Dave Cuomo - Catastrophe! (History of Zen - Shenhui & The An Lushan Rebellion

In the year 757 in the middle of a catastrophic civil war surrounded by ruins and disaster, a monk named Shenhui stands on a hastily built grass platform and invents Zen as we know it with fiery speeches of enlightenment right here and now. The country, and the fledgling Buddhist school, are torn apart and put back together into something new and unique in world history. Continuing our series on Shitou’s classic poem, “The Harmony of Difference and equality,” we also get to see the historical context of why that piece was written in a story of meeting the moment and finding harmony in conflict and chaos.