Wake Up and Laugh!

We’re working on a new Dharma talk that we should have published in August, and the opening has haunted me.
Daehaeng Kun Sunim opens with a couple of paragraphs about how anger and resentment, blame and despising hinder us. She just touches on it – poof – and moves on, leaving me devastated in her wake.
Her whole point is that not only do these states damage us, while we are spending time on them, we aren’t moving forward! We’re losing daylight. We have stopped taking steps down our own path, the one we were born to fulfill. The path we need to travel to ensure we don’t end up right back here.
All the effort, all the time complaining about the stupidity of politicians, (or silently looking down on them,) of city employees, of, of, of, — none of that was spent doing what I needed to do. All that time was me just standing in a wide spot in the road, looking off into the fields. All that time was neglecting my real work.
So I’m not going to look back. I’m not going to get caught up in whatever people over there are doing. As best I can, I’m going to go forward with a light heart, wishing well for everyone. And if I see blame or resentment, or the desire to despise or compare, I’m going to take that as a sign that I need to be letting go of something heavy, and looking forward again.

This daily life of ours is like walking on a frozen lake, all the while trying to juggle a hundred different things. And the ice is thin. Very thin. Would you stop and build a campfire on such ice? No. But that’s what happens when we get angry.

People don’t realize just how thin the ice is, yet they build a fire there and keep feeding it with anger, blame, resentment, and attempts to dominate and control others. How soon before the ice gives way? How long before they’re left flailing and struggling, trying to escape the freezing water? They certainly won’t be taking any more steps forward on their path.

For example, suppose this building was on fire. Finding a way out would be the only thing on your mind. Every other problem would be forgotten. Learning how to rely upon your fundamental mind and free yourself is exactly this urgent.

— Seon Master Daehaeng, “Dancing on the Whirlwind,” 2019, forthcoming

I’ve been working on stuff to reprint some of our older books, as part of that, I had the idea to do some short Dharma talks based on those books. So here goes! 🙂

Whether you live as a monk or a layperson, you must rely upon your inner self, honestly and devotedly, and produce results through your own efforts without hoping that someone else will intercede for you….
No one can give you happiness and freedom, and no one can take them away either. No one else can take your place when it comes to these things. Ultimately, you are the one who takes care of yourself.

– Seon Master Daehaeng, “Mind, Treasure House of Happiness”

Simply because we were born as human beings, we have the ability to make full use of this inherent foundation, this fundamental “mind” that we are born with. We can take in everything, turn it around, and then send it back out as something new.

Just as with life-long learning, how we handle the things we are confronting conditions our future. How well we continue trying to entrust everything to our foundation determines what kind of role we can fulfill in the future, whether that future is a week from now or a lifetime from now.

Quite simply, it’s mind that frees mind. It’s also mind that hinders itself when we say, “This can’t be done.” We have the ability to leap over the old piles of these hindering thoughts if we just make use of it. We all have this bright, divine nature within us. Whether we call it Buddha-nature or God, Allah or Inner Divinity doesn’t matter. When we go forward relying upon this, and letting its ability flow forth, we can overcome the weight of old habits and karma, and begin to live afresh. Every single one of us has the ability to do this. We all have the right to do this.

Here’s the last Dharma talk of this series. It ended up cover two stories because I realized that they complimented each other. One is about intention and our foundation, and the other is about the selflessness that fuels our spiritual growth. Thanks for joining me for these talks!

For a wet Wednesday afternoon, here’s a poem by Daehaeng Kun Sunim that’s also used as a song. These songs are so good! lol. They just blow me away.

A Great Being

This mountain, that mountain,
great mountain, green mountain.
Stepping down into the world,
reaching up and grabbing heaven and earth,
making them my hat,
hanging the moon and sun from my staff,
taking a drink of clear water.
This life of one who has truly awakened,
what more could anyone want?

This mountain, that mountain,
great mountain, green mountain.
Gathering all the loose strands together,
forming them into a top knot,
using my staff as a hair pin
to hold them all steady.

Oh, what more could anyone want,
than this life of a free person?

Looking up at the sky
as I strike the earth with my staff,
a pillar of energy rises up
and penetrates the heavens,
and the heavens begin to rotate around this pillar.

Pierced and connected by this lion’s pillar of fire
is every being in the universe.
Crossing back and forth between the realms of the
living and the dead,
flowing with the truth,
nothing left undone,
this life of a truly awakened one.

— Daehaeng Kun Sunim

This week’s Dharma talk is from the story, “Three Grains of Millet.” It’s a bit of a strange story, but it’s got a couple of very nice points to it. If you haven’t read it yet, you can find it in the older posts (there’s also an audio file.)

Here’s the text that will be the basis for the
English Dharma talk on week 6.

audio file – from the audiobook version of “My Heart is a Golden Buddha.”

The Examination

During the Joseon Dynasty, there was a scholar who was on his way to Seoul to take the national civil service examination.

He had been walking all day under the late summer sun, and was hungry and tired. Seeing an inn, he entered its courtyard and sat down on the raised platform with a heavy sigh. He ordered food and drink, and as he took out his purse, he found himself staring at it with tears in his eyes.

The tears welled up because while he had spent the last several years studying for the civil service test, his wife had been the one who supported their family.

