The Compass of Zen - ZEN MASTER SEUNG SAHN (I)

 

 

 

 

The Compass of Zen

Zen Master Seung Sahn

 

 

 

 

Where are you going?
Why do you live in this world?
What are you doing in this world?
When you are born, where do you come from?
When you die, where do you go?


First attain enlightenment, then instruct all beings.
If you attain emptiness, you are free. Then you can help all beings. This is true liberation.

Insight into Impermanence
(The Eight Sufferings) – Birth, Old age, Sickness, Death, Being separated from those you love, Being in the presence of those you dislike, Not getting what you desire, The imbalance of the five skandhas

Insight into Impurity
(The Five Human Desires) - Desire for material wealth, sex, fame, food and sleep

Insight into Nonself
A good cause leads to a good result. A bad cause leads to a bad result.

Dependent Origination
To arise from conditions.
To be extinct from conditions.
If I exist, that exists.
If I cease to exist, that ceases to exist.

The Twelve Links in the Chain of Dependent Origination:
Ignorance, Mental formations (karma), Consciousness, Name and form,
The six senses, Contact, Sensation, Desire, Clinging, Existence, Life,
Old age, suffering, death

The Four Noble Truths
Suffering – All things are suffering
Origination – the twelve links of dependent origination, in order
Stopping – The twelve links of dependent origination, in reverse order
The Path – The Eightfold Path:
Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Meditation

The Three Seals of Existence
All compounded things are impermanent.
All Dharmas are without self-nature.
Nirvana is perfect stillness – This stillness is true emptiness: it is the nature of our minds and this whole universe.

The God who is pure emptiness
Is created as form.
Becoming substance, light and darkness,
The stillness and the storm.

All appearance is delusion.
If you view all appearance as nonappearance,
Then that view is your true mature.
Do not become attached to any thoughts that arise in the mind.
I you see form as the Absolute, if you search out the Absolute with your voice,
You are practicing the wrong path, and you cannot see your true self.
All compounded things are like a dream, a phantom, a bubble, or a reflection.
They are like dew or lightning. Thus should you view them.

All formations are impermanent.
This is the law of appearing and disappearing.
When both appearing and disappearing disappear,
Then this stillness is bliss.

The Song of Dharma Nature
The nature of the Dharmas is perfect. It does not have two different aspects.
All the various Dharmas are unmoving and fundamentally still.
They are without name and form, cut off from all things.
This is understood by enlightened wisdom, and not by any other sphere.
The one is in the many, the many are within the one.
The one is many, the many are one.
Numberless kalpas are the same as one moment.
One moment is the same as numberless kalpas.

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The Six Paramitas:

Generosity
Precepts (Conduct)
Perseverance (Patience)
Effort (Energy)
Samadhi (Meditation)
Wisdom


Zen Buddhism (Cham Soen)
To pass through this gate, do not attach to any thinking that arises in the mind.
Not depending on words, a special transmission outside the Sutras.
Pointing directly to Mind: see your true nature, become Buddha.
The Buddha taught all the Dharmas in order to save all minds.
When you do not keep all these minds, what use is there for the Dharmas?


Utmost Vehicle Zen
Theoretical Zen: Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form.
Tathagata Zen: No form, no emptiness.
Patriarchal Zen: Form is form. Emptiness is emptiness.

See your true nature, Become Buddha
The willow is green; the flowers are red.
The crows are black, the cranes are white.
Do you see? Do you hear?


The Great Enlightenment
Sky is earth, earth is sky – sky and earth revolve.
Water is mountain, mountain is water – water and mountain are empty.
Sky is sky, earth is earth – when did they ever revolve?
Mountain is mountain, water is water – each is already complete.


The Three Essential Elements in Zen
Great Faith
Great Courage
Great Question


Effort in Zen
When walking, standing, sitting, lying down, speaking, being silent, moving, being still
At all times, in all places,
Without interruption – What is this?
One moment is infinite kalpas.


Three Prajna Things
The ground that is not dark or light.
The tree that has no roots.
The valley that has no echo.


The Realm if Like-This
Spring comes, grass grows by itself.
The blue mountain does not move.
White clouds float back and forth.


Looking Within, You Perceive Mind’s True Light
Go drink tea.
Watch your step.


The Human Route
Coming empty-handed, gong empty-handed – That is human.
When your are born, When you die,
Where do you come from? Where do you go?
Life is like a floating cloud that appears.
Death is like a floating cloud that disappears.
The floating cloud itself originally does not exist.
Life and death, coming and going, are also like that.
But there is one thing that always remains clear.
It is pure and clear, not depending on life and death.
Then what is the one pure and clear thing?

