teaching Mar 23, 2023 Our teaching is the way of compassion. When we can recognize the suffering of others as they act, we can move in the direction of forgiveness and reconciliation. Forgiveness and reconciliation is the way to change our world to a more peaceful and loving place. Our practice allows us the spaciousness of mind and heart to view others and ourselves in this gentle way. As we share this practice with each other and those in our lives, we broaden the circle of this forgiveness and reconciliation. Slowly but surely the world arou...

teaching Mar 16, 2023 The teaching is so prevalent. The guiding wisdom is all around us. All we have to do is listen. Zen Master Seung Sahn used to say "try, try, try for 10,000 years non-stop." 10,000 years non-stop means forever. Forever means right now. 10,000 years is too long. But right now, it’s possible. Right now..........what more do you need? By Zen Master Bon Soeng

jason quinn jdpsn teaching Mar 02, 2023 The Four Great Vows, sometimes referred to as the Four Bodhisattva Vows, are used both in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and in Zen. A “Bodhisattva” is someone who dedicates their lives to helping others. Instead of relieving our own suffering, we also help others when they are suffering. We use the Four Great Vows to help set the intention of this Bodhisattva spirit. There are are a few versions of them; here is one translation used in the Kwan Um School: Sentient beings are numberless. We vow to save t...

teaching Feb 23, 2023 Our preference is always for the good feeling. If we have the good feeling, we feel like things are right. But if we have the bad feeling, we think things are wrong and we need to somehow fix it so it will be right. The problem with that is we are attached to one particular result and in the process, we amplify our suffering. Because we want something, we suffer. Probably for all of us we hear that and think, well that’s a nice idea but that’s very difficult to live our lives without preferences. I think once we go there, ...

teaching Feb 16, 2023 Each one of us will get some idea of meditation. Any image or idea we have about Zen, or meditation, or by extension of our lives and our story, is wrong. The only thing we can possibly know is what's happening right now. Everything before it is a dream, everything after it is supposition, and anything even in the moment that we're pondering, is just an idea. So Zen means meditation, meditation means what's happening right now; what actually is going on. By Zen Master Bon Soeng

If You Want To UnderstandYou Don't UnderstandIf You Attain Don't KnowThat Is Your True Nature By Zen Master Ko Bong

teaching Feb 02, 2023 When the bell was hit tonight during the Evening Bell Chant, some people thought, “Uhmm, wonderful… Oh, great!” Other people thought, “Not loud enough!” Other people said, “I wish he’d do it faster!” Somebody else said, “What’s he doing?” All of that is commentary. Don’t-Know means let go of the commentary and just hear the bell. Simple as that. You and the bell become one. Where is the separation? I believe I am here, and the bell is there. But that’s my idea. Where is the separation between you and the bell? Between you,...

jason quinn jdpsn teaching Jan 26, 2023 Question: I find my attention drifting a lot during meditation. Recently, I’m getting lost in thoughts and dreams and losing my question, “what is this?” during practice. Are there any specific techniques to work on this other than just keep doing it? Answer: Right now, in THIS moment… how is it? That’s most important? What you are talking about is a dream. Then we start to dream about the dream and that is where we get lost. We disconnect from what’s happening right now in this moment. In fact, you’ve ne...

teaching Jan 19, 2023 Once a year, our school celebrates Buddha's birthday. We celebrate the birth of a man who was born somewhere between 2,500 - 2,600 years ago. But the meaning of this in Zen is not celebrating a man; it's celebrating this awakening. But it's not his awakening; it's our awakening. So what is our awakening? Our awakening appears in this very moment. Buddha's enlightenment, Buddha's awakening was about waking up to the moment that we are actually in. We say very often, before this moment is a memory; after this moment is a dre...

teaching Jan 12, 2023 There is a story of an old farmer who had worked his crops for many years. One day his horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. "Such bad luck," they said sympathetically. "Maybe," said the farmer The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. "How wonderful," the neighbors exclaimed. "Maybe," the farmer replied. The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy on his...

