A Guide for Seon Meditation <1>

Meditation, Another Name for Samadhi (Calm-abiding) and Prajna (Wisdom)

In recent years, the general public seems to increasingly view Ganhwa Seon as something rarefied. Even ordained practitioners seem to find it difficult. Buddhism teaches how to be free from suffering. So how should we approach Buddha’s teaching, and how can we make it more accessible to all? We believe it would be more effective if the effort to find answers to these questions begins with suggestions from the monastic sangha and goes from there with full force.

The term ‘Seon meditation’ has been created by combining the Chinese characters ‘Seon’ 禪 and 'meditation,' but it is not limited to the meaning given by its Chinese origin. Seon meditation is now a Korean word that brings the uniquely Korean Seon Buddhism, which is the heart of Mahayana Buddhism, to a wider public. In this context, the word ‘Seon’ is ever so versatile. It can mean 善, a Chinese character for ‘goodness,’ which in Korean transliteration also reads ‘seon,’ or it can mean ‘the sun.’ 

The term meditation is associated with the samatha and vipassana practices taught by Sakyamuni Buddha in his time. Samatha is the practice of stilling and calming the disturbed and scattered mind, while vipassana is the practice of constantly observing one’s originally pure nature. This is why Master Bojo Jinul (1158-1210), the renowned National Preceptor of the Goryeo Dynasty, advocated for the practice of jeonghye ssangsu, (定慧雙修.), in which samadhi (calm-abiding) and prajna (wisdom) must be cultivated hand in hand. Samadhi and prajna are the terms corresponding to samatha and vipassana, and the umbrella term ‘meditation’ was used to refer to these practices when they were adopted by the West. In other words, traditional Buddhist practices have been reimported under the name of meditation. 

When you become familiar with Seon meditation, it gives you the ability to quiet your mind on your own. Without Seon meditation, life becomes mediocre, with little or no meaning. The fixed concepts or ideas, and the stubbornly held beliefs largely determine our behavior. Once established, they are difficult to change until we die.

Therefore, you must first get out of the rut of these entrenched concepts. If you believe your life is riddled with problems, worries, anxieties, difficulties, or suffering, then it is time to break your fixed mold. Otherwise, you will just keep repeating these problems, trapped in a neverending cycle of rebirth. No matter what kind of meditation practice you engage in, the common thread is the elimination of suffering.