Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn

by Seung Sahn

If you have free time, it is good to sit. If you don't have free time, then just do action Zen. But be very careful about wanting enlightenment. This is a bad Zen sickness. When you keep a clear mind, the whole universe is you, you are the universe. So you have already attained enlightenment. Wanting enlightenment is only thinking. It is something extra, like painting legs on the picture of a snake. Already the snake is complete as it is. Already the truth is right before your eyes.

After so much suffering in Nirvanic castles, what a joy to sink into this world! People wearing silk clothes, Buddhas dressed in rags, a wooden man walking in the evening, a stone woman with a bonnet— for the first time you will see, when you can cup your hands and pick up the moon as it floats on the still surface of a pond.

Soen-sa said, “If you want the easy way, this is desire. But if you want the difficult way, this too is desire. Zen is letting go of all your desires. Then you will find the true way.

this opening ceremony—these also are emptiness. The Sutra says, “All beings are already Buddha.” So why is chanting or reading sutras or sitting Zen necessary? But we don't know ourselves. Desire, anger, and ignorance cover up our clear mind. If we cut off all thinking and return to empty mind, then your mind, my mind, and all people's minds are the same. We become one with the whole universe.

In true emptiness, there is no I to be confused and nothing to be confused about.

You have many kong-ans. But a kong-an is like a finger pointing at the moon. If you are attached to the finger, you don't understand the direction, so you cannot see the moon.

you shouldn't worry about this thinking. It is just your karma. You must not be attached to this thinking. You must not force it to stop or force clear mind to grow. It will grow by itself, as your karma gradually disappears.

“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.”

Different opinions result in different actions, which make different karma. So when you hold on to your own opinions, it is very difficult to control your karma, and your life will remain difficult.

after we sit Zen and act together for some time, our opinions and desires disappear. The waves become smaller and smaller. Then our mind is like a clear mirror, and everything we see or hear or smell or taste or touch or think is the truth. Then it is very easy to understand other people's minds. Their minds are reflected in my mind.

People make new karma through their attachment-actions. Karma means hindrance. Hindrance is suffering. If someone is not attached to drinking, sex, etc., then there is no hindrance. No hindrance is freedom. Freedom means Big I. You must check to find out if these people are attached to drink and sex. Many people think, “I am not attached to such-and-such.” But “I am not attached” is attachment-thinking. “I am not attached” is the same as “I am attached.”

The Bodhisattva is your true self. Your true self is Big I. Big I is all people. All people and I become one mind. So Bodhisattva action is always for all people.

Avatamsaka Sutra: ‘If you wish to thoroughly understand all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future, then you should view the nature of the whole universe as being created by the mind alone.’

Soen-sa said, “When you think death, you make death. When you think life, you make life. When you are not thinking, there is no life and no death. In empty mind, is there a you? Is there an I?”

attainment. True attainment of emptiness means that all thinking has been cut off. There are neither likes nor dislikes.

Soen-sa said, “Zen is understanding your true self. You must ask yourself, ‘What am I?’ You must keep this great question and cut off all your thinking. When you understand the great question, you will understand yourself.

in Zen there is no outside and no inside. There is only the one mind, which is just like this. This is the life of all the arts, and it is the life of Zen.”

“The mouse eats cat-food, but the cat-bowl is broken. What does this mean?”

by keeping “What am I?” always and everywhere, you will attain the great fruit very soon.

Seung Sahn Soen-sa told the story of Su Tung-p'o'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 is ultimately our own true self. All of you should meditate very deeply on this. What is this thing that you call the self? When you understand what it is, you will have returned to an intuitive oneness with nature and will see that nature is you and you are nature, that nature is the Buddha, who is preaching to us at every moment. I hope that all of you will be able to hear what nature is saying to you.”

When you practice Zen earnestly, you are burning up the karma that binds you to ignorance. In Japanese the word for ‘earnest’ means ‘to heat up the heart.’ If you heat up your heart, this karma, which is like a block of ice, melts and becomes liquid. And if you keep on heating it, it becomes steam and evaporates into space.

Man's discriminating thoughts build up a great thought-mass in his mind, and this is what he mistakenly regards as his real self. In fact, it is a mental construction based on ignorance. The purpose of Zen meditation is to dissolve this thought-mass. What is finally left is the real self. You enter into the world of the selfless. And if you don't stop there, if you don't think about this realm or cling to it, you will continue in your practice until you become one with the Absolute.”

if you want Big I and enlightenment, then only let your situation, condition, and opinions disappear. This is your true teacher.

Just before Kyong Ho died, he wrote the following poem: Light from the moon of clear mind drinks up everything in the world. When mind and light disappear, what … is … this…? A moment after he had finished the poem, he was dead.

The blue mountains and green forests are the Patriarchs' clear face. Do you understand this face? A quarter is twenty-five cents.

The Third Patriarch said, The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not discriminate. Throw away likes and dislikes and everything will become clear.