practice-instruction
Hold Only the Don't-Know Mind
Seongcheol Dharma Talks
Text
Seongcheol, who served as the Patriarch of the Jogye Order, insisted that hwadu practice is the only door. He pointed his students to one phrase — most often 'What is this?' — and told them not to drop it through any of the four postures. 'Don't try to figure out the answer. Don't try to make the doubt arise. Don't try to keep the question going. Just be the question. When the question is so close that there is nothing between you and it, then there is nothing called you and nothing called the question — and that is your original face.' He warned against shortcuts: no special states, no chasing of light or visions, only the great doubt mass until it breaks.
Attribution
By Toeong Seongcheol
Sources
Seongcheol Dharma Talks: Hold Only the Don't-Know Mind