BST516 - The Mirror of Zen (3 Units)
No Prerequisites
Textbook: The Mirror of Zen by Beop Joeng
9 week course
From the preface: "If you were to comb the mountains and valleys of Korea, polling every meditating monk and nun and hermit and ascetic as to the most necessary, essential, inseparable compendium of teachings apart from the Buddha's sutras themselves, chances are that most of them would choose The Mirror of Zen. It is by far the most quoted, most cited, most referred-to text in the tea rooms and teaching halls of the Zen temples in Korea."
Its author was Zen Master So Sahn who was born in 1520 in what is now North Korea. He became a monk at 21 and during his lifetime he assumed leadership positions at both the Zen and Sutra schools of Korean Buddhism. For this book, he chose 86 teachings from the Buddhist canon as the essence of of Zen. He also added commentaries, gathas, and capping words for our benefit.
In this course we will study this great book. The class will consist of reading assignments, video lectures, forum activities and quizzes. The professor will be also be available. The goals for this class are to introduce us to this great book and ultimately to learn from a great Zen Master in the Korean tradition.
Half of what we know is wrong. This isn't a problem. The problem is that we don't know which half. Because of this, we create many dramas and dukkha for ourselves. It doesn't need to be this way.
This course examines several major schools of Buddhist thought, with a focus on how we know if what we think we know is accurate. It surveys how we should investigate our experience, our sense of self, the six realms, four major philosophical schools of thought (Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind-Only, and Madhyamaka), resulting in Seung Sahn's modern way of putting it all together (the Zen Circle).