Zen - Chanting 'What am I?'
Just a few years ago I wouldn't be caught dead chanting. I'm not a praying man, and seeing chanting to deities I don't know or believe in, that's not me.
Then, some time after participating in a Yong Mang Jong Jin (YMJJ) sesshin at the Providence Zen Center, I found that one of my fondest memories of the Zen Center was the chanting time. I'd often listen to audio recordings of their chanting sessions just so I could remember the pace of each "song" that we chanted.
My World War III ended
Back in 2008 I wrote that for me to get back to practicing Zen was akin to starting a personal World War III. It was going to be Little Ego versus Big Ego, and a fight to the death. As recently as December, 2010, I wrote that the battle was still on, and the Little Ego was a tough little bastard.
A few nights ago while watching a Northern Exposure episode titled Things Become Extinct, I realized that WWIII ended at some point, and I never even noticed.
Can a Zen Master know about your past lives?
The book, Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake, the Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn (ZMSS), is an excellent book in many ways. In a story in the book named "Karma Talking", ZMSS describes a story where a Zen Master told an emperor and the emperor's wife about their past lives.
The story begins:
I am the emperor, what kind of past life did I have before I was born as the emperor?
The Zen Master perceived his mind for a few moments, and said, "In a previous life, you..."
He's going to pop
I walked into a room where Zen Masters, Zen students, and my youngest sister were seated. I looked at a whiteboard to my right, and I knew the message on the board was wrong, so I erased it, wrote something correct, and sat down with the others.
A Zen Master pointed to the whiteboard and asked a question. Looking at the board, it had changed back to its previous wording. "No, no, no", I said, "that's wrong", and I went back to the whiteboard to change it again.
I changed it, turned around, and everyone was gone, even the room was gone. I was surrounded by white light.
Do Zen Masters dream?
I just woke up from a typical dream: I was in a grocery store; saw some high prices; decided to take a picture of the high prices to share with my friends on Facebook; a touchscreen monitor suddenly appeared, already logged into Facebook; I saw a store security camera; I touched the screen, and something went wrong, but it gave me a good idea.
Then I woke up, and immediately wondered, "What would it be like to be a Zen Master, who has no attachments to ideas like these?"
Two powerful quotes from Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake
I’ve been reading the book Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake, a book of teachings by Zen Master Seung Sahn (ZMSS), edited by Hyon Gak Sunim, and a few lines from the chapter on his early life really hit me just now.
In the first part, ZMSS had just gone to a Buddhist monastery. He was given a copy of the Diamond Sutra, and as he read it, he read the words:
