Blog

People are fascinated by the childish saying,"There has to be a crack for the light to get in."They see the light that seems to come from outside.But why do they fail to see the Light that illuminates both darkness and light, and everything, directly?

Why can't awakening happen without risking your life?Because countless thoughts never leave you alone.From the moment you wake until the moment you sleep, they pull you in every direction. As long as you keep following them, awakening remains out of reach.But when one overwhelming challenge stands before you, all the small worries and restless thoughts of everyday life disappear as if they had never existed.Life gives everyone moments like this.One of them is the moment before death.Nothing is greater than death. When death stands directly before you, every trivial concern is swallowed into its immense gravity and vanishes.So if you are still alive, do not wait for death to free you from thought.Stake your life on awakening now.

In many fairy tales, the hero is told, "Whatever happens, don't look back. Just keep moving forward."This is much like what Seon masters teach.Don't turn back and follow your thoughts. Stay with what is here, now.Looking back symbolizes being pulled into thought.Moving forward symbolizes remaining with direct awareness of the present.

Dear OOOI'm sorry, I hadn't even thought of that at all.The reason I asked you to ask me again this during the Dharma talk is simply that, regardless of its importance, I often forget such thoughts.People jokingly refer to this as a “side effect of enlightenment.”That’s because even those thoughts are ultimately forms of attachment.If I were to give you an answer to that, would your enlightenment become even clearer?If that were the case, I would make it my profession, publish books, earn money, and become rich.A Seon master isn’t someone who gives the disciple the answer; rather, they pierce to the heart of the matter so that you can always verify things for yourself.However, to answer your question: no one in this world wakes up and changes dramatically overnight.Just like a baby growing up, when you look back after they’ve fully grown, it seems to have happened in the blink of an eye, but while they were growing, it can feel endlessly slow, as if there were no progress at all.There is a Korean poem that goes, “There is no flower that blooms without wavering.” As I mentioned earlier, both the state of stability and the state of confusion are merely thoughts.If it is clear that “this” is “this” whether it is stable or wavering, then stability is an illusion, and anxiety is nothing but an illusion as well.It’s not that you’re anxious now and need time to work hard through manipulation or practicebto change that later.If it becomes clear that you don’t need to do anything because you’re already that way and if this is confirmed to be happening right now, in every single moment, rather than in the future then the “day” of perfection you’re waiting for in your mind is slipping past right now, in this very moment, amid your indifference.

Why Practice and Philosophy Cannot Be Compared to the Buddha's LiberationNietzsche's idea of amor fati is often summarized in his famous words."My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati... not merely bear what is necessary, but love it."The common approach, whether through philosophy or spiritual practice, is to overcome suffering by changing the way you think, by learning something new, or by following someone considered wise.The assumption is that, although you are not there yet, after many years you will eventually become that kind of person.In Seon, this is called fabrication.Instead of trying to change yourself, Seon points directly to the one who is trying to change.This difference is immeasurable from the very beginning.Suffering does not disappear simply because one awakens.As long as you are alive, pain, loss, and hardship still arise.Unless one is mentally ill, no one truly enjoys suffering.Seon does not teach you to embrace suffering as part of yourself or to love it as your destiny.It reveals that while all experiences, including suffering, are fully felt, none of them are what you truly are.This is awakening from the dream.Only then can Nietzsche's words be appreciated for whatever insight they may contain. Yet to those who have awakened, his philosophy ultimately remains the work of a brilliant writer skillfully arranging concepts rather than directly revealing reality.So the choice is yours.Will you spend your life captivated by the eloquent language of those who speak about freedom?Or will you taste freedom directly, here and now?

If it truly dawns on you that you are not your body, awakening is no longer a question of if, but only of when.

We live in an age where almost everyone, whether awakened or not, has heard the words, "The moment thought stops, truth is revealed."With the spread of social media, anyone with even the slightest interest in awakening can search for it and come across this idea within just a few seconds.Yet awakening has by no means become easier. If anything, it has become even more difficult.Even at this very moment, as you are reading these words, your thoughts are constantly comparing this message with your own opinions.Before you have even finished reading, thought has already begun composing the comment you may leave.At this moment, one person is enough to put thoughts into words: the one who, out of compassion, delivers the true Dharma. Through these words, he merely leaves hints for those who have not yet awakened.Even so, you will try to let go of thought.Those who consider themselves more intelligent will even try to let go of the thought of letting go.But the more effort you make, the more agitated thought becomes.Do not chase thought itself.Simply look into the very nature of that which is trying to stop thought.Even now, do not follow the imaginary words arising in your mind.Turn your attention to the very place from which thought itself arises.Only there do you cease to be bound by thought.That place cannot be contained by any thought in the world.It is simply That Place without a name.

