Bultasa Zen Group

07/02/2025

If you look at what we do in formal Zen meditation, for example—besides the fact we sit in a particular way and become still—we essentially don’t try to get rid of any thought or state of mind or any particular feeling. Likewise, we don’t cling to any particular thought or state of mind or any particular feeling. We let everything come and go freely, just perceive, moment by moment. That practice is a cultivation of nongrasping. That nongrasping is the essence of your true being. If you sit with that attitude, if sadness appears, at that moment you’re just sad. If happiness appears, at that moment you’re just happy. If pain appears, at that moment there’s just pain. You could say sadness kills you at that moment, happiness kills you at that moment, pain in your legs kills you at that moment, the sound of the siren from the fire engine down the street kills you at that moment. But that killing is a coming to life. You connect with what is. So there is a difference between being pulled by emotion and having emotion. We are human beings, so we naturally have thoughts, we naturally have emotions, we naturally have sensations, we naturally have a body, we naturally have relationships. They’re all just aspects of our natural being. But if you begin to get stuck in particular ways, then your emotions pull you around by the nose. Then you are caught. —Zen Master Wu Kwang (Photo by Sven Mahr.)

06/21/2025

Zen Master Seung Sahn:

Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky. Sometimes clouds come and cover it, but the moon is always behind them. Clouds go away, then the moon shines brightly. So don’t worry about clear mind: it is always there. When thinking comes, behind it is clear mind. When thinking goes, there is only clear mind. Thinking comes and goes, comes and goes. You must not be attached to the coming or the going.

photo by Nate Carlson

06/19/2025

"Don't be distracted by inner peace." Quote by Zen Master Bon Hae. See more quotes: https://bit.ly/4cNGSi9

06/12/2025

Well, you gotta be little smart, or at least cognizant.

"That's what I always like about Zen..." Quote by Zen Master Dae Kwang. See more quotes: https://bit.ly/3RNcSub

05/25/2025

1. Don’t wish for perfect health. In perfect health there is greed and wanting. So an ancient said, “Make good medicine from the suffering of sickness.”

2. Don’t hope for a life without problems. An easy life results in a judgmental and lazy mind. So an ancient once said, “Accept the anxieties and difficulties of this life.”

3. Don’t expect your practice to be always clear of obstacles. Without hindrances the mind that seeks enlightenment may be burnt out. So an ancient once said, “Attain deliverance in disturbances.”

4. Don’t expect to practice hard and not experience the weird. Hard practice that evades the unknown makes for a weak commitment. So an ancient once said, “Help hard practice by befriending every demon.”

5. Don’t expect to finish doing something easily. If you happen to acquire something easily the will is made weaker. So an ancient once said, “Try again and again to complete what you are doing.”

6. Make friends but don’t expect any benefit for yourself. Friendship only for oneself harms trust. So an ancient once said, “Have an enduring friendship with purity in heart.”

7. Don’t expect others to follow your direction. When it happens that others go along with you, it results in pride. So an ancient once said, “Use your will to bring peace between people.”

8. Expect no reward for an act of charity. Expecting something in return leads to a scheming mind. So an ancient once said, “Throw false spirituality away like a pair of old shoes.”

9. Don’t seek profit over and above what your work is worth. Acquiring false profit makes a fool (of oneself). So an ancient once said, “Be rich in honesty.”

10. Don’t try to make clarity of mind with severe practice. Every mind comes to hate severity, and where is clarity in mortification? So an ancient once said, “Clear a passageway through severe practice.”

11. Be equal to every hindrance. Buddha attained Supreme Enlightenment without hindrance. Seekers after truth are schooled in adversity. When they are confronted by a hindrance, they can’t be over-come. Then, cutting free, their treasure is great.

~ Zen Master Kyong Ho ( 鏡虛禪師 ), master of Zen Master Mangong

05/01/2025

Zen Master Bon Hae (Judy Roitman):

Our practice is not about getting something. Our practice is about being able to give something.

(from a 2025 dharma talk)

photo by Harold Rail

04/24/2025

Zen Master Seung Sahn:

If they go to a mountain to sit, no problem. At that time they and nature become one. But a high-class student can go to a city - go anywhere - no problem. Any kind of action is no problem.... If you can find your correct direction and help all beings, then great direction appears.

(from a talk in 2000)

photo by Harold Rail

02/18/2025

"Clear mind is like the full moon in the sky." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. See more quotes: https://bit.ly/43hT4DF

02/16/2025

Lingzhao (Layman Pang's daughter):

Not difficult, not easy! On the tips of ten thousand grasses, the ancestors' meaning.

(photo by Harold Rail)

02/15/2025

"Anytime you have 'I,' you have a problem." Quote by Zen Master Seung Sahn. See more quotes: https://bit.ly/3V7yF1V

12/25/2024

Some months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Zen Master Seung Sahn sat with some of his students, discussing the world’s situation. He said, “In the future, there will be much suffering, much fighting; some places will have too much water, some places not enough water; some places will not have enough food. There will be many natural disasters and disease. Then society will have a big problem, many people will die.”
One student became very alarmed upon hearing this and asked him, “Sir, when that happens, where can we hide?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn replied, “Hide under the Path.”
His words teach us that in the face of adversity, we can take refuge in the path of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This means seeing and accepting the truth of things as they are; strengthening our Zen practice with faith and sincerity; drawing upon the support of our practicing community to help us regain our clarity and centredness; and returning to our don’t-know mind. Approaching the situation and our practice with a sense of openness and kindness, we can take the opportunity to help others caught up in the same circumstances through the compassionate expression of our bodhisattva vow. —Myong An Sunim JDPS

10/11/2024

dissolving

©2024•harold•rail•photograph