It's a Fine Day
Nyogen Roshi explores Zen's core teachings on Samadhi and mind-nature, using Wumen Huikai's poem as a starting point. He emphasizes emptying the mind, avoiding discursive thinking, and realizing the ever-present Buddha-nature beneath our conditioned responses.
Nyogen Roshi of Hazy Moon Zen Center delves into core Zen principles, particularly the cultivation of Samadhi and the nature of mind. He starts that talk with Zen Master Wumen Huikai's pointed verse:
A fine day under the blue sky!
Don't foolishly look here and there.
If you still ask 'What is buddha?'
It is like pleading your innocence
while clutching stolen goods.
Using this poem as a springboard, Roshi delves into the cultivation of Samadhi and the nature of mind, examining the state of non-distraction and pure awareness that lies at the heart of Zen practice.
Roshi emphasizes the critical practice of emptying the mind, echoing the words of ancient masters like Bodhidharma who taught "mind-to-mind transmission." He cautions against the pervasive tendency to slip into discursive thinking and attachment to self-image, illustrating how these habitual patterns construct our personal samsaric realms. The talk underscores the challenging yet essential task of maintaining Samadhi amidst the conditioned responses of the ego.
Throughout the discourse, Roshi weaves together teachings from classical Zen texts and contemporary insights, consistently returning to the fundamental premise that all phenomena arise from mind. He urges practitioners to recognize how they forge their own reality through grasping and aversion, and to penetrate the illusion of separation between subject and object. Roshi guides students towards the realization that Buddha-nature is ever-present, even when obscured by delusion, emphasizing that true liberation emerges from deepening one's practice of Samadhi and releasing attachment to transient phenomena.