Zen Master Seung Sahn's Gift

What are the Five Mountain Sangha’s roots in the past? What is the Five Mountain Sangha today? What is its future? Much of this was set forth by my initial teacher Zen Master Seung Sahn, what follows is his vision as I have interpreted it.

1. Only practice
First in the Five Mountain Sangha history is the fact that Śakyamuni Buddha appeared in this world and attained enlightenment. He taught his students that everything is impermanent, as well as form interpenetrating into emptiness, and the attainment of nirvana. He gave many dharma speeches and his disciples only practiced what they heard. There were no writings not much discussion, and not much checking. At first, Buddhism was only meditation practice with nirvana as the highest experience – “Unify my mind with the universe;” however, eventually Buddhism was to change.

2. From emptiness comes true form
Following the Buddha’s death, his disciples gathered in a series of four meetings to catalog the Buddha’s teaching. These writings, called “Sutras,” are not exactly what the Buddha said, just as the Bible is not exactly what Jesus Christ said. They are the recollections of his disciples spanning several hundred years. The conventional form of the Sutras was to start the first line with, “Thus I have heard ...” Through the ensuing years, later disciples developed and created what is now called Mahayana Buddhism. It teaches that from emptiness comes true form, which is truth. If you keep an empty mind, your mind is clear like space, clear like a mirror. When red appears, the mirror is only red. When white appears, the mirror is only white – everything perceived is perfectly reflected. This became the cornerstone of the Mahayana teaching and is contained in sutras like the Lotus Sutra and the Platform Sutra. After Mahayana Buddhism appeared, there were major debates, and many opinions about what real Buddhism was. This ten evolved into the study of Buddhism becoming more prevalent than the actual practice of it. Within the first eight hundred to one thousand years following Buddha’s death, there appeared numerous volumes written about Buddhism and intellectual dissension with other religions had given rise. Also, the sects within Buddhism were arguing about the correct approach to implementing Buddha’s teaching. During this period it became more important to study the sutras than it was to actually practice the methods laid out by Buddha.

3. Not knowing practice
In the middle sixth century ACE an Indian saint by the name of Bodhidharma is claimed to have appeared. At his own teachers request he traveled from India to China, where Buddhism had already become entrenched in everyday society some three hundred years earlier. The form that initially appeared in India was not the Mahayana Buddhism of India, it was a form of Theravada Buddhism – but the teachings centered on “praying and getting happiness, praying and getting merit in the next life.” Numerous Indian monks traveled to China teaching this very doctrine. When Bodhidharma arrived in China, he began to realize that it was not correct teaching of the Mahayana and set out to change it.
There is a famous story about Bodhidharma’s first visit to the Emperor Wu in southern China. The emperor explained to Bodhidharma that he had commissioned the building of countless temples, translated countless sutras, and given supplies to the millions of Buddhist Monks who were in China at the time. Then he asked Bodhidharma how great was his resulting merit. Bodhidharma replied, “No merit whatsoever.” This was the beginning of the decline of “praying Buddhism.” The emperor then asked, “What is holy teaching?” And Bodhidharma replied, “Vast emptiness, no sacredness.” The Emperor was completely baffled. “Who are you?” he demanded, and Bodhidharma replied, “Don’t know.” (This is when don’t know appeared in Chinese Buddhism, our don’t know is the same as Bodhidharma’s don’t know.) Bodhidharma explained, “If you are not thinking, and I am not thinking, this is don’t know mind and this is my teaching.” At that, the Emperor became his student, and eventually attained enlightenment
Then Bodhidharma went to northern China to its capital city, Chang An. At that time there were already many famous temples, but he did not stay in any of them. Instead he went to a holy cave near Shaolin and sat in meditation.
This is what we might call “hibernation practice” – like a snake or a frog going into the ground and not eating anything. Just breathing in and breathing out, very extended breathing in and out. If you practice like this, go “underground” and do this extended breathing practice, you can gain a high degree of control over your body.

