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Zhaozhou’s Three Turning Words (BCR96)

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KOAN:

Zhaozhou used to teach three turning words:

A clay buddha can’t cross through water.
A gold buddha can’t cross through a furnace.
A wooden buddha can’t cross through fire.
(The true buddha is sitting in the house.)

—Blue Cliff Record Case 96 (transl. by John Tarrant & Joan Sutherland)

Audio June 11, 2020

When All Buddhas Are Destroyed, What Remains?

Jesse Cardin

Koans
What Is the Problem?, Zhaozhou's True Buddha (MK56)(BCR96), Zhaozhou’s Three Turning Words (BCR96)
Tags
buddhas, discomfort, ideas, not knowing, ordinary mind, rather have nothing than something good, what remains?, Zhaozhou
Category
Audio

PZI Zen Online: Zhaozhou said, “Clay Buddhas cannot pass through water; metal Buddhas cannot pass through a furnace; wooden Buddhas cannot pass through fire.” Which Buddha survives? The mid loves its ideas, structures, concepts and so does society. Some of those constructs are always dissolving. Discomfort of change in society norms and our own personal norms. As recorded June 10, 2020.

61' 55"