Want to be inquisitive? This is an exploration into thought. Thoughts play themselves out as a drama. They each have images with their own attitude, manner and style. Your mind is trying to remind you of what you most need to understand. Just direct your understanding to what is going on. By doing so, one can verify that we live in a caring and intelligible universe.

References are made to The Collected Works of Chinul - The Korean Approach to Zen

See video trascript below.

Transcript

Trascript provided by Stephen Bear

Direct Understanding of and Attainment of Buddahood

The curious thing happened when this title was suggested.
Part of the title was excluded, and the part that
was excluded, is that this title comes out of Chinul. A
very, very major thinker in the history of Buddhism in Korea.
And the book you should look for, is “Chinul: The Korean
Approach To Zen”. Really, itʼs truly a great book.
And the writings are of Chinul, sometimes, is referred to in
a series of ways but, and his full name is Chinul. Now,
Chinul was a major thinker, he had so much insight into
the whole tradition of Buddhism. How did I spell it? C-hu?
Excuse me, that should be. ....i n u l.. Chinul. An important
point in his career as being a monk, he decided
he had to separate himself from the whole traditions of
Buddhism and so he, gathered all the major classics of
buddhism and put them on several wagons, and carted
them off into the hills of Korea where he then studied
nothing but the classics.
And as a result of that he did the great works, that go
under the name, “The Eclectic Works of Chinul - the Korean
Approach”. Now, why is that significant? Well, since
itʼs not part of the title Iʼm not in anyway obliged to deal
with it. So either I can continue exploring Chunilʼs thought
or we can just take the subject and explore it. So, I will
explore it. But I canʼt separate myself from the thought of
Chinul since so much of what I think of Buddhism comes
out of Chinul and other works but, certainly Chinul is one
of the greatest exponents for me of what Buddhism really
is.
And I had the good fortune of working with a truly
great master, Myo Bong, Myo Bong Sunim. And he is in
the patriarchal lineage, still living, and that means that he
is that lineage that goes back to the Buddha, he is the
33rd patriarchal, dharma successor of the Buddha. His
teacher was Hye-Am, who lived to be 102 or 103.
And I was fortunate enough to work with him for several
good years. And through him he opened the doorway
to Chinul and many other important things. So let me
talk about Buddhahood for a moment, thatʼs a strange
word. For Chinul, he often, what I like about Chinul, is
that he describes these terms, in terms of our experience
rather than in terms of a philosophical system. So he
says, Buddhahood is when youʼre in a situation, perhaps
meditating, and so thoughts come and go, thoughts come
and go, he says, if even for one instant, however you do
it, no thought arises, then you experience buddhahood.
The language he is uses is a monist buddhahood, a monist
buddhahood, monist one - you experience the nature
of buddhahood as one. So thatʼs the way he does it.
He talks about it through experience. Now, the interesting
thing that I like exploring is, what is all this human
activity and quest for enlightenment if it is as simple as
that? Or letʼs turn it around, and say, since this is our
everyday mode of existence, having thoughts, and being
plagued by thoughts, or being controlled by thoughts, or
being influenced by thoughts, or enjoying thoughts, whatever
it might be. Why is the presence of this, ignorance
and this is enlightenment?
Why is this the entry into buddhahood? Now, the attainment
of this, is a direct understanding. Itʼs a direct
understanding of this. Itʼs not merely the experience but
itʼs a direct understanding. So the direct understanding of
that this is the way it is, is this. Now, walk over here, and
say now, what does it mean about the other picture? I
submit to you that itʼs the lack of understanding, it must
be, the lack of understanding. Now what is it that we
lack? Understanding, okay. Of what? What kind? And
why should some simple difference make so much difference
to mankind?
This chalk doesnʼt think, no thoughts, it must be enlightened.
Is it the mere absence of thought? Thatʼs what
he says. If you could hold back. But you see, the difference
between the two, is that there is something going on
here, there is something going on here, that is totally obscured
by the presence of this. Let me therefore explore
this with you. And let me raise a couple of questions and
take you through your own understanding. Thatʼs what
we are going to do this evening. #1, When you have
have a thought, right now when you have a thought, does
the thought stand alone? Does the thought contain within
it, or attendant with it, some image? If there is a thought?
Letʼs go further and say it has an image, letʼs go further
then and say that. Is it not likely that you know very well
the experience of a thought with an accompanying image?
That continues, it continues. And then at some point,
for whatever reason, you come out of it. You see, at the
moment when you come out of it something very significant
takes place. But weʼre not going to be able to appreciate
it until we understand this. Would you agree,
that you can have a thought, that continues, and itʼs either
unique, first time you have ever thought of it, and therefore
you should be surprised at itʼs richness and newness?
Or itʼs recycled, or you have had it before? You see, if
you had it before, then in some way, your mind is reminding
yourself. Right? Itʼs playing it again. That is to remind.
Now, suppose then we were to ask, is it equally
likely that if you could watch this process, that you know
very well you have something like it if not the very same
thing previously?
That is to say, you know, you had it, before. Now, if
you know that you have had it before, then why donʼt you
terminate it? Letʼs go a step further. If you want to be
inquisitive about the mind, perhaps you can now engage

