'Dharma of Timeless Seon in Won-Buddhism

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Naawoo
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'Dharma of Timeless Seon in Won-Buddhism

Post by Naawoo »

'Dharma of Timeless Seon' is the core of practices in Won-Buddhism.
Zen practitioners in other traditions could find it worth referring to, comparing it to Zen teachings of their own lineages.


The Dharma of Timeless Seon

As a rule, Seon is a practice that leads to the achievement of freedom of mind through gaining awakening to one’s own nature, which is originally free from discrimination or attachment. Since time immemorial, those who have been determined to achieve the great Way have all practiced Seon.

If people intend to practice genuine Seon, they first should take true voidness as the substance and marvelous existence as the function and, externally, be unmoving like Mount T’ai when in contact with myriad sensory conditions, and, internally, keep the mind unsullied, like empty space.
Let the mind function so that it is not acting even in action and not resting even at rest.

If we do so, then there will be no discrimination that is separate from absorption, so that the functioning of the six sense organs will accord with the self-nature of the void and calm, numinous awareness. This is what is called Mahāyāna meditation and the method of practice in which we progress in concert through the Threefold Study.

Therefore it says in a sūtra, “Give rise to a mind that, even while responding, does not abide anywhere.” This is precisely the great dharma of practice that remains unmoved amid myriad sensory conditions.

This dharma may seem extremely difficult, but if only we come to understand in detail the methods of practice, then even a farmer wielding a hoe can practice Seon, as can a carpenter wielding a hammer, a clerk using an abacus, and an official seeing to an administrative matter; and we can practice Sŏn even while going about or staying at home. What need is there, then, to bother with choosing a specific place and with talking about action or rest?

If you continue for a long time to practice Seon so as to put an end to all the defilements and achieve freedom of mind, then, you will be centered like an iron pillar and defended from the outside like a stone wall, so that neither wealth or status, or honor and glory, can coax the mind, nor can anyone make the mind submit through weapons or authority.

You will never be impeded or obstructed in putting any of the dharmas into practice, and even while residing in this dusty world, you constantly will attain hundreds and thousands of samādhis.

Once you reach this stage, the entire world will be transformed into the one genuine realm of reality, and right and wrong, good and evil, and all the defiled and pure dharmas will become the single taste of ghee. This state is called the gateway of nonduality. Freedom in birth and death, liberation from the cycle of rebirths, and the ultimate bliss of the pure land all emerge through this gateway.
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