The Land of Hungry Ghosts
Karin Ryuku Kempe on samsara and liberation.
The Sickness of Bodhisattvas
Karin Ryuku Roshi takes up the story of Vimalakirti’s meeting with Manjusri:
Once when Vimalakirti was unwell, he was visited by a host of bodhisattvas, including Manjusri, the bodhisattva of transcendent wisdom. Manjusri inquired after Vimalakirti’s health and asked what caused his illness.
Vimalakirti replied, “I am ill because the world is ill. My sickness comes from ignorance and the thirst for existence, and will last as long as does the sickness of living beings. Were all living beings to be free from sickness, I also would not be sick. The bodhisattva loves all living beings as if each were his only child. You ask me whence comes my sickness? The sickness of bodhisattvas comes from great compassion.”
No Place It Does Not Reach
Karin Ryuku Kempe takes up this story from Dogen’s Genjo Koan:
Zen master Baoche of Mt. Mayu was fanning himself. A monk approached and said, “Master, the nature of wind is permanent and there is no place it does not reach. Why, then, do you fan yourself?”
“Although you understand that the nature of the wind is permanent,” Baoche replied, “you do not understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.”
“What is the meaning of its reaching everywhere?” asked the monk again. The master just kept fanning himself. The monk bowed deeply.
The Imperishable Dharma Body
Karin Ryuku Kempe on the nature of perishing. Recorded at the ZCD’s summer sesshin at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center.
The Teaching of the Insentient
Karin Ryuku Kempe on the wisdom of the inanimate. Recorded at ZCD’s summer sesshin at Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center.