Description: Henry continues his exploration of Bodhidharma’s core teaching, Outline of Practice, the Two Gates. He opens the teisho with an inspiring quote from the novel Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams that captures an essence of what we seek in Zen practice. Then we learn that our tradition of facing the wall comes from Bodhidharma, (the tradition says he faced a cave wall for 9 years) whose teachings are a powerful blend of meditation and Taoism forming the roots of Zen. Henry next returns to Bodhidharma’s four practices: suffering adversity; according with conditions; seeking nothing; and practicing the dharma or perceiving the truth that all forms are empty. Finally Henry talks about Zazen, as Reality and Practice and that we must have both. He briefly points to the Ten Oxherding pictures to illustrate. All of this is designed to find our unimaginable real life, a practice and process which is unfathomable and astounding.
Post Image Credit: The forest knows Where you are series, by Nick Kenrick, CC BY 2.0
Featured Image Credit: Ox and Herdsman Vanished, by Tensho Shubun, Public Domain, {{PD-1923}}