You Are Attached!
One evening, after a Dharma talk at Yale University, a student asked Seung Sahn Soen-sa, "What is clear mind?"
Soen-sa held up his watch and said, "What is this?"
The student said, "A watch."
Soen-sa said, "You are attached to name and form. This is not a watch."
"What is it?"
"You already understand."
The student was silent for a moment, then again asked, "What is it?"
Soen-sa said, "You already understand! You can see it, I can see it." (Laughter from the audience.)
The student said, "Thank you."
Soen-sa said, "That's all?" (Laughter.) "What did you understand?"
"I don't know."
Soen-sa pointed to a cup and said, "This is a cup. But the Diamond Sutra says, 'All things that appear in the world are transient. If you view all appearances as non-appearance, then you will see the true nature of everything.' So if you are attached to the form of this cup, you don't understand the truth. If you say this is a cup, you are attached to name and form. But if you say it is not a cup, you are attached to emptiness. Is this a cup or not?"
The student was silent. Then he said, "I'm stuck."
Soen-sa said, "Okay, I will answer for you." He picked up the cup and drank the water in it. "Only this." Then, after a few moments, he said, "All things have names and forms. But who made these names, who made these forms? The sun doesn't say 'My name is sun.' People say, 'This is the sun, this is the moon, this is a mountain, this is a river.' Then who made names and forms? They are made by thinking."
"Who made thinking?"
Soen-sa laughed and said, "Just you made thinking!" (Laughter.) "So Zen mind means returning to original mind. Original mind is before thinking. After thinking, there are opposites. Before thinking, there are no opposites. This is the Absolute. There are no words or speech. If you open your mouth, you are wrong. So before thinking is clear mind. In clear mind there is no inside and no outside. What color is that wall? White. This mind. Only white. My mind and this white become one. What is this? This is a watch. Your answer was correct. But when I said, 'You are attached to name and form,' you soon began to think: 'Oh, what was wrong with my answer? What answer can I give that won't be attached to name and form?' This kind of thinking. You were attached to what I said. But I said that only to test your mind. If you weren't attached to my words, you could have said to me, 'You are attached to my words.' This is a good answer. I say to you, 'You are attached to name and form.' Then you say to me, 'You are attached to my words.'" (Laughter.) "When you asked me, 'What is it?' I answered, 'Already you understand.'" Soen-sa laughed and continued, "This is before thinking.
"So if you cut off all thinking, the universe and you become one. Your substance and the substance of the whole universe are the same. So this cup is you, you are this cup. They are not two. If you are thinking, they are different.
"Now I have explained everything. So I ask you: Are this cup and you the same or different?"
The student said, "You already know."
Soen-sa said, "I don't know. So I am asking you."
"You already understand."
"So I ask you!"
"There's clear water in it."
"You are attached to clear water."
"You are attached to clear water!" (Laughter.)
Soen-sa laughed and said, "Very good! Now you understand. The cup is filled with clear water. The wall is white. Zen mind is everyday mind. That's all."
