Chogye International Zen Center of New York

08/25/2023

"Zen meditation is not limited to a formal exercise done in a sitting position." Quote by Zen Master Wu Kwang. -inquiry See more quotes: https://bit.ly/3Bjdsa6

05/23/2023

Zen Master Jok Um responds to someone who wants to avoid pain by being empty: "The earth is one, but every speck of earth has its own characteristics that make sense for that very space. Your body is one, yet you have eyes, ears, nose, tongue. They all have their sense-objects, and this all generates consciousness of them. Part of our Zen training is to see this unifying connection you describe. The other part is to develop wisdom about how it all works. Not making distinctions involves seeing things as they are. Seeing things as they are allows us to treat everything as itself. This includes how your own life unfolds and what you encounter in the unfolding. If things didn't affect you, you'd never eat or sleep, and you wouldn't have the sensibility of how to put one foot in front of the other. You want to avoid pain by being empty. This only creates the pain of wanting to be empty but not being able to. Please don't try to force yourself to look like your idea of emptiness. Otherwise, how will you learn?"

Response to someone who wants to avoid pain by being empty. The earth is one, but every speck of earth has its own characteristics that make sense for that very space. Your body is one, yet you have eyes, ears, nose, tongue. They all have their sense-objects, and this all generates consciousness o

03/21/2023

The Chogye International Zen Center of NY will be hosting a 49-day Ceremony this coming Sunday, March 26th at 11:30 AM New York time for those who died from the earthquake in Turkey on February 6th. The ceremony will be held at the Zen Center, with a Zoom broadcast as well. We welcome you chanting with us, in person, online, or in spirit. Thank you.

03/21/2023

Attaining my true self simply means moment to moment I keep a correct situation, correct relationship, and correct function in this world. I function clearly in this universe to save all beings. So getting enlightenment and teaching other beings are not two things, because when you return to your m

02/26/2023

Colin Beavan, JDPSN talks about working with kong-ans (koans).

In this video, Colin Beavan JDPSN talks about practicing with kong-ans (koans). We have Dharma talks every Wednesday evening at the Empty Gate Zen Center in ...

02/20/2023

One morning a student asked Seung Sahn Soen Sa, “How can one control thinking while sitting Zen?” Soen Sa replied, “If you are attached to thought, your practice and your thoughts are different. if you are not attached to thoughts, thinking is practicing, practicing is thinking. This is called...

02/06/2023

Zen Master Bon Soeng talks about waking up and the purpose of Zen practice.

11/22/2022

If you want enlightenment, this enlightenment is far, far away. If you don’t want enlightenment, you can see, you can hear, you can smell, everything is enlightenment. So put it all down—“I want something.” If you keep I-me-my mind and do zen in this way, for infinite time you cannot get enl...

11/14/2022

Sometimes we think we’ve settled something: “I won’t be acting that way anymore” or “I’m not going to feel like that again.” But than we can experience something that brings it right back. That’s why we have the vow to see delusions as endless, and so we vow to cut through them all. ...

10/19/2022

Zen teaching is always encouraging us to let go, to open, to present ourselves, to expose ourselves, to disclose ourselves.
There are two aspects of the disclose-yourself Zen practice. One is to disclose yourself in front of yourself; let yourself see your guts and your — the whole business. That is why, for example, when we sit meditation the instructions are always, don’t push anything away. Just be with each thing, become one with every thing as it unfolds, but do not cling to it, do not hold it. Let it come and let it go, just as a mirror lets red and white come and go. Disclose yourself to yourself.
The second aspect is to disclose yourself to the other person. Be open; do not hold back. You see that emphasized in formal Zen training during the interview between teacher and student. Sometimes the student will come in and present an answer to a kong-an, but the teacher will say, “Even if that answer were correct, it is not correct.” That means you have not completely presented yourself as that answer. Or the teacher might say, “I can’t believe that, even if it is correct.” Other times the teacher will say to the student, “If only you believed that!” This is an encouragement to disclose yourself, to expose yourself, to reveal yourself, and do not hold back. —Zen Master Wu Kwang

10/17/2022

Thinking is both linear and sequential. As such it is a separation from the experience found in each moment of our lives. Not thinking as I’ve often said is suppressive. It is impenetrable and without life. Non thinking on the other hand is the foundation of samadhi. It does not cling to thoughts....

10/10/2022

If we look at this world, it will break our hearts. We have to trust that. That breaking heart bleeds wisdom and compassion. And we have to welcome it in. Welcome in the breaking heart. Zen Master Seung Sahn would say to us, “Put your practice where the pain point is.” That idea saved my life. N...