The Whole World is Medicine (BCR87)

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KOAN:

Sickness and medicine are in accord with each other. The whole world is medicine. What am I?

– Blue Cliff Record, Case 87 (Yunmen)

Text October 22, 2020

The Nature of Practice

John Tarrant

Koans
Dogen's Turn Your Light Inward, Don't Believe It, Linji's There Is Nothing I Dislike (MK38a), Not Knowing Is Most Intimate (MK62), Shitou's Turn Your Light Inwards, Step by Step in the Dark (MK72), The Whole World is Medicine (BCR87)
Tags
2016 Summer retreat, 2016 Summer Sesshin, bodhisattva path, buddha nature, empathy, koan, light, Linji, moving in the dark, no rank, no-self, not knowing, practice, take the backward step, unlooked-for help
Category
Text

Practice. The notion of practice, as something you embody, and you walk through, and you are—rather than something you add, like something added to gasoline. There’s also a sense of moving in the dark, in some way that’s positive. So that in a practice, “not knowing” is on your side.

9259 Words
Audio December 3, 2019

How is it that Sickness & Medicine Heal Each Other?

Jon Joseph

Koans
Sickness and Medicine (BCR87), The Whole World is Medicine (BCR87), Who Am I?, Yunmen’s Medicine and Sickness Cure Each Other (BCR87)
Tags
2017 January Sesshin
Category
Audio

The dark things shine as brightly as the bright light – and we don’t need health to shine.

55' 22"