Seeing Your Own Karma

Letter From A Student

Hey Ken,

How are you? I have a question about seeing one’s Karma… I have been trading “only don’t know” and Seung Sahn talks a lot about seeing your Karma and then being able to use it to help others. I also listened to Carlos podcast on Sit, Breathe, Bow and he discusses the same thing. It all makes me want to move to a Zen center to practice but this is not my Karma at this time. Being my children’s father is my Karma and I guess I’ve always known being a dad was my Karma. I’m pulled in both directions though. How do I see my Karma when I don’t have a practice group that I attend regularly?

About the compass of zen homework you gave me… don’t know what I’m doing when I look at it as a painting. Fingers typing on an iPhone, email is a convenient way to say ?

Also, answer for homework, what did it mean when Joju put his sandals on his head and walk away? My sandals are in my head, goodbye Ken.

Response by Zen Master Jok Um (Ken Kessel)

Thanks for writing. We just returned from out of state, so I’m getting to your e-mail now.

You have some typos in your e-mail. How did they happen to appear? What can you do about them? If you see that, then you understand seeing your karma. It’s not a special thing, and karma is not hidden or mysterious. It’s also not a thing. It’s a way of talking about your tendencies, habits, character, affinities, thoughts, feelings, relationships and actions. How could this be hidden from your view? Setting up the right external circumstances is also not required to see your own karma. Wanting special circumstances to help you see your karma is a kind of karma to see through. If you want to honor your karma as a father, then learn to see your children’s mind-light. That will be your best guide. They are most intimate with you. Because of that, you have the most opportunity to practice with them. Are they not your home sangha?

If you’re not sure how to look at the Compass of Zen as you’d look at a painting or a landscape, then spend a week first looking at paintings and landscapes. Then you’ll see more easily what this means. You’re already very good at looking at the ocean, so you have something to go on.

Regarding JoJu — please take your sandals out of your head. There’s a place where they do more good.

Take care,
Ken

Zen Master Jok Um

(From The Kwan Um School of Zen)

You Must Understand Yourself

We understand many things about this world, but we don’t understand ourselves. So why do human beings come into this world? Why do we live in this world? For love? For money? For respect or fame? Do you live for your wife, husband, or children? Why do you live in this world? If someone asked you these questions, you might very well answer. “I live for my children. I live to earn enough money for them, or maybe just to have a good life.” Most people think like this. They live only for their family, for some fleeting social respectability, perhaps to enjoy art or to get some powerful position.

Everyone wants to have a good situation for themselves. If you look at this world very closely, it is easy to see that most people eat and sleep and live merely for their own happiness. Yet these things are not the real purpose of human beings’ life. They are just temporary means for living in the world. If human beings cannot find out who they are, how can they ever truly be happy?

Zen Master Seung Sahn

(From The Kwan Um School of Zen)

Why Do “I Want,” And For Whom?

We used to have a different translation of the second great vow: “Desires are inexhaustible. We vow to extinguish them all.” Once during an interview, a student asked Zen Master Wu Kwang:

Student: “Desires are inexhaustible. What does this mean?”
ZMWK: “I want!”
Student: “Then how do you extinguish them all?”
ZMWK: “I want!”

Commentary: Human life is “I want!” Even to direct yourself toward extinguishing desires is a want or desire. Strictly speaking, desire or even preference is not the problem. Clinging and self-centered craving is really the core of the issue. Why do “I want,” and for whom? How do I use the energy of desire to go beyond just I, my, me? When hungry, eat; when someone else is hungry, give them food.

Zen Master Wu Kwang

(From The Kwan Um School of Zen)