Opening Dharma Talk for the 2023 Winter Practice Retreat

by Great Lineage Master Jungbong Seongpa, Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order

Ever Numinous Is the One Thing!

Jungbong Seongpa (Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism)

Inherently in as-is-ness, it is imperturbable,

but today it is even brighter than before.

Even if the whole universe disappears,

this one thing will always be numinous.

Practitioners in today's assembly should not take the view that they have entered the practice retreat even after it begins, nor take the view that they are released from the retreat even after it ends. If a speck of dust gets into your eyes, the flowers of illusion will flutter like a whirlwind. Only when single-minded focus on the hwadu turns into a wall of flame and burns all the ten thousand demons and thousands of buddhas, will the one upward path to truth illuminated by buddhas and patriarchs be clearly revealed. If you study with the lukewarm mindset where a practice retreat has a beginning and an end, you will end up abandoning the kindness of your benefactors in life and find yourself in hell after death.

Great heroes!

In this year's three-month winter retreat, everyone must practice vigilantly for dear life. You will have to study diligently like a cat plotting to catch a mouse or like finding a way to extinguish a fire on your head. If you study like this, you will attain buddhahood before long. There will be no need to distinguish between buddhas and sentient beings when you study like this. With great courage and great vigilance, you must break through the "silver mountain and iron wall."

[Hitting the table with his dharma staff]

Do you understand?

When arising ceases, people are not seen and birds are few.

In serenity, falling flowers alight on the green moss.

Absentmindedly, an old monk looks at pine trees and the moon,

and occasionally he smiles at the white clouds that come and go.