Teachings
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Blue Cliff Record 62, Unmon’s Single Treasure
April 9, 20151 min read
Episode Description: As the winter solstice descends, Henry Shukman explores Unmon’s Single Treasure, Case 62 of the Blue Cliff Record. This puzzling koan helps us turn our habitual views upside down. Roshi Henry describes the great invitation of Zen which is to abandon our cherished opinions and find the single jewel that makes the “one true fact” apparent. Henry talks about Christmas, the death penalty and his encounter with a Navy Seal in this elucidation...
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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 4 of 6
April 7, 20155 min read
The scriptures do not merely speak about the deconstruction of preconception; they enact it. Click to read The Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In the early Buddhist texts, defamiliarization is established in the content of what is said; in the later Mahayana teachings of the early first millennium C.E., it tends to occupy a central place not just in the content but in the very form of the texts. The scriptures do not merely...
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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 3 of 6
April 5, 20154 min read
This kind of disbanding of an assumption—whether of something as fundamental as our sense of self, or merely of a preconception about a classical poet—can bring about a radical new openness. Click to read The Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1 and Part 2. In John Keats’s sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” the poet dramatizes a sudden expansion of view. Keats had never learned Greek and did not like Pope’s versions of the classics, but one...
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 3 of 3
April 3, 20157 min read
Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Click to Read Sanbo Zen: Part 1 and Part 2 Yasutani Roshi’s organization Sanbō Kyōdan was legally recognized as an independent Zen Buddhist religious organization on January 8th 1954. As had been the case under Harada Roshi, there were lay...
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Blue Cliff Record 75, Ukyu’s Blind Stick
April 2, 20151 min read
Episode Description: Continuing with the Blue Cliff Record, this talk explores Case 75, Ukyu’s Blind Stick. Find out what happens when Ukyu wields his stick. Roshi Henry discusses the background of this intriguing koan and ponders the nature of emptiness. We learn about the five types of Zen blindness and that all beings are blessed because there is no separation. Image Credit: IMG_4768 via photopin CC BY-SA 2.0 Featured Image Credit: Zen-Mind, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND 2.0....
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 2 of 3
March 30, 20155 min read
Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Click to Read Sanbo Zen: Part 1. Yasutani Haku’un (1885-1973) is the official founder of Sanbō Zen, an independent Zen line formerly known as Sanbō Kyōdan and often referred to as the “Harada-Yasutani School” because it is based on...
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 1 of 3
March 28, 20156 min read
Joan Rieck Roshi presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Sanbō Zen is an independent lay line of Zen Buddhism that blends elements of both the Caodong (Soto) and Linji (Rinzai) traditions in its teaching and practice. Its purpose is stated on its website (sanbō-zen.org) by the second...
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Hyakujo’s “Turning Word” from The Book of Equanimity
March 26, 20151 min read
Episode Description: Roshi Henry presents a case from the Book of Equanimity in which Master Hyakujo’s "turning word" about the law of causation releases an old man into authentic freedom. Hear a magical story about how a man receives healing, love and timeless understanding from a gentle whale. Using personal disclosure and koan explication, Henry shows us how a kensho experience can lead to a dualistic split between "awakening" and "delusion," which ongoing koan study...
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Blue Cliff Record 70, 71, & 72, How does one Speak with Lips and Throat Closed?
March 19, 20151 min read
Episode Description: This talk combines three related Blue Cliff Record cases 70, 71, and 72. We meet Hyakujo, Isan, Goho and Ungan, who grapple with the nature of speech and ultimate understanding. Roshi Henry Shukman draws on his extensive literary background to relate koan structure with narrative storytelling, which includes references to character transformation in Tolstoy’s War and Peace and a discussion of epic poetry’s roots in the shamanic journey. This far-reaching and inspiring teisho is...
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