Excerpt from the book "L'illumination silencieuse" (Silent Illumination)
by Roland Yuno Rech
Finally free
"A few moments ago we heard the church bells. Where has the sound gone? Once again, the bells are ringing. Where has the silence gone ?"
In zazen, don't allow yourself to be distracted by thoughts and above all, don't take them into consideration. A few moments ago we heard the church bells. Where has the sound gone? Once again, the bells are ringing. Where has the silence gone ?
Master Wanshi recommends : « When we observe appearance and disappearance of phenomena as such, moment after moment, we are not contaminated by attachment. Stripping this body, letting it fall away, going one step closer to the edge of the cliff. » Don't hesitate to go forwards towards the place where there's no support, don't hesitate to contact reality where nothing dwells.
Master Wanshi insists on these recommendations : « Understand your sensory faculties and their objects to the point where they are exhausted from top to bottom. » Up to intimately realizing that the bells are ringing, there is noise in the courtyard, our ears hear the sound but all of these sounds are perfectly ungraspable and dwell nowhere. Just like our thoughts and mind makings are not sparks flying out of obscurity. Practicing as such, we realize a mind which doesn't stagnate on anything, which clearly perceives but keeps nothing and constantly discovers it newness and availability.
Wanshi continues : « The solitary light is the only illumination which, deeply penetrating, preserves the wonder. » In zazen, the light of consciousness shines on all things without seizing any objects. Solitary means beyond all attachment to any object whatsoever. It is even beyond solitude, beyond fullness, beyond lacking. And this experience preserves the 'wonderfulness' of existence. There's no need to look far away for it, to go into all sorts of fabrications. Each one must simply penetrate the experience just like we totally go to the end of each breathe out.
Wanshi ends with : "How have you never been able to be separate from all changing phenomena ? Now you can go back among all different beings and travel on the Way of a bird with no obstacles, finally free."
Tags: Roland Yuno Rech