The Buddha's Enlightenment and Our Own Zen Practice

Recorded December 8, 2024In this teisho Roshi Rafe Martin tells the dramatic story of the Buddha’s great enlightenment then comments on it (using his recent book A Zen Life of Buddha as his source), from the ground of ongoing Zen practice: “Zen Buddhism reveres the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment because it so dramatically reveals our own potential, even as it reveals the determined, dedicated work that “even as it reveals the determined, dedicated work that underlies all milestone experiences. ”“Buddhist tradition says that we all have the nature of Buddha, have exactly the same, vast, empty nature of endlessly creative and compassionate potential as Shakyamuni and all previous and future Buddhas. From the first we are each fully and equally endowed with limitless wisdom and virtue. And because it is already who we are, if we practice, if we make sincere efforts then we, too, can to one degree or another, awake to this same Original Mind.“. . . After a long night of focused zazen, the Buddha-About-To-Be glanced up and saw the morning star. And suddenly, AHA! “Gone, gone, entirely gone!” That’s IT! A morning star sat beneath the Bodhi tree: “Star! No “me”, just Star!”It need not be so dramatic. A poem of Li Po’s from ancient China titled, “Zazen on Ching-t’ing Mountain,” goes like this:     The birds have vanished down the sky.     Now the last cloud drains away.     We sit together, the mountain and me,     until only the mountain remains.– Trans. by Sam Hamill, from Crossing the YellowRiver: Three Hundred Poems from the ChineseBooks cited: A Zen Life of Buddha (Sumeru Press 2023) by Rafe MartinCrossing the Yellow River: Three Hundred Poems from the Chinese, Sam HamillPhoto: Seated Buddha and standing Buddha (after enlightenment) at Endless Path Zendo by Rafe MartinBooks by Roshi Rafe MartinTalks on YouTubeMore information at endlesspathzen.org