Teaching Zen

Previously on the blog was the topic of turning the teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn into a class for the Buddha Dharma University. The book is a collection of episodes of Seung Sahn teaching Zen to students via live interaction, Dharma talks, and letters.

The book gives a great look into the teachings and teaching methods of an awakened Zen Master. Throughout the history of Zen and Buddhism, there have been many teachers to come and go. Along with them have been many different styles of teachings.

For example, there are many Sutras (teachings) that have been written throughout the centuries. Because there are many different schools of Buddhism and Zen Buddhism, these Sutras cater to many different audiences, with many different aptitudes. These teachings are often helpful. Sometimes they are used to help people wake up. Sometimes people use them to try to understand Buddhist philosophy.

Going in another direction are the teachings of the Patriarchs. These were Zen masters who tried to help people wake up by directly pointing to their true nature. They used their understanding of the absolute - ideas such as "not good, not bad" and "don't make same and different" to help their students to keep a "don't know" mind. These teachers were not sharing what they found out, they were trying to help their students find it for themselves.

ZM Seung Sahn clearly falls in the patriarch category. He is never portrayed as a man of knowledge who doles out advice on ho to live. He is not championing his political opinions or his ideas on the best way to live. Refreshingly, he never evens answers the question of What is Enlightenment. (Since the big E is beyond words - how could he?)

To an outsider, it might seem he spends most of his time confusing his students! Spending a little time with this, we begin to see why this is. Because enlightenment is beyond words - it is useless to try to explain it. Instead he tries to get people to see it for themselves.

Everyone already has their ideas. They think they have some answer for the big questions of life. If Zen Masters try to give their own answers, they are simply adding to the mass of philosophy that is already out there. Instead, as in this case, we are provided with live words. Words that help us to keep don't know mind, to cut through the delusion in front of us and to wake up.

Classwork: Dropping Ashes on the Buddha

The school where I teach classes on Zen has been renamed. It is now Buddha Dharma University. It is run by the Five Mountain Zen Order. It is a great place to learn and study Zen. There is already quite an array of classes available. The reason I mention it, is because it is the kind of thing I wish was available when I was newly intrigued by meditation, which led me to Zen.

As an aside, Zen is generally associated with meditation. Yet, Zen doesn't even really require meditation. What is Zen anyway? There are some other posts on this blog about that as well as in the book. This finally brings us to the point of this post.

What did Zen Master Seung Sahn say when asked what is Zen? How did he teach? Dropping Ashes on the Buddha provides many answers to these questions. It is a collection of 100 of his interactions with students. Some lectures, some letters, and many question and answer sessions with students.

This book had a very profound influence on me. Seung Sahn's style and his teachings really resonated - even though they didn't make much sense at first. I have read and re-read this book so many times I had to get a second copy. So for the last few weeks, my blogging time has been spent going through this book with an eye toward how to present it in a class.

The way it seemed to make sense to do this was to go through the book and cross-link the talks into various categories. For example: What is Zen. He answers this one question in many different ways as parts of many different answers to student questions.

Another topic is Dharma Exchange. Briefly, this is a way of challenging students with Zen riddles - trying to get them to a moment of don't-know mind. This will be covered in more detail later in another post. The Dharma exchanges presented in the book are quite instructive and helpful. They really do point to the heart of the Buddha's teachings. My hope is that the class will help people to see this, to make these teachings more useful. There are many more topics that are covered in the book and several of them will be covered in the class.

Additionally, the class will also consist of video lectures, homework, and forum discussions. So there is still quite a bit of work to be done. It is exciting because coming up with class material really provides an opportunity to study a book I really love.

Freedom Style Zen

At one point Zen Master Wonji described my background as being "Freedom Style Zen." In fact, I thought about making that the title of this book. What does freedom style mean?

At some point in this life, I developed a very skeptical nature. When I heard a quote of the Buddha saying "Question everything", that was a right up my alley. Then, in the mid-nineties I found the book Dropping Ashes on the Buddha. In this book, Zen Master Seung Sahn also presented Zen in a no-bullshit way. I have spent years with this great book, often wallowing in confusion. From it I learned to keep the great question, "What am I?" with it's corresponding answer "Don't know."

Anyway, one of my attitudes was, "If Buddha didn't need a teacher, why do I?" Of course, the story of the Buddha may not be exactly what happened, but I kept the attitude anyway. In this vein, one of my favorite entries in Dropping Ashes was when Seung Sahn said people could chant "Coca Cola" and as long as they believed it, it would work. Refreshing honesty in a world where people are always selling something.

