True Job Of Enlightenment

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Everybody wants to practice in a place like this, in the middle of the mountains, completely quiet, surrounded by nature, with nobody around to bother you. But this kind of practice is also attachment: attachment to practice. If you attach to a good situation, if you want to practice only in peace and silence, or in a beautiful environment, you are missing the true direction of Zen practice.

Yes, we practice to attain enlightenment, but attaining enlightenment is not enough. We practice to attain a clear mind and a strong center, but then what? How do you use your clear mind in your everyday life? How do you use your strong center to help others? How do we share our practice with others? This is the true job of enlightenment.

Barbara Pardo JDPSN
From Ceremony Inka
Primary Point Spring 2020, Volume 37, Number 1

Bodhisattva is YOU

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In this time of crisis the great matter of life and death appears in front of us with unusual closeness and reality. Repeatedly we are experiencing feelings of loss, helplessness and danger. What is happening has thrown our life and everything that, up to now had so strongly appeared to be its foundation and reliable point of reference, off balance. Such that sometimes the level of overwhelming fear seems unbearable. We may feel embraced by something difficult to accept and not possible to push away.

It resembles the situation from one of our classical kongans: “When the whole universe is on fire through what kind of samadhi can you escape being burned?”

The question seems to present an impenetrable barrier. How can you escape being burned when everything becomes conflagration? Is there something which cannot be burned? In another kongan story Zen Master Man Gong gives us a hint, saying: “Even if this world explodes, if everyone has one pure and clear thing, it will never disappear. That thing sometimes dreams, sometimes is awake. Then I ask you, not dreaming, not awake, where is it?”

Buddha left us with the same question and didn’t try to console us in a conventional way. When he was about to enter nirvana, he gave his students simple but uncompromising teaching: ” Everything is impermanent. Be persistent and keep trying.” At this point clarity appears: despite the transience of everything, keeping the flame of trying mind burning bright is the most important thing!

The Dharma which he shared with us was, and still is, the challenge for life and death. It is definitely not another gadget offered on the altar of our small limited ego which is powered mostly by desire, consumption, and a fragile, as we now see, sense of safety and comfort. The present crisis shows us that it’s sufficient to deprive us of our favorite toys and break up the party in an unpleasant way to push us into panic and undermine how we try to make sense of everything.

Fear itself is not good, not bad and very often becomes our ally by sharpening our attention when our and other people’s life and health is endangered. But when it gets out of control and totally determines our relationship with the world, it easily turns from guest to thief and steals the originally free from clinging and unlimited space of our original mind. In fact, fear is a component of our conditioned mind and, together with a few other emotional and mental streams, very easily becomes a hindrance. It gets in the way of original nonduality, separating us from reality and our true nature; covering this one clear thing to which Zen Master Man Gong was pointing, and to which Budda devoted his life.

One of the most important texts supporting Zen practice is the Heart Sutra and it contains a very interesting and invigorating message: “ The Bodhisattva depends on prajnaparamita and the mind is no hindrance. Without any hindrance no fears exist.” In Zen we say: mind is buddha, and as such is not a hindrance for sure, but our guide and teacher. Nevertheless, we must keep reminding it, waking it up to its mirror-like nature of prajna, free from fear and other hindrances.

So what can we do?  My advice is simple: let’s hide under the path, let’s visit our meditation cushion as often as we can, let’s cultivate connection with our true nature using the alarm clock of formal training. If we investigate our mind with determination and sincerely ask “What is it?” then the curtains of delusion fall away to reveal the vivid and luminous silence permeating body and mind, where gain and loss, sickness and health, life and death are only temporary guests in our original home. This is the source of our true spiritual power.

Let’s use this power to take care of others. Especially nowadays the need for active compassion is unlimited and there is plenty of work for everyone. Practicing good and helping each other always makes both sides happy.

Because everything is our teacher, coronavirus is no exception. It is a very dangerous and difficult teacher, but maybe because of this the best one.  What we understand and what will be the outcome of this confrontation will depend on us. Since everything is impermanent, including the virus, this interview, forcefully imposed by it on humankind will reach its end too, one day. Will we return to our dreams or awakened to the marrow of our being will we create a world of wisdom, compassion and love?

Our Threefold Refuge of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha are not empty words but living aid which is always reaching out its hand to meet yours. When this meeting occurs you get powerful support. You discover that, submerged in prajnaparamita, free from fear and all obstacles, bodhisattva is YOU!

–Zen Master Joeng Hye

Heart Of Wisdom

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Student: I’ve been struggling a lot recently, and I would appreciate your pointing finger. I’ve been struggling with the kind of life I live. Every day I go to work for a big corporation, and every day I hear over and over how we need to make more money and push people to buy more, and do what’s best for the company. It’s especially sensitive because it feels deeply..unbalanced.. that so much of the need to push people regardless of what’s right for them is.

