The Power of Words

This is a very powerful video that was shared with me by one of my wonderful Zen Students, Rev. Bill Charama. I must say that it is important for all of us to realize in our hearts that even the little things we do can have a dramatic impact on this world if our intentions are pure.

Hyon Gak Sunim on World Peace

Zen Master Seung Sahn (1927-2004) was one of the greatest Zen teachers of the 20th-century. And he always taught about world peace. But one day, a student of his, who was deeply involved in peace-work and social justice issues, said to the Master, "I think that working for social justice should precede my work in meditation. So, I won't meditate until we have become closer to world peace." Zen Master Seung Sahn replied, "World peace is not possible." After a pause of a few moments, he continued, "Also it's not necessary."

Hyon Gak Sunim is an American-born Zen monk who received inga, or "formal authorization to teach," by Zen Master Seung Sahn in a public ceremony in August 2001. In this talk, Hyon Gak Sunim "riffs" on his Teacher's startling insight to the real meaning of meditation and world peace. He improvises, as a commentary, on his Teacher's view that "world peace" and the struggle for social justice -- the most important social and political issues of our time, and things of great and searing urgency in these times of oligarchs and international financial control by the few -- should not be "required" or "expected" by one who sets insight into the nature of self as their goal.

If "world peace" and the struggle for social justice are predicated on thinking and philosophy alone -- on conceptual critiques and analyses with no interior looking, or meditation -- then they can be just another form of opposites' thinking. To truly bring world peace, as Zen Master Seung Sahn emphasized, we must all look deeply inside, find our original "root," our True Nature, which all beings share, and then act from THAT to bring acts of love and compassion to this world. THAT is the true meaning of "think globally, act locally." There is nothing more local than our own original nature, which connects us to the infinite web of all life.

Jakusho Kwong-roshi: On Becoming a Teacher

Jakusho Kwong-roshi: On Becoming a Teacher from Bill Scheffel on Vimeo.

My old friend Jakusho Kwong-roshi is the abbot of Sonoma Mountain Zen Center, a country zendo and retreat center in Northern California. Kwong-roshi is a dharma heir of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and also had a close relationship with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. In this video, Kwong-roshi discusses his own path of becoming a Zen practitioner and eventually a teacher.


I spent many retreats at his Zen Center outside Santa Rosa sitting solo retreats and enjoying the scenery. There are many nice shots of the property in this video. For anyone seeking a place to do a solo retreat, please consider the Sonoma Mountain Zen Center as a place for a wonderful experience. 

Confession of a Buddhist Teacher

 no comments are required about this post, welcome to the 21st Century.

Neon Dharma

Zen in the jaws of the lion

From Vegas Seven Magazine

By Joseph Langdon

December 8th, 2011

Photos by Hamesh Shahani

The MGM lion, that great golden idol of so many earthy desires, long dominated the view from the Zen Center’s old home in an industrial park on Dean Martin Drive. Not your typical ambiance. And yet, when Zen master Seung Sahn paid a visit, the renowned Korean founder of the Kwan Um school declared: “The jaws of the lion is a wonderful place to practice Zen!”

“What he was saying was that Vegas is wonderful because it’s not hiding anything,” says the Zen Center’s abbot, Thom Pastor. “‘Desire mind’—sex, drugs, gambling, alcohol—all of it is right here. There’s no pretense. No trying to hide it or veil it, it just is what it is. [Zen master Seung Sahn] told me, ‘If you can find your center here, then going anywhere is no problem.’”

We talk cross-legged on the floor of the Zen Center’s new digs, pretty little whitewashed buildings with blue trim at Harmon and Eastern avenues. The center moved here in 2009, thanks in part to the collapse in housing prices (call it karma). It has 18 pine trees and a sculpted pool out back (although one of the new waterfalls is on the fritz). Inside, members of the 50-person congregation chant, bow and sit in silent meditation. The room is simple, though not austere, and is dominated by a large golden statue—not the MGM lion, but the Buddha in his serene pose.

Pastor, 65, has a wide grin and a shorn head. His presence is at once avuncular and intimidating. He has a tendency to whack interlocutors on the thigh with a short stick, especially when they’re trying to take accurate notes.

This is Las Vegas’ very own Zen master—and his path to the Buddha goes straight through the heart of Sin City.

In a previous incarnation, Pastor was a master sax player (among 10 other woodwinds). He toured the world with the likes of Humperdinck, Anka and Tom Jones before settling down in 1973 to spend 15 years on the Strip playing behind Frank Sinatra and other headliners as part of the Caesars Palace house orchestra.

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a being who attains enlightenment but decides to stick around here for a while to help out the rest of us bums. Now, I’m not saying Sinatra was one of these guys, but he did help Pastor down the path, in a manner of speaking. Pastor started to explore Zen as an antidote to those swingin’ nights on the Strip, when he was seeking an alternative to the musician’s traditional stress-reliever, the between-show cocktail. And he found that high-stakes musicianship can be good training for Zen.

