Zachary Smith reflects on a talk given by Zentatsu Richard Baker, SFZC’s second Abbot, in 2012 about the idea of “mental posture”. Zach discusses how this idea can help us both with sitting and with bringing practice to our daily activity outside the Zendo.
Valentines Dharma: Love and Zen
Zachary Smith unpacks the English word “Love”—perhaps the most overloaded word in the language—and talks about its experiential footprint in practice, as well as how practice can foster love in our everyday relationships.
Two Koans from the Blue Cliff Record
Zachary Smith shares two koans from the Blue Cliff Record.
Case 29 of the Blue Cliff Record
The topic is (yet another) Zen story, suitable for the late season and the promise of a New Year, that brings up the question of what actually happens when the world ends. For those who have a copy of the Blue Cliff Record lying around, the case number is 29.
Case 4 of the Blue Cliff Record
The topic is focused on an old Zen story (Case 4 of the Blue Cliff Record for those who are familiar with the literature), which discusses the apparently paradoxical relationship between what we might call “spiritual ambition”—i.e. wishing to benefit in some way from a spiritual practice like Zen—and the way in which ambition of any sort (aka “grasping”) is a barrier to fruitful practice.
Case 30 of the Blue Cliff Record
Zachary Smith, inspired by a Koan—Case 30 of the Blue Cliff Record—talks about what we’re actually “supposed" to be practicing with.
Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?
Zachary Smith: we’ll answer the age-old and often-asked question, “Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?”
The Vicissitudes
The session will be inspired by Case 74 of the Book of Serenity, commonly known as “Fayan’s ‘Substance and Name,’” which, frankly, gives the best-ever accounting of the vicissitudes of the human condition. With this gift in hand we will puzzle together over the central question of what, in Buddha’s name, we should do about it.
The Messenger
Zachary Smith: Lately I’ve been thinking about all the cases where some teacher, for some reason, has been required to boil their knowledge and experience down to a single, simple compelling expression and deliver it. The Buddhist literature is full of examples and we’ll talk, at least briefly, about some of them but I’ll also be giving it a try as well.
Just One Finger
Zachary Smith shares a collection of strange Zen stories, including Case 19 of the Blue Cliff Record, about a teacher named Jùzhī with a very eccentric teaching style,
Your Teacher Anxiety
Yun Men's Appropriate Statement
Zachary Smith covers case 14 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Yun Men’s Appropriate Statement”
Mudita
Zachary Smith: following on from Mei’s recent talk on Equanimity, I’ll be talking about another of the four Brahmavihārās, Muditā or Sympathetic Joy. We’ll talk about how this marvelous quality can arise, how it’s related to the Western idea of Love and, in the end, trying to get at the common element of all four “immeasurable”, as they’re sometimes called.
Self-Receiving & Employing Samadhi
Anshi Zachary Smith: We’ll explore Dogen’s “Self-Receiving and Employing Samadhi”, which is an excerpt from a longer and much more pointed manifesto, his “Bendowa”, and which captures a number of key points about the nature and function of the Self and how it relates to practice.
Our Ghostly Companions
Anshi Zachary Smith: We’ll explore the boundaries and nether regions of everyday experience and how the creatures we meet there can be our allies and teachers.
Not Knowing is the Most Intimate
Zachary Smith: We’ll discuss our impulse to know or understand and how that desire may not always serve us.
List-Making & Non-Dualism
Anshi Zachary Smith: “We’ll explore, among other things, the intellectual and philosophical environment in which Zen Buddhism developed in China, in particular the that fact that it contained both a proliferation of dualistic “list-making” and a preponderance of radical non-dualism (perhaps “anti-dualism”) as pioneered by some earlier Mahayana Buddhist schools, e.g. the Huayan school. We’ll also see how this balancing act has continued even up to the present day.”
Hui Chao Asks About the Buddha
Anshi Zachary Smith raises Case 7 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Hui Chao Asks About the Buddha,” to see what it can tell (or show) us about the exact nature of the much-debated term “Buddha Nature” in the context of Zen practice. We will also be bringing in a bit of Dogen, which is always a good thing—rather like adding pepper, or maybe even smoked Paprika, to soup.
Yangshan’s Mind and Environment
“This case raises and explores the question of what actually happens when, as Dogen asks, you take “the backward step that turns your light inwardly to illuminate your self”. Not surprisingly, it’s not exactly as straightforward as turning on the kitchen light on the way to the fridge and there are some nuances to sort out.” — Anshi Zachary Smith
Fengxue's "Iron Ox" - Book Of Serenity 29
Anshi Zachary Smith: Case 29 of the Book of Serenity, which, in addition to a whole lot of slapstick hi-jinks and, perhaps, the most creative and outrageous insult a Tang Dynasty Zen teacher has ever leveled at his interlocutor, makes a number of subtle points about the nature and practice of teaching/transmission itself. Thus, it’s a fitting follow-on to Kodo’s talk about Practice Discussion of last week.