Student: Sifu, you carry such a heavy responsibility, yet you face everything with such ease. I truly admire you…
Sifu: That’s because I don’t have your first assumption.
Student: But you have several temples to manage…
Sifu: No—there’s nothing to manage. A temple is for practice. What truly needs to be ‘managed’ is one’s own mind. When afflictions arise, transform them as soon as possible. Turning afflictions into harmony—that is the best management.
Commentary
When the elder lay practitioners of Hae Su Zen Center entrusted the temple to me, they said,
“Sifu, out of compassion, we are handing this burden over to you.”
I replied, “I do not accept it as a burden—I accept it as a path to liberation.”
Our life is meant for liberation— to rediscover our true joy and freedom.