Not Difficult, Not Easy
In May, 1975, a student decided to move into the newly formed New Haven Zen Center. He wrote to a man with whom he had studied Zen and asked him what he thought of the decision. The Zen teacher wrote back at length and said, among other things, "Zen training is hard work. Make no mistake about this. There is no easy way. Dogen says, 'Those who seek the easy way do not seek the true way.'"
The student asked Seung Sahn Soen-sa for his advice. Soen-sa said, "If you want the easy way, this is desire. But if you want the difficult way, this too is desire. Zen is letting go of all your desires. Then you will find the true way.
"This teacher says that Zen is difficult. I say that Zen is very easy. But we are saying the same thing. Buddha said, 'All things have Buddha-nature.' Jo-ju, when he was asked if a dog has Buddha-nature, said, 'No!' Is Buddha right and Jo-ju wrong? These are just two different ways of teaching.
"Why do I teach that Zen is easy? Many Zen students in the United States have Difficulty Sickness. 'Oh, Zen is very difficult! We must do zazen and sesshins all the time. Then maybe in ten or twenty years we will attain enlightenment.' So when I show them that Zen is easy, I cure their attachment to difficulty. When Jo-ju was teaching, many students were attached to Buddha and Buddha-nature. So: 'Does the dog have Buddha-nature?' 'NO!!!!!!' This is Jo-ju's way.
"But if you think that Zen is difficult or easy, these words become a hindrance and you can't understand Zen. I always teach that if you are not thinking, just like this is Buddha. 'Difficult' is thinking; 'easy' is thinking. You mustn't be attached to words. If you are attached to Jo-ju's No, you can't understand Jo-ju's mind. If you are attached to my words, you can't understand my 'easy way.'
"Once there was a famous Buddhist layman named Busol. He was a deeply enlightened man; his wife too was enlightened, and so were his son and daughter. A man came up to Busol one day and asked, 'Is Zen difficult or not?' Busol said, 'Oh, it's very difficult. It's like taking a stick and trying to hit the moon.'
"The man was puzzled and began to think. 'If Zen is so difficult, how did Busol's wife attain enlightenment?' So he went and asked her the same question. She said, 'It's the easiest thing in the world. It's just like touching your nose when you wash your face in the morning.'
"By now the man was thoroughly confused. 'I don't understand. Is Zen easy? Is it difficult? Who is right?' So he asked their son. The son said, 'Zen is not difficult and not easy. On the tips of a hundred blades of grass is the Patriarchs' meaning.'
"'Not difficult? Not easy? What is it then?' So the man went to the daughter and asked her. 'Your father, your mother, and your brother all gave me different answers. Who is right?' She said, 'If you make difficult, it is difficult. If you make easy, it is easy. But if you don't think, the truth is just as it is. Tell me now-how are you keeping your mind at this very moment?'
"The man was totally confused. Suddenly the daughter hit him and said, 'Where are difficult and easy now?' He understood.
"So you mustn't think that Zen is difficult or that it is easy. Zen is just as it is."
