Let Your Universe Become Large

It is amazing there is anything left to say. Fortunately, we can hear the same things over and over again, because we all forget. So the dharma is hearing the teaching, waking up to what we already know,…

Transmission Dharma Combat

Question: Since the ceremony is being held in Korea, your family could not come, and they really wanted to be here. So, your mother…

Good Actors

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…

Inka Speech

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…

The Birth of Zen

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…

Zen Stick Swallows Universe

Question: If you see a lot of blame in your life and very little praise, and you feel a lot of pain and very little pleasure, and you hang on to this then you suffer a lot. So you always say put it all down. I ask you:…

Plenty of Nothing

Opening speech at Buddha’s Enlightenment Day ceremony, Providence Zen Center, December 5, 1998.

Once a student, while in a particular mind set, said to me, “If I hear one more talk about Buddha’s enlightenment, I think I’ll scream.” This raises a question as to the purpose of…

Happy Buddha’s Birthday

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…

Dharma LOTTO

Last week I stopped into our local ma and pa donut shop, the Donut Wagon, for some coffee. They offer up the usual tongue-pleasing fare: donuts, bagels, sticky buns, etc. They are also our local over-the-counter gambling establishment – there’s Power Ball, Keno, Lotto, scratch cards and much more. So,…

Earth Soup

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

…

We are All Like Rocks

An excerpt from a letter written by Mu Bul Su Nim from Korea:

Before Soen Sa Nim left Korea, we had the great fortune to meet Mrs. So. She has been working for almost a year on getting a bell made for the Providence Zen Center. She went to great…

The Whole Universe is Plastic

One Sunday, while Seung Sahn Soen-sa was staying at the International Zen Center of New York, there was a big ceremony marking the end of one hundred days of chanting Kwanseum Bosal. Many Korean women came, with shopping bags full of food and presents. One woman brought a large bouquet…

The Spring Geese are Flying North

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…

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…

What is that Rock Saying?

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…

Q&A about God at Brown University

On Tuesday nights The Providence Zen Center holds a meditation session at the Dharma Room (Manning Chapel) at Brown University. The following is an account of one of the exchanges which has taken place there.

After one of the Dharma Teachers was finished with his introductory remarks, he…