Ordinary Heart-Mind is the Dao (2 of 4)
DHARMA SPRING
English - July 20, 2021 09:00 - 38 minutes - 26.3 MBBuddhism Religion & Spirituality Spirituality meditation zen chan dharma daoism buddhism koan spirituality contemplative awakening Homepage Download Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
This is the second in a series of Dharma Talks being posted here, from a retreat held in 2017 entitled Realizing the Way with the Great Woods Zen community in North Carolina. Case 19 of The Gateless Gateway is the koan this talk is centered around:
Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, "What is the Dao?"
Nanquan said, "Ordinary heart-mind is the Dao."
Zhaozhou asked, "Should I try to direct myself toward it?"
Nanquan said, "If you try to turn toward it, you go away from it."
Zhaozhou asked, "How can I know the Dao if I don't turn toward it?"
Nanquan said, "The Dao isn't subject to knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is blankness. If you truly reach the Dao, you'll find it as vast and boundless as outer space. How can we talk about this at the level of right and wrong?"
With these words, Zhaozhou had sudden realization.