A Zen Master that I think we talk about too little here on r/zen is Hongzhi. We all talk about him from time to time, when we look at the verses from the Book of Serenity, but besides that he isn't mentioned much. However, he's got a really extensive record, much of it yet to be translated. He's got sayings, lectures, cases with verses, cases with commentaries, poetry, he's just got everything. Wansong was obviously a big fan of Hongzhi. There are two commonly translated poems, "Admonition on Chan Practice" and "Inscription on Silent Illumination", maybe I'll post about them on another day (or someone else could post about them).
From the rest of Hongzhi's record, some of his lectures concerning Zen practice have been translated in "Cultivating the empty field", and also in "Silent Illumination" by Guo Gu. I want to look at the lectures translated by Gu, in the intro to his translation he says:
Hongzhi’s discourse records are one of the longest for any single Chan master. He was a prolific writer. My earliest translation of some of the excerpts in this book dates back to the early 1990s. Since then, fascicle 6 of his work has been translated by Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton with the help of a Chinese literary scholar, Yi Wu, among others, in Cultivating the Empty Field. His translation provides an excellent flavor of Hongzhi’s teachings. However, in my humble opinion, I hope that my own translation highlights further subtleties and nuances of Hongzhi’s teaching. His reading also places Hongzhi’s teaching squarely within the Japanese Soto Zen perspective of shikantaza, or “just sitting” practice. I see Hongzhi’s teaching as belonging to a shared language of Chan. As I show in the introduction, many Chan masters—including those from other lineages—also articulated practice and awakening in similar language. While rendering Hongzhi’s teaching through the lens of Soto Zen practice is useful, it also unintentionally reinforces sectarian divides and limits the broader significance of Hongzhi’s message.
He's saying it in a nice way, but essentially he is saying that "Cultivating the emtpy field" is a biased translation that more or less intentionally makes Hongzhi sound like he is talking about shikantaza. So by looking at Gu's translation, I hope we get a picture that is a bit less biased. However, Gu's book talks extensively about meditation methods as well and tries to relate them to Hongzhi's text, so there's still gonna be some bias. But Gu clearly links his translation to the original Chinese, so if there are any questions about the quality of the translation, we can easily look up the original text.
I hope that reading the translation will clarify what "silent illumniation" is and whether or not Hongzhi taught some special meditation method. A first hint is a quote by Hongzhi that Gu presents at the beginning of the book:
It [silent illumination] cannot be practiced nor actualized because it is something intrinsically full and complete. Others cannot defile it; it is thoroughly pure to its depth. Precisely at the place where purity is full and complete is where you must open your eyes and recognize it.
So silent illumination isn't a practice, instead it's intrinsically full and complete, and can't be defiled. Great, sounds like stuff other Zen Masters would also say.
Let's look at the first actual lecture by Hongzhi:
This vacant and open field is intrinsically present from the very beginning. You must purify and wipe away the various deluded conditioning and illusory habits. Naturally, you will arrive at a place that is clear and pure, perfect and bright. Totally empty, without any image; resplendent and outstanding, it does not rely on anything. Only this vastness can illuminate the fundamental reality as external objects are relinquished. Therefore, it is said, “With perfect clarity, there is not a single thing to be perceived.”
This is all uncontroversial, except for "You must purify and wipe away the various deluded conditioning and illusory habits." That sounds like the mirror-wiping kind of practice that Zen Masters tend to advocate against. I'll come back to this at the end.
This field is where birth and death do not reach. It is the source of utter luminosity, able to emit light and respond clearly to the myriad dust motes [of sensory objects]. It is empty, without oppositions. The wondrous [activity] of seeing and hearing leaps far beyond those everyday sounds and forms. In all situations, its functioning is without trace; its mirroring is without obstruction. Mind and its objects naturally and spontaneously issue forth without partiality.
This reminds me of Huangbo talking about the One Mind. And as said in the beginning of the lecture, this field is intrinsically present from the beginning.
An ancient said, “Having no-mind, one attains in oneself the Way of no-mind. Actualizing no-mind in oneself, the Way ceases to be.” Advancing in such a way, you will be able to take up the responsibility [of helping sentient beings] with pure intent, as if you are sitting in perfect silence. As for the wondrous activity of leisurely entering the world, it is something you must investigate in this fashion!
That's the end of the first lecture. Coming back to the wiping and purification going on at the beginning, let's look at the Chinese that got translated as "You must purify and wipe away the various deluded conditioning and illusory habits":
當在淨治揩磨去。諸妄緣幻習。
Word for word via Pleco:
當 to be / to act as
在 at / in / exist / (indicating an action in progress)
淨 clean / completely / only
治 rule / manage / control
揩 wipe
磨 rub / polish / turn around
去 go / remove / (after certain verbs to express the idea of detachment, separation, loss)
諸 all / various
妄 absurd / fantastic
緣 reason / cause / karma / fate
(妄緣 together: causes of erroneous ideas)
幻 illusory / imaginary
習 habit / costum / usual practice / practice
The first sentence I would translate the same way as Gu, the second I think leaves some room for interpretation. The word 習 can mean both habit or practice (wiktionary even lists "practice or exercise" before "habit or custom"). So it could also be translated as: "You must purify and wipe away all erroneous ideas and imaginary practices."
Maybe Hongzhi is telling us to get rid of erroneous ideas and imaginary practices, like so many other Zen Masters tell us as well? If we go with this alternate translation, the whole lecture sounds very similar to lectures by, e.g., Huangbo. And let's think about it... when Hongzhi is asking us to get rid of "imaginary habits", he's not asking you to stop brushing your teeth in the morning. Much more likely he is talking about getting rid of erroneous ideas like "I'm not the Buddha, I'm not complete" and imaginary practices like polishing a tile to make a mirror.
Pretty neat first lecture by Hongzhi, might post more of them as I go along.
Submitted May 05, 2023 at 09:13PM by moinmoinyo https://ift.tt/2LJnPGD
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