Book III

 Foreword

Enter into the Silence, and Awaken to the Buddha that is You

To engage in Zen practice, put simply, is to take on the invitation to enter into a world of silence, and allow the treasures therein to come forth and
enrich our lives. 

What are those treasures? For centuries, Zen tradition has emphasized that what it offers is “beyond words and letters,” and that it is a “special transmission outside of Scriptures.” It can only be transmitted directly from mind to mind, heart to heart, in a living encounter between a duly authorized Zen Teacher and an earnest student who takes on the practice under the guidance of the Teacher. 

What is “it” all about? It is about seeing into one’s own true nature, and thereby awakening to the dynamic reality of who one really is. In short, it is about becoming Buddha.

When we hear the word “Buddha,” what many of us have in our minds is a seated figure, enveloped in inner peace and serenity, with a half-smile, a heart full of compassion for all sentient beings. What Zen tradition tells us is that this figure is not someone “out there” who attained enlightenment ages ago, but is really each and every one of us at heart. YOU are Buddha. This is what you come to awaken to as you enter more and more deeply into that silence, and keep the eyes and ears of your heart open to the throbs of life of the entire universe.     

Sylvia Chu was asked to teach by Abbot Ryoun Yamada Roshi of Sanbo Zen International.  She facilitates meditation and retreats in Burlingame and Davenport, CA in the Sanbo Zen lineage. In Zen Essence, a poetry series of five books, 

Sylvia extends the invitation to all readers, to enter into silence. She is fully aware and appreciative of the fact that what one experiences in that realm,
as noted above, is indeed “beyond words and letters.”  However, she offers these words, these images, these letters, these poetic expressions, out of her own Zen practice and experience of dwelling in that silence, 

in the  same way as the proverbial “finger pointing to the moon.”  The moon is the world of enlightenment awaiting each of us as we deepen our entry into that silence.  Sylvia invites us, “Come, look and see for yourself!”

Ruben L.F. Habito
Maria Kannon Zen Center
Dallas, Texas 

Introduction

Silence and zazen are my core daily Zen practices; I write additional poems under these titles depending on what intuitive realizations arrive during my practices.  Zen Essence Books II and III, therefore, contain additional chapters on these two subjects.

The journey of freedom begins by looking within oneself in silence.  Zazen is a suggested practice to enter into spacious stillness.  True zazen stays in the present moment (in presence) to experience ‘what is;’ not the past -- a history of ‘what was’; nor the future -- a fantasy of ‘what may be.’  In stillness, presence is experienced as infinite ‘I am,’ ‘I alone,’ and all-encompassing oneness without separation.

Separation from our true self is the source of our yearning and suffering.  Presence, which enjoys a taste of universal spaciousness, is always present within but one may not be aware of our essence. Our presence, a gift of uniqueness, is the greatest gift that we can give to the world, showing our compassion in the sufferings of others.

Your greatest gift
to the world is
your uniqueness –
in heartfelt presence, open
spaciousness for and with all
in the camaraderie of love.

As one deepens, presence is intuited as infinite emptiness, beyond presence, and without any concepts.

Emptiness is empty of an inherent self.  The realization that the self is empty of any inherent reality is often experienced with ecstasy.  The self in freedom does not have to protect or defend the ego.  In such radical dropping and letting go, one becomes joyful, for there is nothing to safeguard or to defend. In a deeper experience of emptiness, I feel and darkly see the falling away of all self perceptions.  Everything I know of myself in title and name is gone in a flowing of being or verbing – just the breathing or the walking, etc. It is an inconceivable shift – I seem to die, not physically but mentally to thoughts and self-referencing.  The moment that is then, still is so now, constantly evolving and arising. This passing now includes “what is; as it is” and “you can never step into the same river twice,” for the river changes, flows away every moment.

Such realization and experience awaken me as if from a dream state.

