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Kwan Um School of Zen

Dharma Talk with Sam Lo at Cambridge Zen Center

audio, medium, Teachings, UncategorizedZen Master Soeng HyangFebruary 15, 1984mirror, suicide
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Yong Maeng Jong Jin

audio, medium, Teachings, UncategorizedZen Master Soeng HyangFebruary 18, 1984Cambridge Zen Center, National Teacher, Open-heartedness
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Dharma Talk with Neil Pregozen at New Haven Zen Center

audio, medium, Teachings, UncategorizedZen Master Soeng HyangFebruary 1, 1984effort, Helping body, Levels of practice, sleeping pills
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If you come to the Zen Center, nobody asks what you believe, and nobody tells you what to believe. We tell you our practice forms: how to meditate, how to chant and so on. What you believe is your own business. When I was growing up, my Orthodox Jewish relatives didn't ask what I believed or tell me what to believe either. They told me to go to services, to keep kosher and to observe the Sabbath. More important than belief is practice, and more essential to practice are what in Zen are called great faith, great courage and great doubt. Great faith doesn't mean faith in something, or faith that things will turn out your way. Faith needs no object. It's living life in the way your foot meets the ground in walking. Your foot never wonders if the ground is there for it. Great courage means not giving up. Changing course is no problem, but you have to keep going. Great courage doesn't have to be dramatic either. Every time you do something that's a little difficult or a little unpleasant, and do it without complaining, and do it until you're finished, that's great courage, right there. Great doubt is most important. People think religion is about belief, but it isn't. What am I? What is this universe? What should I do? These are not questions that can be answered once and for all. Don't evade them. Find a spiritual practice that helps you look at them steadily, and then practice with great faith and courage. Belief comes and goes. Even if you believe in God your whole life, your idea of God is always changing. But spiritual practice is not dependent on belief, and it can last a lifetime. —Zen Master Bon Hae (Judy Roitman) From: Jarris, J., & Roitman, J. (2008, November 15). Faith Forum: What do I do if I don’t believe? Lawrence Journal World. Retrieved Jan 9, 2014 (Photo by Sven Mahr) #zen #belief #greatfaith #greatcourage #greatdoubt #meditation #buddhism #kwanumzen
#Repost @chogyenyzencenter with @get_repost ・・・ . Zen Master Hyo Bong said: “The whole world is a furnace. How did part of it get to be snow?” . One action is better than ten thousand words! . Happy nor’easter everyone! #snow #nyc #zen #koan #noreaster #whiteout #dharma
"Enlightenment is believing in yourself." Quote by Zen Master Soeng Hyang. #zen #enlightenment #wisdom #compassion #moment #kwanumzen
Zen Master Seung Sahn with guests, Providence Zen Center, U.S.A. Circa mid 1980's? #throwbackthursday #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
"If you keep any idea about Zen, it is no longer Zen." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. #zen #meditation #relax #everydaymind #notspecial #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
Many of you have children. Babies really have don’t know mind. That is why they say we learn the most in our life between zero and five. Babies will just stare at you, they are not thinking anything. They are taking in information. They look at their hand, they don’t even know what it is. They don’t even know it is connected to their body. So naturally all of us have don’t know mind. But very quickly as we know we start latching onto ideas, some of which we brought into this life, which is what we call karma. Some you make in this life and become your habit. But we don’t see it as my habit, we experience it as truth. And this creates the suffering of humans. So when you cut your thinking, which means keeping a mind that doesn’t know, at that time, it is before thinking. So when you keep don’t know 100% it is already before thinking. Before thinking is your true substance. We think our substance is our body, emotions, consciousness, souls, spirits, but those are just words. What is it? You can’t say. If you say it, it is not it. Water water water. I am still thirsty. You have to become one with it, then you are not thirsty. Same thing, our mind is thirsty for some confidence, not in our personality or our ability or anything, just in our being. But as long as we are attached to words, ideas and feelings, we will never get there. So when we keep don’t know, don’t know is before thinking, before thinking is our true substance. So that is the first point in Buddhism. Recognize your true nature is before thinking. Experience that. That is what Buddha experienced when he saw the stars.—Zen Master Dae Bong #zen #dontknow #karma #habits #truenature #buddhism #kwanumzen
9:15 am "We must put down our prejudices." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. #zen #buddhism #bodhisattva #putitalldown #meditation #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
Kyol Che means tight practicing. If you have mind, it's very important to do tight practicing. If you can put it all down, then everything becomes "no problem"; but if you are holding something and are thinking, then doing Kyol Che is very important. If you do tight practicing then it's possible to take away your mind: your thinking, your situation, your condition, your problem. Then you can attain your True Self and save all beings. This is our direction. —Zen Master Seung SahnSit Kyol Che this winter in any of four locations worldwide or join Heart Kyol Che anywhere in the world: http://bit.ly/2FdETs3 #zen #meditation #retreat #mind #kyolche #zmseungsahn #kwanumzen
"Enlightenment means to lose everything." Quote by Zen Master Bon Shim. #zen #enlightenment #meditation #illusions #kwanumzen

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