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Title: Only Don't Know : Selected Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn by Seung Sahn ISBN: 1-57062-432-1 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 06 April, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Help All Beings
Comment: What could be said about Zen Master Seung Sahn, how could we thank him for his wonderful teachings? I have practiced Kwan Um Zen for over 10 years now, read plenty of literature by many many good teachers, but I don't know. None seem to have the language that Seung Sahn has. I would not call it basic, because I know plenty of people who at times find his style downright "Buddhist blasphemy". This book is a collection of letters between students. Someone pointed out in another review that Zen Master Seung Sahn is not the first to publish letters- I don't see what that has to do with wisdom. I mean, Buddhist literature in general has been 'done before", this does not detract from the teachings. It enriches them.
Yes, you will find some repetition in this book- it builds it's way with more and more insight with each letter. The reason WHY Seung Sahn tends to repeat some of the same teachings over and over is because they are the most crucial in understanding your true self. And if people who have heard it before are still at your feet, it's not your fault for telling them "I already told you this." Broken records are good, that way it not only "sinks it's way in', but it has a way of beginning to cut through your "normal" processes of thinking. Then you can say "Aha!" But not to worry, the repetition is not severe. Where he does repeat himself, he almost always adds some new "twist", a tiny bit more insight, a little glimpse-into the truth to which it points.
He speaks often of "before thinking mind", "only like this", "same or different", "only don't know"-read this book and you will feel a few steps closer to seeing everything "just like this". Then, no more opposites, outside becomes inside and BOOM!-clear like space. But all of this said, this book will not do much for you if you are not practicing, other than formulate more ideas in your "on top of your neck" mind, and not the mind which should be stored in your tantien-through practice. So Zen Master Seung Sahn is a prolific teacher of the Dharma, the 78th Zen Patriarch in lineage to Bodhidharma himself, and a Zen master who needs no credentials once you hear him teach! So enjoy this book, you deserve to find out...
Rating: 5
Summary: Zen in your face
Comment: These teaching letters are amazing. Seung Sahn addresses his student's concerns in language that anyone can understand, even when he's doing koan practice. His Zen isn't some airy abstract ideal; it's dealing with actual people, aspirations, and relationships. He hits the nail on the head every time.
Rating: 4
Summary: Straight-talking Zen for America
Comment: He isn't the first Zen teacher to offer his teaching via letters. (The teaching letters of Ta-Hui come to mind...) But has there ever been a more prolific correspondent? Until recent years, Zen Master Seung Sahn would answer every letter students or perfect strangers sent him, and bundles of letters would chase him from city to city as he flew around America in the seventies and eighties, teaching wherever the airlines would take him.
As far as Zen books go, it's good teaching with very little obscure dharma language. His talent was talking about Zen in a way non-scholarly Americans could understand and apply to their own lives. It's a lively collection of letters from a wide spectrum of students: from the sincere to the smart-aleck to the earnest and to the clueless. The teacher meets them all on their level, sometimes with very long letters including stories and koans.
Due to his concentrated, concise teaching style, the reader may find the letters repetitive. (When asked why he says the same thing over and over again, he has replied, "Did you hear it?") Some of the student letters may wear out their welcome, but they belong with the responses. Bear with it: there is good teaching throughout.
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Title: Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn by Zen Master Seung Sahn, Seung ISBN: 0802130526 Publisher: Grove Press Pub. Date: April, 1994 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Compass of Zen by Seung Sahn ISBN: 1570623295 Publisher: Shambhala Pub. Date: 28 October, 1997 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Interbeing: Fourteen Guidelines for Engaged Buddhism by Thich Nhat Hanh, Fred Eppsteiner, Nhat ISBN: 1888375086 Publisher: Parallax Pr Pub. Date: February, 1998 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: The Yoga of Light by Hans-Ulrich Rieker, Elys Becherer ISBN: 0913922072 Publisher: Dawn Horse Press Pub. Date: July, 1978 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Whole World Is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-Ans for Everyday Life by Zen Master Seung Sahn ISBN: 0804834563 Publisher: Charles E Tuttle Co Pub. Date: December, 2000 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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