Silent Illumination and the Practice of Wonderment (Part 1)

In the first part of this two-part Wednesday Night Dharma Talk mini-series, Zen teacher Guo Gu explores the deep relationship between silent illumination (or just sitting), and embodiment practice. He traces the historical roots of silent illumination from ancient China and Zen patriarch Hongzhi, through to Dogen’s application of them in the Soto school of Zen. Guo Gu discusses silent illumination as a remedy for our natural tendency to be “top heavy,” saying, “we have to disentangle this overlay of discursive, rumination, ideas, words, and language onto all of our experiences, all the senses.” His approach centers on embodied experiencing – through progressive relaxation of skin, muscles, and tendons, we ground our experience within the body itself—this is how we “come to know ourselves, and come to know the world, others, through our body right now.” This simple but profoundly practical practice reveals how we can transform not just our sitting practice, but our entire way of being present with others in daily life. In part two, Guo Gu will guide us deeper into embodied practice and explore the unifying quality of wonderment in silent illumination.