Inka Speech
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.] Enlightenment is no enlightenment. No enlightenment is enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
No enlightenment. Not no enlightenment.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.]
Enlightenment is enlightenment. No enlightenment is no enlightenment.
Are these the same or not? If you say they are the same, this stick will hit you thirty times. If you say they are different, this stick will also hit you thirty times. What can you do?
HO!
Today is Wednesday, March third.
In the spring of 1964, three famous monks came to Chong Ju to teach Zen for college students. They gave a speech at our temple. At our temple, I met Zen Master Seung Sahn. I approached him and he said to me, "Do you want to practice Zen?" I said, "Yes sir!" Then he asked me this question: "A long time ago, in China, someone asked a Zen Master, 'Why did Bodhidharma come to China?' The Master said, 'Cypress tree in the garden!' Do you understand what this kong-an means?"
I said, "I don't know."
And he said: "Keep that don't know! Then you will attain!"
After that teaching, I practiced Zen for many years, very slowly. Over twenty years later, Zen Master Seung Sahn appeared to me like Kwan Seum Bosal, when a Poep Sa Nim gave me a book in English - Only Don't Know. From that time, I started to practice Zen in our school. We are very lucky to be studying under Zen Master Seung Sahn.
The Ten Oxherding Pictures are very famous. They check the Zen student's mind. [showing pictures] Going out in search of the ox. Finding the footprints. Seeing the ox. Catching the ox. Herding the ox. Riding the ox back home. Forgetting the ox. This is a statement of our practice. Man and the ox are both forgotten and return to our original face. And the last picture shows the student appearing in the marketplace to teach and transform.
We are studying in the Kwan Um School of Zen. This eighth picture is only a circle: you already saw that. This stands for our original face before thinking. Our school calls this "without like this." The space is broken. Buddhas and patriarchs are killed. To demonstrate this state, we say "become one like this." The ninth picture shows what we call "only like this." Blue mountain, water flowing; this is truth. We call this "only like this." And the tenth picture shows the student appearing in the marketplace to teach, going to the village to ask, "How may I help you?"
Many eminent teachers distinguish between Tathagata Zen and Patriarchal Zen. Tathagata Zen is like the eighth picture: there is nothing. It is before thinking. Patriarchal Zen is like the ninth and tenth pictures. So, we should understand our school, and practice Patriarchal Zen, which is traditional Korean Zen. So we are very lucky for this teaching.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then hits table with stick.] Patriarchal Zen is Tathagata Zen. Tathagata Zen is Patriarchal Zen.
[Raises Zen stick over head, then bits table with stick.]
No Tathagata Zen. No Patriarchal Zen.
[Raises Zen stick over bead, then bits table with stick.]
Tathagata Zen is Tathagata Zen. Patriarchal Zen is Patriarchal Zen. Are they the same or different? If you say they are the same, this stick will hit you thirty times. If you say they are different, this stick will also strike you thirty times. Why?
HO!
When the sun rises in the east, the whole world is bright. What are you doing right now?
Thank you all for coming here and listening to my dharma speech.
? The Kwan Um School of Zen