148: Keiji Nishitani - Religion and Nothingness, part 2

This episode begins with an analysis of Baizhang's wild fox koan found in the Wumenguan, which we will use as a jumping off point for understanding the paradoxical relationship of the enlightened person with karma. This opens up into the general problem of discussing reality from the perspective of sunyata, in which samsara and nirvana become equivalent - because, so long as one approaches from the perspective of conceptual thought, they will remain forever unequivalent, and all such statements will be false or misleading. Join me as we discuss karma, the bodhisattva vow, "plucking out the eye of Buddha and sitting in its hollow", the meaning of "just sitting" in zazen, and the time when St. Francis made the sign of the cross to a cauterizing iron and blessed his brother, fire.