Buddhist Temple of Toledo Podcast

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on January 25, 2009. "For restful thoughts, one does not need space; The room where I lie is 10 foot square. By the western eaves, above the bamboo twigs, From my couch, I can see the white mountain rise. But the clouds that hover on its far distant peak Bring shame to a face that is buried in the world's dust." --Po Chu'i For more...

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on January 25, 2009. "It's said that [Po Chu'i] would read every one of his poems to an uneducated person... but he would make sure that it made sense to people, that at least it was comprehensible in some way. He held to a Confucian ideal that said that poetry is, at some level or other, to educate... not simply just for idle enter...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on January 14, 2008. All evil karma committed by me since of old Because of my beginningless greed, anger, and ignorance Born of my body, mouth, and thought Now I atone for it all. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk at a Zazenkai with the Toledo Zen Center, held at Lourdes College on December 13, 2008. "I talked in the opening comments about meticulous clarity, meticulous effort, precise practice. This is a very, very important part of our training, of our Way. There's a kind of precision that's being asked for, that's being pointed to.... It takes a while to actually find yoursel...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on December 10, 2008. "There is no self and no person; how, then, kinfolk and stranger? I beg you, cease going from lecture to lecture. It is better to seek the truth directly." -- Layman Pang For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on December 3, 2008. "The Supreme Way is not difficult; it just precludes picking and choosing. Without yearning or loathing, The Way is perfectly apparent, while even a hair's breadth difference separates heaven and earth. To see The Way with your own eyes, quit agreeing and disagreeing. The battle of likes and dislikes is...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 26, 2008. "The teachings of the Three Vehicles all cure diseases such as greed and hatred. Right now, thought after thought, if you have such sickness as greed or hatred, you should first cure them. Don't seek intellectual understanding of meanings and expressions. Understanding is in the province of desire, and...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 19, 2008. "In reading scriptures and studying the doctrines, you should turn all words right around, and apply them to yourself." - Pai Chang For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008. "This principle is originally present in everyone. All the Buddhas and bodhisattvas may be called people pointing out a jewel. Fundamentally, it is not a thing - you don't need to know or understand it, you don't need to affirm or deny it. Just cut off dualism; cut off the supposition 'it exists' and the suppos...

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008. "In the teaching hall, the master said, 'The spiritual light shines alone, far transcending the senses and their fields. The essential substance is exposed, real and eternal. It is not contained in written words. The nature of mind has no defilement; it is basically perfect and complete in itself. Just get rid...

Jay Rinsen Weik leads a retreat workshop at the Toledo Zen Center on November 16, 2008. "Somehow, a process started to happen where things went from [being very freeform] to being very much sectarian. Things started to close down, people started to need to self-identify their group as distinct from other groups, and it's in the midst of that transition that this character Pai Chang finds himself."...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 12, 2008. "A man sitting in a mountain pass -- robed in clouds, tricked out in sunset's rose. In his fingers a fragrant flower, to pass along, but the road's so long and hard to climb! In his mind: disappointment and doubt; old as he is, he's accomplished nothing. People laugh at him, call him a cripple, yet he...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on November 5, 2008. "I wanted to go off to the eastern cliff-- how many years now I've planned the trip? Yesterday, I pulled myself up by the vines, but wind and fog forced me to stop halfway. The path was narrow, and my clothes kept catching, the moss so spongy I couldn't move my feet, So I stopped under this red cinnamon...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 29, 2008. "I think of all the places I've been, chasing from one famous spot to another. Delighting in mountains, I scaled the mile-high peaks; loving the water, I sailed a thousand rivers. I held farewell parties with my friends in Lute Valley; I brought my zither and played on Parrot Shoals. Who would guess I'd...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 22, 2008. "Now I have a single robe, not made of gauze or of figured silk. Do you ask what color it is? Not crimson, nor purple either. Summer days I wear it as a cloak, in winter it serves for a quilt. Summer and winter in turn I use it; year after year, only this." - Han Shan For more information about the Tole...

First Steps: An Introduction to Zen Practice Weekend with Rinsen and the Toledo Zen Center Sangha, August 21, 22, 23, 2009. For more information or to register see toledozen.org or send an email to info@toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 15, 2008. On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, Rinsen talks about Atonement and the Zen way of working with it. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on October 8, 2008. When Ch'an Master Wu-yeh of Fen-chou went to see the Ancestor (Ma-Tsu), the Ancestor noticed that his appearance was extraordinary and that his voice was like (the sound of) a bell.  He said, "Such an imposing Buddha hall, but no Buddha in it." We-yeh respectfully kneeled down, and said, "I have studied...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on September 24, 2008. "A Layman asked: 'I'm grateful for your teaching of the unborn, but I find that thoughts easily come up as a result of my ingrained bad habits, and when I'm distracted by them, I can't wholeheartedly realize the unborn. How can I put my faith totally in the unborn Buddha Mind?' "The Master said: 'When...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on September 17, 2008. "Well, the interesting thing is, that where that difficulty is, when you're honest, is the edge of our practice.  That's where the edge is for you." - Rinsen For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on September 3, 2008. "Turn around the light to shine within, then just return. The vast inconceivable source can't be faced or turned away from. Meet the ancestral teachers, be familiar with their instruction, bind grasses to build a hut, and don't give up. Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Open your hands...

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on August 20, 2008. "I've built a grass roof hut, where there's nothing of value. After eating, I relax and enjoy a nap. When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it's been lived in - covered by weeds. The person in the hut lives here calmly, not stuck to inside, outside, or in between." -Shih-Tou "When you can get p...

Recorded at the Toledo Zen Center on August 17, 2008, this afternoon workshop discussion explores the teachings of Shih-T'ou with Rinsen. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Recorded at the Toledo Zen Center on August 17, 2008, this afternoon workshop discussion explores the teachings of Shih-T'ou with Rinsen. For more information about the Toledo Zen Center, please visit toledozen.org .

Jay Rinsen Weik gives a talk and leads discussion at the Toledo Zen Center on August 6, 2008. "All of the senses and all of the things sensed - they interact without interacting. Interacting, they permeate each other, yet each remains in its own place. By nature, forms differ in shape and appearance. By nature, sounds bring pleasure or pain. In darkness, the fine and mediocre accord; brightness ma...