Korean Seon
from 800
Sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation, and a refusal to let meditation and doctrinal study be treated as rivals.
- Active
- from 800
- Where
- Korea
- Also
- 선 Seon
- Status
- living
- Tradition
- Japanese And Korean
The claim
Awakening is sudden and cultivation is gradual. Seeing your nature does not complete the work, because habits formed over a lifetime do not dissolve at the moment of insight.
What it held
Korean Buddhism inherited a quarrel: the meditation schools and the doctrinal schools each regarded the other as missing the point. Jinul's achievement was to refuse the choice, and to do it philosophically rather than diplomatically.
His formula is sudden awakening, gradual cultivation. The insight into one's nature arrives all at once and cannot be built up incrementally. But the patterns of a life do not vanish with it, and the work afterwards is where most of the practice lies. He compares it to an infant who has all the organs of an adult and must still grow.
On the doctrinal quarrel he argued that scripture is the Buddha's words and Seon is the Buddha's mind, and that they cannot conflict. That settled the dispute institutionally in a way it was never settled in China or Japan, and Korean Buddhism has been substantially unified since.
The practice is hwadu — holding a critical phrase, as in Rinzai — combined with study, which the Japanese schools tended to keep apart.
How it argued
Hwadu investigation alongside doctrinal study, in a monastic setting that deliberately maintains both.
What it was arguing against
The exclusive claims of meditation-only and doctrine-only factions, both of which Jinul regarded as partial.
Where it disagreed with itself
Whether sudden awakening and gradual cultivation are compatible — Seongcheol in the twentieth century argued for sudden awakening and sudden cultivation, reopening a question Jinul had closed.
Common misconceptions
That Korean Seon is a provincial version of Chan. Its integration of meditation with study is a distinct solution to a problem the other traditions handled by choosing sides.
How it began
Jinul in the twelfth century, reforming a Korean sangha he regarded as corrupted by state patronage and factional dispute.
What became of it
Living. The Jogye Order, which follows Jinul, is the dominant form of Korean Buddhism.
Lasting influence
Korean Buddhism entirely. Its argument for combining study and practice has been taken up by Western Zen teachers looking for an alternative to the purely non-textual model.
Why it still matters
The claim that insight and its integration are different processes on different timescales is psychologically astute and applies well beyond religion.
Put another way
An infant with all its limbs, which still has to learn to walk.
Where to start
Secrets on Cultivating the Mind. It is about twenty pages.
The surprising bit
Jinul had his decisive awakening while reading — encountering a passage in a Chinese text — which is an awkward fact for a tradition that says awakening is outside the scriptures, and he built his synthesis around it.
In their own words
Sudden awakening, gradual cultivation.
The scriptures are the Buddha's words; Seon is the Buddha's mind.
Connections
- Opposed by
- Rinzai Zen
The verdict
The tradition that ended an argument the rest of East Asian Buddhism is still having.