Podcasts about yunmen

In this talk from the third full day of the Winter Practice Period Sesshin, Sensei Wendy Johnson explores Yunmen's teaching “rice in the bowl, water in the bucket” through Case 158 of the […]

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - 8/31/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 99 - Yunmen's "Bowl and Bucket" - Striving to realize our true nature, without tying ourselves into knots of grasping, are skills we have to practice. Being able to investigate where we stick to our habits and confusion is to help us develop concentration. As Shugen Roshi says, with the essential skills of mindfulness and concentration we can discover who “this unbounded one” really is, and then we can really be of benefit in the world.

Blue Cliff Record Case 39: The Golden Haired LionA student asked Yunmen, “What is the pure and everlasting body of reality?”Yunmen said, “A fence of flowers and healing herbs.”The student asked, “What's it like when I reach there?”Yunmen said, “A golden-haired lion!”I am landing back in Ohio after about two weeks visiting my old homes in Oregon, Great Vow Zen Monastery and Portland. I was at Great Vow for a weeklong sesshin that we call Grasses, Trees and the Great Earth—a unique retreat where we move the zendo outside, and sit in a circle together in ceremony with the Earth, Sky, Trees, Grasses and beings of the forest, meadow creek and pond. I initially gave this series of talks in the heart of the summer, when flowers, healing herbs, tomatoes and blueberries are fruiting on the fences, in the gardens and windowsill pots of our lives. A time of year that tropical astrologers assign to the constellation Leo, the lion—a fixed fire sign, ruled by the Sun. As Leo season ends, and we find ourselves in late summer, returning back to our own inner light, and the work that needs to be done. I offer these talks and reflections on the Golden Haired Lion, Koan Work and the Changing of the Seasons.The ancient greek astrologers saw the sun as the heart of the cosmic animal as well as the heart of the human being. To know one's heart was to connect to the wild, mysterious heart of the cosmos.Lion-imagery crosses cultures. Lions have spoken to the human heart throughout antiquity we see remnants of this relationship today on the lion panel of the Chauvet Cave in France painted 30K years ago, in the image of the lion-headed dakini in Tibet, Sekhmet the Egyptian warrior-healer goddess with a lion head and in the strength card in the tarot. The RWS version of the strength card in the tarot is quite evocative of the imagery from this koan. A woman wearing flowers in her hair and on her dress, pets a seemingly tamed lion—framed by a bright yellow background invoking the summer sun. Who or what are these part lion-part human beings?Animals and nature frequent koans. I always feel like their appearance reminds us that our spiritual lives unfold within these animal bodies, within the place that we live, within our passions and desires. The appearance of a wild animal connects to our instincts. The lion to our sovereignty as well as our magical child.So here we are again. Conversing with a Zen teacher about the body of reality. And again, the teacher points to the flowers. This time blooming together with medicinal herbs on a fence.While the image was probably something in the immediate environment of the questioner. There are always levels of meaning and exploration within a single interaction. The questioner is asking—what is it? What is always present? Is there something that you can say to express the freedom and love of our original nature, how is it—what is it—right, here–right now?Yunmen shares a bit of his mind by naming— the flowering fence, the medicinal herbs.Images of beauty as well as nourishment—medicine. Alive right here in the present. Is beauty medicine? What nourishes your heart? This koan is very much a koan with heart.Earth Dreams is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Have you ever meditated on a flower? Or attended to a flower blooming over the course of days or weeks. Budding, the opening which is a process of contraction and expansion, then the full expression of its open-ness and followed by the falling petals that slowly turn to soil.Flowers reveal nature's beauty in full display. Their sweet smells and arresting appearance attract humans as well as pollinators. Long associated with the heart, they show us something about the tender process of moving towards openness. As well as reflecting to us the nature of cycles and deep interconnection. Flowers are in-bedded in a place, they are relational.In the Buddhist tradition the nature of mind, the pure body of reality, awareness is likened to a flower that is eternally blooming—always present. While simultaneously human life, the life of the world is —seasonal, is changing, is subject to the whims of nature, the turning of the earth, night and day and all the other beings that we share this cosmos with.What's it like when we realize the pure body of reality for ourselves? A golden haired lion.Together we share the great heart of the cosmos, like the lemniscate above the woman in the strength card—we recognize our continual inter-connection, our shared being with animal, earth, flower, night sky. We find and lose and find ourselves in the heart of our being.In Hua-Yen Buddhism, the golden-haired lion is a symbol of inter-being, inter-penetration. Like a great hologram, it was said that each of the lion's hairs contained the whole lion. So the lion itself was an embodiment of Indra's net. It was a symbol for the living body of reality, where everything is contained within everything else.Majushri, the bodhisattva of Wisdom, is said to ride on this lion. Living this insight.So the appearance of this lion in this koan is an invitation to walk through the world as such. Seeing everyone you meet, every interaction as a reflection of the whole cosmos. Similar to the gnostic belief that the divine is contained within each of us. We are of one substance, and we are utterly unique in our expressions. Our heart is both the heart of the cosmos, and our personal heart (soul/psyche) which will flower in its own way, based on the causes and conditions of our precious life.The lion's gaze is another teaching in the buddhist tradition. The analogy goes that if you throw a ball to a dog, the dog will run after the ball. If you throw a ball to a lion, the lion will look back at the source. As practitioner's we train in the lion's gaze. Instead of following every thought form that flashes through our mind, we trace the thoughts back to our embodied experience, back to awareness itself—back to the source.We learn to gaze into the spacious source of our nature.The images of a koan are like the images of a dream, or even a fairy tale. Where each image is us. We are questioner, we are teacher, we are flowers opening alongside medicinal herbs, we are fence, we are lion, we are the bodhisattva of wisdom.Koans invite us to carry these images