Teachings From Ancient Vietnamese Zen Masters – 126
Sometimes you knew that. You attended a concert, listened to your
favorite music, and went home with joy. Then you sat meditation as
usual, and went to sleep comfortably, happily. Did you hear some nice
melody hovering around you after the concert, on the way home, in
sitting meditation, while trying to sleep, or even many days later?
Or, you held a hand of a beautiful girlfriend decades ago, and now still
feel her trembling hand in your palm when the pleasant memory comes
back…
We love to cling to something, we love to stay in this samsara.
How can we live with the insight that everything empties itself? A
powerful tool is koan practice.
Zen Master Duy Luc always asked his students to pick a hard koan that
could generate a great doubt to wipe out all things in the mind, “to
wipe out even the Buddha image in your mind to realize the self-
nature.” He wrote dozens of books on koan practice, taught in many
Zen temples in Vietnam and abroad, had a huge impact on many
Buddhists, and just passed away few years ago.
Try a koan. Who is reading this line?
A river, or a fire, or the emptiness?)
