The Story of Zen Master Kyong Ho
as told by Zen Master Seung Sahn

At the age of fourteen Kyong Ho began to study the sutras. He was a brilliant student; he heard one and understood ten. By the time he was twenty-three he mastered all the principle sutras. Soon many monks began to gather around him, and he became a famous sutra master.

One day Kyong Ho decided to pay a visit to his first teacher. After a few days of walking, he passed through a small village. There were no people in the streets. Immediately he knew something was wrong. As he walked through the main street, he noticed a sign. "Danger: Cholera. If you value your life, go away."

This sign struck Kyong Ho like a hammer, and his mind became very clear. "I am supposed to be a great sutra master; I already understand all of the Buddha's teachings. Why am I so afraid?"

On his way home Kyong Ho thought deeply. Finally he summoned all his students and said, "As many of the sutras as I have mastered, I still haven't attained true understanding. I can't teach you any more. I will not teach again until I have attained enlightenment."

All the students went away except one. Kyong Ho shut himself in his room. Once a day the student brought him food, leaving the platter outside the closed door. All day long Kyong Ho sat or did lying-down Zen. He meditated on a kong-an which he had seen in a Zen book: "Before the donkey leaves, the horse has already arrived." "I am as good as dead," he thought; "if I can't get beyond life and death I vow never to leave this room."

Three months passed.

One day the student went to a nearby town for food. There he happened to meet a Mr. Lee, who was a close friend of Kyong Ho. Mr. Lee said, "What is your Master doing nowadays?"

The student said, "He is doing hard training. He only eats, sits and lies down."

"If he just eats, sits and lies down, he will be reborn as a cow."

The young monk got very angry. "How can you say that? My teacher is the greatest scholar in Korea! I'm positive that he'll go to heaven after he dies!"

Mr. Lee said, "That's no way to answer me."

"Why not? How should I have answered?"

"I would have said, 'If my teacher is reborn as a cow, he will be a cow with no nostrils.'"

"A cow with no nostrils? What does that mean?"

"Go ask your teacher."

When he returned to the temple, the student knocked on Kyong Ho's door and told him of his conversation with Mr. Lee. As soon as he had finished, to his amazement, Kyong Ho opened the door and, with great luminous eyes, walked out of the room.

This is the poem which he wrote upon attaining the great enlightenment:

I heard about the cow with no nostrils
and suddenly the whole universe is my home.
Yon Am Mountain lies flat under the road.
A farmer, at the end of his work, is singing.


This story is taken from Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, by Zen Master Seung Sahn, edited by Stephen Mitchell.

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