SO TO ZEN - Shasta Abbey

d. What is Serene Reflection Meditation? 129fundamental religious spirit of Òpassing beyond and directlyenteringÓ (itch‡ jikiny‰).So, while the Serene Reflection School does not deny theusefulness of the k‡an on one hand, it does not emphasize itsunrestricted practice on the other. It sees training in everydaylife itself as the religious experience (kensh‡ or satori) and asthe real way for living within Buddhism. In serene reflectionmeditation, practice, enlightenment and wisdom are all fusedinto one. The Sixth Ancestor Hui-neng (J. En‡) succinctlysummarized this by saying Òmeditation and wisdom are nottwo separate entities.Ó This harmony between enlightenmentand training is called in Japan gy‡ge-s‡‡, i.e., the reciprocity oftraining and enlightenment. Masters of the S‡t‡ School must bepeople who have deeply realized this reciprocity of trainingand enlightenment, the harmonization of words and actions,body and mind. No matter how trifling their words or actionsmay appear, we cannot neglect them for a moment, we mustalways pay the utmost respect to them. This attitude may beunderstood as a complete commitment to continual religioustraining (gy‡ji memmitsu) and devotion to applying the meditationto the details of ordinary life. In this, we can see the populardemocratic aspect of the serene reflection tradition. Thedemocratic spirit of the East appears especially in samu whereZen masters and trainees work together on equal terms.