Hello and welcome to another episode of the secular Buddhism podcast. This is episode number 132. I am your host Noah Rochetta and today I'm going to talk about vulnerability.

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With that let's jump into the discussion around the Zenkoan that was shared in the last podcast episode.

It goes like this elder Ting asked Lin Chi master what is the great meaning of Buddha's teachings Lin Chi came down from his seat slapped Ting and pushed him away.

Ting was stunned and stood motionless among nearby said Ting why do you not bow at that moment.

Ting attained great enlightenment.

So I want to share a couple of thoughts around this specific koan because I think it has a deeper meaning at least for me it carries a couple of deep lessons.

I want to share some of the thoughts from the Patreon podcast community and share some of the insight that I gained from reading other people's thoughts around this.

So Ramona said to me when Lin Chi came down from his seat slapping and pushing Ting he was answering his question of the great meaning of Buddha's teachings which is enduring suffering.

When the monk nearby assumed he got slapped because he did not bow Ting became enlightened because in that moment he realized he should invite and bow to the suffering to welcome it and give it respect.

Perhaps that's the great meaning of Buddha's teaching.

I like Ramona's thoughts on this especially the correlation between the answer to the question the great meaning of the Buddha's teachings.

We know that the Buddha taught about suffering we know that he taught you know the four noble truths are the truth of unsatisfactoriness.

Dukha which is often translated to suffering the truth of the cause of unsatisfactoriness the truth about the cessation of unsatisfactoriness and the truth about the path that leads to the cessation of this unsatisfactoriness or Dukha as it was called.

So in a nutshell yes the if you were to ask someone what is the meaning of the Buddha's teachings it certainly centers around this sense of unsatisfactoriness we could call it suffering at times.

And I do think that when we think about it that way it is kind of interesting that this master would come down and give the answer to what is the great meaning by slapping Ting and pushing him away essentially causing Ting to experience in that moment probably some unsatisfactoriness or some suffering.

That's fun to think about.

Anushka says quote as others have said I too felt that the being slapped and pushed away is a representation of what we do when we face suffering it works on two levels for me suffering slaps us in the face and we push it away but also suffering does the pushing away by interrupting us and separating us from our experience.

I was also taken by the last piece why do you not bow I interpreted that as meaning the Ting didn't bow to the teacher not that he should have and that in this act he didn't give reverence to the suffering sometimes I sometimes wonder about how much time and effort we give to feeling suffering is it excessive and what is the right effort we need to put into truly move past it close quote.

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