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Enlightenment, True Self- What is Enlightment?
Enlightenment means "seeing the True Self," that is, perceiving the true nature of your own mind. When you have a sudden awakening to your True Self, you penetrate all eighty-four thousand dharmas. When you see your nature, all your discriminative thoughts will be extinguished and the myriads of things will become as one. It is just like you are able to see everything clearly in broad daylight, when before things were obscure and indistinct in the dark of night. If you can perceive your mind-nature, then all discriminations will disappear.
- What is True Self?
In this True Self, there is immutable integrity. In this True Self, there is eternal happiness. In this True Self, there is great freedom that is devoid of all obstructions. In this True Self, there is true peace that comes from complete impartiality. Such integrity, happiness, freedom, and impartiality cannot be obtained merely through education or wealth, how devoutly you live your life or through your position or sterling reputation. Rather, only a person who has awakened to the True Self can be so blessed.
- Is your stage of enlightenment the same as that of Sakyamuni Buddha?
Enlightenment means that you have seen your original nature. Sakyamuni Buddha got enlightened by seeing his own nature, and all the other Awakened Ones are exactly the same. Since there is no discrimination in the ground of true enlightenment, if anyone claims to have been enlightened on his own without a master, he will be called a devil, a deviant from the true teachings. Therefore for this reason, the Buddha insisted that we need to receive certification from a master who inherited the right Dharma flawlessly, and there can never be such a cock of the walk who insists on self-claimed enlightenment. Therefore in order to leave no room for manipulation or lies in the field of enlightenment, we keep up the tradition of receiving certification from an enlightened predecessor.
- Why should we try to find our True Self?
The first reason we must practice Seon is to escape the endless distressing cycle of birth and death. Birth and death are the most important things to people. Every living creature undergoes birth and death, but it is difficult to explain through words just how much suffering is involved here. We have lived countless of previous lives, died countless of times. If we don’t finish the work of birth and death in this lifetime we will continue to turn the wheel of samsara and experience this suffering for countless of lifetimes to come. It is to solve this work that we have come into this world, there is really nothing more. If we do not set out to solve it then we have missed a rare opportunity in receiving this human body.
The second reason we practice Seon is to allow our perfect wisdom to express itself so that we may find success and happiness for self and others. The ancient sages would say, “Those without fortune are so because they are lacking wisdom.” Without wisdom it is impossible to live well, and things will never go one’s way. Regardless of what one may inherit, be it royal standing or riches, without wisdom one will not be able to keep this. The practice of Seon allows us to use the wisdom that is inherently our own and from this we will naturally find success and good fortune.
- What difference does it make in our lives if we were to get enlightened?
If you are enlightened, then everyday life flows in harmony with the truth, becoming one with nature. You will live a simple life: when you’re thirsty, you drink; when you’re hungry, you eat. But people in this world are always looking for something special, even though there is nothing particularly mystical or “special” about truth itself. If you do not discriminate between self or others, and do not give rise to feelings of arrogance, pride, envy, jealousy, and conflict, then you will live a life of equanimity, enthusiasm, stability, and impartiality, treating the whole world as a single family. This kind of life is the Way and the realm of truth. If you realize the truth, you will live in bliss every day. There will be nothing more special than drinking tea when you’re thirsty, resting when you’re tired, or greeting guests when they visit. These everyday acts will be enough.
- What must we do in order to awaken to the True Self?
First, the most important thing is to meet an authentic, clear-eyed teacher who has awakened to the True Self. It is impossible through one's own power alone to arrive at the mind's true home, which is vast and boundless, profound and recondite. You must meet a clear-eyed teacher and firmly make the vow that you will attain great awakening and see your own true nature. Then all of you must fervently question the following topic, or hwadu, without ever forgetting it:
"What is my True Self before my parents gave birth to me?"
This inquiry is what we call Seon meditation. By constantly maintaining single-minded concentration through Seon meditation, you will arrive at the mind's true home; and simultaneously, displaying marvelous wisdom, you will become one body with the whole human race; one household with all sentient beings and insentient things throughout the entire world. This is how we will be able to bring about great peace. As an ancient sage said, "People live in poverty is because of lack of wisdom." If all people want to be successful, enjoy good fortune and receive blessings each time they are reborn, then they must arrive at the mind’s true home and attain the eye of dazzling wisdom.
Seon Practice- What is Seon Practice?
Seon meditation is the way of practice to reach the original home of our mind. In our original mind, there is no difference between Buddhas and sentient beings. Buddha simply means one who has enlightened to the mind's fullest brightness. A sentient being is one whose mind remains dark and confused, trapped in the heavy cloud of discursive thoughts and discrimination.
