The following talk was given at the Opening Ceremony for Kwan Lin Chan Lin Zen Meditation Centre in Singapore, on September 25, 2012.
In this world and in our life, many things are in duality: negative and positive, good and bad. When we hear something negative, we would probably feel …
Read More...These kong-ans (Japanese: koan) are among the principle ones used by Zen Master Seung Sahn and the other teachers of the Kwan Um School. In terms of Dae Soen Sa Nim’s published teaching, two of them originally appeared in print in Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, and the original complete …
Read More...Here’s a question for everybody: How can you get out of samsara, how do you get out of suffering? We’re really lucky because we have a good practice situation. We can help and support each other, come here freely and nothing is stopping …
Read More...Excerpted from a workshop at the Whole World is a Single Flower Conference
Zen Master Soeng Hyang: It’s great that so many people came for the kong-an discussion. For me, kong-ans are the root of our practice. Kong-ans are like receiving a gift. There’s the package: it’s beautifully wrapped, there’s …
Read More...So, someone left the retreat last night. That’s not unusual in a retreat. It’s part of growing up. Whatever we do in our practice, we learn from. If we keep a mind …
Read More...Traditionally Zen uses seventeen hundred kong-ans. Korean Buddhism also uses these original kong-ans. Other Zen schools made their own special collections from these, which they felt were of special importance for teaching. For example, one collection, the Blue Cliff Record, uses one hundred kong-ans; the Mu Mun Kwan is a …
Read More...The following exchange took place in an interview during a retreat in Norway in February:
Student: I don’t like kong-ans. That is why I come so rarely to interviews. Can you say something about that?
Wu Bong Zen Master: Sure. You don’t like kong-ans, then you must drop dead.
Student:…
Read More...It is taught that this kong-an has only one answer that will truly release all the tethers that tie us to our ignorance. Only one response will be universally received as correct: “Ahi, that’s it, that’s how you stay alive!”
What is that answer? How do you stay alive? How …
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What are the Kwan Um School of Zen’s roots in the past? What is the Kwan Um School of Zen today? What is its future?
1. Only practicing
First in the Kwan Um School of Zen history is the fact that Buddha appeared in this world and attained enlightenment. He …
Read More...“This” is just like this.
(Holding up the Zen stick in the air, then resting it on the floor.)
“This” is just like this.
If you understand “this” then you understand the rivers, the mountains, the trees, the …
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