into our meditation practice and into our day. Where, like dreams, our associations carry insights into the more personal as well as archetypal dimensions of the koan. Perhaps we will find ourselves practicing our roars, or walking with confidence, embodying courage, letting ourselves shine or take up space. Maybe we will learn more about the mythological lions from fairy tales.Koans invite participation. Embodiment. Creativity.What is it like to sit as a lion? To walk down the street as your lion self? To show-up at a meeting with lion-like courage or confidence, optimism? How familiar are you with your inner strength? What would it be like to practice the lion's gaze when someone criticizes you, or when you criticize yourself? What is it like to let yourself be accompanied by such a lion? This is something I love about koans, they offer support. Companionship. As we get acquainted with the lion of our true nature, we can imagine having them around. Perhaps like in the strength card.Another dimension of this koan is the flower and the medicinal herbs. And so one tangible practice is to simply spend some time meditating with flowers or looking at flowers—really seeing them. Or maybe making yourself some medicinal herbal tea.I have a few friends who as a practice always have a bouquet of flowers on their altar or table, as a way of connecting to beauty and remembering self-appreciation (one friend realized that it was a way of giving herself a gift everyday, the other said it was a small way of connecting to joy).Last year Kennyo and I watched the early season of Twin Peaks, and there was this scene where Agent Cooper is getting pie at the dinner and he says to the sheriff Harry S Truman, “I give myself a gift everyday”.This koan is also about that. How do you nourish your heart? How can you be generous with yourself? Can you do something generous for yourself everyday?We might also try on some of the paradoxes these images hold. How can we be eternally blooming, and also allow all things to have their seasons? Can we sense our oneness, and allow each being to express themselves as they are? As you can see, each koan contains a lot of teachings even within a few images. This layered aspect of koans is what makes them potent teaching tools. So notice, was there any part of the koan, any one of the images or the teachings that the image invokes that you are curious about or do you have an area of life that you feel concerned about, that you aren't sure how to practice with—could the koan accompany you there….that might be the way to bring this teaching into your week.…Koan Practice and the Three Bodies of the BuddhaIn this next talk, I take a deeper dive into how to work with a koan using Blue Cliff Record Case 39: The Golden Haired Lion. I provide a framework for koan practice from the teachings of the Three Bodies of Buddha—three aspects of our embodied awakened life, which are:* Dharmakaya/Essence/Secret—koans point to our awakened nature, the ground of being, our shared light* Sambhogakaya/Inner/Dream Body—working with koan images and energies can help us meet and work with the stuff of our own hearts and minds and empower us to cultivate the awakened qualities that the koan points to. Koan images can also act as dharma protectors, beings we can turn towards to help us meet the inner demons, distractions and deeply conditioned patterns of mind that cause suffering to others and ourselves* Nirmanakaya/Outer/Form/Compassion Body—bringing the koan into our relationships, work we do, expression, embodiment, how we live…Seasons of Practice: Exploring Emptiness + FullnessThis final talk is a reflection + celebration of the end of summer and the practice opportunities that come with late Summer, a time symbolically represented by the Hermit. …I'm Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, budding Astrologer and Artist. In my Spiritual Counseling Practice, I practice at the confluence of spirituality and psychology, integrating mind, body and spirit. I am trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dream Work, Hakomi (Somatic Therapy) and Mindful Eating.I also lead a weekly online meditation group through the Zen Community of Oregon and am leading a class series on the Zen Bodhisattva Precepts this Fall. Also if you are interested in workshopping your meditation practice join me in collaboration with Pause Meditation for a 5-week online class series called Beyond Mindfulness. More information can be found below.Monday Night Meditation + DharmaEvery Monday 6P PT / 9P ETJoin me on zoom for 40 minutes of meditation and a dharma talk. We are currently exploring the freedom, spontaneity and love of our original nature through the teachings of the Zen koan tradition. Koans invite us into the mythos of practice awakening, gifting us with the ordinary images of our lives, they help awaken us to the wonder, intimacy and compassion of life as it is!All are welcome to join. Drop in any time.Zoom Link for Monday NightLiving the Questions: 16 Bodhisattva Precepts Class SeriesBe patient with all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves. Do not seek the answers, which can not be given to you, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. And perhaps you will then gradually…find yourself living the answer. — RilkeFar from being a set of rules or doctrine that we must follow, the Bodhisattva precepts act as koans, inquiries that we are empowered to take into our life. They ask us to consider, what does love look like in this situation? In this relationship, how do I work with my anger? Who is it who wants to gossip, or inflate one's self? How can I show up authentically in the world?With the final five grave precepts, pure precepts and refuges as our guide we will explore the heart of what it means for each one of us to live a life of integrity and love. We will explore how each precept touches the personal, interpersonal, global and secret dimensions of our living.Beyond Mindfulness: Deepening Your Meditation Practice Class SeriesThis workshop style course is designed to provide a map of the meditation path as well as:* Introduce you to the five main styles of meditation (calm-abiding, concentration, heart-based practices, inquiry and open-awareness)* Help you understand the intention of each method and how to practice it* Help you understand how the various methods and techniques fit together and support each other* Provide a fun, non-judgmental learning environment where you can try things out, ask questions and explore* Give you the opportunity to work with a teacher with an extensive background in various meditation techniquesI currently live in Columbus, Ohio with my partner Patrick Kennyo Dunn, we facilitate an in-person meditation gathering every Wednesday from 7P - 8:30P at ILLIO in Clintonville through Mud Lotus Sangha. If you happen to be in Columbus, feel free to stop by. We have weekly meditation gatherings, and are offering a day of meditation in October. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

