Seun was a Zen teacher of the Soto sect. While he was still a student, his father died, ordering him to take care of his old mother.
Every time he went to the meditation hall, Seun took his mother with him. Since she accompanied him even when he visited monasteries, he could not live with the monks. Therefore, he had to build a small house where he lived and took care of his mother. He copied sutras and Buddhist poetry, and thereby earned a little food.
When Seun bought fish for his mother, the people made fun of him, since Buddhist monks are not allowed to eat fish. Seun didn't pay attention to it, but it hurt the mother to watch people laugh at her son. Finally, she told him: “I have decided to become a nun. I can be a vegetarian too." So she did, and the son and mother began to study together.
Seun loved music and skillfully played the harp; his mother also played it. Usually on full moon nights they played together. One evening a young woman passing by heard this music. Deeply moved by the performance, she invited Seun to her house the next evening to play for her. He agreed. A few days later, Seun met her on the street and thanked her for her hospitality. They started laughing at him; it turned out that he was visiting a street woman.
One day Seun went to lecture in a distant temple. Returning home a few months later, he no longer found his mother alive. Friends did not know where to look for him, so the funeral had already begun. Seun walked up to the coffin and tapped it with his staff.
“Mom, your son is back,” he said.
“I’m glad you’re back, son,” he answered for his mother.
“I’m glad too,” Seun responded, and then announced to the crowd. — The ceremony is over, you can bury the body.
When Seun was already old, he knew that his end was near. He asked the disciples to gather near him in the morning, saying that he was going to die at noon. After burning incense in front of the portraits of his mother and his old teacher, he wrote down the following verses:
I lived fifty-six years as best I could, following my path through this world. Now the rain has stopped, the clouds have dispersed, the full moon is quietly shining in the blue sky... The disciples gathered near him read the sutra aloud, and under these sacred words Seun walked away.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru