T.N.G. SIGNS
OF THE TIMES - N.M. December 1,
2005 (#151)
Greetings from
Russell's Remnant: www.oocities.org/dkone_us
The Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn – Part
2
If you cut off all thinking, you
will wake up.
Every morning begin by vowing,
“Sentient beings are numberless; we vow to save them all.” This means, from moment to moment, my life
is only for all beings. The name of
this is perseverance.
Wisdom means your clear mind is able
to function spontaneously in any situation.
It uses good situations to help people, and it uses bad situations to
help people.
Using intellectual understanding to
find your true nature is like expecting a hungry man to satisfy his gnawing
hunger with a picture of a banana.
At the moment of your death, what
will your intellectual understanding do for you?
Our true nature is “before”
thinking.
Clear Mary was a very fast
greyhound, and usually always won her races.
But in the middle of a race one day she suddenly stopped, leapt over the
guard rail, sped across the infield, and leapt over the other guard rail and
caught the rabbit. That is Zen
mind. Clear Mary is like a high-class
Zen student who trained for many years only to follow the rabbit. Every day - around, around, and around. Just like in Zen practice, one day she
stopped, took a close look at what was happening in life. Then she perceived clearly, and just does it
one hundred percent. This is the Zen
mind. It’s very simple.
If you want to take away suffering,
you must take away mind, which means cutting your attachment to thinking.
Most people use meditation to get
something, but true meditation means looking very deeply inside in order to attain
your true nature and help all beings.
“Want-something” always makes subject and object, this and that, good
and bad.
The “don’t know” mind is your true
master. Always keep the mind that
doesn’t know and soon you will attain enlightenment.
Zen teaching simply means not
attaching to language – don’t attach to speech and words. Zen is not dependent on understanding, or on
knowledge of books or on having some high-class college degrees. It has nothing to do with the level of
anyone’s intelligence or cleverness.
Reading or listening with a “don’t
know” mind gives our minds a large and wide view.
Everything is the same, because
everything has the same universal substance.
Ultimate truth does not even need
words or explanation because the whole world is already truth.
From moment to moment you can
function only to help other people.
If you are thinking, this kind of
teaching is difficult.
When we are hungry, if we only look
at pictures of good food – even a thousand pictures – our hunger will never be
satisfied. We’re still hungry!
When we meditate, we are only using
certain techniques to control our body, breathing, and mind so we can cut off
all thinking and realize true nature.
You must let go of your opinions,
your condition, and your situation.
Do not become attached to
enlightenment.
Thinking is desire. Desire is suffering.
Everyday mind is already the Great
Enlightenment. If you look for anything
more, it is like painting legs on a snake.
There is no speech and no words, because
this point is “before thinking”.
Help all sentient beings get out of
suffering. That is our job.
The cat stays crouched outside the
mouse hole. All the cat’s energy is
centered on the hole. It’s whole mind
is totally focused on just this one point.
It’s eyes never leave that one point.
It holds the same position, no matter what the outside conditions. Several hours pass and the mouse thinks it
has been long enough. That stupid cat
is gone by now. Then just as he sticks
his nose out of the hole, the cat caught him.
That is a cat mind. A cat has
complete courage in any situation. It
always has total concentration that does not waver. Have this kind of cat mind – your mind is not moving.
True teaching is about showing
people how to take away their karma and helping other beings.
If you close your mouth, you and the
whole universe have already become one.
That is the true not-two. This
is why in the Bible it says, “Be still and know that I am God.”
Everyone is attached to their thinking,
so they only keep their ideas and opinions about truth and do not see this
world’s actual truth.
Go watch a movie, and you will
experience no-thinking. This movie-mind
is like a completely clear mirror.
Movie-mind is completely non-attached thinking. When the guy is happy, you are happy. When the woman is dying, everyone is
sad. This is a wonderful example of
non-attachment thinking – it is just thinking.
Art, beautiful music, and beautiful pictures can all give us the same
experience of no-thinking, for a short time.
Attaining the realm of buddhas means
attaining truth, that everything is just as it is. The sky is blue. Sugar is
sweet. Salt is salty. 3 x 3 = 9.
This is truth, the world just as it is.
It is not special. You are
already complete.
There is one thing that never
changes and that is your substance and the substance of everything. You must find that, you must attain that,
and then you are free.
Actually, past, present, and future
do not really exist. They only come from
thinking.
Our thinking makes “present”. We only have this moment. Our life happens from moment to moment to
moment.
A Zen poem uses words and speech to
point to an experience that cannot be expressed in words.
Extreme quiet and stillness are our original
nature.
Zen means that when you are doing
something, you must just do it. When
you are hungry, eat.
Our true nature is not dependent on
understanding. That is why we only
teach “don’t know.”
Most human beings spend all their
energy chasing desire, anger, and ignorance.
Only if you completely cut off all
thinking can you return to your original nature. That point’s name is “don’t know.”
With the “don’t know” mind, you find
that your correct direction always appears clearly in front of you, from moment
to moment.
Zen teaches the importance of
cutting off all attachment thinking by cutting off dependence on speech and
words.
Zen means from moment to moment
keeping a clear mind – clear as a mirror.
Reflect the universe exactly as it is.
Unconditional love means not having “my” opinion, “my” condition and “my” situation.