Gyodo Sensei offers appreciation and reflections on the dharma of opening from Hongzhi’s Practice Instructions, Simply Drop off Everything: “Silently dwell in the self, in true suchness abandon conditioning. Open-minded and bright without defilement, simply penetrate and drop off everything. Today is not your first arrival here.”

In this kind of openness, we open inward, to the inner experience of all beings and all things, including the parts of ourselves that we’ve closed off, disowned, or ignored. We open up to the silence and stillness of our source, and see that inside and outside are not separate. Letting go of externals, we open to the vast realm of reality.