Seung Sahn

Bobbie Rhodes – Zen Master Soeng Hyang – told me this story about the Korean teacher, Seung Sahn:

“This time we were driving from Boston to Providence, and it was in the evening, in the summer, and a bug hit the windshield. I was driving, and he was sitting in the passenger seat. And the bug looked like it was still alive. But I knew, by the impact, that it must have died. But it was moving from the wind, and he thought it was alive. I said, ‘No, I think it’s dead, Soen Sa Nim.’ He said, ‘No, I think it might be living.’ I said, ‘No, I think it’s dead.’ And he goes, ‘Pull over!’ He almost screamed with so much urgency. ‘Pull over!’ So I pulled over on 95, a major highway, and got out of the car. I lifted the bug off the windshield and showed it to him. It had died. But it was amazing how much he cared about that bug. That was his heart—you know—that was the kind of heart he had. Not to harm. That’s what he always taught. Try to help. Try to relieve suffering.”

Cypress Trees in the Garden: 16, 160, 161-63, 168, 173, 196, 197, 201, 213, 219, 221, 317, 423-37

The Story of Zen: 307