Sudden Awakening, Gradual Cultivation

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Jinul taught that the mind which is to be cultivated and the mind which awakens are not two. Practice, in his framing, begins with sudden awakening (頓悟): the direct recognition that one's own nature is already Buddha-nature, complete and unborn. From this single recognition flows gradual cultivation (漸修): the patient work of dissolving habit-energies that continue to arise even after recognition. In practice this means investigating the hwadu — the live phrase — until intellectual grasping is exhausted, and then sustaining that clarity through every activity of body and speech. 'Even after one has awakened to one's original mind, one's habits are deeply rooted and cannot be removed in one stroke.' The Seon practitioner therefore sits, walks, eats, and works as continuous cultivation of what was already realized.

tr. Zen Lineage editorial paraphrase, after Buswell, 'Tracing Back the Radiance' (1991)

license: cc_by

Attribution

• Speaker
  Bojo Jinul

Lineage: Jogye

By Bojo Jinul

• The Mind Is Buddhaproverb
• Sudden Awakening, Gradual Cultivationproverb
• Tracing Back the Radianceproverb
• The Three Mysterious Gatesproverb
• An Ox on the Mountainproverb

Sources

• contentSusimkyŏl 修心訣 (Secrets on Cultivating the Mind)

  Pojo Chinul (Jinul)

  Susimkyŏl, sections on tono chŏmsu (頓悟漸修)

  Susimkyŏl (Secrets on Cultivating the Mind): Sudden Awakening, Gradual Cultivation