Jul 19, 2026 · 33 min · 8 segments
Zen Master Caoshan was once asked, “The world is so hot, where can I go to escape?” Caoshan responded, “Escape into a boiling cauldron, into the coals of a furnace.” What sort of escape is this? Why…
Kynan SutherlandHost
The monk said, in a cauldron of boiling water or the coals of a furnace, how does one escape? Shaoshan said, the multitude of sufferings cannot reach there.
And together they inspired what became known as the Cao Dong School, better known as Soto, one of the strongest streams, particularly in Japan, but also in the West.
Now, Cao Shan, who was the younger, he was the student of Dong Shan's, was born on the eve of the Huicheng persecution.
Perhaps any history buff in this room will be aware of the Huicheng persecution.
This was a terrible time in 840 to 845, not only for Buddhism in China, but for any kind of spiritual endeavour that was deemed foreign.
that included Christianity, Zoroastrianism, all sorts of other things that people were doing.
And so the emperor at that time set about actually torching temples, dismantling places of practice, making it impossible for anybody to pursue in earnest the spiritual discipline of Chan, of Zen.
And it's interesting actually that Chan, of all the schools of Buddhism, was one of the few to actually find a way through this and find a way perhaps to some kind of longevity, the longevity of which we are embodiments of here.
So it's hardly surprising that Shaoshan as a teacher would receive monks coming to him in the wake of this extraordinary upheaval in China of that time, asking him about how do I escape from such a burning world, from a world that has been literally torched, but certainly culturally torched.
where I and so many people like me have been made to feel intensely unwelcome.
How do we find our way through or out of or around or underneath or over this burning world, burning in all sorts of shapes and forms? So it's interesting to me that at that time, teachers and students alike were forced to look a little bit deeper into the Dharma.
That cloistered setting of the temple or the monastery was not available to many.
What is it to live in a burning world? Where can I go in a burning world if all of the infrastructure that usually provided refuge is just not available, just not accessible? So they had to ask these questions.
The monk said, in a cauldron of boiling water or the coals of a furnace, how does one escape? Shaoshan said, the multitude of sufferings cannot reach there.
And together they inspired what became known as the Cao Dong School, better known as Soto, one of the strongest streams, particularly in Japan, but also in the West.
Now, Cao Shan, who was the younger, he was the student of Dong Shan's, was born on the eve of the Huicheng persecution.
Perhaps any history buff in this room will be aware of the Huicheng persecution.
This was a terrible time in 840 to 845, not only for Buddhism in China, but for any kind of spiritual endeavour that was deemed foreign.
that included Christianity, Zoroastrianism, all sorts of other things that people were doing.
And so the emperor at that time set about actually torching temples, dismantling places of practice, making it impossible for anybody to pursue in earnest the spiritual discipline of Chan, of Zen.
And it's interesting actually that Chan, of all the schools of Buddhism, was one of the few to actually find a way through this and find a way perhaps to some kind of longevity, the longevity of which we are embodiments of here.
So it's hardly surprising that Shaoshan as a teacher would receive monks coming to him in the wake of this extraordinary upheaval in China of that time, asking him about how do I escape from such a burning world, from a world that has been literally torched, but certainly culturally torched.
where I and so many people like me have been made to feel intensely unwelcome.
How do we find our way through or out of or around or underneath or over this burning world, burning in all sorts of shapes and forms? So it's interesting to me that at that time, teachers and students alike were forced to look a little bit deeper into the Dharma.
That cloistered setting of the temple or the monastery was not available to many.
What is it to live in a burning world? Where can I go in a burning world if all of the infrastructure that usually provided refuge is just not available, just not accessible? So they had to ask these questions.
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