zengateway's podcast

The Zen Gateway is an online magazine on Chan/Zen Buddhism and can be found at www.thezengateway.com We feature articles on Zen, Buddhism, meditation & mindfulness. We also write about art, culture, news, reviews and lots of teachings. What's more its all free for users with no ads etc. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter or sign up to our weekly newsletter that drops discreetly into your inbox.

Getting Beyond Light And Dark - Master Rinzai 04/09/2025

Getting Beyond Light And Dark - Master Rinzai 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.' /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/36064255

Book Extracts Audio: The Zen Way - Life in a Japanese Zen Monastery 03/20/2025

Book Extracts Audio: The Zen Way - Life in a Japanese Zen Monastery 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. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/35796070

How do I practice Zen? 03/16/2025

How do I practice Zen? /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/35711400

Three Types of Zen Student 02/09/2025

Three Types of Zen Student 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. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/35208455

Win the Game or Lose your Head! 12/08/2024

Win the Game or Lose your Head! 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 a state of dukkha (suffering), and it becomes the spur to follow the spiritual life, but it is fraught because it can also become an angry rejection of the world. This talk unpacks this story and explores the conditions, born out of necessity, for awakening. The first week of December in the Zen tradition commemorates the Buddha’s Enlightenment. This story provides a backdrop to this memorial and points to the truth that the Buddha’s story is our own story as we embark along the Zen Way. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/34332815

Death’s Three Messengers 10/27/2024

Death’s Three Messengers 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 nature is so easily forgotten. Not because we are not surrounded by Yama’s messengers but because something inside us does not want to acknowledge this central truth of the Buddha’s own message. The story is taken from a collection of training stories called ‘Look and See’ by Ven. Myokyo-ni. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/33628317

The Power of Now 09/27/2024

The Power of Now Jamie Shavdia () 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 transformations of consciousness. In this wide-ranging discussion, Jamie and Martin investigate Tolle’s concepts of ‘Now’ and ‘Time’ as well as ‘the pain body’ and how anyone can enter into this transformative state of ‘Now’. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/33231327

Rinzai 35: Do not follow the 10,000 things 09/08/2024

Rinzai 35: Do not follow the 10,000 things ‘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 Zen Teaching of Rinzai tr. Imaged Scholegl ……………………….. In this podcast: • How the heart and ‘things’ arise in a co-dependent way. • The heart as the seat of consciousness the one which knows. • How the teachings themselves are skilful means and not to be grasped, not even Buddha! /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/32957937

Do you know Buddha from Mara? 07/21/2024

Do you know Buddha from Mara? 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. --------- A man who has left home should know how to see clearly and calmly, should know Buddha from Mara, the true from the false, the worldly from the sacred. If he has got this knowledge, he can truly be called a leaver of home. If he does not know Buddha from Mara, then in effect he leaves one home only to enter another, and is what is called a karma-producing living being. He cannot yet be called a true leaver of home. For if Buddha and Mara happen to appear in one form, he could not differentiate them. Yet, as the gander king knows how to drink only the milk from the mixture of milk and water, so does the clear eye, (know how to differentiate). Followers of the Way, just beat up both Buddha and Mara. For if you love the sacred and hate the worldly, you go on floating and sinking in the ocean of birth and death. The Zen Teaching of Rinzai tr. Irmgard Schloegl /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/32229222

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 55 04/20/2024

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 55 Q) Will all the problems go away when I stop thinking about them? ….. 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, • And the wisdom to know the difference. (The Serenity Prayer Reinhold Niebuhr) • Sitting with the dying and emptiness of the heart. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/30909923

Working with the Fires | How to train the emotional household 03/31/2024

Working with the Fires | How to train the emotional household /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/30609748

Master Rinzai's medicine against anxiety 03/10/2024

Master Rinzai's medicine against anxiety 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 stop, fretting yourselves over the playing’s of the old masters. (The Zen Teachings of Rinzai tr. Irmgard Schloegl. Pub. Shambhala 1976) Subscribe to our weekly newsletter for weekly articles on Zen practice and Buddhism If you don't have a local temple or group to practice with you can join our online training Center led by a Zen teacher with over 30 years of experience /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/30304903

Rinzai’s - Look for him before you 01/21/2024

Rinzai’s - Look for him before you “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 really grasp this, you are not different from the Buddhas and patriarchs. Ceaselessly he is right here, conspicuously present. But when passions arise, wisdom is disrupted; and the body separates from the changing pictures. This the cause of transmigration in the Three Worlds with its concomitant suffering. But as I see it; there is nothing that is not profound, nothing that is not deliverance.” (The Zen Teaching of Rinzai tr. Irmgard Schoegl pub. Shambhala 1975) /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/29578933

Put the Heart at Rest 09/07/2023

Put the Heart at Rest /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/27966696

What do I really want? 06/25/2023

What do I really want? 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. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/27258771

Shishi and the Knife 06/11/2023

Shishi and the Knife 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. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/27108246

Troubleshooting 54 06/04/2023

Troubleshooting 54 Q) Will you say something about the different types of bells and signals used in Zen? … 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 (108 passions on NYE). • The bells of sunken towns /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/27037179

Bai Jiyu and Jingzhao Discuss Opposites and the Illusory Power of Words. 05/21/2023

Bai Jiyu and Jingzhao Discuss Opposites and the Illusory Power of Words. 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 /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26903319

The Buddha is a Privy Hole! 05/07/2023

The Buddha is a Privy Hole! 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 is all but surface manifestations, like printed letters on a sign board to indicate the Way. This is my teaching. (The Zen Teaching of Rinzai; tr. Irmgard Schloegl pub. Shambhala Berkeley) … In this podcast: • Understanding Rinzai’s disparagements of Zen in context. • The teachings of non-attachment and the Middle Way • The sword of Manjushri breaks the bonds of attachment & how this is used in Zen training • Warnings about attachments to any views even the teachings /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26765175

