Episode Description: Henry opens this teisho with a lovely look at the gift of the five precepts. He then provides an evocative exploration of the koan, “Jizo Plants the Rice Field”. We examine the core Zen question, “Where have you come from?” as the discussion moves onto various views about the “Three Worlds” of desire, form and no-form, ending with the Mahayana view that all these “three worlds” are inherently illusory. Yet the Bodhisattva ideal is still to save all beings from the three worlds. Is it possible that tasks as simple as planting rice and eating rice balls could somehow fully embody that ideal?

Post Image Credit: Courtesy Cherie Manifest.

Featured Image Credit: By Ryan Dickey, Via Photopin, CC BY 2.0