This is the third in a series of koans centred on the natural world. The koan is Case 38 in the Mumonkan

Books used in the teisho:

Zen's Chinese Heritage by Andy Ferguson and The Gateless Barrier by Robert Aitken.

This is the second in a series of koans centred on the natural world. The koan is Case 37 in the Mumonkan, Zhaozhou's Cypress Tree in the Courtyard.

Sources: Pilgrim at Tinker's Creek by Annie Dillard and Two Zen Classics by Katsuki Sekida.

This is the first in a series of koans centred on the natural world. The koan is Case 46 in the Blue Cliff Record.

Sources: Zen's Chinese Heritage by Andy Ferguson and A Step Away from Paradise by Thomas Shor.

Main references:

Nine Lives by William Dalrymple

The Secret Life of Flies by Erica McAlister

Ichi Tantei: talks by Tangen Roshi.

Texts used in the teisho:

Karen Armstrong, Buddha

Stephen Batchelor, Living with the Devil

Nyanaponika Thera and Hellmuth Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha

Book quoted from:  The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling by James Hillman.

Book quoted from:  The Force of Character by James Hillman.

Nagarjuna's Verses from the Centre Part Two. In this teisho we concentrate on the verses themselves.

Sources: Verses from the Centre translated by Stephen Batchelor

The Unborn: Life and Teachings of Zen Master Bankei by Norman Waddell

Readings from Stephen Batchelor's Introduction to his translation of Nagarjuna's Verses from the Centre. Nargajuna was an important Indian teacher and our 14th Zen Ancestor. Batchelor calls him "the poet of emptiness".

Teisho by Sensei Richard von Sturmer

Readings from the autobiography of Daiun Sogaku Harada-roshi, Roshi Kapleau's first teacher.