Awakening Must Be Complete

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If you say 'I have awakened, but I still have habits to clean up,' you have not awakened. True awakening (悟) is the full and sudden opening in which there is nothing left over, nothing to be gradually removed afterward. What Jinul called 'gradual cultivation after awakening' is the cultivation of someone who has not yet awakened. A person who has truly seen their own nature is like a lamp that illuminates the whole room the instant it is lit. There is no half-lit room. Either the lamp is on, or it is not.

tr. After Seongcheol, 'Seonmun Jeongno' (1981); English rendering from Haein-sa sources

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Attribution

• Attributed To
  Toeong Seongcheol

Lineage: Jogye

By Toeong Seongcheol

• Hold Only the Don't-Know Mindpractice-instruction
• Do Not Be Deceivedproverb
• Do Not Leave the Mountainproverb
• Three Thousand Bowsproverb
• The Mountain Is the Waveproverb

Sources

• contentSeongcheol Dharma Talks (백일법문)

  Seongcheol

  Seonmun Jeongno (선문정로), 1981; Hundred-Day Dharma Talks on sudden awakening, sudden cultivation

  Seonmun Jeongno (Correct Path of the Seon School): Awakening Must Be Complete