And it’s not just with my company. I know that’s true everywhere. I’m part of a relationship with this society where we support not being enough, where we need to consume and be different and make more money.

I don’t know how things should or shouldn’t be, but all of this feels deeply deeply unbalanced to me. It feels very hard to live clearly and authentically in a way that doesn’t support this cycle.

I know, that in original nature there is the typing of the keyboard and the glare of the computer screen. But coming back to that in the rest of my life, there is still a deep sense of “this way is not balanced.”

I don’t know what to do. I’ve never known what to do. I just want to cry for how I feel like we’ve trapped ourselves in a cycle of delusions and suffering.

Zen Master Jok Um: Your Buddhist name is Bright Nature. That’s the best place to start. You lend your deep talents to an organization that markets education in the pursuit of profit. Being there heightens your sensibilities about how this unfolds, its roots and its effects. Your discomfort is the heart of the heart of wisdom. Bow to your teachers. You begin a new way by deeply seeing the current way.

Clear Mind Is Like The Full Moon

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Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes. You must not be attached to the coming or the going.

From Dropping Ashes on the Buddha

Reminders of Our Original Nature

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This world is already complete before anything can be said about it. Then why do we have sutras and dharma talk and articles, such as the one you are reading now? It is only because we forget that we are already complete that we have all these words. Dharma talks and kong-ans and poems and sutras and explications of sutras and poems are all only reminders.

If we attach to all these words and sentences we are lost, as these lines from one of Mu Mun’s poems reminds us:

One who holds onto words is dead,

One who attaches to sentences is lost.

But if we let these words remind us of our original nature, the completeness of our mind before thoughts and words arise in it, if we perceive what these words are pointing to then let them go, even these words and sentences can help us fulfill our great vows to wake up from our dreams and help this world.

By Zen Master Hae Kwang

Practicing With Change And Upheaval

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Dear Sangha,

We are entering a new decade in 2020. In this world, many changes are happening at exponential speed. As natural process goes, the good comes with the bad. We see both laudable feats in science and technology, at the same time more frequent and unpredictable climate related disasters and now Covid-19, all over the world, which cause much suffering. Political and economic upheavals are appearing in more places. Many things are changing, changing, changing, nonstop. In the future, maybe bigger problems will appear. But a bad situation is a good situation; a good situation is a bad situation. So our growing bad situation can help us find the Great Way.

Buddha taught us more than just how to get a good life. When we see the suffering in and around us, we must raise a big question: What is this? What is life? What am I? Now is the perfect time to reach deep into our heart and mind, and wake up. Wake up to our true nature, to the infinite potential we have inside of us to help others. Nurture the true seed we have inside. Here are words from Zen Master Seung Sahn to encourage us:

“End of this world means beginning of the world. You must understand that, ok? Many people want good taste, good time, good feeling. That’s only desire, no? When fruits grow, first they have a very good colour, but are not exactly ripe yet. When it ripens, a little colour disappears. Then it is very sweet, very sweet. It has a good taste. But more time, then it becomes rotten. When rotten, then the correct seed appears. Many people want good taste, but this fruit, this world, its taste doesn’t matter, ok? All completely rotten, then the seed goes into the ground, then again comes up, and again becomes fruit. So, don’t only want good taste. Taste doesn’t matter, understand? Your thinking, your situation, your body, everything will soon become rotten. When your situation, your body, and everything is rotten, but inside your center is strong, then your correct seed appears. If you find your seed, you will not die. Your seed has no life, no death. So we must find our true seed, then only help this world.”

May all beings wake up to our Buddha nature and just do it in 2020.

Hapchang,

Zen Master Dae Bong

Controlling Our Karma

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Since most people are not aware of their karma, they cannot connect the dots between cause and effect. Only sometimes, when results happen immediately after the cause—for example, when we put our finger into boiling water—are we able to connect those dots and learn the lesson. With karma, we only have a choice: either karma is controlling us, or we are controlling our karma. We practice to be in charge of our lives and help others: I control my karma; my karma does not control me.

When we control our karma, we can change it. Most karma is lingering karma, “leftover” karma. This lingering karma is the most difficult to fix, because it is created by very small, insignificant actions repeated every day. We keep repeating and repeating some actions or thoughts over a long time, and in the end, we get the big result of those actions. Surprise! If we really look closely, we will see that big karmic results were created by some kind of lingering karma. So it’s important to be aware of our daily, small habits.

