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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 Sam...

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?

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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 f...

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 maste...

In this talk we hear the story of a young man who, becomes disillusioned with life and turns to a Zen Master for help. 

The master then challenges him to a game in which if the young man loses he will also lose his head. In the process he discovers the inner strength of his own Buddha-Heart.

This story in many ways is similar to the story of the Buddha who as a young prince also became deeply disillusioned with the world and set out to find an answer.  

This state of disillusionment, is...

In this talk, which coincides with Halloween, a young man on his wedding day finds himself standing in front of Yama, Lord and Judge of the Dead.

The man bitterly complains having been taken away before his time and Yama in an unusual gesture of compassion agrees to send him back and also offers to send the young man three messengers so that he will be reminded that is time will come. What happens when the now older man finds himself once more before Yama teaches us that facing the truth of our own impermanent n...

Jamie Shavdia (www.jamieshavdia.co.uk) and Martin Goodson discuss the hugely popular book The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. 

In this podcast, they discuss where this book sits in the development of contemporary spirituality and psychotherapeutic treatments which introduce the present moment as a psychological medicine for many of our modern complaints.

Eckhart Tolle had what he described as an ‘enlightenment experience’ spontaneously, following bouts of deep depression and suicidal ideation. Jamie and Martin discuss the fact that there are some people who, without any prior spiritual training, do have such genuine revelations and t...

‘Followers of the Way, if you want to become Buddha, do not follow the ten thousand things. When the heart arises the ten thousand things arise too. When the heart is stilled, the manifold things cease. And when the heart does not rise, the ten thousand things are without blame. In the world and beyond the world, neither Buddha nor Dharma manifest themselves nor do they disappear. Though things exist they are only as names and words, sentences and catch phrases to attract little children; or expedient remedies for treating diseases, superficially revealed as names and phrases.’ 

The Z...

In this podcast:   What are the characteristics of delusion and delusive seeing? What is the connection between suffering and delusion? How truth can become toxic. Karma and habitual thinking and seeing.   ---------  

Q) Will all the problems go away when I stop thinking about them?

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In this podcast:

•   The context for this question - mental health crisis over climate change etc.

•   The disciple who reads the Vedas three times (introvert approach)

•   Problem solving and the difference between the extrovert and the introvert approach

•   God, grant me the serenity to accept the things

•   I cannot change,

•   The courage to change the things I can,

Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the heart has no form and pervades the Ten Directions. In the eye, it is called seeing; in the ear, hearing; in the nose, smelling; in the mouth, talking; in the hands, grasping; in the feet, walking.

 Fundamentally, it is one light; differentiated , it becomes the six senses. When one’s whole heart comes to a full stop, one is delivered where one stands. Why do I speak thus? It is only because I see you, followers of the Way. All running about with an agitated heart, quite unable to sto...

“Venerable Ones, get to know the one who plays with these configurations. He is the original source of all the Buddhas. Knowing him, wherever you are is home.

 Your physical body, formed by the four elements, cannot understand the Dharma you are listening to; nor can your spleen, stomach, liver or gall; nor can the empty space. Who then can understand the Dharma and can listen to it? The one here before your very eyes, brilliantly clear and shining without any form - there he is who can understand the Dharma you are listening to. If you can...

In this podcast:

The Grimm’s fairy tale of Lucky Hans
Why is our heart so restless - an experiment
The Buddha’s diagnosis of this restlessness
The estrangement of the Heart as cause - what the Buddha said on his awakening
The false self and the True Nature of the Heart.

One day, while wondering in the mountains, Shi Tou said to Shishi,

"‘just lop off that branch of the tree in front of me - its hindering me”

"I didn’ t bring a knife”,’replied Shishi.’ Shi Tou pulled out a knife and gave it Shishi.

"Why not let this come to me?’"said Shishi.

"What would you use it for?’"asked Shi Tou.

Then Shi Tou had a great awakening.

Q) Will you say something about the different types of bells and signals used in Zen?

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In this podcast: 

•       The use of clappers and inken in Zazen

•       The use of the gong for the turning over of merit for the benefit of all beings

•       Using the myokugyo or wooden fish for chanting along with the inken

•       The temple bell

•       The wake-up bell or drum/clap board

•       Some symbolism surrounding the use of bells and their connection with banishing evil spirits

In this podcast we look at how the Chan/Zen school arose in response to the complicated philosophy that had developed around Mahayana Buddhism that threatened to draw people away from the experience of ones own insight.

However there is a place for the teachings in Zen, as this discourse makes clear all skilful means are used to bring students to Awakening. The talk also looks at how the influence of Taoism impacted on the development of Chan/Zen to the Chinese mind.

This podcast is copyright to The Zen Gateway

38. Followers of the Way, do not take the Buddha for the supreme aim. I myself see him as a privy hole, and the Bodhisattvas and Arhats as beings who bind men with cangue and chains. This is why Manjushri grasped the sword to kill Gautama, and Anguilimalya took the knife to assassinate Shaka. 

Followers of the Way, Buddha is not to be attained. The Three Vehicles and the Five Natures, as well as the Complete and Sudden Teachings are only traces. All are but expedient means temporary remedies for curing diseases. There is no real Dharma; it i...

Q) What is ‘Heart-to-Heart Transmission’?

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In this podcast:

•       Bodhidhdarma’s Four Line Verse

•       The Buddha transmits the lineage to Mahakasyapa

•       Rinzai’s ‘Not much to Obaku’s teaching’.

