If You Meet The Buddha On The Road, Kill Him

Question:

I have heard the phrase “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” many times. Can you explain this?

Answer:

It actually comes from an old koan attributed to Zen Master Linji, (the founder of the Rinzai sect). It’s a simple one:

“If you meet the Buddha, kill him.”– Linji

I’m sure you already realize that it’s not being literal. The road, the killing, and even the Buddha are symbolic.

The road is generally taken to mean the path to Enlightenment; that might be through meditation, study, prayer, or just some aspect of your way of life. Your life is your road. That’s fairly straightforward as far as metaphors go.

But how do you meet the Buddha on this “road?” Imagine meeting some symbolic Buddha. Would he be a great teacher that you might actually meet and follow in the real world? Could that Buddha be you yourself, having reached Enlightenment? Or maybe you have some idealized image of perfection that equates to your concept of the Buddha or Enlightenment.

Whatever your conception is of the Buddha, it’s WRONG! Now kill that image and keep practicing. This all has to do with the idea that reality is an impermanent illusion. If you believe that you have a correct image of what it means to be Enlightened, then you need to throw out (kill) that image and keep meditating.

Most people have heard the first chapter of the Tao, “The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.” (So if you think you see the real Tao, kill it and move on).

Background Buddhism and Three Stories

Podcast Episode 33: Background Buddhism and Three Stories

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number thirty-three. My name is Brian Schell, and I am the your host for the show. You can find the text as well as all links mentioned in this program and all past episodes on the website at www.dailybuddhism.com. Send your questions, comments, suggestions and thoughts to me at dailybuddhism@gmail.com

There are no special announcements this week, so let’s get on with this week’s show!

[Read the past five blog posts or emails for contents of the show]

This Week’s Links

Converts vs. Background Buddhists
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/647

The Dog Story
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/650

Help support Daily Buddhism
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/659

Amazon Affiliate Link

Right Effort Revisited
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/652

Book: Where is Your Buddha Nature? Stories To Instruct & Inspire
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/665
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1932293302/?tag=askdrarca-20

Koan: Not Far from Buddhahood
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/674

Weekly Buddhism Subscription Info:
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/weekly-buddhism

Women in Buddhism

Reader Submitted Shrine #3
Reader Submitted Shrine #3

Podcast Episode 32: Women in Buddhism

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number thirty-two. I’m Brian Schell, your host for the show. You can find the text for everything in this show and all past episodes on our website at www.dailybuddhism.com .

A few brief announcements this Week:

The Weekly Buddhism PDF Magazine Issue #7 will be available later this weekend, and this one is jam-packed with pictures and images. Someone asked me if clicking on the Donate $5 a month button qualifies for the free subscription, and yes, that sounds reasonable to me. So I am now expanding the offer to include those who use the automatic recurring subscription feature. If you want to do this, just click on the “Donate $5 a month” button on any page. If you want to pick up only the latest issue or subscribe the regular way, go to http://www.weeklybuddhism.com

I have a few reader questions that I plan to use for next week’s show, but I would still like to hear your questions and comments on anything at all. Drop me an email at brian@dailybuddhism.com or call in 24 hours a day with your phone at 937-660-4949

I got another reader-submitted shrine picture this week, which I will post with the shownotes to this episode. If you have one, go ahead and send it in as an attachment to your email message; it’s not too late.

Just a quick follow up to my announcement last week, the Daily Chess Lesson website and email list will officially start on Monday. If you never learned to play the game, sign up now before we get started with the rules and stick around when we get into strategies and stuff later. http://www.dailychesslesson.com or follow the link from the DB website.

And that’s it for the Announcements for the week. Now, on with this week’s show!

[Read the past five blog posts or emails for contents of the show]

This Week’s Links

Women in Buddhism Part 1: Maya
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/604

Women in Buddhism Part 2: Pajapati
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/613

Women in Buddhism Part 3: Kwan Yin
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/619

Book: The Moon In the Water, Reflections on an Aging Parent
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/628

Koan: Gisho’s Work
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/633

Weekly Buddhism Subscription Info:
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/weekly-buddhism

Mindfulness, Kindness, Buddha-Boy and the Sangha

Podcast Episode 31: Mindfulness, Kindness, Buddha-Boy and the Sangha

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number thirty-one. I’m Brian Schell, your host for the show. You can find the text for everything in this show and all past episodes on our website at www.dailybuddhism.com .

Zen Gardens, Home Shrines, Conversion, and Reviews

Podcast Episode 30: Zen Gardens, Home Shrines, Conversion, and Reviews

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number thirty. I’m Brian Schell, your host for the show. You can find the text for everything in this show and all past episodes on our website at www.dailybuddhism.com .

A few brief announcements this Week:

This week I installed a poll plugin onto the DB site. If you’d like to help me test it out, there’s a really simple poll on there right now: ‚ÄúWhich do you prefer, the audio show, email, PDF Magazine or website?‚Äù It’s not an important question; I’m just testing the software. But if you want to put in your answer, it’s on the right- Taooftheday.comhand side of any page.

