I've spent the last week at Cambridge Zen Center, training with the community and visiting friends. It's an incredibly warm-hearted home for practice and I hope someday you can experience it.
Zen Master Bon Yeon has served Cambridge Zen Center for many years as co-guiding teacher. In today's video, she answers a student's question about reincarnation. Many of us struggle with the Buddha's teachings on rebirth and reincarnation, and perhaps this video will provide useful direction.
Thank you for reading Ox Herding. May we all keep strong don't-know mind this weekend!
I have been keeping the same question in my mind for years, and I finally heard something which makes sense as an answer! ThanQ!
Posted by: Faezeh | October 12, 2012 at 02:48 PM
Thanks for this video, Barry. Bon Yeon's comments bring to mind the story of Hakuin Ekaku's reported response to a samurai:
A noble man asked Master Hakuin: "What happens to the enlightened man at death? What happens to the unenlightened man?"
The master replied: "Why ask me?"
"Because you are a Zen master!"
"Yes,' said Hakuin, "but not a dead one!"
Philip Kapleau, THE WHEEL OF DEATH (1971)
The authenticity of this story has been questioned, but it has been widely disseminated, and it seems to represent a consensus in the Zen community. I like Bon Yeon's gentle and exploratory way of expressing it.
Posted by: Ben Howard | October 13, 2012 at 04:05 AM
Why won't she simple say it...."There is no 'you' after death"? Like a clod of mud dissolving in a stream, the aggregate I experience as me will dis-aggregate upon death. Some people will remember me. And the impressions I've made as I rolled into the stream may remain, a semi-permanent reminder of what type of clod I was, but "I" will be gone forever. Is there any object proof to the contrary that grown from the empty field of human thought?
Posted by: Nankin Rouren | October 14, 2012 at 08:47 AM