Finalizing the Summer Retreat B.E.2555

Supreme Patriarch Beopjeon Sunim’s Dharma Teaching

The Lion’s Roar Tears Up Our Mind

When Master Ye xian gui sheng (叶县归省)prostrated to MasterFen yang shan zhao (汾阳善昭),the Master Ye asked the following question: “What did you just realize for you to prostrate to me like that?”

“This prostration demonstrates that I am willing to give my life to the practice.”

When Master Jing shan zhi yu(径山智愚)heard this story some years later, he said “The phoenix will give birth to a phoenix and the lion will give birth to a lion.”

The Lion’s Roar (The Buddha in certain occasions represented himself as the lion and described his Dharma as the lion’s roar in the spiritual domain) is explained in the book of Jeungdoga as follows:

Just like the roar of the lion, your words demonstrate there is nothing that you fear

As soon as people hear his roar, their brain will tear apart.

As soon as one hears the Dharma teaching by the Master Yong Jia Xuan Jue, their brain will tear apart. When we separate the world’s phenomenon in to this and that category with a doubtful mind, we will fall into the abyss of the foxes. This is because our mind creates appalling opinions. Just as the corpse of the lion is eaten away by the worms living inside it, a seemingly small obsession in our mind will eventually grow to swallow us whole. As such, if one listens to the Dharma with the correct mind, even nonsense could be heard as The Lion’s Roar; if one listens to the Dharma with the incorrect mind, even The Lion’s Roar may be heard merely as a whimpering of a fox.

The Master Deoksan used to mercilessly beat anyone entering into his room, and Master Imje used to immediately yell at students when they entered into his room. The true Lion’s Roar may only be heard as a cry of a fox if the hearer is not ready for the Dharma. This is the reason why Seon masters in Korea said, developing Bodhichitta is a matter of great importance and great compassion is the way of the great Bodhisattva.

After completing this summer retreat, you may be faced with new challenges where you feel you can not go on. But, you much check your own practices and examine whether you can roar like a lion or whimper like a fox. 

When the lion throws itself up into the air,

they will change the position of their body

before falling back down to the ground.

        The hawk never misses their age old nest.