Podcasts religion Buddhist Temple of Toledo Podcast Encountering Shih-Tou (1 of 2): The Myriad Things as the Self

Encountering Shih-Tou (1 of 2): The Myriad Things as the Self

Published: March 3, 2009, 3:45 a.m.

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Jay Rinsen Chikyo Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on July 27, 2008.

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"Shih-Tou\'s awakening happened as he read this passage from the teachings of the early scholar monk Seng-Chow:
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\\n"\'The Ultimate Self is empty and void. \\xa0Though it lacks form, the myriad things are all of its making. \\xa0One who understands the myriad things as the Self, isn\'t that a sage?\'
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"That seeming dichotomy right there, the myriad things and the self, the form, the empty, the void, the relative and the absolute became the essential insight that Shih-Tou would plumb the depths of and elucidate in a way that hadn\'t happened before him, to such a degree that his \'Identity of Relative and Absolute\' is a teaching that we chant to this day."
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\\nNote: This talk also addresses what it means to "sit with" koans as a practice, and how it relates to concentration practices.

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For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org. The Toledo Zen Center is a member of the Hermitage Heart Sangha, online at hermitageheart.org.

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