{"id":429,"date":"2008-12-29T09:46:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-29T09:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2008\/12\/what-is-the-essence-of-buddhas-teaching\/"},"modified":"2008-12-29T09:46:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-29T09:46:00","slug":"what-is-the-essence-of-buddhas-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2008\/12\/what-is-the-essence-of-buddhas-teaching.html","title":{"rendered":"What is the Essence of Buddha’s Teaching?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>Just back from walking Bodhi. The path today was shimmering. Unfortunately (but appropriately), the photo didn\u2019t quite capture it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n


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The question about the essence of Buddha\u2019s teaching has stuck in my craw since yesterday\u2019s post. This was the question I posed to several teachers while on pilgrimage in the early 90\u2019s and I\u2019ll come back to how Harada Shodo Roshi responded in a future post.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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Imv, it is pretty darn important because dharma<\/a> freedom lies in practicing, manifesting, realizing, and actualizing this essence.\u00a0
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One of my concerns with the present American dharma scene is that we appear to be putting the essence on the back burner rather than front and center. Anyway, it is always available and yet always very close to disappearing. What can be done about falling into the secondary? It is truly a wild wild fox.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n

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And as a friend recently joked, \u201c<\/span>Without the dumb-it-downers what would we zealots do for a life?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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Here\u2019s a dialogue with Katagiri Roshi and an unknown student that points to some of the issues that come up when taking this question seriously. This dialogue was in my trove of possible stories for <\/span>Keep Me In Your Heart<\/span><\/span>\u00a0that didn\u2019t make the book, mostly because Wisdom thought that there was already enough material.<\/span><\/div>\n

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A student asked, \u201cYou say to practice Buddhism one must have strong faith.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>I think it is the same in other religious groups.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>People know the teaching but don\u2019t know for themselves.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>How can we judge if we are doing the right or wrong practice?\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Katagiri-roshi said, \u201cI\u2019m not selling religious faith and I don\u2019t mean that I can give you faith.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Please move toward the source of existence.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>If you don\u2019t know what is right or wrong practice, why don\u2019t you follow my guidance?<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Instead of confining yourself into a certain shell, \u2018I like faith, I don\u2019t like faith or I have faith or I don\u2019t have faith\u2019 \u2013 why don\u2019t you open yourself?<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Then you can have enough space to listen to Buddha\u2019s teaching.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span>In<\/span><\/span> the process, understanding will occur.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
One interesting aspect of this dialogue is that the student is pretty sharp. He is caught in the pickle of knowing that he doesn\u2019t know and also knowing that if he doesn\u2019t know, how can he trust what will lead him to knowing?<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
Another interesting aspect is Katagiri Roshi\u2019s treatment of faith, opening, and following. For many of us, the question of power in the teacher-student relationship is very tricky. How can we be adults, living now in the West, and meet the teaching (and our teachers) without pretending to be someone we\u2019re not (i.e., medieval, male, teen-aged Japanese monks)?<\/span><\/div>\n

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A really strong spirit is very important.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just back from walking Bodhi. The path today was shimmering. Unfortunately (but appropriately), the photo didn\u2019t quite capture it.\u00a0 The question about the essence of Buddha\u2019s teaching has stuck in my craw since yesterday\u2019s post. This was the question I posed to several teachers while on pilgrimage in the early 90\u2019s and I\u2019ll come back […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat is the Essence of Buddha's Teaching?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Just back from walking Bodhi. The path today was shimmering. 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