Originally posted by sinweiy:
After a Sunday night lecture, a student asked Seung Sahn Soen Sa, “How many kinds of Zen are there?”
Soen Sa said, “There are five kinds of Zen.”
“What are the five kinds?”
“They are: The outer path Zen, the common people’s Zen, Hinayana Zen, Mahayana Zen and The Utmost Vehicle Zen.”
The student then asked for an explanation of each of these classifications.
Soen Sa said, “Zen is meditation. Outer path Zen includes many different types of
meditation. For example, Christian meditation, Divine Light meditation,
Transcendental meditation, etc.”
“The Common People’s Zen is concentration meditation, Dharma play meditation,
sports, the tea ceremony, ritual ceremonies, etc.”
“Hinayana meditation is insight into non-self, impurity, and impermanence.”
“Mahayana meditation is: 1. Insight into the existence and non-existence of the nature of the dharmas; 2. Insight into the fact that there are no external, tangible characteristics, and that all is emptiness; 3. Insight into existence emptiness, and the Middle Way; 4. Insight into the true aspect of all phenomena; 5. Insight into the mutual penetration of all phenomena; 6. Insight that sees that phenomena itself is the Absolute.” “These six are equal to the following statement from the Hua-Yen Sutra, ‘If a man wishes to thoroughly understand all the Buddhas of the three time spheres, then he should view the nature of the whole Universe as being created by the mind alone.’”
“Finally there is the Utmost Vehicle Zen which is divided into three types: Theoretical Zen, Tathagata Zen, and Patriarchal Zen.”
The student then asked, “The five kinds of Zen are all very good. Which one is best?”
Soen Sa said, “Do you understand your mind?”
“I don’t know.”
“When you do not know your mind all Zen is no good. When you understand your mind, all Zen is best.”
“I want to understand my mind. What kind of Zen is the best training?”
Soen Sa said, “Understanding one’s mind is the aim of the the Utmost Vehicle Zen.” “You mentioned before that this Zen is further divided into three kinds. Which of the three is the best training?”
“The three kinds are only one, not three. Thinking understanding of Zen is Theoretical Zen. The attainment of emptiness, the unity of mind and the Universe is the Tathagaya Zen. ‘Like this’ is Patriarchal Zen. This means a relaxed mind, the attainment of the big ‘I.’ Big ‘I’ is infinite time and infinite space.”
The student asked Soen Sa, “That’s all very difficult. Why all this thinking kind, empty kind, and like this kind? I don’t understand.”
Soen Sa said, “I will explain it to you. The Heart Sutra says, ‘Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.’ So your substance and the substance of all things is the same. Your original mind is Buddha, Buddha is your original mind.”
Then Soen Sa, holding a pencil in his hand, asked the student, “This is a pencil. Are you and the pencil same or different?”
“Same.”
Soen Sa said, “That’s right. This is theoretical Zen.”
“Thank you very much. What then is Tathagata Zen?”
“The Mahaparinirvana Sutra says, ‘All formations are impermanent, this is the law of arising and disappearing. When arising and disappearing are extinguished, then this stillness is bliss.’ This means that when there is no appearance nor disappearance in your mind, that mind is bliss. This is a mind devoid of all thinking, and so I ask you again, ‘this pencil and you, are they the same or different?”
The student said, “Same.”
Soen Sa said, “If you say same, you deserve thirty blows. If you say different, you still deserve thirty blows. What can you do?”
The student could not answer and became very confused.
Soen Sa hit the floor and immediately after said, “The keeping of your mind, as it is just now, is the Tathagata Zen. Do you understand?”
“I don’t know.”
“This ‘don’t know’ mind has no Buddha, no Dharma, no good, no bad, no light, no dark, no sky, no ground, no same, no different, no emptiness, no form, no anything in it. This is a truly empty mind. Empty mind is a mind which does not appear nor disappear. Keeping this mind at all times is Tathagata Zen. Before you said that the pencil and you are the same. This ‘same’ is thinking, so you deserved thirty blows. Do you understand?”
The student said, “I have a little understanding.”
“Little understanding is good. You must practice and understand your mind. To my same or different question I hit the floor. When you understand my action of hitting the floor, you will understand Tathagata Zen.”
“Thank you very much. Please explain the Patriarchal Zen.”
“Long ago a person asked Zen Master Man-Gong, ‘What is Buddhism?’
Man-Gong said, ‘Sky is high, ground is wide.’ Do you understand what this means?”
“I don’t know.”
Soen Sa said “That’s right. ‘Like this’ is enlightenment. Patriarchal Zen is enlightenment
Zen. An eminent teacher said:
1. Sky is ground, ground is sky. Sky and ground are constantly changing.
Water is mountain, mountain is water. Water and mountain is emptiness.
2. Sky is sky. Ground is ground. How can they ever change? Mountain is mountain. Water is water. Such is the truth.
“The first strophe is of the Tathagata Zen realm, and the second belongs to the Patriarchal Zen. Long ago, a person asked Zen Master Dong-Sun, ‘What is Buddha?’ He said, ‘Three
pounds of flax.’ The person did not understand and went to another Zen Master, related his encounter with Dong-Sun and asked, ‘What does three pounds of flax mean?’ The Zen Master said, ‘In the North, pine; In the South, bamboo.’ The person still did not understand and so he went to one of his friends who had practiced Zen for some time. His
friend said, ‘You open your mouth, your teeth are yellow. Do you understand?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘First understand your mind, then all of this will be clear.’”
Then Soen Sa asked the student, “Do you understand?”
The student said, “I understand, thank you.”
“What do you understand?”
“‘Like this’ is Patriarchal Zen.”
Soen Sa asked, “What is ‘like this?’”
The student did not know. Soen Sa pinched his arm hard and twisted it. The student yelled, “Owwwww!”
“This is ‘like this.’, Soen Sa said, “Who is in pain?”
“I don’t know.”
“You must understand that which is in pain, then you will understand the Utmost Vehicle Zen, and see all the Universe as truth.”
“Thank you very much.” The student bowed and left.
/\
Trying to qualify christian meditation as zen practice is wrong, christian meditation is thinking about their God and knowing HIm. Buddhist Zen meditation is about self and release.