The Weekly Buddhism PDF Magazine Issue #5 will be available later this weekend, but as I mentioned in previous shows, is now subscription-only. We talked about rates last week, so I’ll skip that this time, but I will remind you where to go whether you want just this single issue or a full subscription. Go to www.weeklybuddhism.com which will take you straight to the page for the magazine.

Also, I have noticed that the topics we are getting into are getting more and more advanced. There’s nothing at all wrong with that, it’s a natural progression, but it seems likely that there are plenty of new listeners out there. I recently put all the old audio shows back online, so anyone can go back and listen to the early ones. Those shows are older, and the audio quality isn’t too good on a few of them, but content-wise, they are the most important of all of them. If anyone has any questions about that early material, don’t hesitate to send me an email. I have no problem re-visiting the basics. If you would like me to re-address any of those topics in the near future, that’s fine with me; it’s probably a good idea to get back to basics once in a while.

But now, on with this week’s show!

[Read the past five blog posts or emails for contents of the show]

This Week’s Links

Zen Gardens
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/497

It’s NOT a Zen Garden:
http://www.rothteien.com/superbait/zenviewpoints.htm

Desktop Zen Garden Kit:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00005OUHD/?tag=askdrarca-20

Book: Here You Are, By Mayke Beckmann Briggs
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/503

Buy from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0977646912/?tag=askdrarca-20

Becoming a Buddhist: Conversion Rituals
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/508

Older DB Articles on the topic:
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/115
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/172

Tibetan Conversion Ceremony:
http://www.parami.org/duta/buddhist.htm

Review: Zen and Now Timepiece
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/514

Now and Zen Company Site:
http://www.now-zen.com

Setting Up A Home Buddhist Shrine
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/523

Weekly Buddhism Subscription Info:
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/weekly-buddhism

Fear, Footprints, Family & Fat

Podcast Episode 29: Fear, Footprints, Family & Fat

 

Fat Buddha, Skinny Buddha, Laughing Buddha

Fat Buddha, Skinny Buddha, Laughing Buddha

Budai (Hotei)
Budai / Hotei

—————————————————–
A Listener Phoned In
(to 937-660-4949 where you can call in your questions too!)
—————————————————–

What’s the deal with the big fat Buddha statues? He’s got fancy robes and stuff all around him and looks very greedy. What’s up with that?

—————————————————–
And my response:
—————————————————–

Whenever you mention Buddha to a non-Buddhist american (maybe all Westerners, I’m not going to presume), the guy in the picture on the right springs to mind.

He’s fat. He’s jolly. The Laughing Buddha is fell-fed and looking happy. Rub his belly for luck!

The thing is, that’s not really Buddha; his name is Hotei. He’s a deity of contentment and abundance, originally based (the statue anyway) on a real Chinese Zen monk named Budai who lived in the early 6th century. He is almost always shown smiling or laughing, hence his nickname in Chinese, the “Laughing Buddha.” He’s also sometimes associated with Maitreya, who is a Buddha who will appear in the future.

Emaciated, Starved Buddha
Emaciated, Starved Buddha

Remember the original story of Siddhattha Gotama (The ORIGINAL Buddha). The prince left the city to go live in the wilderness for six years. While he was out there, he lived the life of an ascetic, refusing food and nearly starving to death. He probably looked something like the statue on the left. Afterwards, he turned to the Middle Path, avoiding all extremes, such as eating too much or too little. After recovering from his time as a starving ascetic, the real Buddha was almost certainly a normal-sized man, not fat like Hotei. The style of statue on the bottom-right is probably a lot more realistic.

Realistic Buddha
Realistic Buddha

But if you’re running a restaurant or public business, which one looks happier? Which one would you want advocating your product? Yes, in the capitalistic Western world, fat & sassy wins out over quiet and contemplative every time. Eventually people just started calling the fat man “Buddha,” possibly due to the similarity with the name Budai.

We even had a story here in the Koan section about Budai/Hotei: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/162

Special Edition- Guided Meditation

Meditation with headphonesGuided Breath Meditation

Here’s something I have been meaning to put together for weeks, but finally actually did it today. It’s a guided breath meditation session, and it’ll take roughly 16 minutes to do.

It’s the first time I’ve tried doing this kind of recording, so your comments, criticisms and suggestions are VERY much desired and appreciated.

Comment at: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/465

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‘Headphone Meditation by Illusive Mind’ image from http://www.illusive-mind.com/art/headphone-meditation/.

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Reviews, Rosaries, Hindus, and Politics

Podcast Episode 27: Reviews, Rosaries, Hindus, and Politics

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number twenty-seven. I’m Brian Schell, your host for the show. You can find the text for everything in this show and all past episodes on our website at www.dailybuddhism.com.

This week we got into several new topics and did a couple of reviews. I have a big stack of Buddhist books and CDs here that I’ll be covering in the next few weeks. Since there’s nothing better than giving or getting Buddhist books for Christmas, I’ll be bulking up on the reviews for the next few weeks.

