1.

Returned to the origin, back at the source, all is completed.

Nothing is better than suddenly being as blind and deaf.

Inside his hermitage he does not look out.

Boundless, the river runs as it runs. Red bloom the flowers just as they bloom.

2.

The great activity does not pander to being or not being.

And so, to see and to hear he need not be as one deaf and blind.

Last night the golden bird flew down into the sea,

Yet today as of old, the red ring of dawn flares up in the sky.

3.

Done is what had to be done, and all ways are completed.

Clearest awakening does not differ from being blind and deaf.

The way he once came has ended under his straw sandals.

No bird sings. Red flowers glow in crimson splendour.

(The Bull and his Herdsman: The Ten Traditional Pictures by D.R. Otsu, pub. Zen Centre London 1989)

…………………………..

In this podcast:

• Why the Buddha equated Wisdom with the end of desire.
• How awakening changes everything and yet all is the same.
• The importance of the return to the world.
• Not being caught by sacred and mundane and yet being able to clearly differentiate ‘Buddha & Mara’.

This month’s question:

I’ve heard you use the phrase ‘daily life practice’ in some of the talks. Is this different from mindfulness practice?

….

In this podcast:

• The meaning of a word is in how it is used.
• The basis of Buddhist practice, the three pillars and the Satipatthana sutta.
• Differences between the schools of Buddhism
• Principles and styles
• Translations into English and the adoption of mind/mindfulness

Why ‘daily life practice’ and its relationship to zazen.

1.

Whip and rein, bull and man, are all gone and vanished.

No words can encompass the blue vault of the sky.

How could snow pile up on  read-hot hearth?

Only when arrived at this place can a man match the old masters.

2.

Shame! Up till now I wanted to save the whole world;

Now, what a surprise! There is no wold to be saved!

Strange! Without ancestors or successors,

Who can inherit, who pass on this truth?

3.

Space shattered at one blow and holy and worldly both vanished.

In the Untreadable the path has come to an end.

The bright moon over the temple and the sound of wind in the tree.

All rivers, returning their waters, flow back again to the sea.

(The Bull and his Herdsman: The Ten Traditional Pictures - Zen M)aster D.R. Otsu; pub. Zen Centre London 1989)

………………………..

In this podcast:

• The meaning of Bodhidharma’s replies to Emperor Wu
• Emptiness as the way to a Great Mystery!
• Looking at Koans instead of the source they come from
• The importance of lineage both personal and Dharma lineage.
• Mystery as a presence rather than something to be solved

A talk on insight meditation 

and

Separating work and leisure when working full time from home.

This month’s question:

What is the best way to help someone who is dying and afraid?

…………………………………….

In this podcast:

• Jung’s letter to the bereaved mother and finding meaning in death.
• The personal and the mythic, the phenomenal and the eternal.
• Prince Gotama and the question of ‘loss’.
• Passing through the opposites of birth and death Vedas x 3
• Dying as a natural process.
• Sudden death and the landscape of Spring.
• Being with the dying - staying out of the way of the process.
• Listening not alleviating the situation
• Being with the dead

At home - what is it to feel 'at home'. How can we use mindfulness to explore this concept?

1.

The herdsman had already come home on the back of the bull.

Now the bull is forgotten and the man is at ease.

He may still sleep though the sun is high in mid-heaven.

Whip and rein are now useless, and put away under the eaves.

2.

Though the herdsman has brought the bull down from the mountain, the stable is empty.

Straw coat and bamboo hat, too, have become useless.

Not bound by anything and at leisure, singing and dancing,

Between heaven and earth he has become his own master.

3.

The herdsman has returned home. Now home is everywhere.

When both things and self are wholly forgotten, peace reigns all day long.

Believe in the peak ‘Entrance to the Deep Secret’ -

No man can settle down on this peak.

(The Bull and his Herdsman: The Ten Traditional Pictures, Zen Master D.R. Otsu, pub. Zen Centre, London 1989)

…

In this podcast:

• Going beyond the psychological into the spiritual
• The one way of the Arhat path to Nirvana leading to the Bodhisattva path to Buddhahood
• How the images of the herdsman and bull also must be laid down.
• Discipline as a means to an end and also how it forms us into rounded human beings
• A heart that can travel anywhere and call everywhere a home.
• The profound and deep mystery at the heart of religion.

This month’s question is:

What is ‘mu-shin’, and what is the importance of it in Zen training?

………………………

In this podcast:

• Etymology of ‘mu-shin’, and its appearance in the Mumonkan.
• Good and bad translations of sunyata.
• The Buddha’s dilemma under the Bodhi tree.
• The Bodhisattva Path and the practice of the paramitas
• The centrality of Prajña in The Platform Sutra - ‘Wisdom and zazen is of one essence’.
• Torei’s “There begin’s a different life.”

1.

Not for a moment may the herdsman drop whip and rein

Or the bull would break free and stampede into the dust.

But once patiently trained and made truly gentle,

He follows the herdsman without halter or chain.

2.

Now the bull may saunter through the hill forests,

Or else walk the much travelled roads, covered in dust.

Never will he touch fodder from another man’s meadow.

Coming or going requires no effort - the bull quietly carries the man.

3.

In patient training the bull got used to the herdsman and is truly gentle.

Should he walk right into dust, he now no longer gets dirty.

Long and patient gentling! In one sudden plunge the herdsman has won his whole fortune.

Under the trees, others encounter his mighty laugh.

(The Bull and his Herdsman Comments and pointers by Zen Master D.R. Otsu pub Zen Centre London 1989)

……………………………..

In this podcast:

• How the traditional entrance begging of the monk’s is a test of aspiration for the training.
• Sesshins (Zen Retreats), help cultivate inner strength.
• Gentling through trust rather than through control
• The six dusts and the afflictions of the Heart-Mirror
• The warmth of the Mahayana as part of Heart’s aspiration