• 12-28-2024 | Koans - Records of the Winners
    Jan 5 2025

    #Post(s) in Question

    Post under discussion: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1hkmjir/koans_the_record_of_winners/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831


    # What did we discuss?

    Records of winners?

    What is a koan? Which koans matter?

    Conversation about what?

    What is conversation? Explicitly public vs explicitly private.

    Zen goals vs church goals.

    Judging people by their own standards not someone else's.


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    1 hr and 15 mins
  • 12-21-24 || Zhaozhou's birth family
    Dec 28 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1hinlqv/zhaozhou_avoiding_his_birth_family_intimacy/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    was zhaozhou talking about his family? cousins? he was 70?

    was zhaozhou referencing his old teacher?

    seeing one time is a big zen theme

    net of love is a sex sutra?

    who is hakamaya and what's wrong with academia

    western buddhist academia as "mostly 1960's" and not "mostly buddhist"


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    1 hr
  • 12-19-2024 || Wash Your Bowl (?)
    Dec 19 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1hb3cec/zen_for_dingbats_wumens_gate_case_7_zhaozhous/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    What does "wash your bowl" mean?

    Educated in the record - not the norm in Zen, but the norm everywhere else.

    What does the word "everyday" even mean?

    Fun with "overly vague" terms

    If:then statement as instruction

    Triangulating Interpretation: Three Cases by that Master. Three discussions of the Case by other Masters.

    Topicalism in Zen and Art History: It doesn't mean that because you feel it does

    Is "caring" the same in protestant cultures as it is in Zen communes?

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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • 12-14-24 || Dualistic thinking vs Faith-based Dualism
    Dec 17 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1haggbg/zen_dualistic_thinking_vs_western_buddhist_duality/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    What do Buddhists believe? Most people who use the term "dualism" are NOT Buddhist, and use the "dualism" as a wild card to defend irrationality, as in to separate lying/truth is dualism. To make arguments based on fact instead of fiction is "dualism".

    What is "religion"? Part of a group with common beliefs that can be enuciated. Are new agers religious?

    Internet spiritualists vs Zazen and Mormonism.

    Materialism is what now?

    Materialism="there is an independent objective reality". Materialism seems more relevant to Zen than Buddhist non-duality.


    Can we call non-establishment new agers "internet spritualists"?


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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • 11-25-24 || Wumen's Warnings
    Dec 14 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1guflov/wumens_gateless_checkpoint/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen


    #What did we end up talking about?

    Why are the warnings left out? Japan's marketing power extends to cults.

    Why does language work that way? Read the Japanese study on fault and cause in passive voice.

    Learning language and it's confusing.

    Philosophical constructions in Zen texts.

    Sunday school training versus Philosophy skills. Gets us to critical Buddhism, translation culture.

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    1 hr and 38 mins
  • 11-24-24 || Gateless's Fairwell, Part 2 - Notes from the previous episdoe
    Nov 25 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1guflov/wumens_gateless_checkpoint/

    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen


    #What did we end up talking about?

    A list of questions and criticisms based on notes from the previous episode, and some bewiderment at why people pretend to know what enlightenment is in the comments.

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    59 mins
  • 11-20 || Wumen's Postscript - No Gates!
    Nov 22 2024

    #Post(s) in Question

    Link to episode: https://old.reddit.com/r/zen/comments/1guflov/wumens_gateless_checkpoint/


    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen


    #What did we end up talking about?

    • Wumen's "facts"
    • philosophy is like art history in it's shrouded mystery to the public
    • Science is a branch of philosophy, but philophy is taught as religion
    • Is Science subjective?
    • Wumen's checkpoint is the metal detector in the lobby of the building
    • Juzhi and the password
    • translation questions
    • Zen isn't getting what you want, Zen isn't the solution to what you don't like.

    #You can be on the podcast! Use a pseudonym! Nobody cares!


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    1 hr and 36 mins
  • 11-16-2024 || Xutang 34
    Nov 20 2024

    #Post(s) in Question


    Post: Xutang's Empty Hall 34, no post! Heresy!


    Link to episode:


    Link to all episodes: https://sites.libsyn.com/407831

    Buymeacoffee, so I'm not accused of going it alone:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ewkrzen


    #What did we end up talking about?


    舉。葉縣省和尚問僧。日暮投林。朝離何處。云。某甲不曾參禪。縣云。爾生身入地獄。 僧無語。 代云。誰不承恩。

    Yexian Sheng, the Chan master, asked a monk, 'In the evening you enter the forest. In the morning, where do you leave from?'
    The monk replied, 'I have not yet engaged in Zen inquiry [參禪 (cān chán)].'
    Yexian said, 'You are alive and yet you enter hell.'
    The monk was speechless.
    Someone else said on his behalf, 'Who does not receive grace?'"

    Triple entendres of leaving home, Dongshan's "no entrance"
    Symbolism of forrest, at night.
    Taking refuge
    Three bodies of Buddha


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    50 mins