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Kwan Um School of Zen

Sogamuni Bul Chanting

ChantingadminFebruary 15, 2011
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Three Letters to a Beginner

TeachingZen Master Seung SahnApril 19, 2017
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"Human life has no meaning, no reason and no choice, but we have our practice to help us understand our true self." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. #zen #humanlife #meditation #meaning #love #compassion #bodhisattva #kwanumzen #zmseungsahn
Buddhism has a very radical teaching: there's no process, there's only this moment. You're always in the moment, but you think you aren't. That's all. Tell me the truth, does anybody ever have the past? If you can bring me even one molecule of it, you'll win the Nobel Prize in physics. You can think about the past, but you can never get it. The same is true of the future. Buddhism says that the past is dead and the future is just a dream. Maybe it's a good dream, or maybe it's a bad dream, but it's just a kind of dream. If you cut off all thinking, past and future are the same. That's very interesting; it means you can't ever practice Buddhism. It's not possible. We say, "practice Buddhism" or "practice Zen," but that's a mistake. Here's why: have you ever practiced the piano? Your mother said, "You have to sit down and practice the piano for twenty minutes tonight." So you sat down and started practicing: ding, ding. ding... We call that practice. But what were you really doing? You were playing the piano. Your whole life is like that. We say, "I'm going to basketball practice." When I was young, I was always going to basketball practice. But, of course, when you get there, what do you do? You play basketball. We just call it practice. The same thing is true of Buddhist practice. It's not practice — it's your life, moment to moment to moment. —Zen Master Dae Kwang (Photo by Allan Matthews.) #zen #buddhism #moment #pastpresentfuture #dream #thinking #kwanumzen
Zen Master Seung Sahn in Norway, 1991. #throwbackthursday #kwanumzen #zmseungsahn
"There are three conditions to find your true self..." Quote by Zen Master Man Gong. #zen #meditation #buddhism #trueself #dharma
"Desire and aspiration are two different things." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. #zen #desire #aspiration #meditation #enlightenment #attachment #bodhisattva #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
[Explaining a calligraphy with the characters Dae Do Mu Mun.] Dae Do means "great way"; Mu Mun means "no gate." If you insert an English word, it reads, "The great way has no gate." Great way doesn't mean greater than anything else. Great here has the connotation of complete. To realize the complete way is to be completely in touch with what is, moment by moment; not to be holding back and living in some imaginary world of shackles, chains, fantasies, yearnings, hopes, longings, regrets, and all the other things we get caught up in. The great way has no gate. The word gate has a dual connotation. A gate, of course, is something that opens and closes. It also has the connotation of a barrier. Sometimes that word is translated as checkpoint, like the barrier that exists between one country and another, the place where you show your passport. The great way has no barrier, no gate. In one sense that means that wherever we are, at that moment — whatever our activity, if we are entering it completely and not getting caught up in separating subject from object and inside from outside — then, at that moment, there is no barrier, no gate. The gate has already been opened. There is no hindrance, no obstacle, only an enlightened way of being and functioning in the world. —Zen Master Wu Kwang (Richard Shrobe) (Photo by Allan Matthews.) #zen #nogate #greatway #nohindrance #kwanumzen
"There is actually nowhere else for us to become a Buddha but right now, in this place." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. #zen #buddha #meditation #moment #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
You must decide to practice and very strongly keep this decision. This requires great faith, great courage, and great questioning. What is great faith? Great faith means that at all times you keep the mind which decided to practice no matter what. It is like a hen sitting on her eggs. She sits on them constantly, caring for them and giving them warmth, so that they will hatch. If she becomes careless or negligent the eggs will not hatch and will not become chicks. So Zen mind means always and everywhere believing in myself. I vow to become Buddha and save all people. Next, what is great courage? This means bringing all your energy to one point. It is like a cat hunting a mouse. The mouse has retreated into its hole, but the cat waits outside the hole for hours on end without the slightest movement. It is totally concentrated on the mouse hole. This is Zen mind cutting off all thinking and directing all your energy to one point. Next, great questioning. This is like a child who thinks only of its mother, or a man dying of thirst who thinks only of water. It is called one mind. If you question with great sincerity, there will only be don’t know mind. If you keep these three, great faith, great courage, and great questioning, you will soon attain enlightenment. —Zen Master Seung Sahn (Photo by Sven Mahr.) #zen #buddhism #greatfaith #greatcourage #greatdoubt #meditation #buddha #zenmind #onemind #enlightenment #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
Zen Master Seung Sahn with Jakusho Kwong Roshi (at left) and Taizan Maezumi Roshi (on right) during the Whole World Is a Single Flower Conference 1993, Korea. #throwbackthursday #kwanumzen #zmseungsahn #wwsf

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