Everyone is endowed with mind. Mind functions all the time in one's everyday life. But we have not yet allowed the mind's light to attain its fullest brightness. We are enshrouded in random, distracted thinking and thousands of defilements, controlled by karmic forces. Day after day, we float along, noisily carried away by complex mental states such as pride, arrogance, jealousy, envy, greed, lust, fear, anxiety, and so on.
As we learn to practice Seon meditation and work diligently on our practice, the endless stream of discursive thoughts will eventually run out. Where that stream of thoughts evaporates, the mind’s fundamental radiance shines brightly. Then our mind is brilliant and free, released from all karmic impediments. This enables us to achieve whatever we want in the world.
Any of you can reach your spiritual home in this very life, but only if you put into practice the guidance you receive from a clear-eyed master who has themselves had an authentic insight into their own nature. Having attained insight into your true nature, you can live in bliss in all your future rebirths.
- Why should we practice Seon?
The first reason we must practice Seon is to escape the endless distressing cycle of birth and death. Birth and death are the most important things to people. Every living creature undergoes birth and death, but it is difficult to explain through words just how much suffering is involved here. We have lived countless of previous lives, died countless of times. If we don’t finish the work of birth and death in this lifetime we will continue to turn the wheel of samsara and experience this suffering for countless of lifetimes to come. It is to solve this work that we have come into this world, there is really nothing more. If we do not set out to solve it then we have missed a rare opportunity in receiving this human body.
The second reason we practice Seon is to allow our perfect wisdom to express itself so that we may find success and happiness for self and others. The ancient sages would say, "Those without fortune are so because they are lacking wisdom." Without wisdom it is impossible to live well, and things will never go one's way. Regardless of what one may inherit, be it royal standing or riches, without wisdom one will not be able to keep this. The practice of Seon allows us to use the wisdom that is inherently our own and from this we will naturally find success and good fortune.
- What are the advantages of Seon meditation?
Seon meditation can turn a sentient being into a great sage. By doing Seon, you can obtain great wisdom and live in great freedom and bliss. If you practice meditation with steady regularity, then even though you may not realize your True Self in this rebirth, you can at least see yourself becoming wiser day by day, and you perceive this new-found wisdom integrating seamlessly with a strong sense of responsibility for the welfare of all suffering beings. As the various conflicts of everyday life in the world naturally appear—envy, jealousy, fear, anxiety, and so forth—they will gradually melt away like a spring snow under the emerging sunlight. Then you will live in peace and die in peace and, at the moment of death, you will take on a new body in surroundings better suited to practice. Therefore, you should work hard while you are alive, and generate the aspiration for great enlightenment, so that you will be able to practice in your next life, in better karmic circumstances, in order to achieve the supreme goal of attaining the final liberation of great enlightenment.
- How should we practice in order to awaken to the True Self?
Seon meditation is best practiced by sitting, so you should first learn to sit correctly. Morning and evening, sit comfortably on your sitting mat in half-lotus posture, straighten your back, expand your chest, and place your two hands in your lap below your belly button. You should look six feet in front of you and focus your concentration on your topic of inquiry, the hwadu, at that spot. Concentrate with your eyes open so that you don't succumb to drowsiness or mental fantasizing.
While continuing to sit, learn to extend your practice so that in everyday life, whether you're coming or going, sitting or standing, working or sleeping, you earnestly focus on questioning your hwadu, without ever forgetting it. In this way, if you keep pushing forward again and again with raising a doubt about the hwadu, "What is my True Self before my parents gave birth to me?" and continue bringing it up tens of thousands of times without ever forgetting it, then there will be no space for any distraction to arise.
To give you an example, it is like a mortar in a water mill: if the water wheel is not turning, the mortar will not pound the grain; but once the wheel starts turning, the mortar will pound all day long. In the same way, I tell you to keep pushing forward with the doubt tens of thousands of times, because, once you become trained in this kind of questioning, then all of a sudden you will reach the point when the "true doubt" gets going and the questioning of the hwadu will not cease for even a moment, but will flow continuously. This single-mindedness of doubt will keep flowing along day and night just like a flowing stream. Then, when you are sitting in meditation, you will be unaware whether it is day or night and you will forget everything you see and hear. In this way you become completely absorbed in the single-mindedness of your questioning of the hwadu. As time passes, there will ultimately be an instant when you see something or hear something and the hwadu will unexpectedly shatter.
At that point, the eye of dazzling wisdom naturally opens and will remain forever brilliant for millions of years. You will then guide all people to the truth. A great teacher in both heaven and earth, you will be completely free and unhindered. In this way, when you reach the mind's true home without taking a single step, then you will be able to enjoy forever glorious freedom and happiness for yourself, and you will bring world peace to all humankind.
- What is a hwadu?
