‘All the evil Karma created by me from of old,

Out of beginningless greed, anger and delusion,

Committed with body, speech and thought,

Of all this I now make full and open repentance.’

……………….

In this podcast:

• Introduction to some of the chants that are chanted in Zen Temples and monasteries and what they are about.
• How to understand the Repentance Sutra we must understand something about Karma and how the Buddha saw the existence of all beings.
• The connection with Karma to agrarian culture and why it is such a useful symbol.
• How the present is created by the past, just as the future is created by the present and why Karma is not Fate.
• Cycles of time as different to linear ‘one-off’ time.
• How intentional actions of body, speech and mind are the true agents because of the link to desire and grasping.
• The difference between repentance and guilt.
• It isn’t enough to repent from unskilful actions.

This short audio is an extract from: Gentling the Bull: The Ten Bull Pictures - A Spiritual Journey with comments by Myokyo-ni.

The title of the Chapter - Bull Forgotten Man Remains - concludes the full integration of the Bull energy into the human form. It signals the end of that part of the gentling process and begins the final ascent 'up the mountain' which is the religious path proper. It also highlights the importance of reverence in the face of the deep mysteries that are to be encountered on this part of the journey and the necessity for 'I' to be softened up so as not to be shattered by it.

You can buy this book here.

No portraits or sculptures existed of the Buddha. After he died, a great longing arose to know what he had looked like. Anybody who was ancient enough to have met him was sure of an attentive audience.

Just such a person was a nun, now over 100 years old. To procure some solitude, she had moved out of the town into a little Hermitage, but anyone wishing to enquire would soon come to hear of her. One day a sincere seeker, a highly attained Elder monk, sent a message to her requesting a meeting. She agreed, but having her own ways of assessing her visitors, set up a large jar with water by the side of the rope curtain that functioned as the front door. The visitor arrived, pulled aside the curtain, striding in, accidentally kicked over the jar. The nun scolded, "There goes the greatly attained one, so exulted that he can't even keep from messing up this poor abode." To the credit of the Elder, who in rank certainly was well above the venerable nun, he apologised and then entreated her to tell him about the Buddha.

The nun, well aware of this, now assured him, "In spite of your carelessness, you deserve hearing the story and will profit by it. You see, my parents were devout followers of the Lord Buddha, and when he once again came to our neighbourhood to preach, they went there and took me with them. I was a flighty teenager not a bit interested in his teachings, but was content enough to come along all dressed up in my Sunday finery and pleased with my appearance.

A huge crowd had assembled and sat respectfully facing the Buddha. I hardly listened and soon got bored, but not daring to fidget, I began to play with my ornaments. Suddenly my hairpin, a family heirloom, worked loose and slithered Down into the long grass out of sight. I was horror-struck; not daring to make a commotion, I surreptitiously searched as far as my hands could reach but, however I tried, the pin had vanished. I was in despair-what was I to do?

Suddenly I was aware of a radiance and looking up beheld the Buddha’s eyes upon me, from between his eyes a ray shone directly in front of me and in its light I caught the sparkle of my pin in the long grass. With a sob I retrieved it and my heart turned. The World Honoured One himself preaching to such a large audience, had perceived the plight of an inattentive girl, fidgeting about, and yet had taken pity on her plight and compassionately helped her out of it. At that moment I knew that all I wanted was to devote myself to him and his teaching, and have done so ever since"

The old nun smiled at the Elder and added, "You see, if even the World Honoured One was not above beholding a flighty girl’s commotion about a lost hairpin and extended his kindness to help her you might also exercise the same and not kick over my water jar again. So when you leave, step carefully, if you please.”

(Look and See: Buddhist Teaching Stories with Commentaries by the Venerable Myokyo-ni)

……………………….

In this talk Martin explores the subject of the heart’s aspiration, and how it may be awakened in an encounter with the Buddha and his teachings, leading to a life affirming turn - around of the heart.

Randolph Whitfield has been a lifelong Zen Buddhist practitioner, studying under Master Daiyu Myokyo in London and Soko Morinaga Roshi in Kyoto.

