Dialogue with a Swami: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn

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Dialogue with a Swami: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn

Photo by Cottonbro Studio

One day at a Zen center, a student went up to the swami and said, “So-and-so has diabetes.”

The swami replied, “Oh, that’s tough… they should walk two miles every day — that’ll help.”

Then the student asked, “How should I focus my mind during yoga?”

The swami said, “Let your mind go inward and connect with your inner self. It should be free from distractions.”

He added, “When your mind goes inside, it becomes one with your true self. But when it comes back out, it interacts with the world.”

Think about that for a second: when your mind turns inward, it merges with who you really are.
When it turns outward, it deals with life around you.

Do you understand?

Photo by Anna Tarazevich

The swami said, “When your mind focuses on things outside, it becomes the mind.

But when it turns inward and lets go of everything, it becomes your true self — pure consciousness.”
(Pretty deep, right? The mind isn’t separate from consciousness; it is consciousness.)

Then the student said, “I get that you’re a wise man, but you don’t understand — so you’re like a child.”

The swami smiled and replied, “It’s not about being great or small. When we talk, we should use words that make sense in everyday life. Whether someone is a kid or an adult, they should be able to understand what we’re saying.”