Some minor changes on the website to announce this week. If you look at the menu bar across the top of the screen there are a few new tabs. The new ‚ÄúAudio Archive‚Äù page has a special new Flash audio player that works like a jukebox of the older podcasts. It makes finding older shows easier than going through the menus. It doesn’t seem to work in all browsers, so if it works for you, then enjoy, and if it doesn’t, just click on the ‚ÄúPodcast‚Äù category and find the shows the old way, sorry.

Also on the top bar of the site is the new ‚ÄúMedia Store‚Äù tab. You’ll find my recorded CDs available there, and I have re-done those a bit. The Tao Remastered, The Dhammapada, and the collection old podcasts are still available, only in a new format. Rather than other that material in audio CD format as before, I’ve now changed each offering to collections of MP3s on a single CD for a lower price. Why pay for 3 audio CDs if you can get the same material as one CD full of MP3s. You can always write your own audio CDs from them if you really want to.

The third new tab on the page is for the Weekly Buddhism PDF Magazine. I’ve worked out what the subscription rates are going to be, and you can check them out there. You can’t buy a subscription there yet, but I’ll get that set up once I stop offering the files for free in a couple of weeks. Issues 1 and 2 are already out, and issues 3 and 4 will be sent out in the podcast feed as freebies just like before. I’m putting the finishing touches on Issue 3 and it’ll go online either tonight or Saturday morning. Keep in mind that the Weekly Buddhism PDF Magazine is an optional expansion to the Daily Buddhism, not a replacement. The free emails and podcasts aren’t going away.

And that should cover all the announcements for this week, so let’s get on with the show!

[Read the past five blog posts or emails for contents of the show]

This Week’s Links

Movie: Zen Noir
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/319
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000LUBZDU/?tag=askdrarca-20

Buddha’s Ghostwriters and Hinduism
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/325

Buddhist Rosary Beads / Mala
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/365

Book: The Saint of Kathmandu and Other Tales of the Sacred in Distant Lands
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/396
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0807013129/?tag=askdrarca-20

Our Buddhist President: Politics and Religion
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/399

Meditation Styles, Part 3

Podcast Episode 26: Meditation Styles, Part 3

Welcome back, this is Daily Buddhism audio show number twenty-six. I’m Brian Schell, your host for the show. You can find the text for everything in this show and all past episodes on our website at www.dailybuddhism.com.

This week we continued the series on Meditation, covering 40 meditation themes, the basic practices involved with loving kindness meditation, and a book review on L-K meditation. Finally, we concluded with a very brief overview of some other kinds of meditation that you could look into on your own if interested.

Meditation is a huge subject, and possibly the most important part of Buddhism. I’ve covered a lot of material in the past three weeks, but there is just a huge volume of things I didn’t say. Send in your questions on meditation or Buddhism in general to dailybuddhism@gmail.com or phone them in at 937-660-4949. You can also post your thoughts about anything we discuss on the website’s blog at www.dailybuddhism.com

Announcements

Last weekend saw the introduction of something completely new for us, the Weekly Buddhism ‚ÄúMagazine.‚Äù Last week’s 1st edition went out in the podcast feed, so if you are subscribed to the podcast you already have it. Otherwise, it’s available at the regular Daily Buddhism website or also at the new Weekly Buddhism site (http://www.weeklybuddhism.com). The second issue will go out the same way sometime this weekend. It’s a weekly compilation of everything that goes into the Daily Buddhism emails and the podcast, as well as expanded coverage on some topics, such as current real-world news, more classic Buddhist texts, and extra premium content. The Weekly Buddhism is formatted for easy printing, and my thought is that it would be nice to collect them over time into a binder. You’d have quite a bit of material there for alter review after a short time. It’s free for now, although it may not be free forever, so check it out and see what you think. Your comments and suggestions are always appreciated.

I’ve had several people mention in the past that the Daily Buddhism isn’t available by RSS. I always replied that it was available, just click on the RSS button. Wrong! What I had been missing all that time was that only the PODCAST episodes were showing up in that feed. The podcast was working fine, but the daily posts didn’t go into the feed. I don’t know how long that had been the case, but I don’t think it was a recent goof. Well, that’s fixed now. On the right-hand sidebar of any page at the D.B. site, there are three buttons. The top one is to subscribe with iTunes. If you use iTunes, click that one. If you use some other feedcatcher program for podcasts, then click on the second button, ‚ÄúRSS Podcast.‚Äù If you’d like to subscribe to the newly-fixed text RSS feed, then click on the third button, ‚ÄúRSS Blog.‚Äù Of course, just above those three buttons is the sign-up form for the daily email, and you’ve heard me talk about that plenty over the past months.

Let’s get on with the show!

[Read the past five blog posts or emails for contents of the show]

This Week’s Links

The Forty Meditation Themes, Part 1
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/229

The Forty Meditation Themes, Part 2
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/231

Book Review: The Gift of Loving Kindness
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/234
Order: http://www.amazon.com/dp/157224562X/?tag=askdrarca-20

A Closer Look at Loving Kindness Meditation
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/247

Other Forms of Meditation
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/249

The Weekly Buddhism, Issue #2
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/253
or
http://www.dailybuddhism.com/podpress_trac/web/253/0/Weekly_Buddhism_Issue_2.pdf

Plain English Guide to Buddhism