Boundless Way Zen Temple Dharmacast · Boundless Way Zen Temple

Melissa Blacker - May 2025 Sesshin Dharma Talk

·1 hr 6 min·5 clips

Daishan simply bows when scolded by his cook, showing a radical shift from arrogance to humility.

This Dharma talk by Melissa Blacker explores Blue Cliff Record Case 51, featuring the ancient Zen teachers Shui Feng and Yan Tou. Blacker, a transmitted teacher in Boundless Way Zen, uses this koan to illuminate the core Zen pursuit of awakening. She emphasizes that these historical figures were not saints but people "just like us" who devoted their lives to waking up from delusion. The koan involves two monks visiting the hermit Shui Feng, who pops out of his hut to ask, "What is it?" One monk echoes the question back, prompting Shui Feng to silently lower his head and return inside. The monk later recounts this to Yan Tou, who laments he didn't tell Shui Feng "the last word." Blacker connects this to another story where Shui Feng, as a young monastery cook, scolds the elderly teacher Daishan for coming to eat early. Daishan's response is simply to bow, demonstrating a profound non-reactivity. Yan Tou later tells Shui Feng that Daishan has "lost it," a teaching tactic that deeply upsets Shui Feng. A surprising insight is that Yan Tou's own death centuries later, screaming when stabbed by a bandit, became a source of awakening for the later teacher Hakuin. Blacker explains that "What is it?" is a fundamental Korean Zen koan, similar to "Who am I?" used for concentrated inquiry. She reveals that the Blue Cliff Record was nearly lost, copied by Dogen on his last night in China and later reconstructed from burned fragments. The talk highlights that true teaching encounters require showing up with "empty hands," not hiding behind prepared questions or intellectual knowledge. Blacker stresses that reactivity is natural to our mammalian brains, but Zen offers the possibility of not being "caught" in it, as Daishan demonstrated. She notes that the five transmitted teachers in Boundless Way are all different but share a single devotion to awakening. The tone is conversational, pedagogical, and deeply personal, weaving ancient stories with reflections on modern practice, sickness, and fear. Blacker frequently invites listeners to see themselves in the stories, creating an intimate and encouraging atmosphere. This episode is ideal for Zen practitioners or anyone interested in koan study, offering rich historical context and practical application for meditation and daily life. Listeners seeking purely secular mindfulness or historical analysis without a spiritual framework might find the religious terminology and devotional focus less engaging.

As heard by us

A Zen talk that turns an old case into a direct look at fear, meeting, and self-story.

Melissa Blacker opens with Bluecliff Record, Case 51, then moves from lineage and teacher-student exchange into fear, hiding, and the practice of meeting another person in doksan.

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Why you'd press play

A Zen case that turns fear into practice.

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