3 days Chan Retreat conducted by Guo Qi Fa Shi (of Dharma Drum Mountain)

exactly 1 year hav passed since the last retreat by Dharma Drum,
this year i attended it as well (31 - 3 Jan)
n i am pleasantly surprised to see many retreatants from last year one returning,
it became a mini reunion for us to catch up =D
(but only before n after the retreat of cse, since this is a silent retreat aka no talking =))

i am so very grateful for the organisers and helpers that made this retreat possible, n of cse shifu Guo Qi Fa Shi and Chang Yuan Fa Shi, so grateful they came all way down from Taiwan,
thanks for keeping the Dharma alive =D

b4 going on to techniques, for those who wants to have a good feel of the retreat settings n schedule, pls see my good fren's vincent's blog, he does it so well n professionally, not like my ramblings haha:

http://vincenttraveljournal.blogspot.com/2010/01/dharma-drum-3-day-retreat-3112-0301.html

something on the techniques:

3 methods of meditation were taught:

1. counting/following breath (as used in previous retreat)
2. Silent Illumination (Mo Zhao)
3. Hua Tou

we were given a taste of the above methods (each day intro one method)
and at of day for us to decide which one is suited for us =)
i always been the "soto" type of guy (whatever that means hahaha)
so naturally silent illumination was what i fell in love with =p
so thats what i will touch on a little here...
- the method of silent illumination is the core meditation practice of the Cao Dong (Soto) school of Chan (Zen) also popularly known as Shikantaza (the japanese version).
It is somewhat of a method that combines both samatha (hence the word silence) and vipassana (hence illumination) into one, two aspects functioning at the same time,
sometimes it is also known as the method of no method (no particular object of meditation)

to my understanding,
the fundamentals of mo zhao is nothing more than this:
1. where the body is, the mind is there
2. be very clear about everything/anything that arises,
but don't be identified with it (qing4 qing4 chu4 chu4, bu2 zhai4 hu1)

that essentially means, see clear, hear clear (e.g. cars zooming by in the background), when thinking arises see that clearly also, etc,
but leave them alone, dun touch it, dun fix it,
our little mind aka ego keep wanting to get involved in things, comment on things, analyse, complain, fix it, basically playing ard with anything that arises in our mind,
which is unfortunately more interesting than mo zhao haha =p
so practice mo zhao means leaving it all alone and just sit =)
just sit, that's all =)
sounds simple, and it IS that simple =)
the simplest technique there is in da world, but when we do it, it may not seem so,
because our little minds can be sooooo complicated keke =)


to find out more about mo zhao
1. join one of Dharma Drum's Mo Zhao retreats
2. read Master Sheng Yen's Hoofprint of the Ox and Illuminating Silence