He originally studied classical guitar and piano at London’s Trinity College of Music and then later studied classical Chinese at Leiden University. 

In recent years he undertook a Herculean task to translate the source texts for many of the later Zen Koan Collections - The Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, an early Medieval Chan/Zen text written in China. 

In this interview Randolph and Martin discuss all things to do with translating ancient Zen texts into English. Why these texts are so important and influential to the development of Zen, plus something of the underlying Mahayana philosophy present in this text which purports to give histories of the Zen lineage from the time of Gautama Buddha through the Indian patriarchs to the Chinese patriarchs at the time of composition.

Toward the end they discuss and additional translation project by Randolph, the Records of the Ancestral Mirror where they examine what these texts tell us about the nature of consciousness itself.

TEXT: Rinzai’s Attention to the Smallest Detail

‘Followers of the Way, as the Zen school sees it life and death are under a certain order. In interviews the student should consider the smallest details. When host and guest appear, there is an exchange of discourse.

Sometimes form is shown as corresponds to things. Sometimes the whole body (essence ) is borught into function. Sometimes the full power of solemn authority is exercised to evoke awe. Sometimes half the body (essence ) is revealed. Sometimes the lion is mounted, sometimes the elephant (respectively Manjustri’s and Samantabhadra’s mounts, wisdom and compassion). 

(The Zen Teaching of Rinzai - Tr. from the Chinese by Irmgard Schloegl)

……………………………..

In this podcast:

How the living pay respects to the dead and the dead hold the wisdom and traditions of the people which help the people face day to day problems. The Zen master becomes the obstacle in the life of his students. It is the arising of such challenges that allow opportunities for transformation of heart and ripening of insight. Master Rinzai goes on to give examples of how a teacher might use circumstances to wake students out of their slumber.

How do the bodhisattvas reconcile the saying that ‘samsara is nirvana’ when there is also suffering in the world. If nirvana is peace then how can that peace include suffering?

……………….

• Samsara is Nirvana, Nirvana is Samsara.
• The problem of evil
• Doctrinally, the view from emptiness - ocean and wave - Tozan’s 30 blows
• Projection of values - liking & disliking
• Definition of Dukkha
• Confucius - three men walk past an event
• Inner strength - in practice
• Fear = I

Martin gives a commentary on the following passage from The Zen Teachings of Rinzai tr. Irmgard Schloegl.

'Venerable Ones, do not delay and spend your days idly. In former days wen I could not yet see clearly, all the world seemed dark to me. I could not get beyond light and shade. I ran around with fever in my belly and with my heart in a flurry, asking about the Way. Later I gained strength and now I am here, preaching deliverance to you, followers of the Way. My advice is not to come here for just your food and clothes. Life in the world passes quickly, and it is difficult to meet good teachers; the Udambara plant only flowers once in a while.'

This is an extract from The Zen Way by Irmgard Schloegl who spent 12 years training in Zen Buddhism at Daitokuji. In this extract Martin Goodson reads an extract from the book detailing the daily routine of the monks plus the ordeal of entrance begging undergone by all monks to gain entry to the monastery. 

In this talk Master Rinzai explains that he sorts the students who come to him into three sorts. This introduces us to the notion that is there in early Buddhism that the path is made up of stages. The Arhat path has five stages that go from the earliest stirrings of interest to Arhatship and the attainment of Nirvana. The Mahayana Path has the ‘One Way’ as explained in the Lotus Sutra that sees the earlier Arhat Path as the stage prior to the Bodhisattva Path to Full And Perfect Enlightenment.

In Zen too, the masters made distinctions in what is called ‘root ability’. What is required is for us to devote the training to fulfilling that potential that is already there. It does not matter if two people learning to play the piano one goes on to a career as a great concert pianist whilst the other becomes a music teacher in a school. In the Dharma, Rinzai explains, the Dharma is ‘equal and even’ in all things. In the above case both the concert pianist and the music teacher have fulfilled their path in the Dharma and will live fulfilling lives. So it is in the Zen Training. Hence the Zen Poem:

In the landscape of Spring,

There is neither better nor worse.

The flowering branches grow

Both long and short.