4. Mind to mind transmission
After nine years Dazu Huìkě (487–592) went to Bodhidharma and said, “Please teach me what is dharma.” Bodhidharma replied, “Even if I told you, you would not believe me.”
Then Huìkě reportedly cut off his own arm. “Oh Master, the pain is terrible! My mind is in awful pain! Please put my mind at rest.”
“Give me your mind and I will put it at rest.”
“I cannot find it.”
“Then I have already given you ‘rest mind’.”
Then Huìkě attained enlightenment.
This was the first Zen teaching — only a mind to mind connection, the teacher’s mind and the student’s mind become one. The transmission of the Dharma went from mind to mind.
Here’s another example: when Dayi Dàoxìn (580–651), who was already a monk, was thirteen he became very ill. The Buddhist Monks in the temple would meet in the main building, eat together and hear dharma talks, but he was so sick that he could not attend these events. Jianzhi Sengcan (d. 606) who was the Chan Master at the temple became worried about the boy and he went to visit him.
Dàoxìn said to Sengcan, Master, I have very heavy karma. Please take it away so that I can become strong and study Buddhism.”
Sengcan replied, “Oh, you have heavy karma? I will take it away. Show me your heavy karma.”
The boy said, “I can’t find my heavy karma.”
“I have already taken it away. You are not sick.”
“Oh, I am not sick. Why should I be sick?”
All his sickness disappeared and he attained something, so he became one of Sengcan’s primary students and eventually received transmission.

5. Don’t make anything
The next change in the teaching came with Dàjiāng Huìnéng (683–713), whose primary teaching was focused on cause and effect, about “making nothing.” “If you don’t make the cause, you have no effect...... don’t make anything. Then you are nothing; and then there is no trouble.”
His poem answering the fifth patriarch was: “Bodhi has no tree, clear mirror has no stand. Originally nothing, where is dust?” When he presented this poem to Daman Hóngrěn (602–675) the fifth ancestor, he recieved transmission.

6. The beginning of kōan practice
Enlightenment stories about the ancestors and famous teachers began to be told and eventually cataloged to be used as teaching devices. For example, Huìnéng, the sixth ancestor was famous for this kōan: Two monks were watching a flag ripple in the wind and arguing over which was moving, the flag or the wind. Overhearing them, Huìnéng said, “Neither the flag nor the wind is moving; it is your mind that is moving.” This was very simple teaching.
When Nanyue Huáiràng (677–744) appeared before Huìnéng, the sixth ancestor asked him, “Where are you coming from? What kind of thing comes here?” “Don’t know.” This is where the “what am I?” kōan appeared. It was the same question that the Buddha sat with for six years. Buddha, Bodhidharma, and Huìnéng, all asked “what am I?” and answered, “don’t know.”
Huáiràng sat in his temple for eight years with “don’t know.” He would ask his visitors, “What thing do you bring here?” They might answer, “If you say it’s a thing that is not correct.” So a kind of word-play began to appear, which we call dharma exchange. At this point it was still very simple teaching.
After Huáiràng, came the eighth ancestor, Măzu Dàoyī (709–788). A country boy asked, “What is Buddha?” Măzu answered, “Mind is Buddha, Buddha is mind.” Later his answers to this question grew more complicated. For a while he would answer, “No mind, no Buddha.” And later, “Buddha is not a thing, is not mind, is not dharma, then what is it?”
There is the famous story of Măzu and Báizhàng Huáihăi (720–814), riding together in a ship and seeing the geese flying north. Măzu asked, “The geese, where are they going?” Báizhàng answered, “North.” “North?,” Măzu exclaimed, and twisted Báizhàng’s nose very painfully. Báizhàng got enlightenment. When he returned home, he cried and cried. A friend asked him, “Why are you crying?” “Go ask the Zen Master.” So the friend asked why Báizhàng was crying. Măzu told him, “Ask Báizhàng.” The friend went back and said to Báizhàng, “The Zen Master said to ask you.” Then Báizhàng began laughing. So, crying and laughing, are they the same or different?

