PRIMARY POINT® Kwan Um School of Zen 99 Pound Rd Cumberland, RI 02864-2726 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Primary Primary P int P Volume 32 • Number 3 • Winter 2016 2016 Winter • 3 Number • 32 Volume Winter Kyol Che 2015/16 November 26, 2015 ~ February 22, 2016 At Seung Sahn Int’l Zen Center Mu Sang Sa Mu Sang Sa is located on an energy point of Gye Ryong Mountain which is renowned in Korea for its strong mystical energy . Zen Master Dae Bong Sunim and For more information, visit our website : Hye Tong Sunim will be the www.musangsa.org Guiding Teachers for the Kyol Che. Also Zen Master Bon Shim and TEL : +82-42-841-6084 many teachers of Kwan Um School of Zen F a x : +82-42-841-1202 will join the retreat. Email : [email protected] Winter Kyol Che 2016 January 4 - April 1 Silent retreats including sitting, chanting, walking and bowing practice. Dharma talks and Kong An interviews. Retreats Kyol Che Visit, practice or live at the Head YMJJ 401.658.1464 Temple of Americas Kwan Um One Day www.providencezen.com School of Zen. Solo Retreats [email protected] Guest Stays Residential Training Rentals PRIMARY POINT Winter 2016 Primary Point 99 Pound Road IN THIS ISSUE Cumberland RI 02864-2726 U.S.A. Telephone 401/658-1476 Earth, Air, Fire and Water: Repaying the Universe www.kwanumzen.org Zen Master Seung Sahn ...............................................................4 online archives: Visit kwanumzen.org to learn more, peruse back Man of the Mountains issues and connect with our sangha. Gye Mun Sunim JDPS ................................................................7 Warning! There Is a Tiger Loose! Published by the Kwan Um School of Zen, a nonprofit reli- Zen Master Dae Kwang ...............................................................7 gious corporation. The founder, Zen Master Seung Sahn, 78th Patriarch in the Korean Chogye order, was the first Korean Zen I Still Don’t Understand My True Self Master to live and teach in the West. In 1972, after teaching Eduardo del Valle Perez ................................................................8 in Korea and Japan for many years, he founded the Kwan Um sangha, which today has affiliated groups around the world. He Where Am I? gave transmission to Zen Masters, and inka (teaching author- ity) to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sas (dharma masters). Myong Hae Sunim .......................................................................9 The Kwan Um School of Zen supports the worldwide teaching Once Upon a Time at Berlin Zen Center… schedule of the Zen Masters and Ji Do Poep Sas, assists the member Zen centers and groups in their growth, issues publi- Muchak JDPSN (Namhee Chon) ...............................................10 cations on contemporary Zen practice, and supports dialogue among religions. If you would like to become a member of the Staying Open and Curious in the Face of Uncertainty School and receive Primary Point, see page 31. The circulation Jan Sendzimir ...........................................................................12 is 2,100 copies. The views expressed in Primary Point are not necessarily those I’m Breathing—Are You? of this journal or the Kwan Um School of Zen. Nancy Hathaway .......................................................................14 © 2016 Kwan Um School of Zen When World Sound Equals Police Shooting Black Men Colin Beavan ............................................................................20 [3 Founding Teacher Zen Master Seung Sahn Book Excerpt: Meditation for Moms and Dads Shana Smith .............................................................................22 School Zen Master Zen Master Soeng Hyang Did Buddha Chant? Editor-in-Chief Scott Martin..............................................................................24 Ken Kessel JDPSN Editor for Europe Book Review: Universal Enlightenment Zen Master Ji Kwang Zen Master Bon Hae..................................................................25 Editor for Asia Kwan Um School of Zen Centers .............................28, 29, 30 Kathy Park Managing Editor Membership in the Kwan Um School of Zen–America ........31 Tamarind Jordan Managing Editor for Europe Eduardo del Valle Pérez Book Review Editor Zen Master Bon Hae Layout and Design James Gouijn-Stook Content Editor Ben Gleason Content Editor for Europe Peter Voke Proofreader Linda Jacobs Manufacturing Manager Eugene Lim Publishing Manager Paul Majchrzyk JDPSN Cover: This company of Dharma Protectors centers around Weitou, with guardian figures such as a celestial general, gandharva, yaksha and others surrounding him. Photo by Grzegorz Piaskowski. Taenghwa information courtesy of Won San Sunim. PRIMARY POINT Winter 2016 Earth, Air, Fire and Water: Repaying the Universe A talk given by Zen Master Seung Sahn, December 1, 1990. n 1986, I visited Swami Satchidananda’s yoga ashram Padme Hum means Kwan Seum Bosal. They both mean in West Virginia for the opening ceremony of the Lo- original mind. Also, Om Mani Padme Hum means eyes, tus Shrine, a beautiful ecumenical pavilion. They had ears, nose, tongue, body, mind. Ia dedication ceremony and had invited many teachers. All In India, Om is a sacred sound, a sacred mantra. The the teachers were asked to give a short talk and do some whole universe begins with Om. In our Thousand Eyes chanting from their tradition. I talked to them about how and Hands Sutra, we have another mantra: Om Nam. every day we breathe in air, breathe out air. We breathe in Om Nam means cleaning our minds, cleaning this world. and breathe out all the time but we never pay for this most If you use something, it becomes dirty and then you vital of our needs. The sun shines every day and nourishes need to clean it, like your clothes or your body. When our bodies with sunlight and energy for all things to grow. you use earth, air, fire and water—the four elements and We live on this earth and use its resources, but we don’t the universe—without giving anything back, your mind pay any money to the air or the sun or the earth. becomes dirty. So we use Om Nam to clean our minds. Our body is made up of four elements: earth, air, fire If you try Om Nam or Om Mani Padme Hum forty- 4] and water. Everything we eat or use is also made of these nine times in the morning and evening, then everything four elements. So these four elements are us and we are becomes clean: your stomach, your head, your job, your these four elements. This means we are the universe and house, your universe. Why forty-nine times? In our Asian the universe is us. But how do you show your gratitude belief system, seven is a holy number. Seven times seven is to the universe? If you understand that, you understand forty-nine, so we try a forty-nine-day kido or forty-nine- your correct job as a human being. A human being’s cor- day ceremony after someone dies. rect job is to make harmony with everything in the uni- verse—with the sky, with the tree, with the dog, with the If you try mantra practice, your mind will become cat, with everything. If you have this harmony mind, you quiet. But if you become attached to this quiet, then you cannot kill an animal or kill a tree. That’s the correct idea. have a problem. Another time, many years ago, I went This correct idea appears when you put down your opin- to Swami Satchidananda’s ashram. They do a lot of very ion, condition, situation and moment to moment keep wonderful chanting. It’s like samadhi; people close their correct function, correct situation, correct relationship. eyes and feel very peaceful and almost sleepy. I gave a Then you and the four elements become one. talk and shouted KATZ! Everybody was very surprised. Brother David [David Steindl-Rast, an eminent Benedic- After the talk, we tried the Om Mani Padme Hum tine monk. —Ed.] was sitting next to me and he said, chanting. In the middle of the Thousand Eyes and Hands “Soen Sa Nim, everybody was surprised. They woke up.” Sutra, we have this mantra: Om Mani Padme Hum. I said, “Not wake up. Everybody got enlightenment!” These four words mean the four elements of earth, air, fire and water. If you try this chanting, then taking away I explained that if you only stay in your mantra, you your opinion, your condition, your situation is very easy. enter nirvana. But, if you only stay in nirvana, you cannot You become one mind; you and the universe are never save all beings. Wake up means entering anuttara samyak separate. You return to your original nature. sambodhi. So “KATZ!” is not “KATZ!”; it is anuttara sa- myak sambodhi. So this time when I went again to Swami In Korea, there is a school of Buddhism called Jing Satchidananda’s place, he saw me and said, “KATZ!” I Gak Jong. Their mantra is Om Mani Padme Hum, and also said, “KATZ!” Then everybody laughed. they chant it all day long. It’s the same style as the Kwan Seum Bosal chanting that we do in our school. Om Mani So our direction means, How do you make your center PRIMARY POINT Winter 2016 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2016 strong? You must decide for yourself what kind of practice There is a story that illustrates this. It is about my you want to do every day. Once you decide something, you teacher, Zen Master Ko Bong. He didn’t like chanting; must do it, and do it at the same time every day. If you have he only liked to sit. One time he was staying in a small a special situation such as a guest coming and you cannot temple in the mountains. The abbot of the temple had do your practice at your decided time, then doing it some to go away for a few days. While he was gone, a woman other time is OK. But if nothing is happening and your came up to the temple with rice and other food.