Gold Coast Zen Meditation

Hinayan buddhism

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:52:38 +0000

Hinayan Buddhism teaches that when thinking appears, “I” appears. When “I” appears, then the whole world appears, then the whole world is divided into pairs of opposites.

Rene Descartes said, “I think , therefore I am.”

That is the same point. If you have “I am” you also have “I am not”.

Existence and non-existence, life and death, good and bad all come from this opposite thinking. This thinking also makes suffering.

So Hinaya Buddhism teaches that when mind appears, Dharma appears, name and form appear. When Dharma appears, name and form appear. When name and form appear, then like and dislike, good and bad, coming and going, life and death, happiness and sadness all appear.

The Hinayana view call this realm which we all inhabit a “suffering world”.

All life is suffering, and suffering is life: samsara.

Hinaya buddism explains that we are living in this impermanent world, this suffering world, and it shows how we can get out of it.

This suffering world is created entirely by our own thinking. Through this teaching we are shown how to go from the opposites world of life and death to attain the realm of the Absolute, or nirvana.

In Nirvana, there is no life and death; no coming and going no up or down. It is a state of complete stillness and bliss. Attaining the completely void state of nirvana is the ultimate goal of Hinayan Buddhist teaching.

“nothing to do nowhere to go” by Thich Nhat Hanh

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:48:48 +0000

“ NOTHING TO DO NOWHERE TO GO” BY Thich Nhat Hanh

“According to Master Linji, the businessless person is someone who doesn’t run after enlightenment or grasp anything, even if that thing is the Buddha. This person has simply stopped. She is no longer caught by anything, even theories or teachings. The businessless person is the true person inside each one of us. This is the essential teaching of Master Linji. When we learn to stop and be truly alive in the present moment, we are in touch with what’s going on within and around us. We aren’t carried away by the past, the future, our thinking, ideas emotions, and projects.

The person who has nothing to do is sovereign of herself. She doesn’t need to put on airs or leave any trace behind. The true person is an active participant, engaged in her environment while remaining unoppressed by it. Although all phenomena are going through the various appearances of birth, abiding, changing, and dying, the true person doesn’t become a victim of sadness , happiness, love or hate. She lives in awareness as an ordinary person, whether standing, walking, lying down, or sitting. She doesn’t act a part, even the part of a great Zen master. This is what Master Linji means by “be sovereign wherever you are and use that place as your seat of awakening”

-A Buddha is a person who has no more business to do and isn’t looking for anything. In doing nothing, in simply stopping, we can live freely and true to ourselves and our liberation will contribute to the liberation of beings.

6th Patriach-Hui Neng

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:45:27 +0000

After I go, there will be no one to teach you.
Fa-hai and the others wept when they heard this. Shen-hui alond was psychologically unmoved and did not cry.
Master said, “Young Shen-hui has managed to maintain equanimity toward good and bad, unmoved by slander or praise, not conceiving sadness or happiness. The rest of you have not attained this – what path have you been cultivating all these years in the mountains? Who are you troubled about now, crying so sadly?
“If you are worried, I don’t know where I am going, I intuitively know where I was going. I wouldn’t have informed you ahead of time. Your weeping is because you don’t know where I’m going. If you knew where I was going, you wouldn’t be crying. The nature of reality has no birth or death, no coming or going.

“Sit there, all of you, and I will recite to you a hymn called Hymn on True and False Action and Stillness. Memorize this hymn, for its intent is the same as mine. Practise on this basis, and you won’t lose the essence of the source.”

The hymn went as follows:-
Everything has no reality
We do not see reality thereby
If you “see reality, that is a view, not reality at all.
If you can yourself embody reality,
Detached from falsehood, mind itself’s reality
If your own mind does not detach from falsehood,
There’s no reality – where is real?

Animate beings are mobile,
Inanimate things are inmobile;
If you cultivate a practice of not moving,
That’s the same as inanimate immobility
If you seek true immovability
That’s immobility in action.
Not moving is unmoving –
Without sentience, there’s no seed of buddhahood.

