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<Attaining Enlightenment
Through Meditation>
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(Questioner) Hi Sunim, thanks
for giving me a chance to ask a question.
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So, I have a question on meditation
and studying Buddhist scripture.
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I learned that the Buddha achieved
a peaceful mind and profound enlightenment
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through meditation.
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I am trying to practice meditation
for the same purpose,
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but as a beginner who hasn't gone
through the path, I have some doubts
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about how I can achieve such a deep state
of enlightenment through not thinking.
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Could you explain how meditation can lead
to such peace of mind and enlightenment?
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(Sunim) All our suffering actually happens
because we think too much.
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So, we need to truly liberate ourselves
from our preconceptions of ethics,
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morality, religious faith, and other
paradigms. These guard our thoughts.
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For example:
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Say a man and a woman who like
each other have become lovers.
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So, in a regular relationship between
two ordinary people, they like each other.
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However, if they are Buddhist clergy
or Catholic clergy, they have been taught
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not to engage
in sexual relationships.
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So, those people
who are trained in that way,
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while they enjoy being with the other
person in a romantic relationship,
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also feel guilt.
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So, that guilt, that negative feeling
they have, is not the result of their
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actually having a romantic relationship
with another person they like.
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It comes down to their own preconceptions
that they shouldn't be doing this.
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So, a lot of the suffering and issues
we experience today actually happen
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because of the contradiction or collision
between what is happening in reality,
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what we experience in reality, and our
preconceptions of how things should be.
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That suffering disappears
when we erase the contradiction
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of choosing to abandon our
preconceptions and accept reality as it is
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or adhere to those preconceptions
and give up what we want in this reality.
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However, we can never solve this problem
as long as we try to adhere
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to our preconceptions
while simultaneously trying to get
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what we want in reality, because
that contradiction will always persist.
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So, another example:
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If there are traditional ethics or morals
that say men and women of certain ages
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can't see each other as romantic partners,
then doing so creates suffering.
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Similarly, if we're taught that divorce is
unacceptable after marriage,
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yet circumstances call for separation
or divorce,
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this contradiction creates
suffering.
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But in the natural course of things,
people come together
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and separate all the time.
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It's all coming together.
It's not the cause of our suffering.
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Separation or divorce is
not the cause of our suffering.
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It's our preconceptions of "what ought to
be" that actually cause our suffering,
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whether it's a first meeting
or a separation.
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If we can just erase "what ought to be,"
then we actually eliminate
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a lot of suffering
from our own internal conflicts.
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For example, when we teach our daughters
that having sex before marriage is a sin,
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and they then engage in premarital sex, it
causes them a lot of internal suffering.
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We don't teach our sons this as much,
so they may engage in premarital sex
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without the same level of guilt.
This is all because
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of the preconceptions
that we instill in our children.
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For example, if you stop thinking
right now, there is no cost to suffer.
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So, that is why the foundational piece
of our meditation is to stop thinking.
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What position you take,
however you breathe,
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all that doesn't really matter.
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Many of you say you meditate,
but you end up quietly thinking.
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That is thinking,
not meditating.
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Thinking good thoughts does not mean
you meditate well.
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Meditation is
a state of absence of thoughts.
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If your thinking stops,
most of your suffering will go away.
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But once you try it,
you will know your thinking does not stop.
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Naturally, your thinking is amplified
by 2, 3, 10 times more.
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So when you are meditating,
your body may be still,
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but you are
always thinking.
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So how do you stop thinking?
Because if you intend to stop thinking,
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that intention itself gets
amplified.
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That is why the old teachers told us
this:
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There's dust
flying all over the room.
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And we don't see it well.
It is almost invisible.
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But if there's a ray of sunlight coming
through the room,
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we suddenly realize
that a lot of dust is floating around.
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And we take a cloth or duster
and try to dust it off.
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We realize
that we are actually creating more dust.
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Then, what do we do?
We just have to let it be.
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As time passes,
most of the dust will gradually settle.
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So basically, what they're saying is
that we constantly live
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in a flux of thoughts and distractions,
but we don't realize it
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because we lack a single ray of light
to actually illuminate them.
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So, the fact that you actually sit down
and start realizing
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how dusty the room in your mind is,
is not a failure in the meditation.
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It's actually a process
of meditating on that recognition.
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It's the same as seeing that single ray
of light illuminating all that dust.
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That first realization
that "I live amidst all this dust,
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in these distracting thoughts".
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Then you start engaging in a kind
of performance-oriented meditation,
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in which you want to do meditation
better and faster.
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Thereby creating more distractions
and letting dust fly even more.
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You have to just
let it be.
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But it doesn't really settle that quickly
because it just flies around.
