Bodhisattva Path

Zen Master Seung Sahn used to say, “Life has no meaning, no reason, and no choice.” His next line was, “No meaning, no reason, and no choice is great meaning, great reason, and great choice.” Ultimately there is no meaning, but what do we do with the moment that we have?

So in his teaching, Zen Master Seung Sahn said Buddhism means to attain your true self and help this world. Of course it sounds linear, but it’s not really linear. It’s not first do one, then the other. But attain your true self is the answer to that question “What am I?” It’s not an intellectual “okay-now-I-know-who-I-am,” but we express ourselves moment to moment. That requires a stripping away or at least a seeing through that condition so that the greed, the anger, the ignorance is not controlling us.

Helping all beings gives us a direction in our life. Helping all beings means don’t live just for me. Living just for me leads us to selfishness and ultimately unhappiness because our chasing after our desires and trying to satisfy our desires does not work. Some of us might argue with that point, but the Buddha’s realization was ultimately we’ll end up with more desires. So an intention of helping this world already says my desire won’t be enough. So how can I use this moment to make the small world that I am living in a more peaceful, harmonious and healthy place? Sometimes that’s what we call good action. Sometimes that’s what we call bad action. But the intention is turning ourselves towards the suffering of the world. In Buddhism, that’s called the Bodhisattva path.

Zen Master Bon Soeng