7. Simple, one-point answers to kōans
After Báizhàng came Huángbò Xīyùn (720–850), and then Línjì Yìxuán (d. 867), and at the same time many other lines appeared: Yúnmén Wényăn (1025-1115), Caóshān Běnjí (840-901), Dàhuì Zōnggăo (1089-1163), Wéishān Linyuan (1094-1164), and many other Zen Masters. Then the answer to the question, “What is Buddha?” became “Dry shit on a stick.” “Three pounds of flax.” And Zhàozhōu Cóngshěn (778-897) gave his famous answer to the question, “Why did Bodhidharma come to China?” “The cypress tree in the garden.”
These were one point answers, very simple, very direct. After that many schools appeared, and there was some fighting between them. Many techniques also appeared, many different intellectual styles. Before, the teaching had been very simple. When these intellectual styles of teaching appeared, dharma combat also appeared. Thus we have the Blue Cliff Record and the Barrier that has no Entry. There was much discussion as the wisdom of Zen developed. Practicing was very clear, but it was considered just one of several special techniques.

8. Magic or 270o style
Zen began to look much more complicated to ordinary people. The practice of Zen, and the lay people living around the temples every day normal lives, began to diverge. With esoteric sayings like “The wooden chicken cries, the stone tiger flies in the sky,” most people didn’t understand the meaning of these kinds of statements. Zen became a practice only for the elite; in other words, your hair appears higher than your head.
“Do you see the horn of the rabbit?” Lay people didn’t understand this style of speech. Practitioners had to look into the hidden meaning behind the words, because the words themselves were not the true meaning. This style of Dharma Exchange went on for a while, but eventually a more direct style of interchange appeared. “What is Buddhism?” was answered with “Spring comes, the grass grows by itself.” “What is the true way?” “The sky is blue, the tree is green.” – direct, one sentence answers.
In the past, the answer had been a single word or action – “What is Buddha?” Hit! One point. Then the answers to this question went through many changes. One sentence answers appeared, and later, more complicated forms. But they were always teaching truth.

9. Correct function of an enlightenment experience
Truth means, how can you attain your true self, how can you attain truth? How can you attain the correct way? This is still the primary teaching in Japan, Korea, and China. Teachers start with how to attain the truth, and the true self. However, it is also very important to attain the correct way. What is the correct function of truth, the correct function of your true self? This is not commonly taught in other Zen Schools.
So the Five Mountain Sangha has appeared as a daughter Sangha of the Kwan Um School of Zen in the United States. Some schools are focused on an enlightenment experience: what is enlightenment? They want to attain this truth, but they are missing the correct function of an enlightenment experience. Attaining your true self doesn’t matter.
When we first begin, both ways are necessary: attaining enlightenment and its correct function. If we attain the correct function of our true self, we attain truth. This is correct attainment. If we want to attain our true self, a correct life is also necessary. So we say, put it all down, don’t make anything, moment to moment keep correct situation, correct function. Moment to moment, do it!
Doing it means we have already attained our true self. But we don’t understand this, we don’t believe this, so we keep on putting forth the effort. Eventually correct function and attainment appears all at the same time. That is the Five Mountain Sangha teaching. Only attaining the truth is “monk Buddhism”: only keeping your hair cut and living in the mountains to practice your whole life. Correct function is not necessary because Monk’s have no wives, no children, and no connection to society.
Most of us in the West have hair, have a wife or a husband, children, and a job. Our challenge is how do we connect this everyday life and Zen? This is a very important point. In the Five Mountain Sangha, it doesn’t matter whether you are a monk or a layperson. Each one of us just does it and at the same time we can attain our true self, and enlightenment. Correct function combined with a correct livelihood, at the same time.