This talk was given during Kisei's Monday evening online sit with Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple in Portland, OR in July 2024.Within there is a Jewel: Emplacement and Your Dream for the WorldAbout a thousand years ago, a Zen teacher named Yunmen said to their community:Within heaven and earth, through space and time, there is a jewel, hidden inside the mountain of form. Pick up a lamp and go into the Buddha Hall, take the triple gate and bring it on the lamp.This talk explores this vital koan through the practices of mountain sitting, connecting to place and honoring our own dream (or vow) for the world. ★ Support this podcast ★

Our attention is a precious resource. We use it all the time, and so, might forget what a resource it is. Contemplative traditions throughout the ages recognized the preciousness of attention. And also recognized that if we don't put in the effort to train our attention, our attention may get hijacked, scattered, frittered away by the thieves of time or thoughts of worry, disappointment, greed and hatred.With the election news blaring right now. It might feel easier then ever for attention to get hijacked in doom-scrolling, anxieties about the future, worries and fear. It is an on-going practice to notice where our attention is being pulled, and to remember that we have choice about what we are attending to. To remember that attending to joy, compassion, equanimity and loving kindness awaken these qualities in our own hearts and in the world.The intellect can only get us so far, as individuals and as a species. We have other resources and capacities that are under-valued in our capitalist society, but are life-affirming and necessary for our wellbeing. Qualities like spaciousness, presence, clear-seeing, compassion for others, curiosity and play allow us to connect beyond our differences in views and even across species-lines. These qualities potentiate other ways of showing up for ourselves, others and the world—ways of being that empower us to companion uncertainty and awaken to our inter-connectedness.About a thousand years ago, a Zen teacher named Yunmen said to their community: Within heaven and earth, through space and time, there is a jewel, hidden inside the mountain of form. Pick up a lamp and go into the Buddha Hall, take the triple gate and bring it on the lamp.In Zen, we call statements like this koans. Words or phrases that can't be understood with our intellects alone but require a different kind of attention and inquiry. Koans like this, invite us in to ways of seeing that are as multifaceted as this jewel. They invite us into their world, a world of possibility—a world that is right here, inside this one that we are already living. So if you can for a moment, slip below the apparent linearity of time—into the present—and conjure for a moment—MOUNTAIN.Maybe you live by a mountain. Maybe you have only seen pictures of them. Maybe at some point in your life you backpacked or camped or hiked on a mountain. Mountains have presence. To view a mountain, even an image of one can often invoke a sense of inner stillness, a sense of awe or even majesty.In the summer at great vow we would often study the Mountains and Rivers Sutra by Dogen Zenji. In it Dogen says:Mountains possess complete virtue with nothing lacking. They are always safely rooted yet constantly moving. You should study the meaning of always moving. You should study the green mountains. Just because the movement of mountains is not like the movement of human beings, do not doubt that it exists.We would practice sitting like a mountain. My teacher Chozen Roshi said, “If you sit like a mountain everyday for a month, it will change you.” What is it like to sit as a mountain. To sit in your completeness, to sit as though nothing were lacking. To be both safely rooted, connected to the earth, woven into the landscape, deeply connected to yourself as ecotone, as ecology, as a network of being—in constant movement, yet so Here.Mountain practice reminds us that we too are emplaced. Whether you live by mountains, or in the valley, or on the prairie, plains, forest, desert, coast—we are always emplaced. In a network of relations. In this city of sirens and heavy exhaust—a cardinal sings, a bright yellow finch bathes in the neighbors gutter, edible mushrooms grow in the metro park, walnut trees dine with paw-paws creating a ceaseless canopy near the rushing river, where a doe cleans her new born babe, whose fur is covered in white spots, legs still wobbly.Where-ever you find yourself right now, you are emplaced, connected to a geography, a living landscape of relationships. In part it is the quality of our attention that awakens a belonging to this earth community, to the breath of the wind and the space of the sky—Even though in parts of the human mind there appears to be so much division, contempt and fear. Interconnectedness is also true. We are also Mountain, landscape, a web of relatedness—we are also movement, breeze, sky, song. And within this mountain of form—there is a jewel.Within this mountain of form, within this life we find ourselves in, our particular karma—body pain, unanswered emails, childhood traumas, societal divides, violence, fear, disappointment, hope. There is a jewel.Within this body/mind with its beliefs about being unworthy, too much, not-good-enough. There is a jewel.In dharma practice, we are invited to awaken to the jewel of our true nature. To recognize it. To refamiliarize ourselves with it. And to remember that this precious jewel doesn't exist outside of the actual emplacement of our living. The actual events, fears, disappointments, pains.We don't have to go somewhere else to find it. We don't have to transcend this earthly existence. Right here in this mountain of form. This mountain of being. We are spacious clarity, love is our heart's nature—this is the great mystery. For what we are at the core is radiantly present, and vastly undefinable.The buddhist path recognizes that human life throws a lot of shade on this jewel, that we get sucked into believing things about ourselves, others and the world that appears to cover over our radiant jewel. We forget that the mountain is alive, that it is, we are— part of a great re-cycling of energy—that the re-circulating of earth, winds, waters, hope, love + bone is how the mountain continues.In our forgetting, we attempt to make sense of life and death, violence, lack of care—and develop strategies, beliefs are reinforced from caregivers or religious systems, stories are told that aren't true but helped