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.