Just Seeing is Buddah-nature
If you want to understand the realm of Buddhas,
Keep a mind that is clear like space.
Let all thinking and external desires fall away.
Let your mind go anyplace with no hindrance.
Then what is keeping a mind that is clear like space?
If your mind is not clear, listen to the following:
It is enlightenment nature.
Above is the dwelling place of al Buddhas:
Below are the six realms of existence.
One by one, each thing is complete:
One by one, each thing has it.
It and dust interpenetrate.
It is already apparent in all things.
So, without cultivation, you are already complete.
Understand, understand. Clear, clear.
(Holding the Zen stick) Do you see?
(Holding the Zen stick) Do you hear?
Already you see clearly. Already you hear clearly.
Then what are this stick, this sound, and your mind?
Are they the same? Or different?
If you say “same”, I will hit you thirty times.
Why? Katz!
3 x 3 = 9


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Where Are You Going?

Ancient buddhas went like this. Present buddhas go like this.
You go like this. I also go like this.
What is the thing that is not broken? Who is it that is eternally indestructible?
Do you understand? (The Zen stick is held overhead,
and hit on the ground:)

In the three worlds, all buddhas of past, present, and future simultaneously attain enlightenment.
On the ten levels, all beings on the same day enter into nirvana.
If you don’t understand this, check the following:
The statue has eyes, and tears silently drip down.
The boy sniffles wordlessly in the dark.

Zen Master To Sol’s Three Gates
Cutting ignorance grass and sitting Zen is wishing to see true nature.
Then where is your true nature now?
You already understand your true nature and pass beyond life and death.
When you die, how then will you be reborn?
You already have freedom, from life and death, and also understand where you return to.
When the four elements disperse, where do you go?

Which of the Following Four Sentences Is Freedom from Life and Death?
Under the sea, the mud cow eats the moon.
In front of the cliff, the stone tiger sleeps, holding a baby in his arms.
The Steel snake drills into the eye of a diamond.
Mount Kun-Lun rides on the back of an elephant pulled by a little bird.

Original Face
Sitting in silence in a mountain temple in the quiet night.
Extreme quiet and stillness are our original nature.
Why then does the western wind shake the forest?
A single cry of the cold-weather geese fills the sky.

Zen Master Ko Bong’s Three Gates
The sun in the sky shines everywhere. Why does a cloud obscure it?
Everyone has a shadow following them. How can you not step on your shadow?
The whole universe is on fire. Though what kind of samadhi can you escape being burned?

Just-Like-This Is Buddha
The spirit remains clear and bright. The six roots (senses) and six dusts (perceptions) fall sway.
The original body remains clear constantly.
Speech and words cannot hinder it.
The Nature has no taint, and is already a perfect sphere.
Not attached to any thinking, just-like-this is Buddha.
The four elements [earth, fire, water, air] disperse as in a dream.
The six dusts [perceptions], roots [senses], and consciousnesses are originally empty.
If you want to understand the Buddha and the eminent teachers,
return to your original light:
The sun sets over the western mountains. The moon rises in the east.

CONCLUSION
Only Go Straight, Don’t Know

What are you?
When you were born? where did you come from?
When you die, where will you go?
Can you tell me?

Most human beings cannot answer these basic questions. Instead they spend al their energy chasing desire, anger, and ignorance. Day in and day out they crave impermanent things; they become attached to things, to fame and feelings, and suffer when these thins change or disappear. They make suffering, and then keep this suffering like a precious treasure. Human beings should be the very highest of animals. But instead, they spend their whole lives wandering around and around the ocean of suffering. That is not the correct way for human beings.

So if you do not control your karma, you cannot do anything in this life. Then when you die – when your body disappears – what can you do? The force of your karma will pull you somewhere. Where you go, you don’t understand. Maybe you will be reborn in a suffering place, or have many problems with your body. only if you completely cut off all thinking can you return to your original nature, which is beyond life and death. That point’s name is “don’t know”. It is very important to attain that and then help this world: then life and death cannot touch you. This is why meditation is so important.

If you keep a don’t-know mind one hundred percent, thin your demons cannot find you. Suffering cannot find you. Karma, problems, life, death, coming and going, good and bad -–nothing can touch you when you only keep a don’t-know mind. This don’t-know mind is your most important treasure; it can do anything. It is not dependent on God or Buddha, Hinayana, Mahayana or Zen. It is not dependent on life or death.

If you want to get out of the ocean of suffering, only one kind of compass is necessary: your don’t-know compass. It is always inside you. When you use this, then you find that your correct direction always appears clearly in front of you, from moment to moment.
So I hope from moment to moment you only go straight, don’t know, which is clear like space, try, try, try for ten thousand years, nonstop, get enlightenment, and save all beings from suffering.