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Everywhere a Buddha Image
Every Act a Buddha Offering

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The Principal Book of Won-Buddhism

＊PartOne : General Introduction

Chapter One : The Founding Motive of the Teaching

Chapter Two : An Outline of the Teaching

＊Part Two : Doctrine

Chapter One : The Il-Won-Sang

Chapter Two : The Fourfold Grace

Chapter Three : The Four Essentials

Chapter Four : The Threefold Study

Chapter Five : The Eight Articles

Chapter Six : The Essential Ways of Human Life and of Practice

Chapter Seven : The Four Great Principles

＊Part Three : Practice

Chapter One : The Essential Dharmas of Daily Practice

Chapter Two : Fixed-Term Training and Daily Training

Chapter Three : The Dharma of Reciting the Buddha’s Name

Chapter Four : The Dharma of Seated Meditation

Chapter Five : Essential Cases for Questioning

Chapter Six : The Dharma of Keeping a Diary

Chapter Seven : The Dharma of Timeless Sŏn

As a rule, Sŏn 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 Sŏn.
If people intend to practice genuine Sŏn, 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 the myriad of 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 the myriad of 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 Sŏn, 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 to bother with choosing a specific place and with talking about action or rest? However, for people who are first beginning to practice Sŏn, the mind is not easily controlled according to their wishes; it is like training an ox where, if the reins of the mind are dropped even for a moment, it will instantly harm one’s commitment to the Way. Therefore, if you keep exerting yourself without letting go of that spirit which is ready to fight to the bitter end no matter how alluring the sensory conditions you face may be, the mind gradually will become tamed and you will reach a state where the mind will do what you wish. Each and every time you are in contact with a sensory condition, do not forget to keep the thought in mind that an opportunity for practice has arrived, always taking a suitable measure of only whether or not you are affected by that sensory condition. Thus, once there is a gradual increase in instances of behavior in which the mind does what you wish, you may from time to time let yourself be put in situations that you normally would find extremely attractive or abhorrent. If the mind is moved as before, then your commitment to the Way is immature; but if it is unmoved, then you will know that this is proof that your commitment to the Way is ripening. However, at the very time that you realize that the mind is unmoving, do not let down your guard, for it is unmoving through your employing the mental powers, rather than naturally unmoving. The mind has been well tamed only when it is unmoving even if left unguarded.
If you continue for a long time to practice Sŏn 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. Practicing all dharmas in this wise, you will never be enticed or obstructed, 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.
Recently groups that practice Sŏn think that Sŏn is extremely difficult. There are many who hold that it is impossible to do for someone who has a family or who pursues an occupation, and that you can only practice Sŏn by entering into the mountains and sitting quietly. This view derives from their ignorance of the great dharma, in which all dharmas are nondual. But if one can only practice Sŏn while sitting but not while standing－this would be a sickly Sŏn indeed; how could this become the great dharma that can save all sentient beings? Moreover, since the own-essence of the nature is not merely limited to voidness and calmness alone, if you practice that Sŏn which is like a senseless thing, this would not be the Sŏn practice that disciplines the nature, but the making of a helpless invalid. Therefore, even when involved in disturbing situations, the mind should be undisturbed; even when involved with greed-creating sensory conditions, the mind should be unmoving－this is true Sŏn and true absorption.
To reiterate the main principle of timeless Sŏn:
“When the six sense organs are free from activity, remove distracted thoughts and nurture the one mind. When the six sense organs are involved in activity, remove the wrong and nurture the right.”

