So you have to find the source of attachment. How does it appear? How does attachment appear? What is first? Pew! Something appears in your mind and then pew! This thing grabs it. It is like an impulse. That is why we have meditation, which is the laboratory of the mind. When you practice, two things happen. You start to see clearly your karma. So you get insight into the habits of your mind. But at the same time more and more space start to appear because your don’t know expands. Ok? Finally, very clearly you start to perceive that habits are just like clouds showing up on the sky. This is t ..read more

Do you agree with me that as times change, cause and effect also changes? But the suffering doesn’t change, right? In the end, actually, the teachings come back to the big question, and they come back to don’t-know. No matter how society changes, how much the situation and cause-and-effect changes, in the end all suffering comes from this I-my-me—that is, it comes from our thinking. If we see the thinking is nonstop, then actually we have already attained this clarity inside. When we bring people back to this moment, that’s important. It’s not about any answer for kong-ans, and I think this ..read more

In this video, Kathy Park JDPSN answers a question about the desire for fame. What is the truth of desire and how can we relate to it ..read more

Talking about opposite worlds or absolute world or complete world is an intellectual style where more explanation, more analysis becomes necessary. Zen only points to the moment world, the world of this moment. This moment is very important. It has everything in it. In this moment there is infinite time, infinite space. In this moment there is truth, correct life and the Bodhisattva Way. This moment has everything. Also, this moment has nothing. If you attain this moment you attain everything. This is the teaching of Zen Buddhism ..read more

Question: Is awareness like a flashlight, or a glowing ball of energy? Is the mind like a tree? Why does the mind not look like, or feel, like a tree? I don't see a tree at all. The mind feels like a big empty ball.  Where is the root of the tree? When I imagine the mind, I feel inside the skull, and move the awareness around inside my skull. By holding awareness on different parts of the brain, different feelings emerge over time: Happiness, Sadness, Sound, Music, Peace, Body, Heart Beat, Space, Wonder, etc. So, where is the root? Is the root a place or location? Does one cut the r ..read more

Open the gift. Inside is only don’t know. Such an expensive gift, and yet few will accept it. Accepting it means abandoning the familiar, and that can be terrifying. And yet, not knowing is very familiar territory for us all, a place where we can be empowered. Not knowing allows us to let go of false assumptions. It frees us of preconceptions and attachments. When the mind doesn’t know, it is sitting exactly in this moment. When it is in this moment, it is wide open: a perfect receptor, a perfect reflector. Even while tied and bound, our mind can feel as spacious as the sky. Look up at the sk ..read more

In this video, Zen Master Tan Wol answers a question about the sense of life ..read more

Our great grand-teacher, Man Gong Sunim, was once asked, "Why don't more people practice Zen?" He said, "Everybody wants a good thing, but most people don't understand that when you get a good thing you also get a bad thing. If they understood that, then they would practice Zen." So our life is not about getting good things and avoiding bad things. It is about attaining how to correctly use each thing that appears. Good things come, we use them to go the correct way; bad things come, we use them to go the correct way ..read more

The best thing a teacher can give a student is for the student to believe in themselves. So, people would come and listen to Zen Master Seung Sahn, and what you would get from him is to not be attached to his words. And what you would get from him is this incredible energy and this incredible centeredness, and this incredible clarity, and the realization that you could also have that, and in fact you already had it. That’s the best thing the teacher can give the student It is not for the student to believe in the teacher as this exterior authority, but for the student to realize that what thi ..read more

Imbalance is our world’s sickness: how can we cure it? Balance means understanding the truth. If you have no wisdom, you cannot become balanced. It is very important for everyone to find their human nature. That is why we sit Zen, to find our true human nature. So we are in a very important position, sitting in meditation. We must find our human nature, then together help each other become world peace. As human beings, we are all equal. We all have the same love mind. We must find the primary cause of this world’s sickness, and remove it ..read more