The Practice of No-Mind and Ultimate Awakening
Look at the originally pure mind that goes beyond liking and disliking.
As you live, you meet outer objects without pause, and likes and dislikes arise in response. When you see a beautiful jewel or a precious treasure, a wish to possess it arises; when you smell fragrant musk, you feel delight. In the same way, when you meet something filthy or a foul odor, displeasure and aversion arise.
So the mind reacts without pause the moment the six sense faculties meet the six sense objects, and from that reaction greed and hatred, clinging and discriminating thought arise. This working of the mind binds sentient beings to affliction and suffering.
Then how should a practitioner meet these objects, and how can no-mind be practiced?
First, you need to understand that knowing like and dislike is different from clinging to them.
Knowing the beautiful as beautiful, sensing the fragrant as fragrant, and feeling a foul odor as unpleasant is the natural working of the senses. But when you see something beautiful and feel you must possess it, or meet something you dislike and feel you must push it away at all costs, greed and hatred are born.
So the practice of no-mind does not lie in removing sensation or forcing thought to stop. It lies in being aware of objects just as they are, without being dragged along by them.
When you meet something you like, see whether greed arises. When you meet something you dislike, observe whether aversion and anger arise. Do not suppress those states or try to get rid of them; look at them as impermanent phenomena that arise and pass away according to conditions.
This is the practice of neither taking nor discarding (bulchwi bulsa, 不取不捨).
Yet this practice of awareness does not immediately mean ultimate no-mind. Noticing the arising of greed and hatred and letting them go is part of the path of practice. Ultimate no-mind is the state where fundamental ignorance, the root of all affliction, has been completely extinguished.
No-thought and no-mind as spoken of in Seon Buddhism are not simply a state without thoughts. They mean being free of delusive thinking and clinging, so that the wisdom of the originally pure true nature is revealed.
In particular, the ultimate awakening emphasized in Seongcheol Sunim's teaching of sudden awakening and sudden cultivation is not a temporary rest from affliction. It is the ultimate awakening in which even fundamental ignorance has been completely cut away.
Mind with thought is the realm of sentient beings; ultimate no-mind is the realm of the Buddha.
However, if even the thought of attaining the state of no-mind remains, there is still one who attains and something to be attained. True no-mind does not abide even in the thought of no-mind.
When the discriminating thought that divides the one who perceives from the object perceived is cut off, all delusive thinking is extinguished, and the originally pure wisdom is fully revealed, this is ultimate no-mind and ultimate awakening.
In the end, practice is not leaving the world or shutting out the senses. It is living in the world, seeing, hearing, and feeling, while realizing a freedom in which the mind is not bound by any object.
It is not craving when you see something beautiful, not being angry when you meet something you dislike, and, while clearly knowing good from bad, not abiding in the clinging that takes and discards.
When you meet a pleasing object, the mind does not abide; when you meet a displeasing object, the mind is not bound. In the midst of neither taking nor discarding, the wisdom of the originally pure mind is revealed.
This is the direction of no-mind practice to carry into daily life, and the way that moves toward ultimate no-mind and ultimate awakening.
Today, when you meet something you like, see whether the wish to possess it is added to the feeling of liking. When you meet something you dislike, observe whether the wish to push it away is added to the unpleasant feeling.
Do not suppress the mind that arises or try to force it away. Be aware that it is a phenomenon that arises and passes away according to conditions, and practice neither grasping nor pushing away.
Even if the mind grows quiet for a moment, do not think you have reached ultimate no-mind. Continue to practice without abiding even in the wish to attain no-mind.
Feeling the beautiful as beautiful and the foul as unpleasant is the natural working of the senses. Practice is not removing that sensation, but being aware of the greed and hatred that arise from it and not being dragged into clinging.
Do not suppress the mind that wants to grasp what is good or the mind that wants to push away what is disliked; look at both as phenomena that arise and pass away according to conditions. This is the practice of neither taking nor discarding.
This awareness is part of the path of practice. Ultimate no-mind and ultimate awakening are the state where fundamental ignorance has completely vanished, even the discriminating thought that divides the one who attains from what is to be attained is cut off, and the originally pure wisdom is fully revealed. See, hear, and feel in daily life without being bound by any object, and move forward on a path that does not abide even in the thought of attaining no-mind.
- Toward a sweet scent, the hand moves first. Away from a foul smell, the body moves first.
- Knowing like and dislike is a natural sensation. See whether a mind that grasps or pushes away is added on top.
- You do not block the senses. You only loosen the clenched hand and the stiff shoulders.
- Let even the pride of having grown quiet pass. A moment of quiet is not ultimate no-mind.
- The same touch for flower and compost. Daily awareness is a path walking toward ultimate awakening, where even fundamental ignorance is gone.