Chapter Eight : The Instruction on Repentance

It is true that, in accordance with the Way of the alternating predominance of yin and yang, there is not a hair’s breadth of uncertainty that those who perform good actions will subsequently receive a corresponding lifegiving reward, while those who perform evil actions will be repaid with a corresponding harmful retribution. But people who are repentant and reform their faults forever can free themselves from the power of these corresponding lifegiving and harmful karmic actions and command at will merits and transgressions. Therefore, all the buddhas and enlightened masters have unanimously opened this gateway of repentance.
As a rule, “repentance” is the first step in abandoning one’s old life and opening oneself to cultivating a new life, and the initial gateway for setting aside unwholesome paths and entering into wholesome paths. For people who repent from past mistakes and continue practicing wholesome paths day by day, past karma will gradually disappear and no karma will be made anew; good paths will come closer day by day and evil paths will recede of their own accord. Therefore, it says in a sūtra, “The mind’s previous performance of evil is like a cloud covering the sun; the mind’s subsequent generation of good is like the light of a bright lamp dispelling the darkness.” Transgressions originally arise from the mind; they perforce will vanish once the mind is extinguished. Karma is originally ignorance; it perforce will vanish in accord with the light of the wisdom of one’s self-nature. Those of you who are moaning from the suffering of your transgressions: how can you not enter this gateway?
However, the foundations of transgressive karma are greed, hatred, and delusion. No matter how repentant you may be, if you subsequently repeat an evil action, there will never be a day when transgressions are extinguished. Furthermore, even though people who have committed serious transgressions and fall into the evil destinies may accumulate a certain amount of merit through temporary repentance, their transgressions will remain as such even while they receive merit according to their meritorious actions, so long as they leave the original greed, hatred, and delusion intact. This is like someone who tries to cool down the water boiling in a large cauldron by pouring a little bit of cold water on top while letting the fire underneath continue to burn: the strength of the fire is strong while that of the cold water is weak, so the water will never cool down.
There are many people in the world who repent of their previous mistakes, but few who do not repeat those mistakes subsequently. Some people perform one or two types of merit through a temporary sense of repentance, but leave the greed, hatred, and delusion intact in their own minds; how can such persons hope to have their transgressive karma purified?
The method of repentance is of two types: repentance by action and repentance by principle. “Repentance by action” means that you sincerely repent from past mistakes before the Three Jewels and practice day by day all types of wholesome actions. “Repentance by principle” means that, awakening to that realm in which the nature of transgressions is originally void, you internally remove all defilements and idle thoughts. People who seek to free themselves of transgressions and evil forever must practice both in tandem: externally, they must continue to practice all types of good karma while, internally, they must simultaneously remove their own greed, hatred, and delusion. In this wise, just as someone who tries to cool down the water boiling in a cauldron would pour a lot of cold water on top while putting out the fire burning underneath, so too, regardless of how much transgressive karma has been accumulated over hundreds and thousands of eons, it will soon be purified.
Furthermore, if practitioners sincerely repent and cultivate the Way and achieve freedom of mind by awakening to the buddha in their self-nature, which is ever-calm and ever-alert, then they may choose any natural karma they please and command birth and death at will, so that there will be nothing to cling to or discard, and nothing to hate or love. The three realms of existence and the six destinies will all have the same one taste, and action and rest, adverse and favorable sensory conditions, will all be nothing other than samādhi. For such persons, myriad of transgressions and sufferings will vanish like ice melting in warm water, so that suffering is not suffering and transgressions are not transgressions. The light of the wisdom of their self-natures will shine constantly, all the earth will become the ground of enlightenment and the pure land, where not even the slightest mark of transgression can be found either internally, externally, or in between. This is what we call the repentance of the buddhas and enlightened masters, and the Mahāyāna repentance. Only at this stage can we say that all transgressive karma has been brought to an end.
Recently there have been groups of self-styled enlightened ones occasionally appearing who, making light of the precepts and discipline and of cause and effect, have acted as they pleased and stopped as they pleased under the guise of “unconstrained action,” thus sullying in some cases the gateway of the buddha. This occurs because they realize only that the self-nature is free from discrimination, but do not realize that it also involves discriminations; how can this be knowing the true Way that transcends being and nonbeing? Furthermore, there are many people who think they have completed their practice just by seeing the nature and have no use for repentance or practice after seeing the nature. Even if seeing the nature has occurred, the myriad of defilements and all attachments are not simultaneously annihilated and, even if one has gained the three great powers and achieved buddhahood, one cannot avoid one’s own fixed karma. One must pay close attention to this point and avoid falling into perverted views or making light of transgressive karma by misinterpreting the words of the buddhas and enlightened masters.