to keep us safe when it seemed like nothing else would.Beliefs like, I alone am responsible for the injustice in the world. I alone should be able to fix this. If only I tried harder, read more, woke up earlier…was more enlightened. Or I'm not good enough. I am a failure. This shouldn't be happening….What we call practice is a path of reckoning with what is true. Coming back to the ground, to the earth, to the body, this mountain of form. Right here—there is aliveness. Right here—mysterious grace. Pure possibility.Then we have the second part of the koan. Use this mountain of form with its precious jewel—pick up a lamp and go to the buddha hall, take the triple gate and bring it on the lamp.It's not enough to recognize the jewel. Now let it shine, share it.It's a ridiculous image. I picture this giant toreii gate smashing through the buddha hall—bringing the temple entrance right here, right next to the buddha, right into our meditation space. Or bringing the buddha hall out through the temple gate. Out into the world.Dharma practice invites us to ask—what is your dream for the world?Sometimes we forget that we get to have one. We are so busy just trying to survive, to manage, to get enough of what we want. Spiritual practice really continues to ask us some version of this—why? What for? So what is your dream for yourself, others—the world? I want to allow what we usually call VOW to be a dream today. Vow can get us stuck in perfection or overly involved in commitmentDream invites imagination, process, experimentation…mystery…It invites us to smash into the buddha hall with all our fears and hopes about the world—to bring everything we've got to our spiritual practice.Dreaming also appreciates that there is uncertainty, much we don't know, that we can't be responsible for everything—but can be responsive.Part of what Yunmen is showing is a kind of radical faith. Yes, this world seems so fixed, but maybe much of what is fixed is your way of thinking about it. Maybe you are taking a limited human view.Or yes our political situation, institutions, society— appear so corrupt, and you don't have to let it corrupt you. Stay connected to this jewel, the spaciousness, clarity, love of your heart's nature. There is possibility, mystery is always right here—even though this may appear to be a mountain of form, it doesn't mean the only thing you can do is summit it, or run away. Maybe there are other options besides conquering or being defeated. Maybe you can walk around, maybe you can meet people at the base, maybe you can meander, sit with a tree, listen to the concerns of the river, get to know the landscape.Maybe we can apply this to our response to the election news or an interpersonal challenge or with our own inner life. Maybe I can hang out with this part of me that gets afraid, maybe I can make space for my grief, maybe I can call a friend and cry together/laugh together/make plans to see each other, maybe I can do something generous for a loved one, maybe I can recommit to showing up for what I care about in a really local way—feeding the neighborhood cat, attending a town hall meeting, volunteering at the library, making a donation to a shelter, getting to know people who work at the local grocery, getting to know my more-than-human community.Part of what I carry on this lamp is a dream for an awakened society. I carry it into and out of the buddha hall, I carry it—even as I meet the very real violence, bigotry, hatred and greed that is part of the manifestation of our world right now, part of my own conditioning. How does the jewel of awakened nature meet the manifestations of greed, violence, fear, loneliness? This is a living question. Something to live into and carry into the world.The koan also gives us practical medicine/instruction. Here are simple things you can do to train/reclaim your attention:Sit as a mountain, connect with the heart center. When we sit as a mountain, we connect to the earth and sky. We are invited to connect with our place, whether we live here or not, we can connect to place where ever we are. We can let ourselves feel emplaced. We can get to know the trees, birds, animals, flowers, rivers, rocks, fossils, breezes, stars and sky that we share this place with.Sit as a jewel—a jewel has many facets, many ways of seeing and responding, a jewel allows there to be complexity and empowers us to live our awakened life. In a very practical way, sitting as a jewel is a practice of appreciating your life. This embodied life. You! Only you can actualize the radiance of your inner light. Recording what you appreciate about yourself each day is a concrete way to nourish the jewelPractice seeing the jewel of each being. Not always easy to do, but such an important aspiration. Instead of judging others (including politicians) can you let yourself appreciate something about them. Or to see beyond their views, to see them as another human being who suffers and is capable of love. Carry your lamp, your dream for the world. Carry it into and out of the buddha hall, your workplace, your bedroom, your car, the establishments you frequent, your relationships. Get to know what helps nourish its light, and make a practice of doing one thing a day to nourish your dream for the world.…I'm Amy Kisei. I am a Zen Buddhist Teacher, Spiritual Counselor, Meditation Coach, Astrologer and Artist. In my Spiritual Counseling Practice, I practice at the confluence of spirituality and psychology, integrating mind, body and spirit. Spiritual Counseling can help you:* Companion Grief + Loss* Clarify Life Purpose* Healing Relational Conflict + Inner Conflict* Work with Shadow Material* Heal your relationship with Eating, Food or Body Image* Spiritual Emergence* Integrate Psychedelic or Mystical Experiences* Move Through Creative Blocks, Career Impasses and BurnoutI am trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dream Work, Hakomi (Somatic Therapy) and Mindful Eating.I also lead a weekly online meditation group, you can read more about below.Monday Night Meditation + Dharma6P PT / 9P ETJoin me on zoom for 40 minutes of meditation and a dharma talk. We are currently exploring embodiment, compassion and the principles of engaged buddhism. All are welcome to join.Zoom Link for Monday NightI currently live in Columbus, Ohio with my partner, we facilitate an in-person meditation gathering every Wednesday from 7P - 8:30P at ILLIO in Clintonville through Mud Lotus Sangha. If you happen to be in Columbus, feel free to stop by!Earth Dreams is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

