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The Oak Tree in the Garden (GG37)(BS47)
KOAN:
Someone asked Zhaozhou, ” Why did Bodhidharma come from the west?”
Zhaozhou replied, “The oak tree in the garden.”
—Gateless Gate 37, Book of Serenity 47
Text
March 26, 2023
Falling with the Koan NO
John Tarrant gives a talk on Zhaozhou’s NO: This koan is often offered as a first “gate,” but I think you need to already be in trouble and falling before it’s useful. Life is always offering us that cliff—that door of falling. When you’re falling, you can’t screw it up because actually there’s not a lot you can do. But what you do will be very free and won’t be constrained by the usual. From a recording made in Fall Sesshin 2022.