•       How poetry works

•       Transmitting the lineage

Venerable ones, I cannot these days cease from using a lot of words, and come out preaching many inept things. But do not let yourselves be deceived! As I see it, there are not really so many principles. If you want to act, just act; and if you do not want to act, then rest. It is said that the Six Paramitas and the ten-thousand practices are the Buddha-Dharma. I say they are both methods for spiritual adornment and for carrying on the Buddha’s work; they are not the Buddha Dharma.

(The Zen Teaching of Rinzai tr...

“The Great Way is not difficult,

It merely avoids picking and choosing.”

On Faith in the Heart by Master Sosan, tr. Myokyo-ni

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In this talk:

•       Sosan is 3rd Patriarch receiving the Transmission from Eka.

•       What is The Great Way and why is it important?

•       What is picking and choosing?

•       Why does picking and choosing make following The Great Way difficult?

Q) As a complete beginner to Zen, can you give me some tips for starting a Zen practice?

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 In this podcast:

•   The three pillars of daily life practice, meditation practice & wisdom practice.

•   The root practice of giving myself wholeheartedly into whatever is just now being done, supported by ethical and cultural form practice.

•   Cultivating a meditation practice daily

•   Study of the Buddha’s teachings - finding a middle way between study and practice - the 3-fold wisdom.

One monk asked: “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?

The master said: “Had he had a purpose, he could not even have liberated himself.”

The monk asked: “If he had no purpose, how could the Second Patriarch attain the Dharma?”

The master said: “To attain is not to attain.” The monk asked: “If it is not to attain, then what is the meaning of not to attain?”  The master said: “It is because you are running about seeking everywhere and cannot put your heart at rest that the patriarchs say ‘My, the...

Master Yoka cautions: ‘Getting rid of things and clinging to emptiness are the same illness. It is like throwing oneself into fire to avoid being drowned.’

(The Wisdom of the Zen Masters by Imrgard Schloegl)

…

In this podcast:

National Teacher Daito (1283-1338) founded the monastery of Daitokuji in Kyoto and Rinzai Zen Training monastery. 

Before his death he gave his admonition to his monk which gives the essence of his teaching and points to just that which is most important for the training of his monks.

The full text can be found here.

This Dharma talk includes:

Followers of the Way, when I say that there is no Dharma outside, the students do not understand and deduce it is necessary to search within themselves. Then they sit, leaning against a wall, tongue pressed to the upper palate, and remain so motionless. That they take for the patriarch’s gate of the Buddha-Dharma. What a great error!

(The Zen Teaching of Rinzai; tr. Irmgard Schloegl, pub. Shambhala 1975)

……………………….

In this podcast:

“As I see it, there is nothing complicated. Just be your ordinary selves in an ordinary life, wear your robes and eat your food and having nothing further to seek, peacefully pass your time. From everywhere you have come here; all of you eagerly seek the Buddha, the Dharma and deliverance; you seek escape from the Three Worlds. You foolish people, if you want to get out of the Three Worlds, where then can you go?”

The Zen Teaching of Rinzai tr. by Irmgard Schloegl

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In this podcast:

The God of Buddhism is the god of wisdom. In Buddhism, the Buddha means one who knows, the knower. One who knows one’s own wisdom is Buddha.

Our eyes, which have the faculty of seeing; our ears, which have the faculty of hearing; our other senses - smell, taste, touch - are all manifestations of the power of knowing. So our sense organs are the eyes of Buddha. Every one of us is Buddha. However, Mr. So-and-so is not Buddha, but our ‘persons’ are Buddha.

… The Buddhist believes in a pantheistic god. This personal, pantheis...

The unborn Buddha-mind deals freely and spontaneously with anything that presents itself to it. But if something should happen to make you change the Buddha-mind into thought, then you run into trouble and lose that freedom. Let me give you an example. Suppose a woman is engaged in sewing something. A friend enters the room and begins speaking to her. As long as she listens to her friend and sews in the Unborn, she has no trouble doing both. But if she gives her attention to her friend's words and a thought arises in her mind as she thinks...

In this podcast:

As we enter the holiday period, I recall that you talked about setting aside the Zen practice for a while. Why is that a useful thing to do? What happens if I find it difficult to re-start the practice after the holiday is over?

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In this podcast:

Here in a quiet and dusty room they lie,

Faded as crumbled stone or shifting sand,

Forlorn as ashes, shrivelled, scentless, dry -

Meadows and gardens running through my hand.

In this brown husk a dale of hawthorn dreams,

A cedar in this narrow cell is thrust;

It will drink deeply of a century’s streams,

These lilies shall make summer on my dust.

Here in their safe and simple house of death,

Sealed in their shells a million rose...

Q) I’ve heard you say that in daily life practice we should give ourselves wholeheartedly into what we are doing. How do I know when something is being done wholeheartedly? ……………..

In this talk:

Exercise: The disliked chore

In this Podcast we discuss the effect that culture has on our development and the difference between loneliness and being alone.

This month:

You have mentioned the - wisdom of the body - several times. However, the body is also the place where we commonly think of our instincts and impulses. How do we differentiate between this wisdom and impulsiveness? 

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In this podcast:

Master Dogen said: ‘The flower petals fall though we love them, the weeds grow though we hate them - that is just how it is.’ (Wisdom of the Zen Masters by Irmgard Schloegl)

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In this podcast:

The difference in meaning between the Buddha’s liberation and political liberation & freedom.

The link between picking & choosing and attachment to self and between self & fear

How attachment to self is attachment to restriction of movement and to life.

The paradox of the practice of restraint leading to freedom from the restriction of self.