Secrets on Cultivating the Mind

A short guide to Seon (Korean Zen) practice by Jinul, the most influential Seon master of the Goryeo period, written between about 1203 and 1205. It is set out as answers to a series of questions. Jinul begins by saying that the Buddha is simply one's own mind, so searching for buddhahood outside it is pointless; one should trace back the mind's own radiance instead. The essential mind, he says, is void and calm yet numinously aware, and this awareness is one's original face. His central teaching is sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation. One may see one's true nature in a moment, but old habits remain: a frozen pond is wholly water yet needs the sun's warmth to melt, and a newborn child has every faculty but must still grow. Cultivation means keeping meditative calm (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā) in balance, so that neither dullness nor agitation takes over.

It is the classic statement of Korean Zen and a clear, practical answer to an old question about meditation: if awakening is sudden, why is practice still needed?