Jody Hojin Kimmel, Sensei - ZCNYC - 6/23/24 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 - Yunmen's "Every Day is a Good Day” - “I'm filled with grief, good day? The world is on fire, good day? What is not dependent upon the circumstances and conditions of those days? How are these concepts of practice and enlightenment for real and functioning in our daily lives? We have a practice and a path, now it's up to us to take to take a big chance, we can do it, we can respond with courage and loving discernment.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM - 6/2/24 - From the Book of Serenity, Case 19 - Yunmen's "Sumaru" - Koan practice guides us to something different than conceptual knowledge, a liberation of mind which is, as the Buddha said, subtle and difficult to understand. And yet, conceptual knowledge is an integral part of how we can realize the non-conceptual mind. Using Yunmen's teachings, Shugen Roshi explores how calming the mind, and gaining insight, are important steps toward understanding how to truly free ourselves from conceptual thought and grasping at self-centered views.

The path of Zen meditation is a path grounded in love and the deep realization of our shared being, we often call these two aspects of the path—wisdom and compassion.During this Podcast Episode we meditate on the koan from Yunmen.What is Zen?An Appropriate Response.This question and response runs deep. An appropriate response isn't something we find once and for all, and then live by it. It is an ongoing, alive inquiry that happens in the very situations of our lives, in our soma, our hearts, minds and being.In the Zen tradition we have the practice guidelines or inquiries that we call the Bodhisattva Precepts. Thich Nhat Hanh and the Order of Interbeing also devised the Engaged Buddhism Precepts as a way of helping us contemplate how to respond to injustice and suffering in our world. This talk also explores some methods for practicing with the precepts. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amykisei.substack.com/subscribe

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 4/14/2024.

This Teisho was given by the Reverend Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo on May 31, 2023. In this talk Rinsen Roshi explores the Blue Cliff Record (Heikiganroku) Case 62 – Master Yunmen's “Within there is a Jewel”, and of being intimate with every dharma as it arises.   If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.

The Depth in Practice group discusses Case 19: A monk asked Yunmen, “Not a single thought arises: is there any fault or not?” // Yunmen said, “Mt. Sumeru.” // [According to Jain cosmology, Mount Meru (or Sumeru) is at the center of the world surrounded by Jambūdvīpa, in the form of a circle forming a diameter of 100,000 yojans. (description from Wikipedia)] Depth in Practice meets virtually at Appamada every week. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you are interested in joining, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

 This Teisho was given by the Reverend Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo on March 1, 2023. In this talk Rinsen Roshi explores the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku) Case 60 – the true realization of Buddha nature, and understanding the non-dual nature of our realities.   If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.

Resolving To Wake Up-Yunmen's Staff Becomes a Dragon by North Carolina Zen Center

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 12/10/2023.