The self wakes up
as a process in emptiness,
with no “I” as a subject, but
as a verb, verbing, ‘is-ing,’ functioning now
in infinite possibilities of
sitting, breathing, cooking –
each moment emptiness is
‘processing’ wonder.

I become, what seems like a flowing process that functions as a verb – as in painting, dancing, sweeping, and 'is-ing' in the present moment.  This realization of self in emptiness, without form and sensation, deepens to display a life of aliveness, creativity, and freedom. 

Emptiness has many word descriptions –‘oneness,’ ‘silence,’ ‘spaciousness,’  ‘cessation,’ ‘formlessness,’ ‘eternal timelessness,’ ‘absolute zero,’ ‘essential nature,’ and ‘essence.’ In describing emptiness, writers and poets, however hard they try, find in truth that –           

Any word is redundant
silence says it all and
leaves nothing unsaid.

So what is our essence then, when all words and concepts are removed?  Our essence defies words but it is experienced in silence as unknowing wonder and magnificence, the absence of words and concepts.  Emptiness may lack intrinsic independence, but it is not a void.  We exist!

In such wholeness, your yearning is the gratification; your question contains its own answer; your search is the journey within.  You become free, fearless, and restful in equanimity.  You are awakened as the Buddha, for you are the ‘Holy Eternal One,’ the infinite emptiness, not needing holiness, ending all yearnings, questions, and search.  You realize what you seek, joy and peace, are already innately yours to begin with.

Explore if you want and as you must.  At your journey’s end, you will joyfully return to yourself within and to engage in the market place without, pulsing with the freedom of Zen spirit  – a spirit, open, spacious, and all encompassing.

In daily life zazen, one becomes always, and in all ways present, alert to the moment.                                                                              

Live life with the Spirit of Zen,
alert in now – as in zazen, present
like an empty page, spacious,        
willing with radical openness
to live life vivaciously,
in abundance and wonder.

The spirit of zazen thrives with radical acceptance of ‘what is;’ ‘as it is,’ not picking or choosing this or that. 

Our path continues, with practice on the cushion and in daily life, steeped in the spirit of zazen.  Our presence is the greatest gift to all in loving attention and action. In such a spacious presence, we continue to live without boundaries and in never-ending freedom.   We now express our essence as magnificence, deeply divine, and fully human.

Freedom is not the end but
the beginning of
an awakening process.
We are
not free from but free to
embody and dance
our innate spirit and
humanness in oneness
with all existence.                

Our journey continues, but we further deepen in freedom to intuit that everything, joy, and suffering, are both empty, passing, and therefore not worth clinging to. We become less conditioned by mental concepts and outside influences.  Like a lotus, we bloom untouched by murky waters of delusions in greed, hate, and ignorance.  With silence, we further deepen in cessation of perspectives and in spacious freedom.  

Grown in mud,
untouched by mire,
the lotus blooms;
‘no mud, no lotus.’*

We can nurture our lotus, but to be untouched by mud requires determination and practice.

In a continued practice of Silence and Zazen (Chapters 1& 2), we begin to realize our Unborn (Chapter 3) innate nature in pure awareness without concepts on life and death. Our body dies but there is no "I" around to die, for I am neither my body nor my thoughts. We live in the eternal timelessness of Now, What Is (Chapter 4). Experiencing a true Self, as I am, and in Presence (Chapter 4).

From Impermanence and Emptiness (Chapters 6 &7), the world of one existence refreshes and rejuvenates.  Understanding and intuition of these Buddhist teachings can lead us to ultimate Freedom (Chapter 9) in fearlessness. The Ox Herding Experiences (Chapter 8) portrays our spiritual journey from suffering to returning home to our own essence and finding happiness within.

To evoke your own experience through Zen Essence, this poetry series, readers should not quickly read the poems through, but submerge patiently in the mud of unknowing,  seeming darkness, and allow your inner wisdom to emerge your lotus.

Sylvia Young Chu