Sep 9, 2026 · 34 min · 12 segments
We continue our series based on master Tong'an Changcha's 'Ten Talks of Unfathomable Depth', and this month we tackle poem number eight, called *The Revolving Function*. The short texts says: 8\…
Jundo CohenHost
Everyone can hear okay? So the Buddha never said you have to be at a monastery to practice.
In the monastery, you, you cut off many of your outside responsibilities, your outside work, even your outside, uh, responsibilities to the government and to, to, to, uh, uh, the rest of society, and you hunker down, and that sounds lovely.
To be out in the world and to practice is not only the harder way, in some very important ways, it's the more powerful way.
You know? If you're inside the temple, close the door, right? And you practice, practice, practice.
Intense practice is what you do, dealing with your children and your parents and your crazy neighbors and your people at the work.
Of course, they didn't do the same jobs we do five hundred years ago or a thousand years ago, but they had crazy neighbors and sons who drove them crazy and, and parents who they had to take care of and, and sickness that they had to deal with.
This is the place of hard practice and powerful practice, and that is what we do here.
Can you bring these teachings into life? That is the meaning of Ango as we do it, and that is your responsibility if you're participating in Ango the next ninety days.
How do these teachings fit not in when you just come in, sit down on your zafu, and lock the door, but after the bell rings and you open the door and you go back into the world? Ango does not end.
Don't kill, don't steal, don't misuse sex, don't be, uh, addicted, and you know, all these wonderful things.
What does it mean to y- what does it mean for you not to kill in this world where it's so hard not to kill something? What does it mean to take and steal in this world where our whole, it seems, economic system is, is based on getting, getting, getting? What does it mean not to get angry when our brain, our human brain, is wired to get angry sometimes? What does that mean? That is what we will be studying for the next few weeks in Ango.
Everyone can hear okay? So the Buddha never said you have to be at a monastery to practice.
In the monastery, you, you cut off many of your outside responsibilities, your outside work, even your outside, uh, responsibilities to the government and to, to, to, uh, uh, the rest of society, and you hunker down, and that sounds lovely.
To be out in the world and to practice is not only the harder way, in some very important ways, it's the more powerful way.
You know? If you're inside the temple, close the door, right? And you practice, practice, practice.
Intense practice is what you do, dealing with your children and your parents and your crazy neighbors and your people at the work.
Of course, they didn't do the same jobs we do five hundred years ago or a thousand years ago, but they had crazy neighbors and sons who drove them crazy and, and parents who they had to take care of and, and sickness that they had to deal with.
This is the place of hard practice and powerful practice, and that is what we do here.
Can you bring these teachings into life? That is the meaning of Ango as we do it, and that is your responsibility if you're participating in Ango the next ninety days.
How do these teachings fit not in when you just come in, sit down on your zafu, and lock the door, but after the bell rings and you open the door and you go back into the world? Ango does not end.
Don't kill, don't steal, don't misuse sex, don't be, uh, addicted, and you know, all these wonderful things.
What does it mean to y- what does it mean for you not to kill in this world where it's so hard not to kill something? What does it mean to take and steal in this world where our whole, it seems, economic system is, is based on getting, getting, getting? What does it mean not to get angry when our brain, our human brain, is wired to get angry sometimes? What does that mean? That is what we will be studying for the next few weeks in Ango.
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