This week the group discusses a koan about Yunmen's two sicknesses. Also included are a reading about China during the time of master Yunmen and commentary on the koan. This track is a recording of a meeting of the Depth in Practice group at Appamada. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you would like to join, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

The group continues discussion of the koan about Yunmen's two sicknesses. This track is a recording of a meeting of the Depth in Practice group at Appamada. Anyone is welcome to join the group! If you would like to join, please go to the calendar at appamada.org to find the link for the group. If you would like to donate to Appamada, please go to appamada.org and click on the contribute button at the bottom of the page.

Ron Hogen Green, Sensei - ZMM - 11/16/23 - From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 14 - "Yunmen's Appropriate Statement" - With this pithy koan by Yunmen, in light of Atisha's slogan #55, "Liberate yourself by examining and analyzing", Hogen Sensei encourages us to clarify, on an ongoing basis, why we're practicing and to trust our direct experience as a "way in", a "journey of no distance."

09/17/2023, Jiryu Rutschman-Byler, dharma talk at Green Gulch Farm. In this talk, Jiryu explores Yunmen's statement “Everyone has a light” (from Blue Cliff Record Case 86) and expresses the how the simple practice of sitting still with eyes open can fulfill our deep longing to be fully alive - while we can, and so that we can be more fully available for the suffering of the world.

A talk given at Berkeley Zen Center on Saturday, June 10th 2023 by Sue Oehser.

ADZG 1101 ADZG Monday Night Dharma Talk by Douglas Floyd

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - ZMM 5/27/2023 - From The Blue Cliff Record, Case 6 - Yunmen's "Every Day is a Good Day" - How is that possible? From what perspective is that so? Can we free the idea of good from our idea of good? And from Master Dogen's teaching "The Great Way of all Buddhas, thoroughly practiced is emancipation and realization." What does it mean to thoroughly practice?

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 12/11/2022.

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 11/20/2022.

  Someone asked, "The Honored Ones of the ten directions all had a single gateway to ultimate liberation. What is this gateway?"  Yunmen said, "I can't tell."  "Why can't you tell?"  Yunmen said, "If you, just you, present the problem, then I can."from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, trans.Support the show

  Once Yunmen said, "There is nothing whatsoever that does not explain the Dharma. Striking the bell or beating the drum is no exception. If this is the case, nothing will be Dharma, and nothing will not be."  He added, "One should not assert that when one speaks, it is, and that when one doesn't speak, it isn't. Even what I just said has not quite made it. Well, as long as it benefits people, it may be okay. . . ."from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, transSupport the show

This Teisho was given by the Reverend Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo on June 29, 2022. In this talk Rinsen Roshi explores the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku) Case 54 - Yunmen Extends Both Hands. If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.

ADZG 1022 ADZG Sunday Morning Dharma Talk by Steven Heine

  Someone asked Yunmen, "What is Chan?"  Yunmen replied, "That's it!"  Then they asked, "What is the Dao?"  Yunmen replied, "Okay!"_____  "What is the Dao?"  Yunmen replied, "To break through this word."  "What is it like when one has broken through?"  "A thousand miles, the same mood."_____  Someone asked Yunmen, "What is Chan?"  Yunmen said, "Is it all right to get rid of this word?"-from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, transSupport the show

  Someone asked, "How about when one makes a hole in the wall in order to steal the neighbor's light?"  Yunmen said, "There it is!"-from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, transSupport the show

  A student asked Yunmen, “What's the particle-by-particle samadhi?” (Another translation: "What's the deep state of mind in which, through any moment, you can enter all deep states of mind?")  Yunmen said, “Food in the bowl, water in the bucket.”Case 50 of the Blue Cliff RecordSupport the show

 Someone asked, "How should one act during every hour of the day such that the ancestors are not betrayed?"  Yunmen said, "Give up your effort."  The person said, "How should I give up my effort?"  Yunmen said, "Give up the words you just uttered.-from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, transSupport the show

 Someone asked, "How should one act during every hour of the day such that the ancestors are not betrayed?"  Yunmen said, "Give up your effort."  The person said, "How should I give up my effort?"  Yunmen said, "Give up the words you just uttered.-from Zen Master Yunmen, Urs App, transSupport the show

Dharma talk by Eran Junryu Vardi Roshi of Eiryu-ji Zen Center in Wyckoff, NJ, USA on 5/1/22

A monk asked Yunmen,”What is Buddha?” Yunmen answered, “Dried shit.” According to a recent New York Times Magazine article, the... The post That’s Just Disgusting – Koshin Cain – 6 February 2022 appeared first on Puget Sound Zen Center.

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi - Zen Mountain Monastery, New York, Sunday 12/05/2021 - From Wumen's Gateless Gate, Case 39 - Yunmen says you've missed it.

This is a Dharma Talk given by the Reverend Jay Rinsen Weik Roshi at the Buddhist Temple of Toledo. In this talk Rinsen Roshi explores the gate to the deeper end of things. If you would like to learn more about the Buddhist Temple of Toledo or to make a donation in support of this podcast please visit buddhisttempleoftoledo.org.

