fǎn zhào 返照, J. henshō; K. panjo), also translated as “tracing back the radiance,” or “counter-illumination,” is a Zen Buddhist expression referring to turning attention from outward phenomena to awareness itself.
The additional characters, huí guāng, mean: The phrase huí guāng fǎn zhào can also mean "final radiance of setting sun,"[web 5][1] as when the sun sets but still lights up the clouds from beneath;[2][note 1] and "dying flash (of lucidity or activity, prior to demise),"[web 5] the moment shortly before dying when the life-force is fully expressed and one glows.
[9]Similarly, counter-illumination occurs in the Jueguan lun of the Oxhead School, which contains a dialogue in which the student, called Conditionality, experiences awakening at the hands of his teacher, Enlightenment.
Where Enlightenment's teaching relies extensively on negation, Conditionality's awakening is described in positive terms as the counter-illumination of the "mysterious brilliance" of pure wisdom.
[11] The Chan master Shitou Xiqian (700–790) also says: Turning my own light in upon myself 迴光返照, I returnAnd penetrate into the spiritual source, neither front nor back.
"[13] The phrase "turning the luminosity [of the mind] towards the mind's source" (fanzhao xinyuan) appears in the Dunhuang text, the Dunwu dacheng zhenglijue [Ratification of the True Principle of the Mahayana Teaching of Sudden Enlightenment], a text said to record the teachings of Heshang Moheyan (Hva shang Mahāyāna), a Chinese Chan master active in Tibet during the late 8th century.
Meinert points out that the term fan yuan, "return to the source," also appears in the Dunwu dacheng zhenglijue, in a quotation from the Śūraṅgama Sūtra.
"[22]The Japanese Zen master Dōgen (1200–1253) describes it as follows: “You should stop the intellectual practice of pursuing words and learn the ‘stepping back’ of ‘turning the light around and shining back’ (Jp: ekō henshō); mind and body will naturally ‘drop off,’ and the ‘original face’ will appear.”[23] According to Joseph Markowski, quoting Davis 2016, for Dōgen, directing our awareness upon “awareness” itself reveals a “mirroring” of phenomena "which reflects things as they show themselves without distortion" (Davis 2016, 223).
"[25] The following appears in the final entry of the Jingde Chuandeng lu, and was appended to the text in the Yuan dynasty: "If unable to have faith, you will forever sink into a deep pit in an ocean of faults, but if you can turn the light around, then in one instant heart and thoughts are put to rest; at this time confusions, afflictions and foolish sentiments suddenly vanish, all karmic limitations turn into the sweet dew of the finest gee, to peace and happiness in the nation.
"[web 6] According to Shore, it "jump[s] directly into the heart of the matter [...] short circuit[ing], in one fell swoop, the endless regression of ordinary consciousness.
"[web 6] Regarding the meaning of biguan, or "wall contemplation," a practice famously attributed to Bodhidharma, Yanagida Seizan writes, "At the same time, 'wall contemplation' includes the idea of 'turning back the brilliance in counter illumination' (ekō henshō 廻向返照, or huixiang fanzhao in Chinese), the wonderfully bright radiance of the setting sun.
"[28] Jeffrey Broughton also points out that where Bodhidharma's teachings appear in Tibetan translation among the Dunhuang manuscripts, the Chinese phrase "in a coagulated state abides in wall-examining" (ning chu pi-kuan) is replaced in Tibetan with "rejects discrimination and abides in brightness" (rtogs pa spangs te | lham mer gnas na).