news Jan 07, 2023 Retreat is a time to look inside and investigate our life. It is an opportunity to clear our mind of habitual thinking and access our wisdom and compassion. Please join us for a retreat Friday, January 20th- Sunday January 22nd. The retreat will be led by Zen Master Soeng Hyang. We are allowing up to 9 people to come sit with us in person at the Boise location and 15 at the Berkeley location (fully vaccinated, members only, masks and covid test required on DAY OF ENTRY). Everyone is welcome to join us online. Retreat will incl...

teaching Jan 05, 2023 The challenge is to use our practice to cultivate awareness, to be honest enough and to train ourselves to be able to witness and watch the ever-changing flow of emotion, thoughts, projections, and experience that goes on in our minds. If we don't pay attention, then our minds make and rule everything. Then we're like slaves being jerked around by our mind. Many of us know the experience of doing things and then feeling bad about it saying, “Why did I do that?” In part, it's because mind, which really gets made up of greed...

teaching Dec 28, 2022 What is this thing that I call, “I”?  What is it really? We think we know who we are—we have stories about ourselves. But what is it really?  We have our own limited human perception of things, and that's good, that helps us somewhat. But it's not the truth. We create stories and ideas then we believe them and we get farther and farther away from the experience of the moment. This question, “What am I? What is this?”, brings us back to the moment. If we can stop the story for a moment, then we can actually experience, “Wha...

teaching Dec 22, 2022 A monk asked a master, "I just became a monk and would like to know how to enter Buddhahood." The master said, "Do you hear the waterfall?" "Yes I do" replied the monk. Master said, "Enter there."

teaching Dec 15, 2022 If you go into the realm of metaphysics about life after life after life, you're in the world of supposition. But take everything about our past actions creating a future life and substitute the word “moment” for “life”. Our action in this moment creates our life in the next moment. Bring it down from the metaphysical to the very practical, “What am I doing right now?” because this moment, my action in this moment, brings about my life in the next moment. Whatever it is that you are facing in this moment, how you deal with...

teaching Dec 08, 2022 Great Effort, I think of as the hinge-point of our practice. If we don't have this great effort, then we really don't have a practice. Because unless we bring our practice to the difficult parts of our lives, it's not much of a practice. In fact, what often seems to happen is many people will practice when things get difficult in their life, but as soon as things start to get better, then they don't feel like they need it anymore. So in a sense for a Zen practice, great effort really needs to be applied when things are goi...

teaching Dec 01, 2022 "Before thinking" is easy to talk about but difficult to practice. Our desire, anger, and ignorance are so powerful, so encompassing, and solid that we don’t even recognize their impact. Many people who first hear about before thinking find it absurd. Others feel that it is impossible to not attach to their thinking. This leads us to the realm of Zen practice. Though our delusion seems enormous and our suffering feels so daunting and profound, Zen practice offers us a way to deconstruct our delusion. We can live a more cen...

jason quinn jdpsn teaching Nov 15, 2022 When we see the impermanence of this world and discover who we truly are, we can realize a truth that goes beyond impermanence. The truth is something every human being can perceive intrinsically and is already clear in every moment. It is acknowledging the difficulties and dissatisfaction in our own lives, which helps us to see the difficulties and dissatisfaction in the lives of others. We can see that many people are in a great need of help. When we perceive that need clearly, the meaning of life turns...

That combination of the cause and the action leads to a result. That result becomes the next cause. I remember Zen Master Seung Sahn pretending to hold a match in his hand, and he said, “This match is the cause. Fire is the result.” But you need to strike the match in order to create fire. So it's in the action that determines what the result will be. It's only by being awake that we can have some new impact on what that result will be. The wheel of samsara goes around and around. We're trapped in this cycle that's never ending and it always le...

teaching Nov 03, 2022 We're actually more focused on the question than the answer because answers change. There's no one fixed answer. The point of questions is to open us up to the experience of our lives. So, this moment is the answer. Our practice is to open up to this moment. It's usually our ideas, our opinions, our beliefs, our fears, and all of the psychological commentary that goes on in our mind, that separates us from the moment. So we're inquiring and asking to open up to right now, just to be in the moment completely. By Zen Master ...