Be able to distinguish characteristic skilfully
While immovable in ultimate truth
As long as you see in this way,
It’s the function of reality as is
“Unmoving, not cultivating goodness.
Ebullient, not doing evil,
Serene, detached from the senses
Clear, mind without fixation”

My Dharma Speech is Already Finished

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 20:30:10 +0000

A person’s head becomes whiter and whiter as he gets
older, but the color of the mountain remains green. In the
end, both the mountain and the person return to emptiness.
Today is the end of Kyol Che. That means don’t attach
to the world of name and form. If you don’t attach to
the world of name and form, there’s nothing left but our
moment-to-moment world. What am I doing in this moment?
That’s most important.
Actually my dharma speech is now finished. However,
many people don’t understand so I will explain a little more.
Usually we would say that my mind brought me here to
listen to this talk. But where is mind? From where does it
appear and where does it go? We don’t understand that.
That is human. You carry your mind around everywhere
but you don’t know what it is. We are always proclaiming,
“I, I, I,” but we don’t understand “I.” So the big question
is: What is human? A famous Zen poem says: “Coming
empty handed, going empty handed —that is human.
When you are born, where do you come from? When you
die, where do you go? Life is like a floating cloud which
appears. Death is like a floating cloud which disappears.
The floating cloud originally does not exist. Life and death,
coming and going are also like this. But there is one thing
which always remains clear. It’s pure and clear, not depending
on life and death. Then what is that one pure and clear
thing that pulls this body around?” What is the meaning of
all these people from foreign countries coming here to our
temple in Korea to practice Zen? Because of that one pure
and clear thing they come here.
Excerpt from Talk by Zen Master Seung Sahn at Mu Sang Sa temple-at the close of Winter Kyol Che 2001

Your True Self- by Zen Master Seung Sahn

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 21:38:20 +0000

Thank you very much for coming today. But what is it that brought your body here? Is it your mind?
What is mind? Where is it? What is its shape? Mind is no mind. A mountain does not proclaim,
“I am a mountain!” A river does not say, “I am a river!”. All names and forms are made by thinking.
Thus, mind is no mind. All things have name and form. Names and forms come from emptiness.
Thus, form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

When you are thinking, your mind, my mind, all people’s minds are different. If you cut through all
thinking, your mind, my mind, and all people’s minds are the same. The mind that cuts through
all thinking is the true empty mind. The true empty mind is before thinking. Your substance
is before thinking. Your substance is universal substance. Before thinking, there is no speech
and no language. There is no God, no Buddha, no mountain, no river, nothing at all. Thus,
no form, no emptiness.

But, before thinking is truly just like this. No form, no emptiness is itself a clinging to emptiness.
Put it down! Then you will have no inside and no outside; you will attain the Absolute.
Everything that you see, hear, taste and smell is the truth. God is God, Buddha is Buddha,
mountains are mountains, rivers are rivers. The truth is like this.
form is form, emptiness is emptiness

If you cut through all thinking, your mind will become clear. Just that is your true self.
Thinking is desire. Desire is suffering. when the mind remains clear, there is no life and
no death. You will find true freedom that has no hindrance.

Your body has life and death, but your true self transcends both life and death. What, then,
is one’s true self? Does it exist or not? If you say that it exists, where is it? If you say that
it does not, what is hearing this speech? both these answers are not complete. Why? Put
it down, put it down! The Great Way is in front of the door.”

Meditation Techniques

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 10:46:28 +0000

There are various forms of meditation. Each technique has a special effect on the mind.

Mind Practices: These practices are the heart of meditation. They have different effects on the mind when they are practiced. Also the speed of the effect can be different depending on the technique used.

In all mediation techniques, the breath is important. To calm you body down, it is helpful to take several long, deep breaths as the beginning of meditation. Breathe using the diaphragm and centre it in the lower belly. It should be relaxed, natural and quiet – the breath should breathe you.

