Recorded on April 27, 2024

This talk, given by Roshi Rafe Jnan Martin, explores case 35 of the Gateless Barrier: “Which is the True Ch’ien?” This wonderfully creative koan uses a T’ang era ghost tale of a young woman divided from herself, to help us uncover our own real Self today. It’s the old old story of Identity — the essential quest of myth and folklore worldwide — recast as a koan with the power to help us live more fully. [This case is sometimes also known as “Sei and Her Soul Are Separated.”}

Books cited:

• The Gateless Barrier: The Wu-Men Kuan (Mumonkan), Translated and with a Commentary by Robert Aitken 
• The Record of Transmission of Light (Denkoroku), Master Keizan Jōkin
• Complete Poison Blossoms from a Thicket of Thorn: The Zen Records of Hakuin Zenji, Translated by Norman Waddell
• The Snow Leopard, Peter Matthiessen

Original Painting — “Moon Among the Clouds” by Rafe Martin

• Books by Roshi Rafe Martin
• Talks on YouTube
• More information at endlesspathzen.org