Finding Your Buddha Smile - Part 7: The Highest Teaching is the Oak Tree in my Front Garden?

Recorded February 28, 2026Wisdom, which helps us make reasonably good life choices, enabling us to live reasonably good lives, can’t be secret or esoteric. It must reside in what is common and ordinary; otherwise, what hope would any of us have of living well? It would be beyond us— special, hidden away, reserved for the few. No. The last word can’t be far off. And, indeed, Zen teachers in ancient China used folk songs, stories, and colloquial language, taking up whatever was handy, to open the Way and reveal our common inheritance, our true birthright of enlightenment.Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), asked for the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma, answered, "The oak tree in the front garden.” What did he mean? What was he getting at?Let’s take a look!Referenced:Haiku Master Buson by Yuki Sawa (1985-09-27) The Collected Haiku of Yosa Buson translated by W.S. Merwin & Takako LentoFinding Your Buddha Smile: Coming Home To What Zen is Really All About.  Available from Amazon , Sumeru Books, and Barnes & Noble Online.Photo of Smiling Buddha, Lung-men Caves, China, by Rafe Martin 2006Books by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org