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.]…
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...The meaning of “Kyol Che” is tight dharma. It is a time…
Read More...Last summer, the Institute for World Spirituality in Chicago hosted a weekend Christian – Buddhist retreat led by Father Kevin Hunt OCSO and Zen Master Dae Kwang. Two days of silent meditation, with both Christian and Zen…
Read More...Many people try to control their thinking. First, they try to solve their thinking. They try to make bad thinking correct. They try to make themselves right. That’s usually the first course. The meaning is – “if I can justify my thinking, I can justify my life.”
But after…
Our world is supported by three columns: time, space, and cause and effect. But, where do time and space come from? Also, who makes cause and effect? Time, space, and cause and effect are made by thinking. Our thinking makes everything. So the three columns that support our world are…
Read More...Each morning we say the Four Great Vows at the beginning of practice:
Sentient beings are numberless; we vow to save them all.
Passions are endless; we vow to extinguish them all.
The teachings are infinite; we vow to learn them all.
The Buddha
…
Read More...At a recent Dharma Talk, Zen Master Seung Sahn was asked what elements contribute to make a meditation practice strong and clear. He answered:
“True meditation comes from true cognition; true cognition comes from true meditation.
There are many schools of meditation in the United States. Some meditations use breathing…
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…
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…
Read More...One morning a student asked Seung Sahn Soen Sa, “How can one control thinking while sitting Zen?”
Soen Sa replied, “If you are attached to thought, your practice and your thoughts are different. if you are not attached to thoughts, thinking is practicing, practicing is thinking. This is called only…
Read More...