From a question-and-answer session at the New Haven Zen Center on December 16, 2012.
Question: This is kind of a big one. I was having a conversation with my friend. He’s a very rational, pragmatic person. Very smart. And I said, “So, do you believe that anything has a purpose?
…
Siddhartha!
It’s not too late!
Don’t do it!
Demons wait.
Heavens wait.
Arhats lose weight from anticipation, and
Rats race from their ships
Towards what?
Have you thought
About what comes next?
Go to the fortune-tellers.
Ask them. …
Pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, tuk-tuks, bicycle rickshaws, cars, trucks, buses, cows, goats, pigs and dogs vie for limited street space. Everyone and everything within one inch of disaster, going in every direction with horns blaring . . . if you are lucky enough to have a horn. Fortunately, no one is …
Read More...This is mistake day, so my talk points the same way.
Buddha was born and the gods enjoy: Big mistake.
Six years under the Bodhi Tree, then enlightenment: Another big mistake.
Your life, my life: Also a mistake.
Today it’s Buddha’s birthday celebration: Mistake celebrating mistake.
Then how will you …
Read More...Our school’s “Whole World Is a Single Flower” conference occurs every three years. Starting in 1987 at Su Dok Sa Temple in Korea, it has convened in many different locations around the world. This year, we are meeting in India, the home of the Buddha. Zen Master Seung Sahn had
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The Buddha said if you rub sleeves with somebody walking down the street, you’ve had an energy interaction with that entity for ten thousand generations. So, not much happens by chance. Even the monkeys—yeah, they’re listening to the dharma talk. They’re here for two reasons: one, we’re very interesting; two, …
Read More...At the heart of Buddhism and Zen lies the great question of life and death: What am I? What is a human being? Why do we suffer so much? Why are we here on the planet earth? Are we here to make money? Are we here for sex, food, or …
Read More...A prince sat down
So long ago
Beneath a tree he kept don’t know
He saw a star
That rose at dawn
His mind was clear his ego gone
Not God or Deva did he make
What are you then?
“I am awake!”
I am awake?
Is that the truth?…
Buddha’s family name was not Buddha. It was Gautama Siddhartha. “Buddha” means awake. People called him the Buddha because he said he was awake and he was so obviously awake. I often wonder what he was like.
I remember getting on the St. Charles Avenue streetcar in New Orleans when …
Read More...Excerpted from a workshop at the 5th Whole World is a Single Flower Conference held at Providence Zen Center in October 1999.
One day, 2500 years ago, the Buddha sat on the peak of Vulture Mountain with a vast assembly of more than 1200 monks who were waiting for Buddha …
Read More...Opening speech at Buddha’s Enlightenment Day ceremony, Providence Zen Center, December 5, 1998.
Once a student, while in a particular mind set, said to me, “If I hear one more talk about Buddha’s enlightenment, I think I’ll scream.” This raises a question as to the purpose of our coming …
Read More...Computers don’t understand the year 2000,
Human beings don’t understand what is human being.
Buddha does not understand Buddha’s birthday,
What is true Buddha?
In front of the Buddha statue offering flowers, incense and bows.
Praying for enlightenment, peace, love, and happiness,
Who will give you these things?
Buddha or …
On November 8, 1998, Gae Mun Sunim received inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn at Kwan Yin Chan Lin, our Zen Center in Singapore.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
At this point, receiving inka is losing inka. We say form is emptiness, emptiness is form. …
Read More...The first thing the Buddha said after his great enlightenment was that everything had Buddha nature. The problem is that we don’t know that. Because we are ignorant of our original nature, we use it to produce suffering. Not good, not bad, but…suffering.
Several months ago there was a story …
Read More...When Buddha was born, he sprang out of his mother’s hip, walked seven steps, said, “Heaven above, earth below, only I am holy.”
[hits table with zen stick]
When you and I were born, we sprung from our mother’s uterus, dropped into the doctor’s arms, and screamed, “WAAAAAAAAH!”
[hits table …
Read More...The Buddha taught about the three jewels: Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. But in one of his teachings he said that of these three Sangha is the most important. They all seem important and completely interconnected: When we look deeply into one of these we find the others. Why would he …
Read More...Last week I stopped into our local ma and pa donut shop, the Donut Wagon, for some coffee. They offer up the usual tongue-pleasing fare: donuts, bagels, sticky buns, etc. They are also our local over-the-counter gambling establishment – there’s Power Ball, Keno, Lotto, scratch cards and much more. So, …
Read More...December is the traditional time that we in the West celebrate the great enlightenment of the Buddha some 2,500 years ago. The enlightenment of the Buddha is good news for all beings. Why is that?
The Buddha practiced with great effort and sincerity for six years. Then one morning he …
Read More...Lin Chi Zen Master said, “If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet a Patriarch, kill the Patriarch.” Zen Master Seung Sahn says that in this life we must all kill three things: First we must kill our parents. Second, we must kill the Buddha. And lastly, …
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