Buddhism, Seon & Enlightenment
Enlightenment was the goal of the Buddha, and it's also the ultimate goal of Buddhism.
Before, and after his enlightenment, the Buddha preached solely for the purpose of enlightenment, and that continued until the day he died.
There is no path to enlightenment, because we are all already enlightened.
That's why the unspeakable cannot be explained in words or writing, and why it's called enlightenment, which confirms itself by direct experience in life or through mysterious hints of Seon (Zen).
However, after the Buddha's death, the word enlightenment became a symbolic word, and the Buddha's wisdom teachings were perverted and transformed into tools of usefulness in life.
I, too, have traveled the world in search of the truth since childhood and have met many Buddhist disciples and their teachers, but the misguided teachings of the majority of unenlightened people and even famous teachers have defined enlightenment as a word made up by their own ideas and thin knowledge, and now the word enlightenment has become a word that ordinary people do not even dare to utter.
In doing so, they either escape from the compulsion of enlightenment or postpone it to the next life, and spend their entire lives simply relying on the words of the Buddha, studying them, adding their own interpretations to them, creating and selling false knowledge in books, and living as if they were enlightened saints with the Buddha as a backdrop, deceiving the world and even themselves.
Since ancient times, Seon (Zen) has been a powerful prescription to defeat these ills and fake masters in one fell swoop, and this is the essence of Seon (Zen): straightforward teaching, straightforward realization.
Once again, Buddhism means "the religion of enlightenment", and Buddha means "the enlightened one".
How much clearer do we need to be about what Buddha is and what Buddhism is?
Buddhism without enlightenment is not Buddhism, and anyone who sets up a statue of a Buddha and brings people together to talk about anything other than enlightenment is a false master.
The 2500-year history of Buddhism and the life story of the Buddha can be studied and taught, but finding the true self can never be understood through knowledge, and enlightenment is the right and mission of each of us.
Therefore, when a person who believes in the Buddha and lives by his virtues speaks of anything other than enlightenment, he violates the Buddha's will, blinds himself and others, and hinders enlightenment.
Please forgive me for stating the obvious, as I am sure there are many monks and people who are already on the right path to enlightenment.
Seon = Zen = Mind
The Korean name for Zen as we commonly know it is Seon.
To clear up some of the misconceptions about the original name, Zen, we'll refer to it by its Korean name, Seon.
For example, Zen has been mistakenly perceived as something that belongs to hard-working ascetics who have given up their lives and is far removed from the daily lives of ordinary people, and Seon's purpose, enlightenment, has been reduced to a difficult task that is beyond the reach of ordinary people, and its meaning has been greatly altered by unenlightened Buddhist monks and their intellectual followers, who have mistaken it for a mere discipline.
Let me be clear, our nature is not something to be learnt, begged from special powers or sought from outside, it is our birthright.
Enlightenment is not found, nor can it be earned, by meditation or any form of practice.
If anyone says they can give you enlightenment, or that they have a secret formula, they are leading everyone around them down a slippery slope, not just themselves.
All Buddhist practices, including meditation, are like medicines, providing comfort for a limited time and allowing us to go on with our lives, but not solving the problems of our nature.
What is so clear is that Buddha means 'awakened one' and Buddhism is the 'religion of awakening'.
Historically, the founder of Seon (Zen) is Bodhi-Dharma of the Shaolin Temple in China.
Bodhi-Dharma is the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism who received the Dharma from the Buddha and is the founder of Seon (Zen).
That's why I went to Shaolin Temple in China in 1994 on a whim to find a teacher of Seon.
Seon (Zen) Buddhism differentiates itself from Buddhism by calling itself Seon (Zen), whereas traditional Buddhism is called Dharma.
Therefore, it is said that Gyo (religion) is the Buddha's words and Seon is the Buddha's mind.
If Buddhism is the creation and study of sutras, the collection of the Buddha's words that lead to enlightenment, Seon is the transmission of the Buddha's enlightenment from mind to mind, as it has been passed down through many Seon masters throughout history to the present day.
When we speak of the characteristics of Seon in this sense, we usually refer to unstructured texts, unstructured transmission, heart-to-heart transmission, straight pointing, and straight seeing.
What is it that is transmitted completely from heart to heart?
It is the enlightenment of the Buddha, the enlightened mind.
The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to free the mind from suffering by seeing our true nature.
No path, that's the path
Enlightenment is so obvious and simple that people approach it in a difficult and profound way.
Even for those who don't go down the right path after realization, this can lead to many years of wandering in second thoughts.
I often say that whatever it is you want to realize, you have to be 100%, without 0.01% doubt.
Bcause if everything is "one", including you, whatever you are, then it's impossible to think of anything other than one.
For example, if the world is all "sky blue", there can't be any other color, so there can't even be the word "sky blue", let alone any other color.
In awakening, there is no such thing as discernment, which is why many people who have had awakening experiences have said that they experienced the void.
So if we were to use a ball as an example, we would say that it came from a place where we don't even have a body.
But this understanding is only knowledge, not wisdom.
There are no stages of enlightenment, so someone who listens to a dharma talk for five minutes or someone who listens for 50 years is on the same starting line if they haven't awakened.
Even people who claim to have had an experience of enlightenment often have the delusion that there are stages of enlightenment, which is why we say that it's important to have an experience of enlightenment, but it's also important to find a teacher who can guide you on the right path and listen to the right dharma talks after enlightenment.
This doesn't mean that you need to do anything different before or after enlightenment.
The difference, if there is one, is that before enlightenment you need to listen to dharmatalk until you suddenly see that all the things you believed to be there were not there in the first place, and after enlightenment you need to listen to dharmatalk until the whole becomes clear to yourself, including the things that are still visible, audible, and present in the world.
These subtle words of truth, which seem to be the same but different, different but the same, are not the object of study by unenlightened Buddhist monks and scholars, but their vain efforts to discover them through inquiry and make them instruments of knowledge continue through the centuries, but in the end, until one experiences enlightenment, the words of the Buddha cannot be understood, and even if they are understood, they cannot be correct.
Truth can never be understood through words or writing.
For example, when we hear the word "apple", we see a picture of an apple in our head or heart.
The words written on a white piece of paper are not the real apple, nor are the words exhaled through the breath, or the picture drawn in the heart or mind.
As the founder of Zen, Master Dharma, said, "Everything in the world comes from the mind".
So the more concise and clear the question of enlightenment becomes, the closer it is to being answered.
If that one question (Who am I) is always steadfast in our lives, it won't be hard to see the answer.
The Buddha was not the founder of enlightenment; he was one of many people who identified the enlightenment or self that has always been there.
He didn't say that enlightenment was something that only specially selected Buddhist monks who endured years of rigorous training could achieve.
Enlightenment, in the sense of identifying the real you, is the birthright of all of us, regardless of religion.
There is no one specific way to reach enlightenment.
Rather, you don't have to do anything, but you shouldn't do nothing either.
Because even doing nothing is doing something (trying to do nothing).
If there is a way, it's simply to let go of your own thoughts and opinions and listen to dharma talk.
Dharma talk is best listened to like rain.
Then, when the time is right, like a flower blooming, you'll find your mind opening up when you least expect it.
