[Raises the Zen stick over his head, then hits the table with the stick.]
BOOM!
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Our world is always changing-sometimes fast, sometimes slow. When the change is fast, we suffer a lot. Our world changing fast means volcano, earthquake, tsunami, war. Everything is changing …
Don’t know mind is compassion mind, compassion mind is don’t know mind.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No don’t know mind, no compassion mind.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Don’t …
Read More...Transmission is no transmission. No transmission is transmission.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Originally, nothing. What is transmission?
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Sky is blue; trees are green. Transmission …
Read More...“Everybody comes into this world carrying nothing,” Zen Master Seung Sahn has said. “Everyone leaves for someplace, also carrying nothing. We cannot take anything with us. Yet in between, everybody wants things, chases things, and is attached to things very much.”
Back in 1964, as a young music student in …
Read More...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
The whole world is suffering. Sickness and death everywhere. For what purpose do we come into this world? Only to suffer?
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No world, no coming, no going, no suffering, no …
Read More...From a talk given at the Cambridge Zen Center, 1993
Zen means understanding myself. What am I? What is a human being’s job on this Earth? Why do we eat every day? An old Chinese poem says, “Coming empty-handed, going empty-handed.” Then why are there so many problems in the …
Read More...From a talk at Providence Zen Center on Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, 1991
Throughout the ages people have written commentaries on the Buddha’s enlightenment using many different perspectives. But from the point of view of history, the Buddha’s enlightenment is not very interesting. Nor is it very interesting from the …
Read More...True compassion means to become one with whatever situation you find yourself in, moment to moment. This is enlightenment. This is what the Buddha’s enlightenment teaches. There is a famous story about Zen Master Man Gong, Zen Master Seung Sahn’s grand-teacher which illustrates this clearly.
One day, Man Gong Sunim …
Read More...Question: What do you mean by suffering? I read somewhere that suffering isn’t really what one thinks it is.
Wu Bong Zen Master: There are many kinds of suffering: body pain, emotional pain, mental …
Read More...In response to a question about group practice vs individual practice on May 22, 1988
Most people start out by practicing by themselves. They read books, they do some things, they try doing it themselves, and that’s okay, but in lots of ways it’s like reinventing the wheel. It’s a …
Read More...Dharma speech given by Zen Master Seung Sahn at the opening of the Cambridge Zen Center Sim Gum Do Institute.
(Hitting the table with the Zen stick three times)
Everybody has been very busy, but you have all come to the opening ceremony of the Cambridge Zen Center Institute …
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