Dropping Ashes on The Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Compiled & edited by Stephen Mitchell. [Summary & Note Highlights]
A note to the reader: The purpose of this summary and analysis is to help you decide if it’s worth the time, money, and effort to read the original book (if you haven’t already). The order of this content has been rearranged, making the message more cohesive and comprehensive.
This summary is meant to be a supplement to, and not a replacement for the original book. For further reading grab a copy of the original book at your favorite bookstore.
Alright, let’s get into it.
“A person comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette, walks up to the Buddha statue, blows smoke in its face, and drops ashes on its lap.
You are standing there. What can you do?”
This is the drawback that Zen Master Seung Sahn is posing to his American students who attend his Zen centers.
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Zen teaching is like a window. At first, we look at it, and see only the dim reflection of our own face. But as we learn, and our vision becomes clear, the teaching becomes clear. Until at last it is perfectly transparent. We see through it. We see all things: our own face. —Zen Master Seung Sahn
One day, a student at the Zen center said, “Some philosophers say this substance is energy, mind, God, or matter. Which is the truth?” Seung Sahn replied, “Four blind men visited the Zoo and the elephant. One blind man touched its side and said, “The elephant is like a wall.’ The next blind man touched its trunk and said, ‘The elephant is like a snake.’ The next blind man touched its leg and said, ‘ The elephant is like a column.’ The last blind man touched its tail and said, ‘The elephant is like a broom.’ Then the four blind men started to fight, each one believing that his opinion was the right one. Each only understood the part he’d touched; none of them understood the whole.
Zen Master Seung Sahn points out this analogy: “In a cookie factory, different cookies are baked in the shape of animals, cars, people, and airplanes. They all have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same dough and taste the same.”
“In the same way,” he writes, “all things in the universe—the sun, the moon, the stars, mountains, rivers, people, and so forth, —have different names and forms, but they are all made from the same substance.”
“Thinking is suffering. Suffering means no world peace. Not thinking is not suffering. Not suffering means world peace. World peace is the Absolute.”—Zen Master Seung Sahn
You must keep your mind big. Then you will understand that God, Buddha, and the whole universe fit into your mind. Then, holding up his watch, Soen-Sa said, “Is this watch outside your mind or inside it?” “Outside.” The student replied.
If you say ‘outside,’ replied the Zen Master, I will hit you.
If you say ‘inside,’ I will still hit you.”
“I don’t care,” affirmed the student, “I’ll still say it’s outside!”
“If it’s outside,” the teacher said, “how do you know that this is a watch?
Does your mind fly out of your eyes and touch the watch and fly back inside?”
“I see the watch.” Remarked the student, “I’m inside, and the watch is outside.”
There were a few moments of silence…
Then the Master said, “Don’t make inside or outside. Okay?”
The student, still looking doubtful, then bowed.
You are attached to names and forms.
All things that appear in the world are transient. If you view all appearances as non-appearance, then you will see the true nature of everything.
The truth is, if you say this is a cup, you are attached to name and form.
All things have names and forms. But who made these names, who made these forms? The sun doesn’t say ‘My name is sun.’ People say, ‘This is the sun, this is the mountain, this is the river.’ Then who made names and forms? They are made by thinking.”
You made thinking.
The original mind is before thinking.
In a clear mind, there is no inside and no outside. So, if you cut off all thinking, the universe and you become one. If you are thinking, they are different. The zen mind is an everyday mind.
Student: The first part of the sutra says, “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” But the second part says, “In emptiness, there is no form.” One sentence says they are identical, one sentence says they are not. I think I understand, but can you say something about this?
Master: Nirvana is like an empty mirror—no good, no bad, no color, no form, no anything. But when yellow comes, the mirror reflects yellow. When red comes, the mirror becomes red.
In Nirvana, there are no people, no Buddhas, no suffering, no happiness—only quiet.
When you pass 180, you arrive at 360.
Then everything is clear.
Happiness is happiness; suffering is suffering.
After so much suffering in Nirvanic castles,
what a joy to sink into this world!
People wearing silk clothes,
Buddhas dressed in rags,
A wooden man walking in the evening,
A stone woman with a bonnet—
for the first time you will see,
when you can cup your hands
and pick up the moon as it floats.
on the still surface of a pond.
Seungsahn Haengwon (August 1, 1927 – November 30, 2004), born Duk-In Lee, was a Korean Seon master of the Jogye Order and founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen.
He was the seventy-eighth Patriarch in his lineage. As one of the early Korean Zen masters to settle in the United States.
He opened many temples and practice groups across the globe, was known for his charismatic style and direct presentation of Zen, which was well tailored for the Western audience, and his many correspondences with them through letters. He died in Seoul, South Korea, at age 77.
About the Editor: Stephen Mitchell has written many books, including a translation of the bestselling, The Tao Te Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus and Gilgamesh. You can read extensive excerpts from all of his books on his website, www.stephenmitchellbooks.com
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For more, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, click here for Part 2 and we’ll see you on the flip side.
Thank you for reading.
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