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That's why the strategy is
to focus your thoughts on one thing.
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The easiest thing to focus your thoughts
on is your breath.
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Basically, it is a strategy
of focusing
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on the inhalation and exhalation
of your breath.
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In Pali, it is called Ānāpāna.
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Another strategy that came up
during Zen Buddhist tradition is a Koan,
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just to focus
on one single thought.
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Or one single question
like "Who am I?".
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Just focus
on that single question.
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You know,
other thoughts will constantly be there.
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You just let them be.
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The only thing you actually focus
on is that single question.
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For example, say you read a book
in the middle of the forest.
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There are birds tweeting.
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You hear a stream.
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And you hear cars down the road.
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So you can't really focus.
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If the cars were not running,
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if the birds stopped tweeting,
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if the stream stopped running;
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then you could actually focus
in a quiet forest, right?
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But you can't stop those things.
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Just because you stop those externalities
doesn't guarantee that you can focus.
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But if you really focus on the book
and get into the substance,
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birds may tweet,
but you don't pay attention;
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cars may run on the road nearby,
but you don't pay attention,
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nor do you pay attention
to the stream beside you
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because you are really focused;
you are in that zone of focus.
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So, meditation is all about the absence
of thoughts, but from a strategic
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perspective, it's all about focusing
on that one single thought.
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Let's say you focus
on the breath in and breath out.
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So, when the breath comes in
to know that the breath is coming in.
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You are not thinking
about the breath coming in.
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This is a kind of sensory experience:
the flow of the air as it actually travels
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over your skin, through your nostrils,
as it enters your lungs.
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And you also feel that kind of tactile
sense of the breath and leaf in your nose.
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This is experiencing,
not thinking.
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You are just experiencing
that breath.
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You might think of your mother
at that time.
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But once you actually get distracted
by the thought of your mother,
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you start thinking,
"Oh, what about the time we went
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on a picnic with my mom?
What about the time
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we had an argument with her?"
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So, you actually create narratives
around those thoughts.
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This becomes a distraction.
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So, you can't really stop the thought
of your mother rising.
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But despite whatever thoughts come to you,
you keep focusing on the breath.
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Basically, do not pay attention
or give energy to that thought.
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And then the thoughts
kind of dissipate.
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Then other thoughts will come.
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You'll think about coffee.
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But nevertheless,
you focus on the breath.
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Then the thought of coffee dissipates.
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So you will have countless thoughts
rise and fall, rise and fall,
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as long as you don't pay attention
to them.
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But once you start actually doing it,
when you think of coffee,
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you kind of follow it
and create a story out of it;
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"What kind of coffee do I want?
With whom do I want this coffee?".
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At that time, you have already lost
that focus on your breath.
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Because your attention can only focus
on one thing at a time.
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If you focus on here,
you lose focus there.
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And if you pay attention there,
you lose attention here.
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Thoughts are just that;
as long as you don't pay attention
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to them, they will just rise and fall,
rise and fall.
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So, when we say we are distracted,
those random thoughts are
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not distractions in themselves.
It really becomes a source of distraction
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when you start creating stories
around those thoughts.
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So, if you keep practicing, the time
you can sustain focus on a single breath
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before getting distracted can increase
to 1 minute, then 5 minutes,
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and then 10 minutes.
It will gradually increase.
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So, the attention span
on that single breath will continue
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to increase,
and you will experience less distraction.
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Then you start actually gaining autonomy.
You are no longer beholden
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to your past memories
or future hopes.
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The reason you get angry, you get sad,
you feel this emotion and that is
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because all these past memories come
haunting you.
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You become fearful, anxious, and nervous
because you are thinking about the future.
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So, if you are not captured
by thoughts of the future,
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then all your anxiety and nervousness
will go away.
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So that is why we teach to be awakened
in the here and now,
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without being captured
by your past memories
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or the future
that has not come yet.
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So even if a thought
about Buddha comes unbidden to you
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while meditating,
that is just another distraction.
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So, just singular focus on that breath;
everything else is a distraction.
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If it's a Zen Koan,
anything that falls outside the scope
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of exploring that question is
a distraction.
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And so, in that state, even what you read
in the scriptures, sutras,
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or even Buddha's own teachings
are just distractions.
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That is why there is a teaching:
if you see a Buddha,
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if you think about the Buddha,
kill the Buddha.
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If you encounter your teacher,
kill the teacher.
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So, we don't really mean to
literally kill them,
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but obviously, we are saying is
to not pay them any mind.
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They are just distractions.
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Sorry for the lengthy response.
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(Sunim/Questioner Laughter)
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(Questioner) Thanks.
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(Audience Applause)