If we want to change our karma, we’ve got to understand our habits first. The next step is to attain that understanding. Being aware that we have some negative habits is the first step, but it is not enough. Understanding can’t help. Attaining the habit means this understanding has some energy. Only then are we able to decide, “I’m going to change it!” After we make a strong decision, we need to have a method of how to change it.

The skillful way to start the whole process is to create what Charles Duhigg calls a “keystone habit.” This one new habit can start a domino effect of changing not only one but many habits over time. Don’t worry about the rest of our karma— only do that one thing. If we try to change too many things at once, we fail. For the Zen student, nothing could be a better keystone habit than the habit of meditating first thing in the morning. In the morning, everyone’s willpower is the strongest. While sitting still and by simply breathing with the lower belly, we can recharge our willpower battery. There is no way to change ourselves if we have a weak center, that is, if our willpower battery is depleted.

So let’s start our day with some practice, just 10 minutes every morning. Over time, this one small habit of 10 minutes meditation every morning will trigger a domino effect of positive changes in our life. Zen Master Ko Bong used to say, “Don’t worry about your karma; just make a habit of strong practicing.”

By Andrzej Stec JDPSN

Becoming Human

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We come into this world empty-handed. What do we do in this world? Why did we come into this world? This body is an empty thing. What is the one thing that carries this body around? Where did it come from? You must understand that, you must find that. So, if you want to find that, you have to ask yourself, “What am I?” Always keep this big question. Thinking has to disappear. We have to take away all our thinking, cut off our thinking. Then our true self appears, then our true mind appears.

In this world, how many people really want practice? Many people don’t practice at all, fight day and night, and all day exercise their desire, their anger, their ignorance. When you lose this body, then you have nothing you can take with you. When this body disappears, what will you take with you? What will you do? Where will you go? You don’t know, right? If this “don’t know” is clear, then your mind is clear, then also the place you go is clear. Then you understand your job, you understand why you were born into this world. Then you understand what you do in this world. When you understand that, then you can become a human being.

By Zen Master Seung Sahn

Our Original Strength and Compassion

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Practicing with don’t-know means practicing with focused awareness coupled with the question, What is this? When something happens as huge as the Earth’s climate change, it can be difficult to face it and to know what to do. There can be the tendency to want to put our heads in the sand.

When I first understood that the ice caps are melting at a much faster rate than had previously been predicted, and consequently the sea levels are rising rapidly, one of my thoughts was “Oh my, this is all going on in my lifetime! Human beings have been around for thousands of years. Why does this have to happen when I’m alive?” Well, that thought is a perfect example of attaching to self and other. It’s also an example of attaching to time and space. It’s not a good example of don’t-know! It came from feeling afraid: afraid for my child, my grandchildren, for humanity, animals, rivers, oceans . . . it’s so hard to conceive of.

When we can take the fear and just own it and learn from it, that is our don’t-know returning us to our original strength and compassion. With our breath, move the fear and sadness down from our head, down from our heart, all the way to our center and ask, “What can I do? How can I help?” Our vow can come to life when we are able to breathe into our strong center. This is our practice.

Kwan Seum Bosal means, “Listen to the cries of the universe.” Cry, fear and enter the lessons this universe is constantly giving. Enter the unknown, before thoughts of heaven and hell, loss and gain. We need to unconditionally move into life, and because of our fear and sadness, we will find our center. Our vow and direction are right there. When we attain that, we can truly find the way to help this thing we call Earth.

By Zen Master Soeng Hyang

Practicing With “What Am I?”

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Student: What is the relationship between asking “What am I?” and the flow of thoughts, perceptions, etc.? For example, do you address the question to particular thoughts, pains in the knee when sitting, etc.? When a thought comes, do you ask whom this thought is coming to? How do you work with problems such as fear and anger? Should one acknowledge the fear and then ask who is experiencing the fear? Or should they just let it all happen and pour all their energy into the great question?

Zen Master Seung Sahn: True “What am I?” is the complete question—only don’t know mind.  All your questions are thinking.  If you keep the complete “What am I?”, then you don’t know “What am I?”  All thinking has been cut off, so how can a question appear? Asking who is thinking is not the correct way. This is opposites thinking.  These are opposites questions, not the complete question, the perfect question. Pain is pain, the question is the question. Why ask the question about pain? Actions such as anger and fear are made by past karma, so the result is actions done in anger, etc.

If a person sits Zen, they will make their karma disappear and will no longer be caught up in these actions. So when you are angry, that’s alright, don’t worry. “I want to cut off anger!”—that’s thinking. Anger is not good, not bad. Only don’t be attached to it. Only ask, “What am I?” and the action will soon disappear.

By Zen Master Seung Sahn