The Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness
is an intimate study of each of the 47 couplets of Zen Master Tung-shan’s enlightenment poem.
The Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness is a chant that is recited regularly in Soto Zen monasteries and centers. It describes the internal process required to attain and maintain the “Jewel Mirror Awareness,” the heart of Zen training. It offers insight through its depiction of a Chinese master’s understanding of the dynamic interpenetration of two aspects of reality: the Personal (phenomenal, relative, particular) and the Universal (numinous, absolute, collective). Tung-shan Liang-chieh (Japanese – Tozan Ryokai 807-869 CE) wrote the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness during the Tang dynasty (618 – 907), the most creative and influential phase in the development of Zen Buddhism in China. He is regarded as the founder of the Ts’ao-tung lineage, one of the Five Houses of Ch’an.
Excerpts from the Song of the Jewel Mirror Awareness Study Guide
#1 The teaching of thusness
Has been intimately communicated by Buddhas and Ancestors
The teaching of thusness
Thusness is a term meaning “reality as it arises.” It is witnessing the unfolding of the world, free of identification with conceptions, opinions, assumptions, judgments, or sentimentality. The teaching of thusness points toward the attainment of liberating wisdom.
Has been intimately communicated by Buddhas and Ancestors
The Buddhas and Ancestors expound the truth for the benefit of ordinary beings. “Intimately communicated” is intuitive perception. Zen Master Dogen describes this communication as, “What all Buddhas and Ancestors have received and retained, and transmitted one-to-one, is the eternal mirror.”
#2 Now you have it
So keep it well.
Now you have it
Through the efforts of all the Buddhas and Ancestors, we now have a record of the stream of awakening. More personally, now you have it is the functioning of your own Buddha Nature.
So keep it well.
Appreciate the dharma. Protect your aspiration to awaken. Value your insights and understanding. Deeply trust your inner truth. In the Fukanzazengi Dogen states, “You have gained the pivotal opportunity of human form.” Human form embodies the ability for awakening – a rare chance to hear, practice, and express the Dharma.
Now you have it may also refer to sudden awakening, glimpsing the mirror awareness. So keep it well is an instruction to attend to gradual cultivation. Enlightened understanding is maintained through diligent practic