Our body is made of the Four Elements: earth, water, fire, and wind. Lose one breath, whether old or young, and you will die and decay in 3 days. Nobody wants to keep a corpse at home; they need to be buried or cremated. So, this physical body is not True Self. Everybody was born from their parents. Then, "What is my True Self before my parents gave birth to me?" We call this a hwadu, a topic of inquiry.
- What are the advantages of Ganhwa Seon as compared to other meditations?
The major difference between Ganhwa Seon and other forms of meditation is the special and important component called "questioning samadhi." In Ganhwa Seon, your questioning and the hwadu form one great doubt-mass, until the questioning flows uninterrupted and you become unaware whether it is day or night. Then, unexpectedly, in a single moment of seeing or hearing, the doubt-mass shatters and you experience enlightenment.
Other meditations are just observing without any questioning dimension. With other meditations such as Vipassana, you may also practice the deeds of Bodhisattvas with pure compassion, but not strong enough to achieve great enlightenment. You may practice other meditations for countless years, you would still have a lower level of enlightenment. It is impossible to achieve the supreme truth through these methods. It is only possible through Ganhwa Seon to realize the highest truth that all the Buddhas and awakened ones have transmitted down to the present without interruption.
Sakyamuni Buddha also questioned True Self in order to solve the problem of life and death. He wrestled thoroughly, entered single-minded Samadhi and didn't even notice that 6 years passed and birds had made nests on his head. Single-minded Samadhi must continue like this if there truly is going to be 'sudden awakening' because otherwise a mountain of karma still remains. You must die in the state of single-minded Samadhi and come alive again. Only your hwadu will flow like running water, day and night, you will become oblivious whether it is spring, summer or fall, even several years may pass. As this state matures, you will not remember what you see or hear, you will not know whether it is day or night. Anybody who is able to keep single-minded Samadhi with their hwadu can enter the gate of truth without taking even one step. This wonderful practice is the marrow of Ganhwa Seon.
Life- What is the fundamental purpose of human life?
Birth and death are the most important things to people. Every living creature undergoes birth and death, but it is difficult to explain through words just how much suffering is involved here. We have lived countless of previous lives, died countless of times. If we don’t finish the work of birth and death in this lifetime we will continue to turn the wheel of samsara and experience this suffering for countless of lifetimes to come. It is to solve this work that we have come into this world, there is really nothing more. If we do not set out to solve it then we have missed a rare opportunity in receiving this human body.
- For sentient beings, death may well be the biggest matter. But what is death?
All sentient beings have a fear of death. But if you are steady in your Seon meditation as you seek to find your true self in our daily life, you will gain the power of samadhi (concentration). Then when you see your true identity through the power of this insight, all fears, anxieties, and illusions will vanish in an instant. At the moment of death, you will leave your body with a clear and composed mind.
"Dying" is merely the changing of your body in the same way as you might change from old clothes into new ones. A person enlightened to his or her true nature has no problem coming or going, whether in "life" or in "death." Even in your last moment in this physical form, there is no worry or doubt. That is because in enlightenment, originally there is no birth and death.
If you understand the True Self, you come to know that death is but a flower in the sky; it is just like an optical illusion. You know how, when you are suddenly struck on the head or in the eye, you see stars? These ‘stars’ are not real things, but just false, illusory images that flit here and there because of momentary eye trouble. “Birth-and-death” is just like this.
- Is there samsara really?
If you realize the true nature of reality, there is nothing to be reborn into the Six Paths. But sentient beings who are unenlightened will surely experience rebirth.
- When we die, do we take anything with us? - Wisdom, Virtue, Karma
The only things you take with you are your wisdom, merit, and karma.
If you do not speak ill of others and make yourself an equal to everyone, according to your pure nature–free from self-centeredness and arrogance–you will be respected as a virtuous one.
When you see into the nature of your mind, your mind’s radiance will shine brightly. When your mind becomes bright, that is what we call "wisdom."
The first thought that turns against the reality of your own original nature leads inexorably to all other deluded thoughts. If you are focused on the samadhi inherent in your original nature, deluded thoughts will never arise; but as soon as even a single thought leads you astray, an infinite variety of thoughts follow. That is karma.
- What kind of attitude should we maintain in daily life?
We lose so much time everyday engaged in the endless flow of pointless thoughts. Even so, if we were to divert even a fraction of this mental energy to questioning the hwadu, then all these delusory thoughts will melt away. If we do our best in our work and our meditation without wasting time on extraneous thoughts, we will be cultivating wisdom. If we all lived this way, the world would be a better place to live and the whole world would instantly become one family prospering in peace and mutual respect. Whoever you may be—the president, farmer, politician, male or female, old or young—you all will achieve peace of mind if you practice Seon.
