Episode 5: 500 Lives as a Fox & Karma
In this episode, Roshi Allison Atwill tells the story of Baizhang’s Fox, a classic koan from The Gateless Gate collection about the nature of karma.
In this koan case, an old man confesses he was once abbot of the mountain temple, but was sentenced to live 500 lives as a fox for misapprehending the nature of cause and effect. The story of his eventual freedom touches on the relief we find in realizing that our particular karma holds within it our awakening, and indeed our piece of the world’s awakening.
Listen to learn how Allison found Zen and why even 500 lives as a fox become 500 lives of grace.
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Your karma wants what it’s always wanted … your awakening.
— Allison Atwill
Show notes:
- How do we live in our karma
- Does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect
- Why practice Zen
- Allison’s introduction to Zen
Suddenly it is like you become the center of the universe.
— Allison Atwill