Chapter Nine : Mental Affirmation (Simgo) and Formal Prayer (Kido)

Chapter Ten : TheDharmaofMakingBuddhaOfferings

Chapter Eleven : The Precepts

Chapter Twelve : The Essential Discourse on Commanding the Nature

Chapter Thirteen : The First Dharma Words

Chapter Fourteen : The Dharma Instruction on Suffering and Happiness

A. An Explanation of Suffering and Happiness
As a rule, once people are born into this world, there come to be things they dislike and things they like; the first type is the suffering they endure and the second is the happiness they enjoy. Suffering may be either inadvertent suffering or the suffering they create for themselves; happiness too may be either inadvertent or self-created. But every person without exception dislikes suffering and likes happiness. However, few people try to examine the causes of suffering and happiness. Thus, few of us reflect on whether this suffering will be everlasting or will change into happiness, or whether this happiness in its turn will be everlasting or will change into suffering. But our days should ever be filled with deserved suffering and happiness by our discerning closely the suffering and happiness that are appropriate and inappropriate. So that this inappropriate suffering and happiness will never occur, we should be heedful to make choices based on sound thought in our applications, whether we are walking, standing, sitting, reclining, speaking, keeping silent, active, or at rest.

B. The Causes behind Abandoning Happiness and Embracing Suffering
1. Ignorance of the origins of suffering and happiness.
2. Because, even when we know these origins, we do not act accordingly.
3. Because, by acting as we please and stopping when we please in whatever we see, hear, or think, we have nurtured without forethought habits of body and spirit until they are as inflexible as iron or stone.
4. Because we have not completed our practice until we have clearly changed our temperaments by disciplining body and spirit according to the dharma to eliminate bad habits, and by training them in the right dharma.
5. Our wish for quick results in our applications, without taking any pains.

Chapter Fifteen : An Ill Society and Its Treatment

Chapter Sixteen : The Dharma of the Wholeness of Both Spirit and Flesh

Chapter Seventeen : Stages of Dharma Rank

According to the level of a practitioner’s practice, six stages of dharma rank are established: the grades of ordinary, special faith, the battle between dharma and Māra; and the statuses of dharma strong and Māra defeated, beyond the household, and greatly enlightened tathāgata.
1. The ordinary grade is the rank of people who have first taken refuge in the gateway of the buddha and received the ten precepts of the ordinary grade, regardless of whether they are learned or ignorant, male or female, old or young, good or bad, or of high or low status.
2. The grade of special faith is the rank of people who, having practiced each and every one of the ten precepts of the ordinary grade and advancing to the preparatory grade of special faith, receive and keep the ten precepts of the grade of special faith, substantially understand our doctrines and regulations, and none of whose works, thoughts, faith, and dedication are swayed by any other world.
3. The grade of the battle between dharma and Māra is the rank of people who, having practiced each and every one of the ten precepts of ordinary grade and the ten precepts of the grade of special faith and advancing to the preparatory grade of the battle between dharma and Māra, receive and keep the ten precepts of the grade of the battle between dharma and Māra; analyze each and every aspect of dharma and Māra and make no serious mistakes in interpreting our scriptures; delight in eliminating perverted states of mind amid myriad sensory conditions and do not meddle in things that are not their business; understanding the significance of the battle between dharma and Māra, engage in that battle; do not commit any major offense against the essential Way of human life and the essential Way of practice; and for whom, even in minute matters, dharma wins more than half the time.
4. The status of dharma strong and Māra defeated is the rank of people who, having practiced each and every item for advancement to the grade of the battle between dharma and Māra and advancing to the preparatory status of dharma strong and M?ra defeated, engage in the battle between dharma and Māra in every application of their six sense organs and win victory for dharma a hundred times in a hundred battles; elucidate each and every idea in our scriptures and master completely the principles of great and small, being and nonbeing; and have gained liberation from birth, old age, sickness, and death.
5. The status of beyond the household is the rank of people who, having practiced each and every item for advancement to the status of dharma strong and Māra defeated and advancing to the preparatory status of beyond the household, establish right and wrong, benefit and harm, in human affairs, according to the principles of great and small, being and nonbeing; are intimately conversant with the principles of all contemporary religions; and, going beyond the limits of remoteness and closeness, intimacy and distance, self and others, have no regrets even in undergoing a thousand hardships and a myriad sufferings or facing death on behalf of all living creatures.
6. The status of the greatly enlightened tathāgata is the rank of people who, having practiced each and every item for advancement to the status of beyond the household and advancing to the preparatory status of the greatly enlightened tathāgata, embody myriad of abilities in delivering all living creatures with great loving-kindness and great compassion; edify by flexibly responding with myriad of expedients, but without ever straying from the main principle and without revealing those expedients to the people who are being edified; and are free of attachment to discrimination even when active, and for whom discrimination is properly regulated even at rest.

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