First talk of 2020, a review of where we have been and looking ahead to where we are going.

A podcast talk to take us into 2020. This month takes its name from the Roman God Janus, a threshold deity with two faces, one looking backwards at where we have come from and one forwards to where we are going. This podcast takes a closer look at Buddhist daily life practice and offers suggestions for going forward.

In this podcast:

• The importance of reflection in developing insight wisdom.
• The three aspects of all Buddhist practice.
• Meditation practice, cultivating the mind of meditation on and off the cushion.
• Ethical conduct, precept practice, turning the Noble Eightfold Path into practice, the importance of realising ‘ethos’.
• Wisdom practice and using scripture and the Zen canon as a basis for speaking with the Buddha-Heart.

This month’s questions:

• Buddhist practice places an emphasis on ones own training, but how can this help when faced with all the very real problems in the world such as war, environmental catastrophes, injustice etc.?
• As a Buddhist should I celebrate Christmas?

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In this podcast:

• The problem of ‘Right View’ and the Wisdom pillar.
• Ananda becomes and arhat.
• The story of The Wooden Sword - Karma and the butterfly wing.
• Buddhism as a traveling religion and how it relates to indigenous faiths.
• A season of goodwill and the Four Brahma Viharas

1.

With great effort the herdsman succeeded in catching the bull.

But stubborn, wilful and strong, this bull is not easily gentled!

At times he breaks out and climbs up to the high plains,

Or rushes down into foggy marshlands to hide himself there.

2.

Hold the rein tight and do not let go.

Many of the subtlest faults are not yet up-rooted.

No matter how gently the herdsman pulls at the nose-rope,

The bull may still rear and try to bolt back to the wild.

3.

Though caught where the sweet-scented grass reachers sky-high,

The herdsman must not let go of the rein tied to the bull’s nose.

Though the way home beckons clearly already,

The herdsman must often halt with the bull, by the blue stream or on the green mountain.

(Gentling the Bull: The Ten Bull Pictures, A Spiritual Journey by Myokyo-ni; pub. Zen Centre London)

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In this podcast:

• The symbolism of the rope, how the Bull and the herdsman are always conjoined either consciously or unconsciously.
• Neglected aspects of consciousness continue to have an impact in our lives and the need for integration.
• The heart of transformation is the sincerity of the relationship rather than brute force.
• The lifelong process of discovery between the conscious and unconscious aspects of being.
• The need for discipline as a revealer of truths.
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You can download this podcast here.

You will find the previous podcasts in this series here.

This month’s question:

Now that I practice Buddhism (and meditation), should I give up psychotherapy?

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In this podcast:

• How Western psychology looked East for inspiration.
• Mental health and the Buddhist Way out of Suffering, are they the same thing?
• How do conceptions of Mind, psychology and intentional action differ East & West?
• The analogous nature of karma & rebirth and the psychodynamic model.
• Does it matter that Zen practice and psychotherapy use different methods?

3. Finding the Bull

1.

Suddenly a bush warbler trills high in the tree top.

The sun shines warm, and in the light breeze the willows on the water’s edge show their new green.

There is no longer a place where the bull can hide himself;

No painter can capture that magnificent head with its soaring horns!

2.

On seeing the bull and hearing his bellow,

Tai-sung, the painter, surpassed his craft.

Accurately he pictured the heart-bull from head to tail,

And yet, on carefully looking, he is not quite complete.

3.

Having pushed his face right against the bull’s nose,

He no longer needs to follow the bellowing.

This bull is neither white nor blue.

Quietly nodding, the herdsman smiles to himself.

Such a landscape cannot be caught in a picture!

(Gentling the Bull: The Ten Bull Pictures, A Spiritual Journey by Myokyo-ni; pub. Zen Centre London)

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In this podcast:

• The Heart-Bull as the source of life.
• The teachings that open the Dharma-eye.
• Kano paints the Myoshin-ji dragons & Bai-yu plays the magic harp. Establishing the correct relationship between herdsman and Bull.
• The passions and the Buddha nature: The Two Truths of appearance and reality the perspectivism of Yogacara teachings.

This month’s question:

Do we really need a Master to follow the path or can we do it alone?

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In this podcast:

• What is it that we seek from the Buddha’s teachings? Specifically what is it that we suffer from?
• Putting down ‘good roots’ as a valid path in Buddhism - The path of the laity.
• A problem may arise that calls us to go deeper - Hakuin Ekaku and the fire sermon
• Delusion means ‘I’ cannot see -why we need a representative of Buddha to guide us
• Can we do it alone? Buddha’s period in the forest. There is aspect where training is oneself.
• Over reliance on the teacher can also be a mistake.

Under the trees by the water, the bull’s traces run here and there.

Has the herdsman found the way through the high, scented grass?

However far the bull now may run, even up the far mountains,

With a nose reaching up to the sky, he cannot hide himself any longer.

Many wrong paths cross where the dead tree stands by the rock.

Restlessly running round and round, in his little nest of grass,

Does he know his own error? In his search, just when his feet follow the traces,

He has passed the bull by and has let him escape.

Many have searched for the bull but few ever saw him.

Up north in the mountains or down in the south, did he find his bull?

The One Way of light and dark along which all come and go;

Should the herdsman find himself on that Way he need not look further.

(Gentling the Bull by Myokyo-ni pub. The Zen Centre London)

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You can find The Zen Gateway’s course on these ten pictures here.

In this podcast:

• What are the traces of the bull?
• Freud & Jung: The Unconscious and the Bull Herding Pictures
• Discovering the shadow to oneself; the evidence right before the eyes.
• Why do we tend to ignore the evidence of the existence of the Unconscious?
• The power of frustration to increase Right Effort.
• Becoming aware of the light and dark way in daily life practice.

This month’s question is:

‘In a recent podcast you used a phrase ‘informing information’, to what does this refer?’

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In this podcast:

• Buddha nature, True nature, Original nature is empty but not ‘void’.
• The development of the concept of Buddha nature from Tathāgatagarbha - the Buddha womb.
• The similes of the  Tathāgatagarbha Sutra.
• The functioning of Buddha nature as informing information.
• The flowering trees and pollinating insects, two ways of seeing this arising.

In this series of talks the verses traditionally attached to the Ten Bull Herding pictures will be discussed in terms of the stages of transformation in Zen training. What do they reveal about each stage and how do they impact on our practice of working with the emotional household?

1

Alone in a vast wilderness, the herdsman searches for his bull in the tall grass.

Wide flows the river, far range the mountains, and ever deeper into the wilderness goes the path.

Wherever he seeks, he can find no trace, no clue. Exhausted and in despair,

As the evening darkens he hears only the crickets in the maples.

2

Looking only into the distance, the searching herdsman rushes along.

Does he know his feet are already deep in the swampy morass?

How often, in the fragrant grasses under the setting sun,

Has he hummed Hsin-feng (Shinpo), the Song of the Herdsman in vain?

3.

There are no traces in the origin. Where then to search?

Gone astray, he stumbles about in dense fog and tangled growth.

Though unwitting, grasping the nose of  the bull, he already returns as a guest,

Yet under the trees by the edge of the water, how sad is his song.

(Gentling the Bull by Myokyo-ni pub. The Zen Centre London

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You can find The Zen Gateway course on these ten pictures here.

In this podcast:

• Why poetry is used as a medium for spiritual experience?
• A recap on who is the herdsman and what is the Bull?
• The need for trauma to create the motivation to start the spiritual search.
• Looking afar for what is near.
• How we create an oasis of safety around ourselves and how this is shattered by spiritual experience.
• Sorrow as the initiating circumstance for beginning our spiritual journey.