Oak Tree in the Front Garden

Recorded March 1, 2025If wisdom is real, it should be popping up all over — in life, in folklore, in songs and movies emerging from popular culture. Real wisdom should be common knowledge, not hidden, or secret, or esoteric. “You’ll find your happiness lies right under your eyes/Back in your own backyard” sounds such a chord. And to quote Dorothy, “There’s no place like home.” Still, why do such fundamental insights keep having to pop up? Why don’t we just “get it”? The great, Chao-chou (J. Joshu; 778–897), perhaps the most mature of all Chinese Zen masters, was once asked, “What is the meaning of Bodhidharma’s coming from the West?” Or what is the highest teaching of the Buddhadharma. He answered, “The oak tree in the front yard.” What did he mean? Aitken Roshi once told me that the whole point of Zen was happiness. Actually what he said was “Many people in this world are happy. Absorbed in their work, or family, or hobbies, no longer caught up in themselves, they’re happy. But if impermanence has bitten too deeply, and a yearning for something more, a way to be at peace in the face of impermanence has taken root, then Zen can show you the way to happiness.”Is it happiness, then, that resides at the core of Zen? Did gruff old Bodhidharma have a soft heart and make that risky journey because he wanted us to be happy? But, then, what about that oak tree? Let’s find out?!Photo: Tree by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org