“Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn” by Stephen Mitchell
What is Zen? According to Zen master Seung Sahn Soen-sa, in its most basic form Zen can be described as the following: “if you are thinking, you can’t understand Zen. If you keep the mind that is before thinking, this is Zen mind.”
And what exactly is a mind before thinking? The answer, apparently, is not that simple.
This is a confusing book that recorded the conversations between master Soen-sa and his students in the 1970s, broken down into 100 short chapters that cover stories, formal Zen interviews, Dharma speeches, and letter correspondences.
In almost every single one of these chapters, he teaches, above all else, how not to think. As Soen-sa remarks, “Zen work is becoming empty mind. Becoming empty mind means having all your opinions fall away. Then you will experience true emptiness. When you experience true emptiness, you will attain your true situation, your true condition, and your true opinions.”
You would think that with a statement this intriguing he would proceed to show us the proper way to attain this state? But what occurs instead in the book is Soen-sa adding more to the confusion. Like this line in chapter 4: “Anything that can be written in a book, anything that can be said—all this is thinking. If you are thinking, then all Zen books, all Buddhist sutras, all Bibles are demons’ words. But if you read with a mind that has cut off all thinking, then Zen books, sutras, and Bibles are all the truth.”
I’m sorry, what? Unfortunately Soen-sa never elaborate or explain what his vague words mean, and instead he ask the students to have some kind of spiritual journey and figure out the answers themselves.
Just like this one example: “The next morning, the same student walked into the interview room and bowed. Soen-sa said, “Do you have any questions?” “Yes. What is death?” “You are already dead.” “Thank you very much. Now I understand.” Soen-sa said, “You understand? Then what is death?” The student said, “You are already dead.” Soen-sa smiled and bowed.” I mean, what kind of teaching is this?
There’s more. Soen-sa seems to use this teaching method quite a lot: “Soen-sa asked one student, “What color is this snow?” The student said, “White.” Soen-sa said, “You have an attachment to color.”” Ok sure, attachment to color. But when a student throw this trick back to him: “”I ask you once again—what color is this door?” The student was silent. Soen-sa said, “It is brown.” “But if I’d said brown, you would’ve said I’m attached to color!” Soen-sa said, “Brown is only brown.”
I mean, from my limited understanding (hey, this is why I read this book in the first place, to learn deeper about Zen Buddhism), Zen Buddhism is supposed to be simple and clear. But what Soen-sa is doing is making the understanding complicated and blurry at best, especially when he was asked some difficult questions that he cannot answer directly. Heck, in most conversations, the answers that he gave often left the students more confused and lost, which is well documented in the book.
Moreover, as I read through I keep on questioning myself whether I have read this story or that story before or if I have mistakenly read the wrong early pages of the book? Nope, just the book repeating the same story or similar interraction in several chapters.
Therefore, it is perplexing for me that the book is one of the highly recommended ones by several [caucasian] meditation gurus. And this probably deserves a little background check: Soen-sa was a Korean Seon master of the Jogye order and founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen. And he was one of the earliest Korean Zen masters that came to the US and introduced the religion to Westerners in the 1960s and 1970s, during the height of the hippie movement. Hence, the recommendation I found to read this book by the “ten percent” gang.
If this feels a little bit borderline fraud, it does have the same feel as the cult community built around Osho, doesn’t it? Bold accusation, I know, but Soen-sa did get himself into a bit of controversies in the 1980s when he was caught having a consentual sexual relationship with his students, while he supossed to be a celibate monk. Consentual sex with the leader? Now that’s a very cultish behaviour.
And another sign of a cultish behaviour? Soen-sa gave a hint that Zen masters can somehow perform miracles, when saying: “Many people want miracles, and if they witness miracles they become very attached to them. But miracles are only a technique. They are not the true way. If a Zen Master used miracles often, people would become very attached to this technique of his, and they wouldn’t learn the true way.”
I know what you’re going to say, what was I thinking when deciding to read this book without researching about it first? I didn’t. And by not thinking, maybe that’s the whole Zen point after all.
THE CHAOS THEORY 