[Raises the Zen stick over his head, then hits the table with the stick.]
BOOM!
Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.
Our world is always changing-sometimes fast, sometimes slow. When the change is fast, we suffer a lot. Our world changing fast means volcano, earthquake, tsunami, war.…
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
The meaning of this hit is: becoming tight is becoming loose; becoming loose is becoming tight. The Heart…
Read More...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
What is the meaning of this? Mountain is water, water is mountain. In this world, everything has name and form.…
Read More...The day after tomorrow we will begin our three month winter retreat, Kyol Che. Kyol Che means tight practicing. If you have mind, it’s very…
Read More...Welcome everybody. We have our workshop in a very busy place here. That is quite good, because we are going to talk about our practice being independent…
Read More...[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Enlightenment is no enlightenment. No enlightenment is enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No enlightenment. Not no enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Enlightenment is enlightenment. No enlightenment is no…
Read More...A New Translation of the Hsin Hsin Ming, the classic poem by the Third Patriarch of Zen, Seng T’san
Zen Master Hae Kwang
The Great Way is not difficult,
Just don’t pick and choose.
If you cut off all likes or dislikes
Everything is clear like space.…
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…
Read More...Sky is earth. Earth is sky.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No sky. No earth.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Sky is sky. Earth is earth.
Which one of…
Read More...When Buddha was born, he sprang out of his mother’s hip, walked seven steps, said, “Heaven above, earth below, only I am holy.”
[hits table with zen stick]
When you and I were born, we sprung from our mother’s uterus, dropped into the doctor’s arms, and screamed, “WAAAAAAAAH!”
[hits table…
Read More...March 24, 1977
Dear Jim,
Thank you for your letter. How are you?
You ask me to recommend a practice or meditation. So I ask you, what do you want? If you want something, you don’t understand correct meditation. Then I ask you, what are you? If…
Read More...One Sunday evening, after a Dharma talk at the International Zen Center of New York, a student asked Seung Sahn Soen-sa, “Why do you chant? Isn’t sitting Zen enough?”
Soen-sa said, “This is a very important matter. We bow together, chant together, eat together, sit together, and do many other…
Read More...A Student wrote to Zen Master Seung Sahn:
In the Fall, there are leaves on the ground. If they are on a lawn, someone may come out of a house and sweep them into little piles. In the afternoon the wind comes and blows all the leaves
…
Read More...One Sunday night at the Providence Zen Center, Seung Sahn Soen-sa told the story of Su Tung-po’s enlightenment. Afterwards he said to his students:
“What do we learn from this story? That Zen teaches us to cut off all discriminating thoughts and to understand that the truth of the universe…
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