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 masters.

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.