From a congratulatory talk at the inka ceremony for Hye Tong Sunim on September 2, 2012.
Thank you everyone, I hope that’s interesting. This is the first time with our Korean family that we have this kind of inka ceremony, so I think people are a little shy. I hope
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[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Zen is about experience, and yet it uses many words.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Speaking is an experience, and yet experience transcends words.
Words are words, experience is experience.
[Raises Zen stick over head, …
Read More...[Raises the Zen stick over his head, then hits the table with the stick]
Zen is rooted in Buddhism and in Taoism.
Buddhism teaches; first get enlightenment then instruct all beings.
Taoism teaches to live a life in perfect harmony with the universe.
[Raises the Zen stick …
Read More...[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with the stick.]
Dirty is clean, clean is dirty.
[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with the stick.]
Not dirty, not clean.
[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with …
Read More...[Raises the Zen stick over his head, then hits the table with the stick.]
Our teacher Zen Master Seung Sahn said that through this hit, even just for a little while, everybody experiences enlightenment.
[Raises the Zen stick over his head, then hits the table with the stick.]
With this …
Read More...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Zen means to be free from life and death.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
The Heart Sutra says: there is neither old age nor death nor attainment, for there is nothing to attain.
[Raises Zen …
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Kindness and cruelty are opposite sides of one form.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Originally no kindness, no cruelty, and no form!
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Kindness is kindness.…
Read More...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...Hits table with stick
Understanding is not understanding. Not understanding is understanding.
Hits table with stick
No understanding; no not understanding.
Hits table with stick
Understanding is understanding. Not understanding is not understanding.
About …
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In the old Chinese tradition there are two kinds of transmission: secret transmission and public transmission. The sixth patriarch had secret transmission, because at that time seven hundred monks were living in the Zen Master’s home temple. The head monk had been practicing for many years with the fifth patriarch …
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