Turning Words: A Mud Buddha

Geoffrey Shugen Arnold, Roshi – ZMM – 8/20/25 – In the language of koans, we are invited to step right into the embodied experience of the koan, which in this case is a Buddha made of mud which cannot pass through water. Can you immerse your mind in the muck and entanglement of a mud buddha? Is this mind trustworthy? To reveal our minds to ourselves, we can take up the method of focusing our own “miraculous awareness” within zazen, to bring forward the freedom and generosity to which we aspire. – Part 1 of 3. From the Blue Cliff Record, Case 96: Chao Chou’s Three Turning Words