Teaching

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.

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 in the first blush of love there is fear and longing. Within the greatest joy of our greatest fulfillment is the anxiety of loss or incompleteness. How often have we said to ourselves, is that all there is?

by Zen Master Bon Soeng

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!"

by Zen Master Bon Soeng

Excerpted from a workshop at the 5th Whole World is a Single Flower Conference held at Providence Zen Center in October 1999.

Zen Master Bon Seong in Singapore

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 for the elegant and creative look of the page. Ross Chapman has used his expertise as a web developer to make happen in virtual space what Leah designed in the relatively “real” space of Photoshop.