From a question-and-answer session at the New Haven Zen Center on December 16, 2012.
Question: This is kind of a big one. I was having a conversation with my friend. He’s a very rational, pragmatic person. Very smart. And I said, “So, do you believe that anything has a purpose?
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Pedestrians, bicycles, scooters, tuk-tuks, bicycle rickshaws, cars, trucks, buses, cows, goats, pigs and dogs vie for limited street space. Everyone and everything within one inch of disaster, going in every direction with horns blaring . . . if you are lucky enough to have a horn. Fortunately, no one is …
Read More...Our minds are filled with confusion. We obsess endlessly. We anticipate, we regret, we brood and we scheme. We want what we don’t have, and we don’t want what we have. At times we feel under assault. At times we feel forgotten.
The Sanskrit word for this is dukha. It …
Read More...Buddhism teaches us that we make our own life. We’re quick to blame other people. We’re quick to make a dream life of our likes and dislikes. We fall into a fantasy, and sometimes it’s said, “like a drunken stupor”. We get lost in a drunken stupor of our likes, …
Read More...Our school’s “Whole World Is a Single Flower” conference occurs every three years. Starting in 1987 at Su Dok Sa Temple in Korea, it has convened in many different locations around the world. This year, we are meeting in India, the home of the Buddha. Zen Master Seung Sahn had
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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...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Cloud is mountain, mountain is cloud.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Originally no cloud, no mountain.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Cloud is cloud, mountain is mountain.
Which one of …
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...Zen Master Soeng Hyang and Kwang Myong Sunim, JDPS
Kwang Myong Sunim JDPS: This workshop is entitled “Death, Dying, and Kong-ans.” Maybe we could start with a kong-an: what is death? [Pause] …
Read More...Coming empty-handed is going empty-handed. Going empty-handed is coming empty-handed.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Originally — no coming, no going.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Coming empty-handed is coming …
Read More...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...On February 6, 2000, Roland Woehrle-Chon received inka from Zen Master Wu Bong at Berlin Zen Center.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
In the 30th case of the Mu Mun Kwan, the famous Zen Master Matsu is asked: “What is Buddha?” He answers: “Mind is …
Read More...This is the workshop on Zen and psychotherapy. First of all, be aware that this is about Zen and psychotherapy, it’s not about Zen and psychology. There is …
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...[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...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...Oh Jo said, “It’s like a water buffalo passing through a window. Its head, horns, and four legs have already passed through. Why is it that its tail cannot?”
Commentary:
If it passes through, it falls into a ditch;
If it turns back, it is destroyed.
This trivial tail,
Just …
When Buddha was born he said “in the heavens above and the earth below only I am holy.” But William Blake said “Everything that lives is holy.”
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Bodhidharma said “No …
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