What is Zen ?

One day a student from Chicago came to the Providence Zen Center and asked Seung Sahn Soen-Sa, 'What is Zen?'

Soen-sa held his Zen stick above his head and said, 'Do you understand?'

The student said, 'I don't know.'

Soen-sa said, 'This don't know mind is you. Zen is understanding yourself.'

'What do you understand about me? Teach me.'

Soen-sa said, 'In a cookie factory, different cookies are baked in the shape of animals, cars, people, and airplanes. They all have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same dough, and they all taste the same. 'In the same way, all things in the universe - the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, rivers, people, and so forth - have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same substance. The universe is organized into pairs of opposites: light and darkness, man and woman, sound and silence, good and bad. But all these opposites are mutual, because they are made from the same substance. Their names and their forms are different, but their substance is the same. Names and forms are made by your thinking. If you are not thinking and have no attachment to name and form, then all substance is one. Your don't know mind cuts off all thinking. This is your substance. The substance of this Zen stick and your own substance are the same. You are this stick; this stick is you.'

The student said, 'Some philosophers say this substance is energy, or mind, or God, or matter. Which is the truth?'

Soen-sa said, 'Four blind men went to the zoo and visited the elephant. One blind man touched its side and said, 'The elephant is like a wall.' The next blind man touched its trunk and said, 'The elephant is like a snake.' The next blind man touched its leg and said, 'The elephant is like a column.' The last blind man touched its tail and said, 'The elephant is like a broom.' Then the four blind men started to fight, each one believing that his opinion was the right one. Each only understood the part he had touched; none of them understood the whole.

'Substance has no name and no form. Energy, mind, God, and matter are all name and form. Substance is the Absolute. Having name and form is having opposites. So the whole world is like the blind men fighting among themselves. Not understanding yourself is not understanding the truth. That is why there is fighting among ourselves. If all the people in the world understood themselves, they would attain the Absolute. Then the world would be at peace.'

World peace is Zen.

The student said, 'How can practicing Zen make world peace?'

Soen-sa said, 'People desire money, fame, sex, food, and rest. All this desire is thinking. Thinking is suffering. Suffering means no world peace. Not thinking is not suffering. Not suffering means world peace. World peace is the Absolute. The Absolute is I.'

The student said, 'How can I understand the Absolute?'

Soen-sa said, 'You must first understand yourself.'

'How can I understand myself?'

Soen-sa held up the Zen stick and said, 'Do you see this?'

He then quickly hit the table with the stick and said, 'Do you hear this? This stick, this sound, your mind - are they the same or different?'

The student said, 'The same.'

Soen-sa said, 'If you say they are the same, I will hit you thirty times. If you say they are different, I will still hit you thirty times. Why?'

The student was silent.

Soen-sa shouted, 'KAAATZ!!!' Then he said, 'Spring comes, the grass grows by itself.'

(source of information : http://www.kwanumeurope.org)

Being Present

What happens when you do not get into thought and images of somewhere else, the dream state ?

Suddenly you find that the world is so alive, there is an amplification of sense perception, you are more awake. You just look, and you sense the body energies, and you accept the isness of the moment.

Awakening out of thinking brings you in a state of alertness, an intelligence is there that was not there before.

Another attribute is being activated, it is not the mental memory, it is the eternal memory.

You will without any effort remember all moments of the awake presence, you see and hear everything. You are always.

You change your relationship with yourself, there are no compulsive judgments to yourself nor the others, because you just observe what is, not getting into mental fantasies of what you might believe. You free yourself.

Empty your cup

It is the emptiness that makes the vessel useful. What is a cup without the emptiness within ? It is the emptiness of a thing that makes a thing useful ! Therefore in what you believe to be emptiness, you will find all usefulness. You will then become the vessel of transmutation.

When you are completely and utterly in touch with the core of your own emptiness, you will then understand that everything comes from that emptiness and by being at ONE with the emptiness you will be able to transmute all things that come from it.

For you will be able to shape the emptiness in whatever form you wish it to take. For you will understand the relationship of emptiness to form.

That is the magician's understanding and his pure state.

Silence

When the color of a flower reaches the eye of the contemplator, then a silent line has been drawn between the two.

When it remains a moment, it becomes an eternity.

And in that eternity the totality of the universe has seen the flower as well.

Do you understand the power of the human ?

inner security

When one understands that the outer experience is a instant reaction on the 'personal' flow of beingness, then it is clear that any sense of insecurity that one feels with another is just a reflection of an inner disharmony.

Solving the inner disharmony will take away any insecurity on the outside, be it organized by oneself, by any organization or any government. It will all not be necessary once you have understood that it only exists because there is this 'inner' disharmony.

Solve the inner disharmony and no protection from others is needed, because one's own harmonalized energetic field is one's ultimate security. It is from such grand nature that it cannot be taken away by any human activity or power, ever.

Waking up

Awakening and Awareness. Words that ring around in many ears lately, and for each it impacts differently. It shakes up, changes the routines, mixes the habits and totally changes the settings. The future is quite different, because new decisions have been taken by many.

Some get angry at the system or others, some get more compasionate, some start to work in a very different field where they feel useful.

Some leave their entire family, and join spiritual groups.

Some read all the information from books and visit seminars about self-empowering. Some are sober and stay where they are, just looking from the fence. Some start their own group, get into activism, and others are then again not able to stand up for themselves.

After looking at others and their activities, I get back to myself. What have I done to allow myself to get to understanding what this is all about ?

It has been enormous ! Since a few years, I was shaken, pushed, loved and hated for what I did. I still made my personal changes, some think it was courage, others think it was insane. I still did what I did. I am happy though, it brought me a lot of information, insights, growth and clarity. Did it bring me closer to me ? Yes and no.

It seems that at the end of the road the 'essence' of what I am about is still the same, the same character if you wish. But, there is much more 'flow' and therefore sovereign choice. I let go of society demands, and set myself in a free state of being where I want. That helps a lot. I am much more creative and powerful, it seems I have awakened the magician in me.

There is not much more to reveal than the fact that I continue the road like this, unbreakable, although many have tried to break me. Still there, smiling and capable of loving everyone and everything.

So have I awakened, yes, for a large part I understand why I am here, why many are still unaware and how this world invites to stay like that. Mmmm, loads of fear about everything on this world. It is interesting to see the dynamic. But there is joy too, amazement, chaotic spectacular.

We are capable of so many things, yes, the world is changing because we are, even those who are not aware of it. Some powerful stuff going on.

Komaya

Master of matter, slave of eternity

When one becomes the master of matter, controlling the forces of chi, water, air, fire... one might become illusioned with the idea of power and control !

Mind it ! Controlling the elements of the world is not mastering the illusion of the world.

When one gets control over the elements, one merely puts a cage around himself... and in the illusion becomes his own slave.

Free the elements, and you free yourself.

Truth lies in freedom of all things. Release, allowance and surrender are the greatest and most difficult achievements of the warrior heart that knows 'love is the answer'. You sense what Bruce Lee means with 'be water, my friend !' ?

Ponder on this, it is important !

Komaya