In Seon, there is a saying.If you have awakened, do not delay. Find a clear eyed Seon teacher and rely on them.After experiencing awakening, I say this to those who come to see me.Awakening comes to everyone. It is a right that everyone can enjoy, just as we all fall asleep every night and wake up again every morning.However, after experiencing awakening, if you do not wish to fall back into your old delusions, but instead live the ordinary life of awakening, that is, to live as one who is awakened, then the habits that once bound you, the habit of living in delusion, must come to an end. Therefore, I say that one must spend quite a long time, at least more than ten years, listening to the true Dharma.The true Dharma is not something special that I did not know before.It is simply the wisdom of truth.It is just like the words of caution that every mother has repeated to her children throughout her entire life."Be careful of cars."There is probably no one who has never heard these words even once. No one wishes to hear them every time, nor does anyone want to spend their whole life hearing them.Yet because the fatal consequences of that habit, excused by saying, "I didn't realize," are so great, we hear them again and again. We listen even though we already know them. The one speaking repeats them even though they do not want to, and even though they know the listener is annoyed and does not want to hear them anymore. Still they repeat them again, and feeling it is not enough, they say them again and again.That is why it has long been said that those who truly hear the Dharma are rare.A true Dharma talk continues until it becomes completely embodied, until one is no longer bound by anything, not even by those repeated words of caution.Those who try only to understand these words intellectually, without awakening, often imagine that a teacher is merely trying to keep people bound through authority. False masters also make use of these words for their own purposes.But the truth is quite the opposite.Contrary to what most people expect, the majority of awakened masters are reluctant to give Dharma talks or to have disciples. They find it burdensome.After wandering almost an entire lifetime inside the trap of delusion that they themselves created, they finally saw the light of truth and opened their eyes. Why would they then think, out of compassion, "I should go back into the darkness and save others"?When I say this, some people lost in their own delusions ask me."Then according to the Buddhist scriptures, are the many Buddhas and Bodhisattvas somehow inferior to you because they return to this world to save people and spread the Dharma?"My answer is this.If it is not another delusion, then what is the thought of returning to this world? And what is the thought that there are people there whom I must save?Awakening is the place where words and thoughts come to an end.If someone stands firmly in that liberation, then without thinking, "I should save people," or "I should not save people," they simply do whatever needs to be done, quietly and naturally.Just as the sun and the moon silently carry out their work throughout their entire existence, without pride and without regret, simply living naturally, so too, if the conditions arise to give a Dharma talk, one gives it. If no one comes looking, one does not. Like the wind, like the sunlight, bound nowhere, one simply lives freely according to one's own nature.Finally, let me add one more thing.Neither the Buddha nor Jesus underwent their hardships merely to solve your problems.Just like us, they also began with what, in one sense, were rather pitiful and deeply personal concerns, seeking only to resolve their own small suffering.From their perspective, your very existence is a dream and a delusion.Why do you insist on interpreting everything from the center of your own thinking?They were simply good examples of people who wandered in search of a way through life and, fortunately, brought their own work to complete fulfillment.They do not think that they love you, nor do they have anything separate to give you.So do not cling to them, and do not beg from them.Simply do as they did.Even so, if you truly wish to honor them, then awakening yourself, just as they did, is the only way to repay their kindness.Sometimes there are people who become trapped in their own ideas. When they read something like this, they cannot restrain themselves. Caught in delusion, they speak in the comments as though they were representatives of justice, presenting things they have never experienced themselves as though they had personally realized them, pouring them out like filth.As I have always said, please understand that I neither debate with those who praise or criticize me based only on thought or knowledge without a genuine experience of correct awakening, nor do I respond to those who, using argument as an excuse, seek teachings without even the basic courtesy.As I have always said, if it is ever confirmed that the true Dharma is no longer being transmitted through my words, I promise that I will disappear without the slightest hesitation.

Dear OOOO,It is not a fleeting mood, sensation, or emotion, though it may appear together with them. This is because truth reveals itself through everything.Imagine pouring your entire being into creating a two hour film. People might point to certain scenes and say those were the best. But the truth is that not only the scenes that moved people or made them happy, but also the boring moments, the somber ones, the scenes you wish you could erase, and even those no one remembers, all came from the same sincere heart. There is not a single scene that exists outside the truth.That is why we say that every day and every moment of our lives is the truth.Enlightenment is not about recognizing one particular moment. It is the whole being seen exactly as it is, with nothing added and nothing taken away.Even the way it is experienced is simply part of ordinary life, and it unfolds differently for everyone. For one person, it arrives as quietly as a cold winter wind becoming a gentle spring breeze, almost without notice. For another, it comes like thunder and lightning in a cloudless sky, so overwhelming that it feels as though the entire world is collapsing.So do not wait for a particular experience. If you simply remain attentive in each moment, you are already doing everything that can be done.P.S. Even this message I am writing to you now is one scene in your film. So even if it seems different from what you intended, remember this: you are both the director and the protagonist.

