SONGCHOL’S FIVE BASIC RULES FOR MONKS

SONGCHOL’S FIVE BASIC RULES FOR MONKS

The first is to reduce sleep. If you sleep over four hours a day then you're not really monastic. 

Second, you must stop talking. It doesn’t matter what you are saying, whether it’s good or bad. Talk disrupts concentration on your koan, so you should not talk at all. 

Third, you must eliminate all reading—the Sutras, the records of the predecessors, newspapers, whatever. What you are trying to attain through meditation cannot be expressed even in all of the Tripitaka.  It cannot be expressed in any kind of printed material. If you are to awaken to your true self, then you must rid yourself of everything, including the Dharma Teachings. Buddhism itself becomes an obstruction, it is dust on your mirror. Devote all your energy to your koan and your koan only.

 Fourth, you should neither overeat nor snack. You should eat only enough to keep you healthy. Overeating makes you drowsy, lazy and demented. 

A reduced diet is good for your health and contributes to longevity. 

And fifth, stop traveling. In between the 3-month meditation sessions, everyone is bombing around like a jet. That has to cease. It only interferes with your inner study.

Ven. Tong Songchol (1912~1993), also SeongCheol, one of the great Zen masters in the last century was also called the Living Buddha of Korea.

E141.

28 July 2023