Identifying Nonduality: A Guide to Recognizing Our True Nature by John Sefton

Author:John Sefton [Sefton, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-07-26T20:00:00+00:00

Silent Illumination and Shikantaza

We’ll begin by looking at the approach of Zen master Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) who is an often overlooked yet remarkably important figure in Zen. The direct method he taught was called “silent illumination,” and it’s the spiritual predecessor to the more well-known practice of shikantaza. In Taigen Dan Leighton’s book, Cultivating the Empty Field: The Silent Illumination of Zen Master Hongzhi, the author and translator summarizes silent illumination:

“Hongzhi was the first master fully to articulate silent illumination, a form of nondual objectless meditation in which the essence of Buddhist truth is experienced. …Silent illumination is also objectless in the sense of not seeking after specific limited goals. The ultimate purpose of spiritual practice, universally awakened heart/mind, cannot be set apart from our own inherent being and our immediate, moment-to-moment awareness.”

“Hongzhi tells us that this bright empty field, which lies immanent in us all, can in no way be cultivated or artificially enhanced. We must only recognize it and not allow our busy, mischievous thinking and conditioning to interfere with our own radiant clarity.”1

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