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 53 04/16/2023

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 53 Q) What is ‘Heart-to-Heart Transmission’? … 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 /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26554065

The Tricky Relationship between Practice & Insight 04/02/2023

The Tricky Relationship between Practice & Insight 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. Irmgard Schloegl) …………. In this podcast: • The relationship between teachings and insight • Bodhidharma’s famous verse as a summation of the Zen approach is also a middle way. • Being our ordinary selves is not always easy • The Six Paramitas as a foundation for Mahayana Practice • The Parable of the raft is the prescribed medicine when it comes to this relationship between teachings, practice and insight. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26416200

The Great Way is not Difficult 03/12/2023

The Great Way is not Difficult “The Great Way is not difficult, It merely avoids picking and choosing.” On Faith in the Heart by Master Sosan, tr. Myokyo-ni … 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? /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26201142

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 52 02/26/2023

Troubleshooting Zen Study & Practice 52 Q) As a complete beginner to Zen, can you give me some tips for starting a Zen practice? … 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. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/26048676

Nothing Further To Seek is Attaining the Dharma 02/05/2023

Nothing Further To Seek is Attaining the Dharma 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 fellow with his head on his shoulders is looking for his head!’ When on hearing this you turn your own light in upon yourself, and do not seek for anything special, you will know that in your body and heart you do not differ from the patriarchs and Buddhas. All at once you will have nothing further to seek. That is what is called attaining the Dharma. … In this podcast: A brief description of the life and role of First Patriarch Bodhidharma The difference between purpose and meaning Acting not as ‘I’ want but responding to the needs of the situation. The Buddha nature is inherent; there is not need to look outside /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/25832856

Throwing oneself into fire to avoid being drowned 12/11/2022

Throwing oneself into fire to avoid being drowned 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: The Buddha’s first teaching of the middle way. The problem of the five ascetics What happens when ‘I’ give up smoking? Some advice on ‘giving up’ - don’t (TL advice to a smoker) Giving myself into Zen practice; the practice brings about the transformation /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/25288605

Daito Kokushi's Admonition 11/24/2022

Daito Kokushi's Admonition 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 . This Dharma talk includes: The importance of both physical as well as spiritual wellbeing. How form and discipline encourages us to practice letting-go and going with the flow. How the outer circumstances, even in the training sodo is not the most important issue. What is important can be done anywhere. The importance of the transmission of the teachings & practice. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/25125342

Rinzai’s Neither Outside nor Inside 11/20/2022

Rinzai’s Neither Outside nor Inside 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: What is Dharma? Mumon’s treasures of the house v. Hogan’s ‘Is that stone inside or outside? Master Mumon’s looking for fire with fire… Wisdom arises out of the samadhi of the situation /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/25074486

Just Be Your Ordinary Selves 10/16/2022

Just Be Your Ordinary Selves “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 ………. In this podcast: Some background on Rinzai and early Chan in the context of Chinese Buddhist development. Why do ‘I’ want to be famous? The cult of ‘more and more’, the disease of ‘I’. What are the Three Worlds and what is their significance? A wholehearted life v. escaping boredom. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/24699645

The Knower, The God of Buddhism 09/17/2022

The Knower, The God of Buddhism 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, pantheistic god is god-nature in me, in you, in all sentient beings - in everything… There is no such word in the Orient as ‘individual’! The Buddhist believes that souls are not created by God, one by one, but that each is a drop of water in the ocean of soul. The ocean of soul is existence; it is Being existing from the beginningless beginning to the endless end. So there is no creation of the universe and no destruction of the universe. Each wave of the ocean has its own character, its own shape, its own power, and its own velocity, yet all waves are nothing but the body of water that is the sea. Each individual has his or her own keynote and characteristics, yet all individuals are nothing but waves in the ocean of soul. The Zen Eye: A collection of Zen talks by Sokei-an; ed. Mary Farkas pub. Weatherhill 1993 ……………….. In this talk: The etymology of consciousness. Is consciousness possible without ‘I’? Sense consciousness & awareness. To whom does consciousness really belong? Immanence and transcendence - What is the difference between monotheism, polytheism and pantheism? Emptiness and dependent origination, the awareness of being in relationship with everything and the principle of reciprocity. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/24404748

Bankei’s ‘Unborn’ 08/13/2022

Bankei’s ‘Unborn’ 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 about what to reply, her hands stop sewing; if she turns her attention to her sewing and thinks about that, she fails to catch everything her friend is saying, and the conversation does not proceed smoothly. In either case, her Buddha-mind has slipped from the place of the Unborn. She has transformed it into thought. As her thoughts fix upon one thing, they're blank to all others, depriving her mind of its freedom. (The Unborn: The Life & Teachings of Zen Master Bankei 1622-1693 tr. Norman Waddell) … In this podcast: Bankei’s awakening Legacy - spontaneous v. written legacy and Bankei’s admonition against writing his words down. [Udana 8.3] : “There is, practitioners, an unborn, unproduced, unmade, and unconditioned. If there were no unborn, unproduced, unmade, and unconditioned, then you would find no escape here from the born, produced, made, and conditioned. But since there is an unborn, unproduced, unmade, and unconditioned, an escape is found from the born, produced, made, and conditioned.” Myokyo-ni’s ‘Quiet spaciousness” in Zazen and then in Kinhin and then in daily life a return to. Picture no. 7: Stay not where the Buddha is; hurry by where he is not’ - ‘Cultivate the heart that doesn’t settle anywhere’. /episode/index/show/zengateway/id/24044004

zengateway's podcast

TOPICS