Volume CXXXI, Number 24 May 3, 2002 f

Now and the Zen
CHRISTOPHER SMITHWICK
STAFF WRITER

At a lecture held last Friday, monk, abbot, and guiding teacher Chong Hae Sunim JDPS spoke about Zen and the value of practicing it. The lecture was a prelude to a talk and meditation retreat with Chong Hae last Saturday at the Northern Light Zen Center in Brunswick.

So what is Zen? The answer is simple, said Chong Hae. Just ask, "What are you?"

As an introduction to his talk, Chong Hae twice invited audience members to sit still, be silent, and concentrate on nothing but their breathing for three minutes. The first time, he asked everyone to watch each breath diligently and sincerely. The second time, he told everyone to notice what is watching, to ask what is this human being that watches.

Look inside and ask, "What am I?" The answer, according to Chong Hae, is always "I don't know."

"In this whole world everyone searches for happiness outside, but nobody understands their true self inside," he said. "If you look inside and sincerely ask, 'What am I?' sooner or later you will run into a wall where all thinking is cut off. We call this 'don't know'"

According to Chong Hae, Zen is keeping this "don't know" mind always and everywhere.

Meditation is a formal Zen practice that involves keeping the "don't know" mind when bowing, chanting, and sitting Zen. This practice extends into our everyday lives, into everything that we do. When driving, just drive; when eating, just eat; when working, just work. Zen means showing up at everything you do.

"Human beings have to be reminded to show up," said Chong Hae. "If we don't, we just get an idea of life, which often includes regret, longing, hopelessness, and an unsatisfied experience. My idea about myself and my life is the very thing that is keeping from experiencing it."

Eventually our "don't know" mind will become clear, and we will see things as they are, at face value. The mind will be like a clear mirror. Clearing the mind results in making clear our life, which is the moment that we are in. Therefore, to practice Zen means to attain your life, moment to moment.
According to Chong Hae, not knowing mind's original function is love and compassion.

"There is no desire for the self, only for all beings," he said. "That mind is already enlightenment, what we call Great Love, Great Compassion, the Great Bodhisattva Way. It's very simple, not difficult."

Chong Hae Sunim is the abbot of the Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, Rhode Island. He is the guiding teacher of the Zen Group of Pittsburgh and the Northern Light Zen Center in Brunswick. He is also active with the Brown Zen Community at Brown University and the Wheaton College Zen Group, and he visits prisons in Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

From 1996 to 2000 he was resident director of the Dharma Sound Zen Center in Seattle. Prior to joining the Kwan Um School, he trained in the Japanese and Vietnamese Zen traditions. He was ordained a monk in 1996 and received inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn in April of 2001.