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...My eyes blinked open as consciousness returned after the colonoscopy. Before I could say anything, the doctor leaned over my shoulder and said in an urgent voice, “You have cancer!”
“Geez, what kind of a bedside manner is that?” I thought in a fuzzy blur. A few hours before, when
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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...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...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...January 13, 1977
Dear Soen Sa Nim,
I have heard you say that the house we will buy in the mountains near Woodstock, New York is in a very good location, a place of special energy. Why is it a special energy place? And why, in the practice of …
Read More...A Dharma Speech given by Seung Sahn Soen-sa at the International Zen Center of New York on Buddha’s birthday, May 18, 1975
(Holding up the Zen stick and hitting the table)
An eminent teacher said, “Before Buddha was born and came to the Kapila Empire, he had already saved …
Read More...A Dharma Speech given by the Zen Master Seung Sahn at the opening ceremony of the International Zen Center of New York on April 20, 1975
(Holding up his Zen stick and hitting the table, slowly, three times)
Is this closed? Is this open?
If you say “closed”, you …
Read More...Dharma Speech at Harvard Divinity School
A Dharma Speech given by Seung Sahn Soen-sa at the Harvard Divinity School, on March 12
(Hitting the floor with his stick) Are you alive? Are you dead?
(Hitting the floor) Where does life come from? Where does death go?
(Hitting the floor) If …
Read More...An excerpt from a letter:
This world is very funny. In true nature, all things neither appear nor disappear. Yet people say that things have life and death. This is funny. Things are neither tainted nor pure. Yet people think that some things are good and some things are bad, …
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