Hello and welcome to another episode of One Heart, One Mind.

I'm your host Thomas McConkey.

Thank you so much for listening.

Happy Easter, friends.

I love this time of year.

This morning, which was practically the first warm morning in Boston I've experienced all year.

I could just see all of the trees blooming and smell the fragrant air. And in my heart, I felt the love of

Christ, the risen Christ. And I love this time of year and the way Christ is present in a special way. So I'm really happy to be sharing this message

with you on what's set to drop Easter morning. I hope wherever you are in the world that your

heart is full of divine love, that you're feeling supported, sustained, and full of hope.

I want to share a scene in this episode from the New Testament,

but to make it pop just a little bit,

I want to share a little of my personal, spiritual background and meditative background.

For those of you who know me, I've spent many years studying the Eastern traditions, most especially Buddhist meditation. And there's a teaching

that came to mind when I was reflecting this week on what I wanted to celebrate for Easter on this

podcast, I unexpectedly remembered a teaching that to me is actually very much related to the scene in the

Bible that I'll share. So I'm going to start with a little teaching from the tradition of Zen Buddhism

and then move to the book of John for an Eastern teaching. And then we'll go into practice.

There is a teacher in the Zen tradition known as Linji in Chinese, Rinzai in Japanese.

And there's a famous teaching attributed to him in the tradition,

which is, if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

And if this teaching shocks you a little bit, good.

...