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The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination
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Kindle Edition, 179 pages
Published
April 2nd 2013
by Shambhala Publications
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Start your review of The Method of No-Method: The Chan Practice of Silent Illumination
Q: Within this clarity the mind is still. (c)
A treatise on Silent Illuination practice. Explore the beauty of the mind in the vastness of the world.
Q:
The water is so clear, transparent to the bottom.
Late, late, fishes have yet to appear.
The sky is so vast, without boundaries, distant and out of sight.
The birds have left no trace.
This is how it is in Silent Illumination: the mind is like water, so clear and transparent that fish have yet to appear. Similarly, the skylike mind is vast, without any ...more
A treatise on Silent Illuination practice. Explore the beauty of the mind in the vastness of the world.
Q:
The water is so clear, transparent to the bottom.
Late, late, fishes have yet to appear.
The sky is so vast, without boundaries, distant and out of sight.
The birds have left no trace.
This is how it is in Silent Illumination: the mind is like water, so clear and transparent that fish have yet to appear. Similarly, the skylike mind is vast, without any ...more
The intriguingly named The Method of No-Method presents the method of silent illumination, which it explains is a less used form of Zen meditation. Silent illumination, like the title of the book suggests, is a practice of just being. Of course, the idea that there is 'no method' does not mean that it is effortless, rather that it is about the willingness to "directly experience and accept whatever confronts you without conceptualizing, naming or judging" (48-9).
Sheng Yen actually provides a ...more
Sheng Yen actually provides a ...more
An excellent introduction to the practice and theory of Silent Illumination, from Chan Buddhism (Chinese), a practice alike Shikantaza, in Zen Buddhism (Japanese), and Contemplative Prayer, in Christianity, as well as Dzogchen and Mahamudra, in Tibetan Buddhism.
The strength of the book, consisting of oral teachings in two different retreats, is Master Sheng Yen gives a method to develop this methodless resting in awareness, or Emptiness. He understood many persons, if not most, need a way to ...more
The strength of the book, consisting of oral teachings in two different retreats, is Master Sheng Yen gives a method to develop this methodless resting in awareness, or Emptiness. He understood many persons, if not most, need a way to ...more
I've sometimes encountered books by Buddhist leaders--especially transcribed lectures--that strike me as word salad. While these are transcribed lectures (from several retreats), the book did not fall into that category for me. Alas, I do think I'm going to have to re-read it at some point...I'm nowhere near enlightenment, and the dharma is hard. :-)
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“To have self-esteem and to function in society, ordinary people usually place their mind on something; they need to identify themselves with something. People with the least spiritual capacity identify their minds with fame, fortune, and other kinds of self-benefit. People with mediocre spiritual capacity identify their minds with their family, career, and relations with others. People with high spiritual capacity generate compassion and place their minds on the benefit of others. Only people with the most superior spiritual capacity have no mind to place anywhere. This is like the ox, whose mind, while having no fixed agenda, is free to respond to circumstances.”
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“Any method can settle the mind in the present moment, but with Silent Illumination you can be relieved of even the present moment. Just take this attitude: don’t worry about the past or the future, and let go of the present too. Just stay in awareness. Chan is called the “gateless gate” because it has no door to enlightenment.”
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