Once a year, our school celebrates Buddha’s birthday. We celebrate the birth of a man who was born somewhere between 2,500 – 2,600 years ago. But the meaning of this in Zen is not celebrating a man; it’s celebrating this awakening. But it’s not his awakening; it’s our awakening. So what is our awakening? Our awakening [...]
The Buddha’s enlightenment was about realizing what we already are. The Buddha’s enlightenment wasn’t about finding something outside of ourselves that suddenly now make us complete. It’s finding and connecting to what we already are. We already have it. It’s not something that we need to create, or get from somebody else. When we hear, [...]
The Buddha saw a star and got enlightenment. That’s the myth of the Buddha, that’s the story that’s been told for 2,500 years. Buddha had this experience. Zen Master Man Gong said, “I saw a star too and I lost enlightenment.” Everybody thinks “Got Enlightenment” is what we want. But Man Gong says he lost [...]
Buddhism teaches us that we make our own life. We’re quick to blame other people. We’re quick to make a dream life of our likes and dislikes. We fall into a fantasy, and sometimes it’s said, “like a drunken stupor”. We get lost in a drunken stupor of our likes, dislikes, our opinions, our conditions. [...]
The advise that Master Wu Kwang gave is “Pay your rent on the 1st, pay your taxes on the 15th of April, and everything will work out.” He didn’t say HOW they will work out. We all think “work out” means, “Oh everything will work out well for me.” That’s what goes in my head, [...]
Mind makes everything. If we don’t get underneath that, it’s all playing with the branches and the leaves. We can have a better life, but not really getting to the base of it. Our teaching is keep a Great Question. And the great question in Zen practice is “What Am I?”. “What Am I?”, you [...]
Faith is a tricky word. For me, I have to bring Great Question to the word faith, because it’s not, traditionally in Western religion when we think of faith, like faith in God, faith in some supernatural thing or experience outside of ourselves. Faith in Buddhism has nothing to do with anything outside of ourselves. [...]
When you fall asleep, your conditioning runs the show. You just play things out the way conditioning would play it out. It’s only through being alive, aware and awake in the moment that we are in, that there’s a possibility to change that. In Buddhist terminology, we say if you fall asleep then your karma, your [...]
Correct is not conventionally correct, because it’s not about right versus wrong. The Buddha talked about Clear Seeing, being able to perceive the moment as it is. When we talk about correct situation, we’re talking about perceiving the moment as it is, without adding to it our own particular view or our own particular idea. Just seeing clearly. We [...]
Keep your direction clear. There is something that moves you to practice, that points you in the direction. Then find your “try mind”. Inspiration is wonderful, but if we just rely on inspiration, it fizzles out. And then we’re lost. So it’s not about inspiration or not inspiration. We say in Zen something very direct: [...]
The teaching is so prevalent. The guiding wisdom is all around us. All we have to do is listen. Zen Master Sueng Sahn used to say “try, try, try for 10,000 years non-stop.” 10,000 years non-stop means forever. Forever means right now. 10,000 years is too long. But right now, it’s possible. Right now, what more do you need?
Our preference is always for the good feeling. And if we have the good feeling, we feel like things are right. But if we have the bad feeling, we think things are wrong and we need to somehow fix it so it will be right. But the problem with that is we are attached to [...]
The question always comes to, “Why do that?” So now we’re present, now what? Is it for our own enjoyment? That’s okay, that’s nice; we all want our own enjoyment. But that brings us back to suffering because we’re only happy as long as it brings us joy. As soon as that joy is gone, [...]
When Marshall hit the bell during the Evening Bell Chant, some people thought… “Uhmm, wonderful… Oh, great!” Other people thought, “Not loud enough!” Other people said, “I wish he’d do it faster!” Somebody else said, “What’s he doing?” All that is commentary. Don’t-Know means let go of the commentary and just hear the bell. Simple [...]
The challenge is to use our practice to cultivate awareness, to be honest enough and to train ourselves to be able to witness and watch the ever changing flow of emotion, thoughts, projections, and experience that goes on in our minds. If we don’t pay attention, then our minds make and rule everything. Then we’re [...]
If you go into the realm of metaphysics about life after life after life, you’re in the world of supposition. But take everything about our past actions creating a future life and substitute the word “moment” for “life”. Our action in this moment creates our life in the next moment. So, bring it down from [...]
Great Effort. I think of that as the hinge-point of our practice. If we don’t have this great effort, then we really don’t have a practice. Because unless we bring our practice to the difficult parts of our lives, it’s not much of a practice. And in fact, what often seems to happen is many [...]
The Empty Gate Zen Center welcomes our new full-time resident, Jason Quinn. Jason grew up in California, and started practicing with the Dharma Sound Zen Center in Seattle in 1998. In 1999, he moved to the Providence Zen Center, head temple of the Kwan Um School of Zen, to do monastic training. After nine years [...]
It’s Kyol Che time again. Every year in Providence our school holds a 90-day meditation retreat at the beginning of the New Year. This year it is being led by Zen Master Soeng Hyang, our School’s guiding Zen Master. At Empty Gate Zen Center this time of year marks the beginning of our calendar and [...]
So many of us hate the idea of the First Noble truth, life is suffering. I often hear complaints that ask, what about joy and love and connection. Of course these things exist in our lives. And of course they do not deny the fundamental truth that suffering marks the conditions of our lives. Even [...]
When Buddha was born, he sprang out of his mother’s hip, walked seven steps, said, “Heaven above, earth below, only I am holy.” [hits table with zen stick] When you and I were born, we sprung from our mother’s uterus, dropped into the doctor’s arms, and screamed, “WAAAAAAAAH!” [hits table with zen stick] Are Buddha [...]
Zen Master Bon Seong in Singapore This talk is inspired by the life of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Through his teachings and his action he was a consistent example of authenticity. Being with him would shake the foundations of my “I, my, me” mind. Things would feel surreal; my usual evaluation and control would loosen. [...]
Welcome to the new Empty Gate Zen Center web site. Many thanks to the development team, which worked together to make this web site appear in Virtual Space. Thanks to Leah Kenaga for her tireless dedication to the Zen Center in general and to this web site in particular. Her wonderful design sense is responsible [...]