“People of scant knowledge do not think that buddhas have dignified behavior in the toilet... This is not learning of the Buddha's truth. Remember, purity and impurity is exemplified by blood dripping from a human being. At one time it is warm, at another time it is disgusting. The buddhas have toilets, and this we should remember.” - Dogen In an ever topical and timely discussion, Emily reads us Dogen's (in)famous chapters on the perfect practice of washing and going to the bathroom in a talk on purity and impurity, the clean and the unclean, and the bright bathroom mirror that reflects what we truly are as we wash, brush our teeth, and yes, poop the great poop of enlightenment. Do enlightened beings fart like the rest of us? (You betcha!) How exactly does one bathe in enlightenment? (With ease!) And did Yunmen really say that Buddha was a dried s**t stick? (Again, you betcha). Find out here!

Yunmen's Every Day is a Good Day. 09/04/2021, Rinso Ed Sattizahn, dharma talk at City Center.

A student asked, "What is buddha?"   Touzi answered, "Buddha."   "What is the way?"   Touzi said, "The Way."   "What is Chan?"   Touzi said, "Chan."   The student then asked, "What about when the moon isn't yet full?"   Touzi said, "I swallow three or four-tenths."   "What about when the moon is full?"   Touzi replied, "I spit out seven or eight-tenths."Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

Commentary on Case 87 from the Blue Cliff Record, Yunmen's "Medicine and Disease. The whole earth is medicine. Which one's for you?" 08/25/2021, Gendo Lucy Xiao, dharma talk at City Center.

How does Yunmen's explanation of emptiness: "hearing the sound of the bell", differ from Wittgenstein, and religious concepts of emptiness?  

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi Zen Mountain Monastery, 04/24/2021 Blue Cliff Record, Case 62 – Yunmen’s...

  Yunmen said, "Sickness and medicine accord with one another. The whole world is medicine. What are you?"Blue Cliff Record, Case 87Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

 Many, many thanks to Sentha Pusa for sharing the lecture references. Lecture location:   http://www.riversidechan.org/lectures/Dharma_Talk_20210222.mp3                                       Notes:-          Consider volunteering to transcribe a lecture. It is a great way to deepen your practice.-          This transcription is work in progress. It is transcribed as recorded and no professional

Yunmen said, “In the center of the cosmos, inside heaven and earth, there is one treasure, hidden in the body. It picks up a lantern and walks into the meditation hall. It brings the entrance gate and puts it on top of the lantern.”Blue Cliff Record, Case 62Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

 As they say in the movies, "take two!" Please disregard the first transcription posting because of a technical glitch on the audio link. Follow this one instead. Apologies… _()_ Many, many thanks to Sentha Pusa for sharing the lecture references. Lecture location:   http://www.riversidechan.org/lectures/Dharma_Talk_20210215.mp3Notes:-          Consider volunteering to transcribe a lecture. It is

A sage steers by the bright light of confusion and doubt.In this way, rather than relying on your own distinctions,you dwell in the ordinary.This is called illumination.Understanding that abides in the unknowable is realization.And never understanding where it all comes from –that is called inward radiance. -ZhuangziSupport the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

There is always something at work within us, working upon us. We sense this at various times in our lives, again. It is often what inspires one to take up a spiritual journey, in hopes of knowing it more intimately and connecting with it more deeply. As we journey along, there are times when we are in touch with it directly, but it doesn't last, fades away, leading us to seek it out once again, reaching back for when it was and/or moving onward and reaching forward for when it will come around again. And there are times along the journey when we are in touch with it directly and fully, so much so that words can't adequately express it and understanding can't encompass it fully, and it remains, abiding, deepening. However it is met and experienced, it is always right here, functioning fully, effortlessly, endlessly. Yes, as the workings within us and upon us, and as the workings of us: in all we do and all we are, we are the working itself.Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

Life sometimes - perhaps more often than we'd care for - brings us to moments and circumstances in which the things we regularly rely upon are gone, and we're completely in the dark. Holding onto or reaching for our usual ways of navigating through might help some, but, because we're in a place we've not known before, mostly they fall short, leaving us lost, uncertain, and frustrated. Perhaps what's called for in such times is meeting the unknown with the unknown, releasing whatever we're holding onto so that we can more fully settle into where we are, and as a result more fully meet what has come to meet us. What becomes possible then? What opportunities open? Support the show (https://www.paypal.me/apalmr)

What's brown and sticky?  According to Yunmen, it's Buddha! This week, The Gang tries scraping back the bullshit behind Yunmen's seemingly cryptic answer when asked by a monk what this "Buddha" is. Feel free to light some candles, turn on the fan, and drink plenty of coffee to prepare for this (maybe not as gross as it seems) discussion on why Yunmen would call Buddha "Kanshiketsu".

Move your feet? Lose your seat! In this week's episode, Zen Master Yunmen asks monks, when they hear the bell to go to class, why they're even getting up. Make sure you're on time to join as The Gang examines the question Yunmen asks us: Why are we here?  Why aren't we there? The world has many things going on - why are you listening to this instead of that?  Seeing this instead of tasting that? Don't think these are rhetorical questions... and, even if you think he's making fun of you, who's Yunmen to tell you what to do anyway??

