Zen Talking

#Post(s) in Question

###Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1o6d09y/lonely_footnote_60_feeding_grass/

###Link to episode: Alms Giver's Ox, Tribeless Men, and the Loneliness Epidemic

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

THE MALE LONELINESS EPIDEMIC IS ROOTED IN NOT HAVING A "TRIBE" IN BOOKS

Knowing: Blurt vs know-where-to-search vs believe it must be "somewhere".

Five Ox herding Zen pictures IS NOT NOT NOT the Buddhist 10 bulls.

New word! Oxbullcow.

Is the "white bull" = Zen bull #5 ?

Oxbullcow Cases by type: 1. Zen Masters acting like cows; what about Puhua as a donkey? 2. Mystery of, e.g. Lattice Window 3. ?

If you have a degree in French poetry? You bring it up at Starbucks.

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

###Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1nwytsk/i_choose_violence_zen_study_in_a_violent_tradition/

###Link to episode:

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Cancel Culture as violence. Zen Cancel Culture via Xiangyang.

Physical violence. Psychological violence. Political speech, political violence.

And some nerd segues into Asian desserts, Asian studies funding, the monkey in Edgar Allen Poe, the 49th Case.

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

###Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1n9p3s9/some_zen_koans_can_be_incredibly_absurd_but_how/

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Theory of study: If you can't read French, then of course French confuses you. If confusing yourself is your religion, you still can't claim that the French intended to confuse you by using French language.

Specific translations questions.

How the Case makes total sense if you translate it correctly.

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

###Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1mgiv6r/building_a_single_belly_for_zen/

The Illusory Man by Zhonfeng Mingben

12. Enter The Gate Abruptly

Understand that the Great Illusory Dharma Gate is right at the soles of your feet and has never moved a single hair. You just need for your delusions to be snuffed out, for your point of view to end. When you take a false step and trample on your attachments, then you'll know that Taiyuan heard a gong at the same moment Dongshan crossed the river, and there will be no separation between us.

When you get here to the place where the Great Illusory Dharma Gate is entered, kick it over with a single kick. Don't preserve your footprints: only then can you be ten feet tall. An emancipated person must be able to enter the gate abruptly. If you drift through live (sp, life?) frivolously, your mind always in a single revery of delight, then obviously you're still taking part in yesterday's bewilderments.

This matter is not explained thoroughly, and then you rest easy. Nor is it something you finish seeing, and then you can take a break. It is done incessantly and without deviation, from beginning to end.

When you're ten feet tall, you don't cling to a single truth like it's a fish basket. Being adequate only to the burden of the Buddha's teachings is just sowing weeds. Even at this very moment the truth of the Way is not an antique; people's minds are just lazy and idle. They may behave like teachers and behave like disciples but really, they just seek to balance one another's accounts. Day and night they entice each other with appearances when they ought to be building a single belly for Zen, the Way, the Buddhadharma. There, life and death are the family treasure. It hasn't ever yielded its dwelling high up on the cliff, and if it's cut off behind, it just comes around again rejuvenated.

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

danger and seriousness

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

###Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/askZen/comments/1mg51jw/making_sense_of_the_bcr_case_5_xuefengs_grain_of/

Xuefeng said to his group,

(One blind man leading a crowd of the blind. It's not beyond him.)

.

"Pick up the whole world, and it;s as big as a grain of rice."

(What technique is this> I myself have never sported devil eyes.)

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Reading this case from two viewpoints: original audience and modern audience. Two entirely different contexts with different challenges.

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

### Post: There wasn't a post!

###Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Despite connection problems and mic quality, an interesting conversation with someone who knocked on some doors and has thoughts about that.

I didn't edit the longest part because of integrity! No? It's because low production value is our brand! Not really? Okay, then... because it takes too long and I'm busy?

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

Post: Cause Effect and Community

Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

1. cause & effect 2. "chilling effect" - people being discouraged from participation 3. Hermits v.s. socialites (retreating from public v.s. being beholden to public) 4. Being dangerous 5. Seeing with the same eyes as all the buddhas

The hermit delusion loop vs community conformity loop

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1ls8bau/treasury_492_dont_misconceive/

'Muslin Robe' Zhao one night pointed to the half moon and asked elder Pu, "Where has the other part gone?" Pu said, "Don't misconceive." Zhao said, "You've lost a piece." Dahui said, "He gets up by himself and falls down by himself."

Link to episode:

Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

When is it not a metaphor?

When you can't see the moon?

Is what you can't see still there?

Two halves to the moon, the "two" of knowing and not knowing".

Cases mentioned:

1. Guichen asked, "Where are you going?" Fayan replied, "On an ongoing pilgrimage." Guichen said, "Why do you go on a pilgrimage?" Fayan replied, "I don't know." Guichen said, "Not knowing is most intimate." At these words Fayan instantly experienced enlightenment.

2. One day Master Yunmen brought up this story about one of his teachers: "A monk once asked Master Yuezhou Qianfeng, 'The honored ones of the ten directions all had a single gateway to ultimate liberation. Where is this gateway?' Then Master Yuezhou drew a line in the ground with his staff and said, 'Here.'" Master Yunmen then held up his fan and offered this comment: "This fan jumps to the uppermost heaven and hits the god Indra; when it strikes the carp of the Eastern Sea, the rain pours down in torrents. Do you understand?"

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1lq84sk/falling_into_cause_and_effect/

Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Zen Masters tell people that enlightenment is not based on cause and effect, and that enlightened people are not subject to karma. This was heresy as far as 8fp Buddhists were concerned.

Cause and effect mattered to Buddhists back in the day... what is the modern version that matters to people now?

# Keep in Touch

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen

#Post(s) in Question

Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/askZen/s/AiaILuDT3X

Link to episode:

Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

# What did we talk about?

Who are the Patriarchs? Previous translation errors.

How to make sense from one sentence to the next in Zen formal poetic instruction.

#You can be on the podcast! Use a pseudonym! Nobody cares!

Add a comment if there is a post you want somebody to get interviewed about, or you agree to be interviewed. We are now using libsyn, so you don't even have to show your face. You just get a link to an audio call. Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen