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Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn • Page 1707 © 2008 Kwan Um School of Zen • Announce It at Housemeeting

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Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn • Page 1707 © 2008 Kwan Um School of Zen • Announce It at Housemeeting 801 February 27, 1978 Dear Soen Sa Nim, Welcome back to the East Coast. I hope that your health is good and you will soon visit the Shim Gum Do Temple. Mu Ryeom Su Nim said he would like to study Shim Gum Do and live with us in Boston. We would love him to come. He would be a very welcome and respected addition to our family. He told us that he would discuss the matter further with you when you returned. We await your decision. Respectfully, Maria Rowe (Sang Gwang) March 4, 1978 Dear Sang Gwang Rowe Sa Bom, Thank you for your letter. How are you? You talked about Mu Ryeom Su Nim. That is wonderful. I talked about his going to Shim Gum Do School with him. Zen is keeping your correct situation moment to moment. Then, you will understand the correct way and the truth. Mu Ryeom Su Nim is a monk. A monk has a monk’s situation. He became a monk only one year ago, so we say he is a baby monk. Baby monks don’t understand monk’s situation, monk’s rules, monk’s job. This is very important. Then, after, coming and going everywhere is no problem. But now Mu Ryeom Su Nim is a baby monk, so living with monks and correct style strong practicing is very important. I did not talk about coming and going. I only talked to him about what is correct monk’s situation. Then he heard this and decided. So, you ask him. Next, I will talk a little to you about the Shim Gum Do Zen Center. The Shim Gum Do Zen Center is a strong Providence Zen Center branch Zen Center. So I think everyday service, correct Zen Center style, is necessary. And the Shim Gum Do School is bigger than many other Zen Centers, so organization is very important, which means having a Directors’ Meeting, housemeeting, working together, which means if everything is not organized, in the future, many problems will appear. If you are only dependent on Gwang Jang Nim, this is not so good. For example, now at Providence Zen Center, all the directors are very strong. Also, everything is organized. Once a week is a Directors’ Meeting, and once a week is a housemeeting for the whole house. If you have a problem, or if you have something happening or plans for the future, decide all this at your Directors’ Meeting. Then, next, Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn • Page 1707 © 2008 Kwan Um School of Zen • www.kwanumzen.org announce it at housemeeting. Then everyone will understand the Zen Center’s situation, Zen Center’s business, and the Zen Center’s future. Then everybody’s Zen Center, everybody’s business, and everybody’s future will be clear. So some day, Gwang Jang Nim will go to Korea and come and go to other places, and this will be no problem. Also, the Zen Center will be no problem. If you only depend on Gwang Jang Nim, then when he goes to Korea, there will be no head, so how will you control the Zen Center and Shim Gum Do School? I’m only worried about this. I think you are a good director, a good Sa Bom, and a good Zen student. You must fix your Zen Center’s present situation. Next, I want to talk about Zen interviews with you. At any Zen Center, together action is very important. Why is it only the Shim Gum Do Zen Center has no interviews? If you are attached to “I”, “my , “me”, attached to my condition, my situation, you cannot attain the True Way, cannot attain correct Shim Gum Do. Gwang Jang Nim is a Shim Gum Do Master. Learn Shim Gum Do from him. Learn Zen from me. Very clear. When Shim Gum Do and Zen come together, then this is a complete Shim Gum Do Zen Center. Somebody said, “Shim Gum Do School is different.” Then, only a Shim Gum Do school is good, and a Shim Gum Do Zen Center is not possible. If you have a Shim Gum Do Zen Center, then you must do the same action as any other Zen Center. This is very necessary. Also, I am the Shim Gum Do School president. Then, all Shim Gum Do students must listen to the president’s idea. That is the correct way. Master Dharma Teacher George is not only Providence’s Master Dharma Teacher; he is all our school’s Zen Centers’ Master Dharma Teacher. Instead of me. So his and my teaching are not different. So I often say if you keep your opinion, your condition, your situation, then you have a problem. Already, the problem appeared. Not only Zen, not only Shim Gum Do School, any person, any people, any country, any politicians, if they keep their opinion, their condition, their situation, they will have a problem. If those things disappear, then the correct opinion, correct condition, and correct situation appear. This is called the True Way and Great Bodhisattva, Great Compassion, and Great Love. I know your mind. You already understand this way. Also, I know your difficult situation. But you try, try, try. Then you will get it. I already told these things to Gwang Jang Nim. Gwang Jang Nim said everything is O.K., and he said, “I will follow Soen Sa Nim.” Maybe this is good. Sometime, have a good talk with Gwang Jang Nim. Next, I ask you about your homework. Did you finish your homework? Then tell me! Tell me! If not yet, only go straight—don’t know for 10,000 years; try, try, try! I hope you always are keeping a mind which is clear like space, soon finish the Great Work of life and death, get Enlightenment, and save all people from suffering. Yours in the Dharma, S.S. Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn • Page 1708 © 2008 Kwan Um School of Zen • www.kwanumzen.org 802 February 22, 1978 Dear Soen Sa Nim Though I have spoken with you before and taken the Five Precepts I wanted to write to you to introduce myself and ask formally to be one of your students. I have been attending Dharma talks and Yong Maeng Jong Jins at the Cambridge Zen Center for ten months. I sit Zazen for an hour at home every morning and sometimes for an hour in the evening. I would like to describe how I became interested in your teaching and then ask a question. One day, when I was very young, some friends and I decided to climb the roof of a large barn nearby. It was very steep and high, and we decided to go out from the inside of the barn through a second-story window. When my turn came, without really thinking about what I was doing, I climbed out the window and started up the roof. There was no problem; it was easy and fun. But when I got about half-way up, I suddenly looked down, realized where I was, and was filled with fear. I stopped. I couldn’t move. I lay there and just tried to hold on. I couldn’t go up, and I couldn’t go back down. I stayed that way for a long time. Finally, with my father offering words of encouragement from the ground, I fearfully inched my way back down to the window, and safety. During my young years, to many people, I was an ideal child. I worked very hard in school and got good grades, and constantly went out of my way to please people with my actions. Everyone approved of me and praised me. But there was a problem. I never thought about what I was doing. I simply went along with what others expected of me. When I was fifteen, my world came crashing down. I began to doubt what I was doing in my life. I stopped trying in school and started to shy away from people. What I was doing just didn’t feel right. I didn’t like my teachers, what they taught, and the way they taught it (using fear of punishment or failure). Everyone seemed selfish, including myself; everyone, it seemed, only thought of himself. I wondered what was the point in trying. The things we were taught to work for—success and victory over others—somehow didn’t feel right. I wondered what was the purpose of life, what goal was the right one to work towards. The more confused I became and the less I tried, the worse it got. I learned what it felt like for people to disapprove of you, to scare you about the consequences of not doing what you’re supposed to, what it felt like when they considered you strange and mentally sick. It was like a circle: The more confused I got, the more others doubted and questioned me, making me even more afraid of them and their ways. Gradually, it got better, and I stopped questioning so much and simply went along with how things were. In college, I started out intending to be a doctor, not because I gave it much thought, but because it was a praiseworthy profession. One year I was there, I decided to Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn • Page 1709 © 2008 Kwan Um School of Zen • www.kwanumzen.org study very hard to see if I could succeed and achieve very high grades. I did, but when I did, the achievement felt very empty.
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