Case in point: his first rehearsal with Sinatra at the old Circus Maximus. The famously temperamental Chairman of the Board only played with musicians he trusted, so when he noticed a new face in the woodwinds, Sinatra suddenly announced that he’d be conducting the first set of tunes himself. “Frank came and put one foot up on the riser right in front of me and said, ‘OK, fellas, here it is,’ and started conducting,” Pastor says. Sinatra stayed there, looming over him and reading along with his music while he played. After getting through the tricky intro to “I’ve Got the World on a String,” Sinatra passed the baton back to the conductor; the lead alto leaned over to Pastor and said, “Congratulations, you just passed the audition.”

That audition, a one-on-one gut-check with the big guy, is not too unlike the Zen tradition of “dharma combat,” in which the student must respond intuitively, with moment-mind, to challenges posed by the master. In 2002, Pastor survived dharma combat with five Zen masters, the last step in a 20-year process of study, retreats and training to become only one of 40 master dharma teachers worldwide in the Kwan Um School of Zen.

Pastor doesn’t view his new life as a break with his old one—he still finds time to perform in addition to abbot duties here and in centers in Madison, Wis., and Fairbanks, Alaska, and he just cut an album,Sleeping Lions, at the Straight Up Martini Lounge with his jazz outfit, B3 Conspiracy. Besides, Buddhism is about the oneness of all things, and that includes Las Vegans and all its denizens, too. And with times tough and looking to get tougher, a lot of us could do with a dose of the dharma. In a delightfully ironic metaphor, Pastor calls Buddhism the “Rolls-Royce teaching” about how to be happier with less. All you need is “moment-mind—not getting lost in your thinking, but being present in this moment.”

That is the “bone of the teaching” that runs through all forms of Buddhism, and it fits the Vegas experience perfectly. From my new, more enlightened perspective, the Strip looks less like a Buddhist obstacle course and more like a training course. Anyone here can see that nothing is permanent, not a hot streak, nor the city itself. And we are bombarded by reminders that grasping is endless—the promise of this place is that there will always be more to desire. If you are convinced that a jackpot will end your suffering, you will likely depart burdened with bad karma and calls from collection agents. Instead, just open your eyes and take it all in: You’ll probably have a decent time whether you hit blackjack or go bust.

“Gain and loss are just opposites,” Pastor says. “Winning the lottery or losing all your money at the craps table—both have no meaning. The fan above you is whirring. The floor is brown. The Buddha is gold. That’s my teaching to you. No more, no less. If you get caught in gain and loss, then you are a slave to your mind and to all things. If you attain pure mind, then complete freedom is available to you.”

The Zen master falls silent, then chuckles. “Doesn’t help the economy here, though!”

Continued Vandalism in Buddhist Temples

Bodhisattva statue sprayed with red paint at Gaeun-sa Temple in Busan City Korea

Four temples near Haeundae (Busan city) have been vandalized in the early morning of November 21st, enraging many Buddhist communities throughout Korea. Vandalism was reportedly to have taken place on the 21 st , between 12am and 4 am. The suspected culprit is assumed to have entered Busan Gaeun-sa Temple and Jirim-sa Temple and sprayed red paint on important Buddha and Bodhisattva statues enshrined within the temple. The vandal sprayed red paints on Buddha statues in Gaeun-sa Temple, and broke in to the main Buddha Hall in Jirim-sa Temple by breaking a large window glass. The culprit sprayed ‘s’ and ‘x’ mark on Buddha statues, Buddhist paintings, and Stupas. Moreover, they even sprayed on Moktak (Wooden Fish) and Buddhist Scriptures before they fled.

The Abbot of Jirim-sa Temple, who first discovered the problem when he entered the main Buddha hall for the Morning Prayer, stated that the culprit must have entered the temple after he fell asleep after midnight. The Haeundae police investigating the case stated that the similar case which took place on November 16 and 17 matches the crime of Jeokjo-am Temple and Wono-sa Temple, thus it is most likely that the temples were vandalized by the same person. Haeundae Police Department stated, “The culprit is deliberately trying to undermine Buddha statues, and the crime have been planned intentionally,” and added “scientific investigation and CCTV analysis will narrow down the investigation. To prevent further damage to the nearby temples, more guards will safeguard the temples.” However, vandalism taken place on the later date occurred despite the strengthened police patrols, therefore concern for safety is growing among Korean Buddhist community. On November 22 nd , Ven. Mokjong (Chairman of Buddhist Monastery, Haeundae Police department), Ven. Boun (Director, Department of Regulation in Beomeo-sa Temple), and Ven. Gwangjin (President, Haeundae Temple Alliance) met with the Chief of Police, Mr. Jeongjingyu (Haeundae Police Station) to state their position, “We hope that the police department will come up with definite crime prevention measures to avoid such indiscriminating vandalism in the future"

Giving Thanks for Freedom

care for some pepper on Thanksgiving?