How Can the Buddha Be Smiling?
May 5, 1973
Dear Soen-sa-nim,
Tonight was Special Zen. No one was sleeping. When we finished, Alban walked around with the stick and hit everyone very hard. Good Zen Master. Tonight we had five customers; sometimes we have none.
My father wants more kim-chee.
Today I went to many stores and bought a lot of food. You are not here-no good. I like you to help me.
I hope you are well. Everyone here is okay. We eat a lot, sit Zen a lot, say mantras, think a lot. Spring is here, the flowers are blooming. The Buddha is smiling.
Bobby
May 14, 1973
Dear Bobby,
Thank you for your letter, books, and pictures. So far I am very well. We had a wonderful ceremony on Buddha's birthday. More than two hundred people attended.
I am very glad to hear that everyone in Providence is sitting Zen earnestly and that Alban is doing a good job as Zen Master. I am always thinking and worrying about you, because you have a hard job taking care of everyone at the Zen Center. But I know you are doing very well. I will be back as soon as I can to help you.
You said, "We eat a lot, sit Zen a lot, say mantras, think a lot." This is a very fine sentence. But I have one question for you: Were these actions done inside your mind or outside it?
Your next sentences were also very fine. But:
1) Originally everything is empty. Where does spring come from?
2) The real Buddha has no name or form. How can theBuddha be smiling?
Now if you answer, I will hit you thirty times. And if you don't answer, I will still hit you thirty times.
Why?
A wooden chicken is swimming in the water.
A stone fish is playing in the sky.
Form-body and karma-body come from thinking.
Dharma-body is pure and clear and infinite in time and space.
On the water of a thousand rivers, a thousand moons are reflected.
There are no clouds over ten thousand miles,
only blue sky for ten thousand miles.
See you soon.
S.S.
