Brad Warner - Forget Gautama! - a podcast by Angel City Zen Center

In a very special Rohatsu talk Brad reads from the Denkoroku about the time Buddha sat under a tree for too long and all the wonderful things he realized. According to our Denkoroku author Keizan Jokin: 

“Seeing the morning star, Gautama Buddha was enlightened and said, ‘I was, am, and will be enlightened with the whole earth and all beings simultaneously."

It's the ultimate flash fiction - the story of all time and space and everyone who lives there and how we all had a nice moment once that extends everywhere forever. But what was that moment, and how does one person looking at a star kookily help any of the rest of us?? Brad takes us through it expertly, first with some context around when and why they wrote this, who Keizan was and the politics of early Zen, and then we get to the big questions. What does it mean for one person's enlightenment to include everyone, and is that something we can or should try and do too? Was Buddha being selfish, and what about his wife and kids? Is meditation itself selfish and can we ever really do anything alone? Maybe it's a Christmas story, because it is all about togetherness if nothing at all. 

Further episodes of Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

Further podcasts by Angel City Zen Center

Website of Angel City Zen Center