Although she belonged to the nobility, she worked in other people’s kitchens and took in their sewing and mending. One copper coin at a time, she supported her husband and children, and saved enough for her husband’s traveling expenses.

What made it worse was that this wasn’t the first time the scholar had taken the national examination; it was famously difficult, and he had already failed it several times. So, as he looked at the coins in his purse, he felt the weight of his wife’s love and how bravely she had gone about taking care of the family.

For several years, the entire country had been gripped by a drought. If the rains did come, it was always as floods that washed away entire fields, or buried them under sand and gravel. Words can’t express how much the ordinary people suffered.

But the worst disaster of all was the behavior of the corrupt and greedy officials that plagued so many areas. Even when the people were one step away from eating boiled grass and tree bark, these officials still insisted that they pay their taxes, and they would take every last thing of value a family possessed.

If the local officials had just reported the situation to the king, he would have canceled the taxes in the districts that were suffering. But then the officials would have lost the chance to steal part of the tax money. So they kept quiet and the people continued to suffer.

Thus, the scholar couldn’t pass through a single village, no matter how small, without hearing the sounds of weeping or the groans of the sick and dying. He vowed, “If I pass that test with a high score, I’m going to become a royal inspector, and I will not let the people be abused and suffer like this!”

You see, in those days the king had secret inspectors whose job it was to tell him what was really going on in the country. In addition, they had the authority to solve any injustice on the spot. All of the soldiers and police had to obey the inspector instantly. These inspectors could even have officials arrested, exiled, and beaten to within an inch of their lives.

The most terrifying sight a corrupt official could see was a shabby peasant suddenly calling out in a fearsome voice and holding high the badge of a king’s inspector. Even the most cunning and powerful official’s blood would turn to ice at the sight of that round, brass badge with its image of five horses. These inspectors truly had the power to relieve people’s suffering.

As the scholar thought of the suffering of so many people and of his wife, he sat up straight, drew his shoulders back, and growled, “I’ll pass that examination or die trying!”

As he wiped the tears from his eyes, a weary old man sat down beside him. “Oh my legs! And if it were any hotter today, I don’t know what I’d do.” Smiling at the scholar, he asked, “Where are you off to on a day like this?”

“I’m heading up to the capital to take the national examination.”

“Well then,” said the old man, “you’d better take a look at this.” Out of his backpack he took an old book and gave it to the scholar.

The scholar opened it up, but as he looked through it, he saw that every page in the book was blank. He turned to speak to the old man, but no one was there; the old man had vanished!

“Had he been there at all?” wondered the scholar. “Perhaps I’m suffering from heatstroke?” But no, the book the old man had given him was still in his hands.

He sat there for a long time looking at the blank pages of that book. Passers-by saw him and imagined that he was studying some particularly difficult text, and yet not a single word was written on those pages.

Suddenly the scholar gave a shout. “Hah! Who would have guessed! There’s nothing here, so it can become one with everything, and can manifest as anything. It contains everything in the world. If one takes that as their center, they can hold all the realms of existence and non-existence in the palm of their hand.”

The scholar reverently put the book in his bag, and with a smile on his face continued on his way to the capital.

On the day of the exam, he went to the palace and found his seat. At last, the instructors revealed the examination topic: the word “Everything.” Everyone had to compose an essay or poem with “everything” as their subject.

The scholar thought of the book the old man had given him, with its blank, white pages, and smiled as he began to write about the principle by which everything in the universe functions.

Needless to say, his poem received the highest scores. He met the king, who upon hearing his story made him a royal inspector and charged him with protecting the people and upholding justice.

∴

When peas are immature, they tend to stick to the pod, don’t they? However, when they have completely ripened, they burst out with just a touch of the fingers.

The scholar’s study of human virtue and how we should live had ripened to the point where those blank pages alone were enough to open his eyes. Everyone needs to reach this point.

There are so many teachings left by great practitioners; however, if your own spiritual practice isn’t deep enough, those teachings will remain just words on a page.

Even though you’re not yet at the stage of understanding the blank page, do your best to at least correctly understand the true meaning of the written words. If you can’t understand even the written words, how will you be able to pass the examination?

But when your practice has deepened and matured, then without even a single word, you will understand the ultimate meaning.

Here’s the Dharma talk from this past week’s English Dharma talk. It’s a great story, with some really interesting points, but I’d say the main one is that everything changes. If you can just wait long enough, even what you are experiencing right now *will* change.

And if you work at entrusting that to this foundation we all have, this inner light, this Buddha-nature, then it will change faster (I think!) and will move in a more positive direction, and be much, much less likely to be rerecorded as more of the same type of thing/experience/karma.

with palms together,
Chong Go

Here’s the Dharma talk for the second week’s talk, from the story “Letting Go”. (You can find the full text and a nice audio version of the story if you scroll down the posts.)

I’m trying a new way of putting up the audio files, so let’s see if this this works better! (You can still download the file by left clicking on the column of dots next to the speaker symbol.)

Hi everyone! Here’s the English Dharma from our meeting on Thursday. (It’s actually a re-recording, and a bit different from what I said then. I had to do it this way, because at the talk itself I used a mix of English and Korean.)

Dharma talk link