Why Can’t You Hear?

This was not in the past,
Is not in the present,
And will not be in the future.
But it is not nonexistent.
What is this?

The sound from the bamboo pipe is made neither by the bamboo
Nor by the wind from the player's mouth.

Something spiritual is acting in front of your eyes.
Why can't you see it while hearing it?
Hearing the sound in front of your eyes,
Why don't you know what it is?

As you are like open eyed blind men,
You still can't see the clear thing in front of your eyes
Just as you couldn't.

Though you say,
"Hearing, you hear without hearing. Seeing, you see without seeing.",
You will not be able to evade thirty blows.

How can you escape from this net of karma which is hundreds of kalpas?

Written by Master Subul Sunim of Ahnkook Zen Center
Translated by Boo Ahm (Song Soo-kyong)

Monthly Magazine SEOUL(April 2008)