Customer Reviews

Wanting Enlightenment Is a Big Mistake: Teachings of Zen Master Seung San (Shambhala Pocket Classics)

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If you're predisposed to think Zen is esoteric and austere, you won't like this book. If you're drawn to the elegant (and admitedly a little esoteric) simplicity of Zen this is a great read you'll find yourself returning to...

Seung Sahn, also known as Soen Sa Nim to his students, is possibly the most famous exponent of Korean Zen (Son) in the West. His books and the tales they tell, and the tales told about him all point to a man who was supremely comfortable in his own skin and only hoped that others could feel the same comfort in and of themselves.

He was a man who yelled, "Kill the Buddha!" joyfully and at the top of his lungs. He believed that wanting enlightenment---wanting anything---wanting---was the big mistake that keeps us bound to our own sufferings.

This is a collection of short anecdotes and teachings. All are meaningful and surprisingly pithy, even the funniest ones, but what makes this book extraordinary is the inclusion of Seung Sahn's famous, never-before published 1982 letter to South Korea's dictatorial President, Chun Du Hwan. In this letter, Seung Sahn engages in Dharma Combat with a man both infinitely more powerful and infinitely weaker than Sahn himself. The absurdity of Chun's pretension to power is dissected under Sahn's compassionate but unsparing eye. It is said that Chun turned red with impotent rage reading Sahn's letter, one which should stand on equal footing with Martin Luther King's Letter from the Birmingham Jail.

This is a great book. The teaching is simple,straight forward and clear. I recommended it to anyone who is interested in Buddha.

More of his delightful stories, right up there with his other book. highly recommended

Anyone who is interested in Zen will find the lightness and deft handling of the unanswerable questions will make sure they write their name in the front cover of this book. This is a wonderful follow up to Zen Master Seung Sahn's life and teachings.