It is impossible, and ultimately foolish, to try to define Seon. Yet this must be addressed because many people mistakenly believe that all spiritual teachings are simply different expressions of the same truth.Although these traditions often stand upon the broad foundation of Buddhism, they are not saying the same thing. To the world, however, they gradually appear to sound alike, and in time people become convinced that they are one and the same.Seon is not about learning, admiring, or preserving the thoughts and opinions of any particular person. In fact, it is the very opposite.Ironically, even among those following other approaches, genuine awakening can and does occur. There is nothing strange about this. Every experience in life can become the very hint that awakens one from the dream. Just as a dreamer does not awaken only through one special event within the dream, but can awaken through any circumstance that appears in the dream, awakening may arise anywhere.The real issue begins after awakening.The experience of awakening is deeply personal, yet within oneself it is nothing less than a complete reversal of reality. Inside and outside exchange places. Subject and object collapse. Every boundary by which life was previously understood disappears.Then comes the danger.Unable to express what cannot be put into words, one may cover that realization with personal interpretations, dismiss it as merely an unusual experience, or allow those who have never awakened to explain it. When this happens, the truth becomes distorted, and one eventually comes to follow a person, an ideology, or a system of thought instead of the truth itself.Laozi said that because it cannot be named, it is called the Tao.Bodhidharma taught that everything is your own mind.An unnamed Seon master said, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.”How much more directly could they have spoken?After hearing these words, can one still insist that all teachers who are admired as spiritual masters are saying essentially the same thing?To say they are merely "similar" is already to miss the point. Similarity belongs to appearances. Seon points beyond appearances altogether.This confusion is not unique to our time. The records of the Seon masters repeatedly warn that throughout history there have been intelligent people who mistook intellectual understanding for awakening, and even those who truly awakened sometimes became trapped by their own interpretations afterward.For this reason the masters advised:"If you have seen the truth, even for a single moment, seek out a clear eyed master."Not because the master possesses the truth for you, but because self deception after awakening is more subtle than self deception before awakening.Today I see people quoting sages, borrowing profound words, and convincing themselves that they stand alongside those who truly awakened. With eloquence they attract others, speaking of harmony, unity, and walking together. Yet if the foundation is mistaken, they lead not only themselves astray but also everyone who follows them.To remain silent while witnessing this would itself be a form of deception.That is why I write.

Throughout history, there have been individuals who were widely revered as living awakened masters. Many people think of Thich Nhat Hanh of Vietnam, Seungsahn of Korea, and the Dalai Lama of Tibet.Yet none of them became respected because awakened people gathered together and officially voted to declare them enlightened. Their reputation arose naturally through the respect of countless people and the circumstances of their time.Today, only the 14th Dalai Lama remains alive.Things that seem likely to happen in this world do, in fact, happen.The first time I came to know the Dalai Lama was not as a Buddhist leader, but as a Tibetan monk in exile who sought to make the world aware of the political oppression surrounding Tibet and to ask for international support.Over time, with the attention and support of many nations, the Tibetan issue became an international concern.But as the years have passed, what began as a political conflict between China and Tibet now appears to have become a struggle over the very identity and legitimacy of Buddhism itself.Watching China and Tibet each claim the authority to determine the next Dalai Lama, I cannot help but worry that future generations may come to mistake the Dharma for a matter of politics and power.Awakening belongs to no nation.It belongs to no religion.It is not granted by any institution or any individual.It is the birthright of every human being.Why search for the Buddha that others have chosen, while ignoring the Buddha within your own mind?What is the essence of Buddhism?Is it to follow someone who appears to be awakened?Or is it, as the Buddha taught, to awaken clearly for yourself?Seon leaves no room for ambiguity."If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha.If you meet the Patriarch, kill the Patriarch."This does not advocate violence.It points to something uncompromising.Do not cling to any authority, any image, or any concept in place of direct realization.Anyone who has not directly realized this truth, yet speaks carelessly as though they possess it, risks committing a grave wrong, not only against themselves, but against countless others.Belief in reincarnation is likewise a cultural tradition that developed within particular societies.If it were truly the one indispensable truth that every human being must accept, then the Buddha himself could simply have been reborn the next leader of China and ended every dispute once and for all.Yet for over 2,500 years, he has done neither.Not because he could not.But because there was never any need.The heart of his teaching was never to prove reincarnation.It was to point each of us toward the truth that must be realized directly.Nothing more.Nothing less.Neither coming nor going. (불래불거, 不來不去)The original nature that neither comes nor goes, here and now.In the end, that was the one thing the Buddha pointed to.https://time-magazine.visitlink.me/K9u9hH

​It begins with Richard Feynman’s famous anecdote of a flower.a blossom is beautiful to the eye,and even more beautiful to the mind that unfolds its hidden dance of atoms.​Yet, the truest beauty belongs neither to the petal nor the atom,but to That which looks upon them both.​For without the Seer, the seen is but a shadow.the dawn of all wonder begins within the One who notices.-Nim-

The initial awakening is only the beginning.Only when awakening continues naturally, as effortlessly as waking up every morning, does it become enlightenment.But if life still has the power to bind you,it cannot yet be called enlightenment.-Nim-

The writings in this blog follow the Seon principle of nondependence on words and letters.Yet, in keeping with the needs of the present age, they reluctantly use words for one purpose only: as the pointing finger of a Seon master. They are not intended for discussion, communication, or the exchange of opinions.Even if something in these writings seems to be understood, simply let it pass, like clouds drifting across a clear sky, Because understanding is only understanding, it is not the wisdom of awakening.-Nim-