Somebody comes into the Zen center with a lighted cigarette walks up to the Buddha statue blows smoke in its face and drops ashes on its lap. You are standing there. What can you do This is a problem that Zen Master Seung Sahn is fond of posing to his American students who attend his Zen centers. Dropping Ashes on the Buddha is a delightful irreverent and often hilariously funny living record of the dialogue between Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn and his American students. Consisting of dialogues stories formal Zen interviews Dharma speeches and letters using the Zen Masters actual words in spontaneous living interaction with his students this book is a fresh presentation of the Zen teaching method of amp8220instant dialogueamp8221 between Master and student which through the use of astonishment and paradox leads to an understanding of ultimate reality.