. All these phenomena are constantly telling you, there's no me! There's no me!

For example, your feet might go numb when sitting for a long time. Of course, they do, because you don't usually meditate, it's natural. If you think, 'I am practicing now, I must sit well, not let it numb, I must endure,' then you're already playing the game of "I." You don't usually practice zazen, so it's natural to feel numb when you sit; it's the law of dependent origination. Practice is about forgetting this 'self' – the false self. Don't indulge in this "I" in your practice.

I keep reiterating this key point, hoping you don't use me to forget me. Many think they must have no thoughts during zazen, so when many thoughts arise, they feel it's wrong and want to remove them. Is this correct? You think, 'I am diligent, why so many thoughts today, no! No!' If you sit and think like this, you are fooling around, showing off yourself. Reflect carefully: do you know when a thought will arise? When it leaves, does it ask your permission to go? Thoughts don't belong to you; they arise due to conditions. You don't know when a thought will come or go. When a thought arises, then you realize, "Ah, a thought," that's your discriminative consciousness knowing afterward. If you still think there's a 'you' knowing, that's your delusion. This is fundamental ignorance; practice aims to resolve this root issue.

When thoughts come and go during zazen, don't think there's an unchanging 'you' knowing their coming and going, thinking this is right. Thinking there's an unchanging 'you' against the changing thoughts, as if there are two separate thoughts, is incorrect. In fact, the arising thought itself is the function of your Dharma Body. Many don't understand this, mistakenly thinking there's an "I" knowing thoughts coming and going. If you know brightness, you know darkness; if the unchanging knows the changing, then it's real - No! That's wrong! That's an externalist view. You have an unchanging concept in your mind, treasuring it as the truth. Isn't that your imagination? If there's no you, what do you need the unchanging for?

Our six functions of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind operate freely and unobstructedly within the true and selfless reality. We misunderstand, taking the ability to discriminate and contemplate as 'me.' In fact, it's just the function of the Dharma Body. Discriminative thought is so sharp that when it operates, we automatically take the ability to discriminate as 'me.' Actually, the mind is like the eye or ear; whatever condition it encounters, it exists, all are true reality. When you encounter a stone, it's a stone; a bun, it's a bun. You don't name 'stone' or 'bun' before recognizing them. Language differentiation is the discriminative consciousness activity after the fact. Before that, the stone, the bun, the object exists, clearly distinguished before discriminative consciousness moves. Non-discriminative discrimination means this. If you don't add 'I,' our minds are inherently clear and distinct.

When our eyes encounter a form, the form and perception are one function. Similarly, the arising of a thought and the selfless knowing are one function. So, the coming thought is the function of your mind root, actually your true reality. It's good if practice can understand this. Understanding this, oh, you've progressed; during zazen, you won't fear thoughts coming and going because thoughts themselves are your true reality. Do you think there's another thought to let you know? Impossible! Because at every moment, ability and object, root and dust, mind and environment, thought and you, are inseparably one, always functioning, arising, and ceasing together, inherently one. We forcefully split one thing into two for explanation, which is after-the-fact cleverness, post-event consciousness differentiation.

Snap! (Sound of slapping the table). Delusion is due to it, thinking, "Ah, I heard him slap the table"; enlightenment is also due to this, "Oh, oh, oh, it's not you knocking there, and I'm listening here; sound and the ability to hear are one thing." Snap! (Sound of slapping). Enlightenment and delusion are the same. The same sound, one deluded, one enlightened. It's not that upon enlightenment, you hear the sound differently, or as some think, enlightenment means entering samadhi and hearing nothing; then you might as well be a stone. That's not enlightenment. It's not seeing a bun as a diamond, a thatched hut as a palace, a restroom as a restaurant. That's insanity!