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

Buddhist Temple of Toledo Podcast · Mar 3, 2009 · 58m

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

"Shih-Tou's awakening happened as he read this passage from the teachings of the early scholar monk Seng-Chow:

"'The Ultimate Self is empty and void. Though it lacks form, the myriad things are all of its making. One who understands the myriad things as the Self, isn't that a sage?'

"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…