10. Using kōan practice as a direction in our everyday lives
Our teaching in the Five Mountain Sangha, which was handed down to us by Zen Master Seung Sahn, is kōan practicing. In the past, kōan practice meant checking attainment, checking someone’s enlightenment. A student would be given one kōan to work on for maybe fifteen or twenty years, and when they answered this one question they would eventually become teachers or hermits as they wished. In our sangha we use kōans to understand our day to day lives. This is a divergent way of utilizing kōans which breaks with the traditional Zen approach. In the light of our teaching, some of the kōans are correct and helpful, some are merely philisophical. Whether they are correct or not doesn’t matter.
We use kōans to help us to discover a direction of compassion and awareness, also to guide our practice and direct our life. This is the teaching of the Five Mountain Sangha which was founded by Zen Master Seung Sahn. This means perceive your true self. At the same time, perceive inside and outside. Perceiving this world’s sound means perceiving that many, many people are in a state of dis-ease.
If you can hear this sound of dis-ease, then helping is both possible and necessary, this is the Great Bodhisattva way. How do we help people is our practice and our job. It is not only attaining enlightenment, it is enlightenment’s job. Enlightenment only is a monk’s job, but only someone like a Zen monk has the circumstances to do it: no family, no job, everyone giving support.
Lay practice is not like the monk’s job – our job is how to help other people. First we must connect with our family, then our friends, then our country and eventually all sentient beings: helping all of these is our obligation. If we want to help correctly, we must relinquish our opinion, our condition and our situation. If we cannot put down these things, we cannot help anyone. If we relinquish them, then true love can appear. This also means that nothing in the entire cosmos is special. Just keeping our moment to moment correct situation is very simple. The name for this is great love, great compassion, the great bodhisattva way. This is the practice of the Five Mountain Sangha.
This is a change in Zen practice and teaching from the traditions imported from Asia, yet it was sanctioned by a very wise man, Zen Master Seung Sahn. In order for us to implement his vision, we need a Sangha where all people can attend and feel welcomed. This is not the old style imported from China, Korea, Japan or Vietnam. Korean Zen has also appeared in the West without changing, but many changes have been necessary. We do kōan practice, but Korean monks looking at our Zen style have said, “That is not Zen.” Seung Sahn said, “Yes, it’s not Zen. Zen doesn’t matter. Original Zen is not Zen. Nothing is Zen. In fact, we don’t understand what Zen is.”
Ever since its beginning, Zen has undergone many changes. Zen began with Bodhidharma, yet after the sixth ancestor it changed. The Five Mountain Schools of Zen appeared in China, and they all had different styles. Various mind sicknesses appeared, especially Zen sicknesses. The Five Mountain Schools in China died. Why? Because they could not connect with everyday life, and they could not connect with society. If we do not correct this, today’s Zen will also die. If it is only monastic Zen, it will soon die. In China, Korea, and Japan there are no groups of lay people practicing in Zen centers, doing together action, meditation and practice. This grand experiment was begun in America by my grand teacher Zen Master Seung Sahn. It had never happened before – it’s new, a new Zen.
In the wake of all this understanding, it is necessary to have a new direction and new a new zen practice. It is also important that we don’t call this American style, it is just a result of our everyday life and our correct direction. Zen has always represented a revolution. In the future, what will happen? Our method of practice will be very important: how does your practice connect with your life? How does your practice help other people? If it helps you, it will help other people, and will also help this world. Then your practicing will connect with world peace.
There are many opinions in this world. Americans have American opinion. Koreans have Korean opinion. All religions have their own opinion. The fact is that everyone is attached to something. This is this world’s sickness. In the future, it will be necessary to teach our style of practice: “You must wake up!”
Then what does being human mean? Being human has no meaning, no reason, and no choice. However, if you attain no meaning, you get great meaning. That is: relinquish any kind of opinion, any condition, any situation, then your life will become complete. Our practice will help your family, your country, as well as this world. This teaching means that if we practice sincerely and share our wisdom and teach correctly, there will be less fighting among religions, among countries, and hopefully no more nuclear bombs. If we take away the weapons, the left over money can go to Africa, India and Cambodia. Then world peace is possible. This is the Five Mountain Sangha’s future.