Some of the various techniques are:

Technique 1: Keeping a Question

Traditionally this is called “hwa tou.” If you have a question, this question will help you practice. If the question is big enough and intense enough, (the usual ones are “What am I?”, “What is life?”, etc) it will practice you and will give you don’t-know before-thinking mind. Let go of all thinking, opinions and desires and continually return to the questioning mind.

Technique 2: Mantra Practice

Using the mantra to calm the mind and stregthen the centre is one technique used by students of Zen. The main difference between the mantras is the length of the mantra used and the mantra’s direction. Generally the more incessant the thinking, the shorter the mantra.

The usual technique is to recite the mantra constantly, paying attention to it and allowing all other thinking to drop away. This takes some practice since ti is very easy to let one part of the brain “chant” the mantra while the other part is thinking about dinner or going to the movies. When this happens, gently bring the mind back to the mantra without any judgment.

The most common mantras used in our School are listed below:

Clear Mind, Clear Mind, Clear Mind — Don’t Know

This mantra is usually suggested to beginners in conjuction with a breathing exercise. Breathe in to a count of 3, saying “clear mind” at each count and breathe out to a count of 7 saying “dooooooonnn’t knnnnoooooooow” just once for the whole 7 count. The count may vary with the individual, but the exhalation should be more than twice as long as the inhalation.

This is generally the first technique taught in our school.

Kwan Seum Bosal

This is the Korean name for the bodhisattva of compassion, Avalokitesvara. This mantra is commonly suggested for people whose minds cannot be quiet one minute or who cannot concentrate for very long. Because it is short it can be repeated over and over (usually with a set of beads for counting). The usual recommendation is for 3000 to 10000 a day for someone who really wants to clear their mind of a particular problem. It is also used on a daily basis by many people as part of their sitting meditation technique.

Technique 3: Kong-an Practice

Kong-an practice is an ancient form of question and answer. The actual word means “public record”. So these are the public records of past Zen Masters. The answers are rooted in the reality that is beyond time and space, likes and dislikes, but is just-like-this. One of their functions is to give you a Great Question if you don’t have one. Another is to help you eliminate the “hooks” from your mind. Each Kong-an has hooks (like mental fishhooks) and when you cannot solve it, it is because your mind has gotten caught on one of the hooks of the Kong-an. Sitting with the Kong-an as a question is one of the trademarks of Zen Practice.

Technique 4: Counting the Breathe

The breathe is counted either on the exhalation (best for beginners) or the inhalation (more difficult) from 1 to 10. When you lose count or reach 10, start over.

Technique 5: Clear Mind Meditation

This form of meditation involves just sitting and being aware of what is going on at just this moment. This is moment-to-moment mind. It hears the birds in the trees, the cars going by, the planes overhead, and the children playing outside. To the clear mind there is no such thing as “noisy”, it is just “is”. This is not a beginning technique, but is an out-growth of the previous meditations.

Introduction

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:20:20 +0000

To appreciate Buddhism and the practise of Zen Teachings, Compass of Zen by Zen Master Seung Sahn, founder of “The Kwan Um School of Zen”, is the guiding book from which materials are extracted and posted on this site.

The Purposes of Buddhism

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:19:05 +0000

First Attain Enlightenment

Then instruct all creatures

The Divisions of Buddhism

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:17:44 +0000

Hinayana Buddhism

Mahaya Buddhism

Zen Buddhism

The Structure of Buddhism

Gold Coast Zen Meditation Group — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:16:39 +0000

The Precious One which is the BUDDHA – the object of faith – emotional-Departing from pain and attaining pleasure – Samadhi – Beauty – Faith

The Precious One which is the DHARMA -philosophical – intellectual – Going from ignorance to Englighenment - prajna – truth – understanding – to Enlightenment

The Precious One which is the SANGHA-ethical – mental – Putting an end to evil and practising good – Sila – Good – Practice