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...One day, a nun visited Zen Master Song Sahn. “What is dharma?” she asked.
“No hindrance.”
“Then what does ‘no hindrance’ mean?”
Song Sahn replied, “Why do you wear clothes?”
At this, the nun stripped naked and walked to the door.
1. What is dharma?
2. If you were Zen …
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...This talk was given during a retreat at Providence Zen Center, October 1983.
Adeline: I have a friend named Terry who is missing. She was in a small plane that crashed in the sea. So everyone assumes she died. But if she is dead, where is she?
Zen Master …
Read More...August 12, 1977
Dear Soen Sa Nim,
Your letter, newsletter, and picture made me cry — and I am grateful. I understand: straightforward mind, straightforward heart, straightforward speech, straightforward body.
My father died yesterday. I built a small altar in my room and sat, and I told him to …
Read More...March 24, 1977
Dear Jim,
Thank you for your letter. How are you?
You ask me to recommend a practice or meditation. So I ask you, what do you want? If you want something, you don’t understand correct meditation. Then I ask you, what are you? If you understand, …
Read More...One Sunday, while Seung Sahn Soen-sa was staying at the International Zen Center of New York, there was a big ceremony marking the end of one hundred days of chanting Kwanseum Bosal. Many Korean women came, with shopping bags full of food and presents. One woman brought a large bouquet …
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 …
Read More...From a letter to a student in retreat:
I hope you are victorious over all demons. If you think, ten thousand demons appear. If you cut off all thinking, you will create the clear mind. Then you will get freedom, and no hinderance. I will now ask you a big …
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