Buddhist Temple Of Toledo Podcast

Recorded at the Toledo Zen Center on February 22nd, 2009, this is the first of three podcasts from an afternoon workshop exploring the life and teachings of Huang Po (D. 850) with Reverend Jay Rinsen Weik. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on February 18, 2009. Walking is Chan, and sitting is Chan.Speaking or silent, moving or still,The essence is at peace.Even under threat of sword and spear,It's undisturbed.Even a cup of poison won't destroy this serenity.--Yung Chia, "Song of Realizing the Way" For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on February 11, 2009. This single perfect nature pervades all natures;The sole universal dharma encompasses all dharmas.One moon shines in the water everywhereAnd all the reflected moons are just that one moon.--Yung Chia, Song of Realizing the Way For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on February 4, 2009.A genuine follower of the mahayana bodhisattva path is neither attached to the world nor attached to liberation from it; neither filled with desire nor filled with aversion. She or he will not cling to or run away from anything.--Chan Master Sheng-yenFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on January 25, 2009.On the fifth day after the rise of spring,Everywhere the season's gracious attitudes!The white sun gradually lengthening its course;The blue-gray clouds hanging as though they would fall.The last icicle breaking into splinters of jade;The new stems marshalling red sprouts.The things I meet are full of gladness:It is not only I who love the spring.To welcome the flowers, I stand in the back garden;To enjoy the sunlight, I sit under the front eaves.Yet still in my heart, there lingers one regret:Soon I shall part with the flame of my red stove!--Po Chu'iFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on January 25, 2009."For restful thoughts, one does not need space;The room where I lie is 10 foot square.By the western eaves, above the bamboo twigs,From my couch, I can see the white mountain rise.But the clouds that hover on its far distant peakBring shame to a face that is buried in the world's dust."--Po Chu'iFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on January 25, 2009."It's said that [Po Chu'i] would read every one of his poems to an uneducated person... but he would make sure that it made sense to people, that at least it was comprehensible in some way. He held to a Confucian ideal that said that poetry is, at some level or other, to educate... not simply just for idle entertainment." For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on January 14, 2008. All evil karma committed by me since of oldBecause of my beginningless greed, anger, and ignoranceBorn of my body, mouth, and thoughtNow I atone for it all. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk at a Zazenkai with the Toledo Zen Center, held at Lourdes College on December 13, 2008."I talked in the opening comments about meticulous clarity, meticulous effort, precise practice. This is a very, very important part of our training, of our Way. There's a kind of precision that's being asked for, that's being pointed to.... It takes a while to actually find yourself and to be able to sit clearly. And it matters."For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on December 10, 2008. "There is no self and no person; how, then, kinfolk and stranger? I beg you, cease going from lecture to lecture. It is better to seek the truth directly."-- Layman PangFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on December 3, 2008. "The Supreme Way is not difficult; it just precludes picking and choosing. Without yearning or loathing, The Way is perfectly apparent, while even a hair's breadth difference separates heaven and earth. To see The Way with your own eyes, quit agreeing and disagreeing. The battle of likes and dislikes is the disease of the mind."--Seng-ts'an, "Relying on Mind"For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 26, 2008. "The teachings of the Three Vehicles all cure diseases such as greed and hatred. Right now, thought after thought, if you have such sickness as greed or hatred, you should first cure them. Don't seek intellectual understanding of meanings and expressions. Understanding is in the province of desire, and desire turns into disease. Right now, just detach from all things, existent or nonexistent, and even detach from detachment." - Pai ChangFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 19, 2008. "In reading scriptures and studying the doctrines, you should turn all words right around, and apply them to yourself." - Pai ChangFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008."This principle is originally present in everyone. All the Buddhas and bodhisattvas may be called people pointing out a jewel. Fundamentally, it is not a thing - you don't need to know or understand it, you don't need to affirm or deny it. Just cut off dualism; cut off the supposition 'it exists' and the supposition 'it does not exist.' Cut off the supposition 'it is nonexistent' and the supposition 'it is not nonexistent.' When traces do not appear on either side, then neither lack nor sufficiency, neither profane nor holy, not light or dark. This is not having knowledge, yet not lacking knowledge, not bondage, not liberation. It is not any name or category at all. Why is this not true speech? How can you carve and polish emptiness to make an image of Buddha? How can you say that emptiness is blue, yellow, red or white?"For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008."In the teaching hall, the master said, 'The spiritual light shines alone, far transcending the senses and their fields. The essential substance is exposed, real and eternal. It is not contained in written words. The nature of mind has no defilement; it is basically perfect and complete in itself. Just get rid of delusive attachments and merge with the realization of thusness.'"For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008."Somehow, a process started to happen where things went from [being very freeform] to being very much sectarian. Things started to close down, people started to need to self-identify their group as distinct from other groups, and it's in the midst of that transition that this character Pai Chang finds himself."For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 12, 2008. "A man sitting in a mountain pass -- robed in clouds, tricked out in sunset's rose. In his fingers a fragrant flower, to pass along, but the road's so long and hard to climb! In his mind: disappointment and doubt; old as he is, he's accomplished nothing. People laugh at him, call him a cripple, yet he stands alone -- constant, untouched." - Han ShanFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 5, 2008. "I wanted to go off to the eastern cliff-- how many years now I've planned the trip? Yesterday, I pulled myself up by the vines, but wind and fog forced me to stop halfway. The path was narrow, and my clothes kept catching, the moss so spongy I couldn't move my feet, So I stopped under this red cinnamon tree. I guess I'll lay my head on a cloud and sleep." - Han Shan

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 29, 2008."I think of all the places I've been, chasing from one famous spot to another. Delighting in mountains, I scaled the mile-high peaks; loving the water, I sailed a thousand rivers. I held farewell parties with my friends in Lute Valley; I brought my zither and played on Parrot Shoals. Who would guess I'd end up under a pine tree, clasping my knees in the whispering cold?" - Han ShanFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 22, 2008."Now I have a single robe, not made of gauze or of figured silk. Do you ask what color it is? Not crimson, nor purple either. Summer days I wear it as a cloak, in winter it serves for a quilt. Summer and winter in turn I use it; year after year, only this." - Han ShanFor more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org.