You Already Understand!
By Seung Sahn
Bodhidharma, founder of the Zen lineage, is said to have described Zen this way: “A special transmission outside the scriptures / Not depending on words and letters / Pointing directly to the human mind / Seeing into one”s nature and attaining buddhahood.” There”s no better example of Zen”s direct, penetrating spirit than these exchanges between the late Seung Sahn—one of the great Zen masters to have lived and taught in the United States—and his students.
Someone asked Zen Master Seung Sahn,
“What do you think about the beginning of this world
”
“The beginning of this world came from your mouth. Ha ha ha ha! Do you understand
”
The student was silent.
“Then I will explain: what is this world
You must under–stand that point first. You make time, space, cause and effect. In three seconds, when you asked that question, you made this whole world. Physics used to teach that time and space, and cause and effect, are absolutes. But modern physics teaches that time, space, and cause and effect are subjective. So you make this whole world, and you make your time and space.”
The student said, “I still don”t understand.”
Zen Master Seung Sahn replied, “OK, so first you must understand, what is time
One unit of time is an hour. But my thinking sometimes makes this hour very long, or very short. You go to the airport to pick up your girlfriend. You haven”t seen her in a long time. You wait at the airport, and the airplane is very late. Five, ten, twenty, thirty minutes—waiting, waiting, waiting. Even another half hour passes. Ten minutes seems like a whole day. So this one hour feels like a very, very long time because you want to see her very much, and you sit there saying, “Where is the plane
Why hasn”t it arrived yet
” But yet some other time, you go dancing with friends, and dance all night, and even one hour seems to pass by very quickly. Now that same amount of time measured as “one hour” seems very short. “A whole hour has already passed
It seems like only a minute!” So mind makes one hour very long or very short. Time depends on thinking, because time is created by thinking. The Buddha taught this, and we can test it in our everyday life. “Everything is created by mind alone.”
“It is the same with space: Spain is here, and New York is there, Korea is over there, and Japan is over here. People in Spain say, “This way is north, that”s south, east, and west.” But on the opposite side of the earth, Korean people say that north is here, south is over there, and east and west are here and here. If I stay here, my north, south, east, and west are like this. If I am not here, my north, south, east, and west disappear. Cause and effect are also the same: if I do some good action, I go to heaven; bad action, go to hell. That”s cause and effect. But if I don”t make anything, where do I go
“So I make time, and space, and cause and effect. I make my world; you make your world. A cat makes a cat”s world. The dog makes the dog”s world. God makes God”s world. Buddha makes Buddha”s world. If you believe in God 100 percent, then when you die, and your world disappears, you go to God”s world. If you believe in Buddha 100 percent, then when your world disappears, you will go to Buddha”s world. But if you believe in your true self 100 percent, then you make your world, and that”s complete freedom: heaven or hell, coming and going anywhere with no hindrance.”
Zen Master Seung Sahn looked at the questioner. “So I ask you, which one do you like
”
The student was silent.
“Anytime you open your mouth, your world appears.”
The student asked, “So, who was the first person to open his mouth
”
“You already understand!”
Amid general laughter, the…
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