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deCypher



Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube
#19701049 - 03/15/14 05:52 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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Hwansan Sunim is anything but your typical Harvard grad. After college, he earned a post-graduate degree in psychology at NYU, and then rerouted his life to South Korea, where he became a Buddhist monk and spent 25 years in a monastery studying the principles of Seon Buddhism.
A disciple of Korean Seon Master Songdam — the most respected Buddhist Zen master in Korea — Sunim has devoted his life to the Seon way. And despite his traditional lifestyle, Sunim — or Ted Park, as he is known in English — is anything but out of touch with the modern world: he now shares the teachings of Seon Buddhism with a global audience via his YouTube channel, “Hwansan Sunim: Son Meditation for the Modern World.”
“Seon meditation aims to eradicate the very roots of suffering, as well as awaken us to our infinite human potential,” Sunim explained in a recent video. “This, I believe, is what the Buddha’s teachings can do for us in the 21st century.”
Sunim’s instructional videos are roughly 45 minutes long and conducted in English, and present the Seon teachings in an engaging, accessible manner. Watch the first chapter of Sunim’s video series in the clip above to learn more about the principles of Seon Buddhism.
http://disinfo.com/2014/03/meet-harvard-educated-monk-whos-bringing-ancient-wisdom-youtube/
Thoughts? Has anyone here had experience with Seon meditation before? How effective do you think it might be at "eradicating the roots of suffering"?
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
 
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Endure
The Anal Demon



Registered: 10/17/13
Posts: 4,906
Loc: New York
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: deCypher]
#19702685 - 03/16/14 03:16 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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one of the first things he says about meditating not being useful/should not be used for healing is bulshit.
personally, i find guided imagery meditation to be extremely good for relieiving stress, anxiety, enlightenment, healing, suffering etc..
-------------------- Im only aloud to post once an hour. Because 'Sell Your Soul' doesn't like me. so if I am responding to you, that means you are above of the utmost importance
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deCypher



Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: Endure]
#19702860 - 03/16/14 05:05 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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Endure said: one of the first things he says about meditating not being useful/should not be used for healing is bulshit.
Sunim's own quote from his video is "Seon meditation aims to eradicate the very roots of suffering"... perhaps he means that other types of meditation (not Seon meditation) are not as useful as the type of meditation he is advocating.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
 
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zzripz
Stranger


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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: deCypher]
#19702919 - 03/16/14 05:48 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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First thing I notice is the conformity of the setting they are in. All sat the same. The subdued colours. How shocked people would be if you stood up, and just wanted to do your own thing. How the "one who is enlightened" and/or "can get you there" sat at the front has all his hair cut off. Who else has their hair severely cut like this. People in the army, and in concentration camps, skinheads, and people who live in rough parts of town who wanna 'look 'ard'. It is a kind of de-feminization, because long hair is often associated with women, and even women in very patriarchal cultures have to cover their hair.
He emphsizes that meditation 'MUST BE' for 'enlightenment'. This is telling you clearly this:
YOU ARE NOT ENLIGHTENED NOW. BUT IF YOU FOLLOW ME YOU WILL BE
So this is what will keep you sat sitting like a stone Buddha possibly for hours in your day, deisring to get 'enlightened'. Oh, but it mustn't be called desire, ohhhh no
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HeartAndMind


Registered: 01/09/10
Posts: 1,410
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: zzripz]
#19703017 - 03/16/14 06:43 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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Agree with zzripz. Seems like he's saying that enlightenment is something to be reached and to reach it you must do something, meditate. Imo it can't be further from truth.
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jimboob
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: HeartAndMind]
#19703480 - 03/16/14 10:05 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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I agree that dogma is bad and that all that traditional stuff isn't nessecary, but they're making a video (with decent production values). Of course it would be rude if someone got up because the viewer would be distracted for a moment.
The traditional aspects also helps to distance their practices from all the corny meditation fads out there, I feel.
Also, he's not sitting above them, just in front of them. Would you rather he trade places with someone from the audience? That'd be odd.
I didn't watch the whole thing but he seems pretty down to earth as far as western Buddhists go. I think what he meant by meditation must be for enlightenment was that enlightenment should be your ultimate goal and intention. You can't really do it with the intent of eliminating depression of anxiety or your belly ache, but at you peel back and strip away your ego those things will be addressed along the way.
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deCypher



Registered: 02/10/08
Posts: 56,232
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: HeartAndMind] 2
#19704413 - 03/16/14 01:46 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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zzripz said: He emphsizes that meditation 'MUST BE' for 'enlightenment'.
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HeartAndMind said: Agree with zzripz. Seems like he's saying that enlightenment is something to be reached and to reach it you must do something, meditate. Imo it can't be further from truth.
At least according to Zen Buddhism, the meditation IS enlightenment during the practice of it. From another post I thought quite informative:
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r72rock said:
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deCypher said: As far as I was aware, enlightenment in Buddhism is considered to be the state of being free from desire and/or suffering. Are you saying that during the practice of zazen, I will be free from both desire and suffering? If not, how are you defining enlightenment?
This is kind of tricky. I can only speak from the Soto Zen lineage because that's what I was taught and practice. (The two most popular Zen schools are Soto and Rinzai, which is what Watts commonly talked about. Soto focuses on the meditation aspect, while Rinzai focuses heavily on Koans.)
I commonly hear Zennies say, "Zen is Buddhism, but Buddhism isn't Zen." Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, didn't emphasis this idea of enlightenment because he said that people in Japan who studied Buddhism at the time had this skewed view of Enlightenment being some magical state of bliss where one feels no pain. Dogen also said that a lot of the stuff (like reincarnation, Gods, afterlife, enlightenment being this type of state, etc...) was sort of "grafted on" afterwards.
Enlightenment isn't stressed it Zen because according to Dogen, that's what allows people to become more attached to ideas these ideas and concepts. Satori (those bliss states) he says may happen, but that they pass just like everything else, and people just become fixated on them like anything else in life. So because of this, enlightenment isn't stressed at all because it's just another hindrance.
Dogen also emphasized that since there is no-self, then there is no-one that could ever be enlightened. Since there's no one to be enlightened, there can only be enlightened activity. Zazen is just supposed to be a true expression of life at any moment without judgement.
So, I guess to sum up briefly, Zen says enlightenment is while you're practicing, and the goal is to have one's life be their practice. It's not this idea that one'll enter this state of bliss free from desire and suffering, but instead one will be okay with it, accept the pains of being human without taking it personally.
-------------------- We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
 
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HeartAndMind


Registered: 01/09/10
Posts: 1,410
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: deCypher]
#19706596 - 03/16/14 10:32 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
deCypher said:
Quote:
r72rock said:
Quote:
deCypher said: As far as I was aware, enlightenment in Buddhism is considered to be the state of being free from desire and/or suffering. Are you saying that during the practice of zazen, I will be free from both desire and suffering? If not, how are you defining enlightenment?
This is kind of tricky. I can only speak from the Soto Zen lineage because that's what I was taught and practice. (The two most popular Zen schools are Soto and Rinzai, which is what Watts commonly talked about. Soto focuses on the meditation aspect, while Rinzai focuses heavily on Koans.)
I commonly hear Zennies say, "Zen is Buddhism, but Buddhism isn't Zen." Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen, didn't emphasis this idea of enlightenment because he said that people in Japan who studied Buddhism at the time had this skewed view of Enlightenment being some magical state of bliss where one feels no pain. Dogen also said that a lot of the stuff (like reincarnation, Gods, afterlife, enlightenment being this type of state, etc...) was sort of "grafted on" afterwards.
Enlightenment isn't stressed it Zen because according to Dogen, that's what allows people to become more attached to ideas these ideas and concepts. Satori (those bliss states) he says may happen, but that they pass just like everything else, and people just become fixated on them like anything else in life. So because of this, enlightenment isn't stressed at all because it's just another hindrance.
Dogen also emphasized that since there is no-self, then there is no-one that could ever be enlightened. Since there's no one to be enlightened, there can only be enlightened activity. Zazen is just supposed to be a true expression of life at any moment without judgement.
So, I guess to sum up briefly, Zen says enlightenment is while you're practicing, and the goal is to have one's life be their practice. It's not this idea that one'll enter this state of bliss free from desire and suffering, but instead one will be okay with it, accept the pains of being human without taking it personally.

On that I agree absoutely! I didn't watch whole video which you posted btw.
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Kickle
Wanderer


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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: deCypher]
#19708976 - 03/17/14 03:17 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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deCypher said: Thoughts? Has anyone here had experience with Seon meditation before? How effective do you think it might be at "eradicating the roots of suffering"?
watching it now; speaking about his master:
"he had the courage of his convictons, he did what he believed in, he lived up to his beliefs."
the speaker's taken name means:
"return to the mountain"
The question posed: what could enlightenment bring? why would anyone pursue it? what's wrong with being a normal everyday human being trying to do their best?
if all we can know are thoughts, emotions, physical sensations all rooted in the body then we must live in fear of the loss of the body in fear of death
so what could enlightenment bring? enlightenment brings release from that fear by realizing your nature
how does the breathing meditation help here? breathing leads to invigoration, invigoration leads to deeper breathing, deeper breathing leads to further invigoration, which leads to deeper breathing and soon you are deep within yourself
bundle this with counting and now there is a way to develop concentration in the depth
he goes on to speak about newer vs older ideas of concentration new ideas on concentration involve a target, a thing to focus on to isolate out, to ignore all else until only one thing is seen this often results in tension and is stereotyped visually a furrowed brow, rubbing of the temples, shifting glasses it is a straining type of concentration
older ideas of concentration revolve around settling the mind like a lake in the wind with choppy water you cannot see very far into its depths but once the lake has calmed and settled you can look much deeper there is greater clarity once the lake has settled what is below the surface is in much better focus
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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Kickle
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: Kickle]
#19708988 - 03/17/14 03:21 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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I thought it was a well done speech. I was putting together the reasoning for the technique before he'd say it, but primarily because his lead ins were so full of context for the next element that it was easy to see where he was going. I think that's the ideal way to teach in this format. Its best when understandable by all sorts.
I liked it thanks for posting
-------------------- Why shouldn't the truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. -- Mark Twain
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r72rock
Maybe so. Maybe not.




Registered: 01/06/09
Posts: 1,327
Loc: Chicago
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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: deCypher]
#19715739 - 03/18/14 08:51 PM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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Pretty cool video. I don't see what the appeal to "harvard-educated" does , but I overall liked this. I'm not exposed much to the Seon sect, so this was cool. Thanks for sharing.
-------------------- Current favorite candy: Peanut Butter Kisses
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akira_akuma
Φύσις κρύπτεσθαι ὕψιστος φιλεῖ


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Re: Meet The Harvard-Educated Monk Who’s Bringing Ancient Wisdom To YouTube [Re: r72rock]
#19721995 - 03/20/14 12:51 AM (9 years, 11 months ago) |
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to note: it's considered a necessity for one to have a "master" or direct teacher, in order to achieve an "enlightened state of being".
it's considered a FACT among practitioners that you need to "follow" i order to really enact a change in being. this is why teachers of Eastern religions are adamant in seeking a wise teacher to whom you surrender your beliefs to, in order to follow. this is why teachers tell you to do certain things and then NOT follow certain (maybe similar) things.
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