Yunmen's back at it again, only this time the tables are turned! Come join the Sangha as The Gang tries unscrambling the 15th Case of the Blue Cliff Record. See if you can discover who is "Dying with you, being born with you, to give your certainty."

Uh oh!  Looks like this is another episode of Knot Zen After Dark. The Gang explores the 14th Case of the Blue Cliff Record and pushes the limits of appropriate statements.  And this is just part 1!  Be sure to check out Part 2 where everything starts going topsy turvy!

Following up on our history of the debate between gradual and sudden enlightenment, Erik follows our sudden victors forward in time to see what this sudden enlightenment really means for us in practice. With readings from Foyan's 'Instant Zen,' and Erik's favorite Buddhist story of Bahia of the Bark Cloth where Buddha finally takes the time to show a man that he is already instantly enlightened just moments before he gets killed by a cow (so... a happy ending?). But what does it mean to be suddenly enlightened? It means you are perfect and everything is fine. Or as Yunmen put it: “Why do you wander around looking for answers? What do you think you’re missing? You’re fine. If you can’t take responsibility for yourself, whatever else you’re taught will be a lie. If you see some old teacher about to open their mouth, you should tell them to shut up. But instead you act like flies on manure struggling for a bite of shit.” We swear, as always, it's just a Zen way of saying "I love you."

The old stories all have the same punchline: the monk was suddenly enlightened. What really happens when we have an experience of insight?   Transcript: https://emptysqua.re/blog/the-day-yunmen-broke-his-foot/

October - November 2008 | Cerro Gordo Temple, Santa Fe, NM | Pacific Zen Institute, Santa Rosa, CA Looking at dharma gates, the ancestors, the Great Mysterious at the heart of things, and more, from the perspective of Yunmen’s “In the whole world, in the midst of the cosmos, there is a treasure, hidden in your body. Holding a lantern, it goes toward the buddha hall. It brings the great triple gate and puts it on the lantern.”

October - November 2008 | Cerro Gordo Temple, Santa Fe, NM | Pacific Zen Institute, Santa Rosa, CA Looking at dharma gates, the ancestors, the Great Mysterious at the heart of things, and more, from the perspective of Yunmen’s “In the whole world, in the midst of the cosmos, there is a treasure, hidden in your body. Holding a lantern, it goes toward the buddha hall. It brings the great triple gate and puts it on the lantern.”

October - November 2008 | Cerro Gordo Temple, Santa Fe, NM | Pacific Zen Institute, Santa Rosa, CA Looking at dharma gates, the ancestors, the Great Mysterious at the heart of things, and more, from the perspective of Yunmen’s “In the whole world, in the midst of the cosmos, there is a treasure, hidden in your body. Holding a lantern, it goes toward the buddha hall. It brings the great triple gate and puts it on the lantern.”

"Curing the Self" is Dosho's talk at the Des Moines Zen Center from August 28, 2017. In the talk, Dosho discusses Blue Cliff Record 87: Yunmen addressed the assembly saying, “Medicine and disease cure each other. The whole great earth is medicine. So what is it that cures oneself?”

The Zenwest Buddhist Society is a federally registered charity in Canada that provides training and education in Zen Buddhism. If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it, review it, and share it with a friend that you think will enjoy it as much as you did. Please consider purchasing the Living Zen-podcast app on the iTunes app store! www.zenwest.ca If you are interested in getting started in Zen Practice, check out our Online Orientation to Zen Practice Program http://www.zenwest.ca/online-zen/84-online-orientation-to-zen

Michael asks the audience in this week's talk, what it is they think that enlightenment will bring them. He then goes forward to suggest that enlightenment will bring nothing to our experience that we don't already have. But its realization can fundamentally alter the course of our lives. Weaving this in to the beauty and the stresses of the holidays the Dharma talk centers around how it is that we can offer up, as Yunmen suggests, an "appropriate response" in the midst of it all.

Michael asks the audience in this week's talk, what it is they think that enlightenment will bring them. He then goes forward to suggest that enlightenment will bring nothing to our experience that we don't already have. But its realization can fundamentally alter the course of our lives. Weaving this in to the beauty and the stresses of the holidays the Dharma talk centers around how it is that we can offer up, as Yunmen suggests, an "appropriate response" in the midst of it all.

Mumonkan - The Gateless Barrier The Victoria Zen Centre is a federally registered charity in Canada that provides training and education in Zen Buddhism. If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it, review it, and share it with a friend that you think will enjoy it as much as you did. Please consider purchasing the Living Zen-podcast app on the iTunes app store! www.zenwest.ca

  Mumonkan - The Gateless Barrier The Victoria Zen Centre is a federally registered charity in Canada that provides training and education in Zen Buddhism. If you enjoy this podcast, please rate it, review it, and share it with a friend that you think will enjoy it as much as you did. Please consider purchasing the Living Zen-podcast app on the iTunes app store! www.zenwest.ca