Translator Minh Tanh Nguyen Duy Nhien (middle) and researcher Nhat Chieu (right) share with readers - Photo: HO LAM
On the morning of May 24, at Nam Thi House, there was a book launch event called Not Always Like This. with translator Minh Tanh Nguyen Duy Nhien and guest writer and researcher Nhat Chieu.
The conversation revolves around the spirit and Zen school of Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, suggesting practical values for meditation practice, nurturing stability and peace in a turbulent modern world .
You are Buddha and you are ordinary mind
According to the speakers, Zen master Shunryu Suzuki was a Japanese Zen master of the Soto sect. He came to America in 1959 and was the first Japanese to popularize Zen and open a Zen monastery in this country.
Zen master Shunryu Suzuki left behind a legacy of expanding Zen with his books and lectures that were familiar and simple about Zen.
Like many great masters, he did not directly write books, but his dharma talks were later collected, published, and became popular.
Not Always So is a book that collects the Zen master's dharma talks, recorded during his final years at the San Francisco Zen Center.
Each lecture revolves around a different theme in meditation practice and is not presented in any strict order. Each chapter is a short dharma talk, which can be read individually like notes in a practice notebook.
Some articles offer advice on how to breathe while sitting, some discuss the futility of hoping to “become enlightened,” some discuss observing our minds when we are upset or sad, and some remind us to purify our experiences in order to aim for a pure outcome.
As in the article Ordinary Mind, Buddha Mind , when speaking about the true meaning of the practice of sitting meditation (zazen), Zen master Shunryu Suzuki said:
"I am a tree and each of you is also a tree. You should stand on your own. When a tree stands on its own, we call it a Buddha. In other words, when you practice zazen in the true sense, you are actually a Buddha. Sometimes we call it a tree and sometimes we call it a Buddha. 'Buddha', 'tree' or 'you' are all different names for a Buddha."
Book Not Always - Photo: HO LAM
Not always
The English title of the book Not Always So is not always so . This is the secret of Soto Zen, according to Zen master Shunryu Suzuki:
“It can be like that, but it is not always like that. Not bound by words or rules, not too many preconceptions. We actually do something and while doing it, we apply our teachings.”
To explain further, Zen master Shunryu Suzuki gives an example of a famous passage explaining that water is not simply water in Buddhist scriptures:
"For humans water is water, but for gods water is a precious gem.
For fish, it is their home, but for hell beings or hungry ghosts, it is blood, or maybe fire. When they want to drink, the water turns into fire, and they cannot drink it. The same water is very different for different beings."
Inferring from the idea of Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, according to translator Minh Tanh Nguyen Duy Nhien, in this life, we should not have prejudice against any issue:
"There are sufferings in life, we think there is a reason for it. But sometimes it is not necessarily so. The book will not give readers an exact answer, but only help them have an open mind to look at this life."
Researcher Nhat Chieu said he really likes the title Not Always Like This because it is meditative, free, and unconstrained:
"Usually, when we first approach a problem, we often say and believe that it is completely so. But Southern people have a saying: 'You say it like that but it is not so'. This means that there is no affirmation because life is countless and always takes place in many different directions."
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/khi-ngoi-thien-ban-la-mot-nguoi-binh-thuong-va-cung-la-phat-2025052414263709.htm
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