Sokei-an's Traffic Lights - Form and Circumstances
zengateway's podcast
Master Sokei-an, who lived half of his life in the United States, stated humorously: 'If you are in a powerful car in the middle of the Gobi Desert, you can step on the gas pedal and go any speed you like, any direction you fancy. But if you are in New York at a busy Broadway crossing, you better look out for the traffic lights.' (Wisdom of the Zen Masters by Irmgard Schloegl) ................................ In this podcast: What is the form? How does it interact with circumstances? The relationship between them and why it is important in Zen training. The power of discernment in the...
info_outline
Rinzai's Five Heinous Crimes
zengateway's podcast
36. Venerable ones, committing the Five Heinous Crimes, deliverance can be attained. One monk asked: “What are the Five Heinous Crimes?” The master said: “To kill the father, to harm the mother, to spill Buddha’s blood, to break the peace of the Sangha, and to burn scriptures and statues, these are the Five Heinous Crimes.” The monk asked: “What is the father?” The master said: “Basic ignorance is the father. In the concentrated heart you cannot find the place of arising or ceasing. Like the echo which responds to emptiness and thus reaches everywhere. When you...
info_outline
Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice: The Repentance Sutra
zengateway's podcast
‘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...
info_outline
Gentling the Bull: Chapter 7 - Book Extract
zengateway's podcast
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...
info_outline
Step Carefully: A Gateway Talk
zengateway's podcast
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...
info_outline
An Interview with Randolph Whitfield: Translating the Core Texts from the Zen Canon.
zengateway's podcast
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...
info_outline
Rinzai's Attention to the Smallest Detail
zengateway's podcast
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...
info_outline
Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice April 2025
zengateway's podcast
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
info_outline
Getting Beyond Light And Dark - Master Rinzai
zengateway's podcast
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...
info_outline
Book Extracts Audio: The Zen Way - Life in a Japanese Zen Monastery
zengateway's podcast
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.
info_outline36. Venerable ones, committing the Five Heinous Crimes, deliverance can be attained.
One monk asked: “What are the Five Heinous Crimes?” The master said: “To kill the father, to harm the mother, to spill Buddha’s blood, to break the peace of the Sangha, and to burn scriptures and statues, these are the Five Heinous Crimes.”
The monk asked: “What is the father?”
The master said: “Basic ignorance is the father. In the concentrated heart you cannot find the place of arising or ceasing. Like the echo which responds to emptiness and thus reaches everywhere. When you have nothing further to seek, this is called killing the father.”
The monk asked: “What is the mother?’
The master said: “Desirous coveting is the mother. If you enter the realm of desire with concentrated heart and see everything empty of forms and that nowhere is there anything to be attached to, this is harming the mother.”
The monk asked: “What is the spilling of Buddha’s blood?’
The master said: “In the realm of purity, if you do not give rise to any itch of interpretation, all is darkness; this is spilling the Buddha’s blood.”
The monk asked: “ What is breaking the peace of the Sangha?”
The master said: “If with concentrated heart you truly understand that the passions, these emissaries which bind you, are empty and without support then you break the peace of the Sangha.”
The monk asked: “What is the burning of scriptures and statues?”
The master said: “To see that the causal relations are empty, that the heart is empty, and that the Dharma is empty - and in one stroke decisively to cut it all off in order to transcend all, and to have nothing further to seek, this is burning the scriptures and statues.”
(The Zen Teaching of Rinzai - tr. Imgard Schloegl pub. Shambhala Berkeley)
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
In this podcast:
- The use of language in Zen
- Turning the tables to attract attention
- How Zen masters use all means to awaken their students
- The attainment of the empty heart (mu-shin) as primary all other things as merely skilful means
- Once attained then protecting the empty heart from becoming filled up once more.