Summary: Sensei Kathie Fischer continues Upaya’s exploration of Zen Master Hongzhi’s teachings on the practice of silent illumination. She describes how Hongzhi, teaching during China’s Song Dynasty, bridges the gap between the early Chan (Zen) of the Tang Dynasty and that of Dogen, the founder of the Soto school of Zen.<br> Kathie reads Hongzhi’s poetic teachings on the practice of just sitting with the following question: How do we practice zazen without either grasping at every thought and running away with every emotion, on the one hand, or judging our thoughts and emotions and rejecting them, on the other? She invites us to consider that we could engage our thoughts as we would the song of a bird, neither to be clung to nor rejected, but simply experienced.<br> To access the <a href="https://www.upaya.org/resources/fall-practice-period-2022-resource-page/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">resources page for this program, please sign up by clicking here</a>.<br> <br> For Program/Series description and to access the entire series, please click on the link below:<br> <a title="Upaya Podcast Series: FALL PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Cultivating the Empty Field" href="https://www.upaya.org/2022/10/upaya-podcast-series-fpp-2022-cultivating-empty-field/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Upaya Podcast Series: SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD 2022: Cultivating the Empty Field</a><br>