- 6 virtues for the youth
For the sake of a bright future of our mankind, herby I propose a human character developing method for the youth. The suggested practice of six virtues is as follows:
1) Wish to become a useful person for the nation and society,
2) Be respectful with your parents and those who are older than you
3) Show trust, love and respect towards your friends
4) Do your best in your assigned jobs while keeping a sincere attitude.
5) Respect and love all forms of life
6) Practice meditation to develop a compassionate and peaceful personality and to allow for your wisdom to grow so that your mind and body can become clean and all disputes and conflicts can cease.
If all students and people could accept and keep these 6 points of virtues, there would be peace and harmony in the families and mankind would live in happiness.
World- How does Seon practice contribute to World Peace?
If all human beings were to cultivate Seon meditation continuously throughout their everyday lives, then all discrimination, disputes, and conflicts would disappear and their minds would naturally be at repose. By living this way, you’ll have a commendable family and your household will live in perfect concord. Furthermore, your society and country will then also live in perfect concord, and ultimately you will become a driving force in forging world peace.
In history buddhists have never created conflicts or initiated wars for the sake of their religious beliefs. This fact alone should be proof enough that when people engage in Seon meditation, and through their own efforts reach the home of their mind-nature, the earth becomes a single family and 'form and the formless are not two.' Since you and I are not two, how then could there be any strife and animosity?
- What's the role of religious leaders?
All religions exist for a reason, and that reason is to serve humanity. Religions should guide people up the mountain of truth. Every religion has its own characteristics, but they vary in their depths. In this troubled world, every religious leader should focus his energy simply on guiding people to the land of peace and bliss, regardless of the perceived differences in their various teachings and practices.
The Buddha teaches us that universal truth is found in our True Self. Everyone is equally endowed with the True Self. But because people do not know it, they cannot use it.
Hence, I wish to spread Seon practice around the world, to awaken people to the True Self that exists in their minds right now. This path is at the heart of Asian culture. Anyone who attains their True Self comes to understand that it has neither beginning nor end. The arising and passing away of everything in the universe occurs on the ground of that True Self. If everybody meditates to find True Self in daily life, we can achieve peaceful land with bright wisdom and compassion.
- How do we treat natural disasters?
Human beings and the entire universe follow four natural phases of life: birth, maturation, aging, and destruction. All human beings—even those who are lucky enough to live a hundred years—at some point will experience all sorts of terrible diseases in their internal organs and pain in their four limbs. In the same way, our physical world experiences similar conditions of birth, maturation, decay, and destruction. These heavy rainfalls, volcanoes, and tsunamis are all simply natural phenomena that occur on this rotating earth. If people steadily practice Seon meditation in the course of their everyday life, and try their best to help others, all of their wrongdoings will be purified, and eventually they will escape those disasters with ease.
- On the Environment
Now in addition to the age-old problems of hunger, sickness and war, there are new challenges because we have not been good caretakers to the earth. As we know, the global changes observed in the last 200 years are far greater than those that have occurred over the previous thousands of years. We do not know whether our earth, our mankind can survive through this new crisis or not. We almost forget that this earth, this nature has been handed down to us from our ancestors, with their special wish for us to keep it healthy and clean.
We must realize how interconnected and how interrelated we are with the earth and one another, with the earth that houses us and the very human beings that provide communities for life. Are we even imaginable without the world and our fellow human beings? Consider, where do we as individuals begin and end? Where do our lungs end and the air we breathe begin? How can we walk without the earth beneath our feet?
By practicing Ganhwa Seon, which is a way to transcend the false self, we discover the way to the true self. This is what must be explained; a way of meditation that uncovers the true self, which provides a proper preparation and orientation for action.
As you well know, the UNESCO charter starts with this phrase, "That since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed." So if war begins in men’s minds, therefore solutions for peace begin there as well. Seon meditation teaches that global peace, harmony and equality, as well as a healthy ecological environment, can be achieved by keeping our minds right and understanding that 'You and I are not Two, but One.' We must also understand that the same "Oneness" exists between the global habitat and the individual, because human beings and nature are mutually inter-dependent.
When you find your True Self and reach the home of your mind, we understand the mutual relationship between nature and human beings; there will be no environmental destruction and ecological damage inflicted only to satisfy the greed of human beings. We must realize that not only the sacred scriptures like the Bible, Koran, and Sutras, but also nature, stones, and streams teach us Truth and Wisdom. Once we can hear the non-sentient, we will answer the problems of our ecological crisis and environmental problems that threaten our earth. Genuine world peace will be right there too.
Mountains nurture all kinds of animals and birds, they produce fresh air for people. Water cultivates all kinds of fish and shellfish while providing life for plants and human beings. We must emulate the virtue of mountains, and air, and water by nurturing and protecting our home.
The whole world is just one. We must not be seduced by the delusion, because ten thousand different things are not separate from me – not separate from you.
