HYON GAK // PAUL MUENZEN

One of the sharpest teachings of Dae Soen Sa Nim (Zen Master Seung Sahn). He was constantly pointing directly to our original nature, and nothing else. He considered our “outside” forms and conditions, our personal karmic orientations, but what mattered most in his teaching was how deeply we realized our True Self, or not. Education level, or length of time sitting, or family background, even cleverness or “usefulness” for his work didn’t rate much with him: How much do you believe in your True Self, the strong attainment of “only-don’t-know.” Which is, by the way, what Socrates expressed his greatest

Both of my primary Zen teachers were fearsome, fearless operators: Zen Master Seung Sahn and Zen Master Bong Cheol. You were seldom fully at ease in their presence. I was shouted at by both (though, it must be said, far less than most other practitioners in the group). Bong Cheol Sunim even threw a rotten melon at the floor in front of me to demonstrate a point about how I was holding ego, its seeds exploding all over my socks-only feet and lower pants. One time, he engaged me in a very very animated Dharma combat in a public restaurant,

Bringing “The Great Dharani” to our retreat next week with the Haugesund Zen Senter, May 3-5, in Haugeland, Norway. It is great to see how a Zen group affiliated with the main Norwegian Soto Zen Order is so open to trying a technology not part of their teaching wheelhouse. Credit and kudos to their teacher, Såzen Larsen Kusano, for allowing his students’ wishes to be fulfilled in inviting me. It will be the first time for me, too, to teach a purely Soto Zen family: Including the ancient rhythms and power of “The Great Dharani” will tuber-boost their don’t-know access.