BOOM! An Interview with Zen Master Seung Sahn

Zen Master Seung Sahn

Tricycle: You grew up in a Protestant family in Korea. I’m curious to know what made the Buddhist teachings so attractive to you.

Seung Sahn: When North and South åKorea separated, society became complicated. Everyone fighting. So I went to the mountains to study Confucianism. Then one day a monk asked me, “What are you doing?”

“I’m studying Chinese philosophy,” I say.

“Chinese philosophy?” he said. “You don’t understand Korean philosophy! You should study Korean philosophy.”

So I studied Korean philosophy. Then one day a Zen monk appeared and asked me, “What are you doing?”

I say, “I’m studying Korean philosophy.”

“You don’t understand ‘you’. Who are you?”

“I don’t know,” I said.

“You must get rid of understanding and attain your true self,” he told me. It was like meeting Socrates. So I became a monk and started practicing meditation.

Stream of Continuous Non-meditation, Flow of Unbroken Samadhi

Once my fortunate spiritual son Kunzang Shenpen asked me, “How should one remain in the nonmeditation samadhi that is like a continuous stream? What is meant by ’stream’? Is there any risk of confusing this with another state?” My answer was this song:

Having received the faultless instructions on Mahamudra or on Dzogchen,
The unique path traveled by countless
Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,
If you wish to remain uninterruptedly
In the nonmeditation samadhi
That is like a continuous stream,
You must do this:

Divine Light

Great Master Chosa Shoken in the Sung Dynasty once told his followers: “The entire world is reflected in an eye; the entire world is contained in everyday conversation; the entire world is throughout your body; the entire world is your own Divine Light; the entire world is within your Divine Light and inseparable from yourself.”

Everyone who is seeking the Buddhist Way should study this teaching diligently and never become slack. If they do not persist, there will be very few Zen students with the Divine Light of enlightenment.