The Korean Buddhist nun Daehaeng Kun Sunim was a renowned Dae Seon Sa or “Great Zen Master.” Following her death in 2012, a number of her dharma talks were published in the anthology Wake Up and Laugh. Her teaching, like that of most Zen elders, is simple, direct, practical, and insightful. This can be seen in a quote from her dharma talk “Unwavering Faith”:
Let go of the idea that some thought or mental state is hindering you, and let go of even the idea that you have to practice diligently; just maintain steady, unwavering faith in your fundamental mind. Because it is inherently endowed with everything, all you have to do is believe in it. — Zen Master Daehaeng1
It’s so easy to get caught up in the notion that a spiritual discipline is “necessary.” When we take on a commitment like daily Centering Prayer, if we miss a day or two, it’s not just a blip — it’s a crisis. We’ve failed! We blew our streak, we dropped the ball, we’ve stained our spirituality with the black mark of indiscipline. What’s so insidious here is how quickly our desire for spiritual freedom turns into an ironic means of deeper bondage. We can take up a practice for the purpose of inner liberation, only to find that the very practice itself has become a kind of trap: a prison that can inspire us to thoughts and feelings of self-judgment over any perceived imperfection or lapse in commitment.
Zen Master Daehaeng offers a simple antidote: just let go, and have faith. Have faith in your own mind, even if it is clouded with distractions and confusion and ignorance. “It is inherently endowed with everything,” she points out. In other words, we already have everything we need.
A contemplative exercise is not something to do to compensate for our failures, but about gently learning to pay attention to the gifts we already carry within us. Nothing is hindering us, nothing is lacking, nothing is getting in the way. Our imperfections are just what they are imperfect parts of the dance of life just like dirt is part of nature. When we simply hold faith in our minds and hearts, we consent to discovering the miracle of who we truly are: luminous, loved, and beautifully alive.
Daehaeng. Wake Up and Laugh: The Dharma Teaching of Zen Master Daehaeng (Kindle edition), p. 50.