Nondual Zen Transmission

Nondual Zen (禪 chán; ध्यान dhyāna) is a new online offering of regular transmissions into the Direct Path that sits at the heart of the Great Christic Consummation Path of Total Awakening. Traditionally, Zen is a distinctive lineage of contemplative practice conjoining both shamatha (serene stillness) and vipassana (clear seeing) in a seamless way. Set within an ambience of harmony with nature and celebration of the everyday, Zen has innovated efficacious "methods" of practice of which two main approaches are that of silent illumination meditation (默照禅 mozhaochan) and critical phrase inspection (看話頭 kanhuatou). 

Zen/Chan masters Dahui Zonggao (1089-1163) and Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157) were both respected luminaries and contemporaries of each other. Dahui promoted critical phrase inspection while Hongzhi was a famed exponent of silent illumination. But both were authentic masters and lineage holders who deeply admired each other despite Dahui's criticisms of a perverted form of silent illumination veering into laxity and blankness dubbed picturesquely as a "ghost cave on a dark mountain." Awarezen derives its distinctive approach to nondual Zen by way of the teachings of our Lineage teachers — Dharma Drum Mountain's Chan master Huikong Shengyen (1931-2009) and Plum Village's Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (1926-2022). Chan master Shengyen is a lineage holder of both Caodong (Soto) and Linji (Rinzai) schools of traditional Chan (Zen) while Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh is a lineage holder of the Linji school.

Awarezen Lineage's seamless integration of critical phrase inspection and silent illumination is characteristic of this potent introduction to the Direct Path of the Great Christic Consummation. Here, we "think non-thinking" into the innate clarity and knowing of the mind that deepens as a space of non-binary selflessness. With a "just-right" balance and buoyancy, coupled with penetrative inquiry of a critical phrase, it is possible to break through to your "original face before you were born." This original bare face of your innate mind is given many names (like buddha-nature) but they all point to the same empty unconfined awareness that shines brightly unveiled by clouds. It is not a "thing" but to be realized as none other than emptiness itself, naturally shining with its own immaculate radiance. All defiling tendencies and afflictions of the mind are erased in this nameless expanse. Glimpse after glimpse, sustained in steady unremitting flow, one moves from fleeting experience to stable realization, and finally to irreversible breakthrough and abidance, then effortlessly playing and dancing with the ten thousand emptinesses of the trichiliocosm.

13th century Zen master Dogen Zenji writes enigmatically:

An ancient Buddha said, "Mountains are mountains, waters are waters." These words do not mean mountains

are mountains; they mean mountains are mountains. Therefore investigate mountains thoroughly. When you investigate mountains thoroughly, this is the work of the mountains. Such mountains and waters of themselves become wise persons and sages.

In silent clarity and penetrative seeing, mountains and rivers reveal themselves as buddha-nature. Nondual Zen Transmission (NZT) at Awarezen is our offering to sincere meditators who resonate with this Zen ambience and perspective on seeing yourself as you really are. With the first glimpse of enlightenment, one gains without gaining the "Treasury of the Eye of True Dharma" (正法眼藏) as spoken by Dogen Zenji and Dahui Zonggao.

Birth is thus 

Death is thus 

Verse or no verse 

What’s the fuss?

— Dahui's final verse before passing

Light and free, unencumbered by birth and death, one dances freely through the six realms with not a single abiding place. Wherever you go, there you are. Like Dahui, you may sing: "Birth is thus, death is thus; verse or no verse, what's the fuss?" No fuss, no suffering. Freedom nowhere, now here.

RSVP at chriskang@awarezen.com to book (specifying your preferred date) and receive Zoom link.