When I ran into Zen Master Wonji around 2005, I had a lot of questions for him. Such as, "If chanting leads to enlightenment, why aren't chorus members enlightened?" Another was, "Why do we have to wear these outfits, after all, they have nothing to do with waking up?" He had great, non-attached answers to these questions along with the many other questions I asked.

Many of my attitudes regarding formal Zen practice remain. After all, what does formal practice actually have to do with waking up? Oops! There goes some freedom style questioning seeping into this post. As mentioned before, Buddhism, practice, and Zen centers have their place and can be helpful and rewarding. Just never forget that enlightenment is in this very moment, wherever, whenever, whatever.

These questions are only the tip of the iceberg. Much more of this is covered in the book. To this end, there is great Koan about people's ideas around meditation being special. It is called "Xiangyan's Non-attained Buddha" and it goes like this:

A monk asked Chán Master Xiangyan:, “The Buddha of Supremely Pervading, surpassing Wisdom sat in meditation for ten eons and could not attain Buddhahood. He did not become a Buddha. Why?”
Venerable Xiangyan said, “Your question is quite self–evident.”
The monk persisted, “He meditated so long; why did he not attain Buddhahood?”
Master Xiangyan said, “Because he would not become Buddha.”

The Koan questions are:

1. Why did he not attain Buddhahood?
2. Dharma appears, and Dharma does not appear in this world; what does this mean?

As a Zen teacher in the Five Mountain Order/Buddhist Studies Institue - LA, I am authorized to teach Koans. If you want to try to answer this Koan or study Koans with us at the College of Zen Buddhism, please contact me at mindmakeseverything@gmail.com or contact us at the school via www.beforethought.com/FMO.

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment

The second class I teach at the College of Zen Buddhist Studies/Buddhist Studies Institute - LA is "The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment" as translated by A. Charles Muller. In this Buddhist teaching, the setting is a gathering of Boddhisattvas. With this backdrop, the sutra consists of a question and answer session between twelve of these Bodhisattvas and the Buddha.

These questions encompass many of the concepts in Buddhism including sudden and gradual enlightenment. One of the more interesting themes is to watch the development of the Buddhist teachings as they move from the sudden teachings to the gradual teachings.

Here is the way the class is described on the college website:

The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, used in monastic education for more than a millennium (probably composed in the eighth century), is a concise guide to the key paradigms of the practice systems of the East Asian meditation schools (Ch'an, Son, and Zen). It has been most popular in the Chinese and Korean schools.

As Zen students, there is value to studying this Mahayana teaching as it employs many different ways to try to get people of different aptitudes to wake up. We will also see how it also helps the reader to understand the process of Sutra development.

In this course we will study this great teaching. The class will consist of reading assignments, video lectures, forum activities, quizzes and of course, a professor will be available. The ultimate goals of this class are to study this book, to see what we can glean from it as far as how to practice and how to teach others to practice. We will also focus on the development of the Sutra as it works to to help different audiences.

The purpose of this post is to briefly introduce this book. From time to time, I will be posting readings from this sutra and commenting on them. There is some really useful stuff in this text and I am very fortunate to be able to share it with others. Hopefully, you will find it useful as well.

The Mirror of Zen

At the College of Zen Buddhist Studies/Buddhist Studies Institute - LA, I teach a couple of classes. One of them uses "The Mirror of Zen" by Korean Zen Master So Sahn as the textbook. In the book, ZM So Sahn picked out 86 readings from various Buddhist texts. He then added some commentaries and a few capping verses. There are also a few Koans in there as well, so it really covers the gamut of Korean Buddhism.

Here is the way the class is described on the college web site:

From the preface: "If you were to comb the mountains and valleys of Korea, polling every meditating monk and nun and hermit and ascetic as to the most necessary, essential, inseparable compendium of teachings apart from the Buddha's sutras themselves, chances are that most of them would choose The Mirror of Zen. It is by far the most quoted, most cited, most referred-to text in the tea rooms and teaching halls of the Zen temples in Korea."

Its author was Zen Master So Sahn who was born in 1520 in what is now North Korea. He became a monk at 21 and during his lifetime he assumed leadership positions at both the Zen and Sutra schools of Korean Buddhism. For this book, he chose 86 teachings from the Buddhist canon as the essence of of Zen. He also added commentaries, gathas, and capping phrases for our benefit.

In this course we will study this great book. The class will consist of reading assignments, video lectures, forum activities, quizzes and of course, a professor will be available. The ultimate goals of this class are first introducing us to this great book and ultimately together we will learn from a great Zen Master of the past.

The purpose of this post is to briefly introduce this book. From time to time, I will be posting readings from this book and commenting on them. There is some really neat stuff in this text and I am very fortunate to be able to share it with others. Hopefully you will find it useful as well!