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this thought, say, is it possible that something precedes
that thought? Something precedes it. Something precedes
it. That is extremely compact, compressed, seedlike,
seed-like, and if you pay attention to the way your
thoughts come up, just watch them.
Donʼt bother trying to control or direct them. Is it not
likely then that you might take an interest to knowing,
whether or not there is something that preceded the particular
thought? Any one of these. And that it has a seedlike
quality. Now if it had a seed-like quality then you
know the whole thing. Youʼre aware of the whole thing.
That is to say you donʼt have to talk to yourself. You donʼt
have to tell yourself anything. If it has a seed-like quality,
in which it is already condensed and compacted?
Well you can turn off this, Iʼm going to call this now,
sub-vocal dialogue with yourself. Right?That sub-vocal
dialogue that goes on. You can turn it off because you
know whatʼs coming. You donʼt have to go through all
that. Now then, if itʼs true, that if you take a look at you
own mind, to see whether or not this is true or not, it
raises a rather interesting question. Then why do we tolerate,
this verbalization, this sub-vocalization, as something
we already know? Here it comes again. Different
we can ask.
What is going on here? That we endure, allow, tolerate,
enjoy, doesnʼt matter. Whatʼs going on here? Because
if we could terminate it, because we have the
whole thing in a miniscule package, right, like a seed, well
then to allow ourselves to do that, there must be something
thatʼs going on. Because we do endure it, we allow
it , we tolerate it, and in some cases we may even enjoy
this thought formation. Now what is it? Well, would you
not agree we have to add something to this. There is no
thought, there is no thought with itʼs image, that doesnʼt
have a certain, alright, alright, a certain tone to it, our subvocal
thoughts have a certain matter, and style and tone
to them.
You can describe with great accuracy, if you take time
out, that tonal quality of the thoughts. Those tonal qualities
of the thought, if you explore it just a bit further, are
very likely to be connected with this image. So you have
a thought, have an accompanying image, thereʼs a certain
tonal quality to the thought. It can go on for a certain period
of time, it can continue, because there is something
else in it. As it continues it has, it continues as a drama,
that is to say it has a content, itʼs going somewhere, it has
a drama. If you allow it, it will become a fantasy, or parts
of it. Well then, why do we ever wake up from it? Why do
we ever wake up?
How do we account for this? You see, there are two
things that we have to try to describe, we have to describe,
see, we have to describe, the entrance into it.
Why do we go in to it? Why do we go in to it? Whatʼs the
first step? See, whatʼs the first step? Alright, whatʼs the
first step? And while thatʼs interesting itʼs not quite as interesting
as this.
How do we come out of it? I mean, if itʼs absorbed us,
now you could say, well we hear something from the external
world that wakes us up, no, no, no. There were
sounds in the external world before this that didnʼt wake
you up. Must have occurred at a certain point. Try better.
What if you were to set up the circumstances so that
you will eliminate or reduce the possibility of such interruptions?
Then what wakes you up? Aw! Thereʼs something
missing. You see there is still something missing.
We donʼt have it yet. There must be another thing in here
or it wonʼt work. Somewhere in this, there has to be a
image of you. There has to be either in the drama itself,
or there has to be an awareness of, watching the drama
and enjoying it but still, that awareness will still have a
certain attitude and style. Now we have a little bit more.
There you are, youʼre sitting, doing nothing, therefore
you have an opportunity to just watch what comes up.
And we are asking the following things. Is it likely that
sooner or later, something is going to trigger this whole
sequence? Seed-like, at first that might be difficult to determine
but a little practice you can get it. Then youʼll see
that a thought emerges, it takes on a certain form, it can
continue, it can propel itself, it has a kind of autonomous
existence, it can be directed to some extent, but then it
takes on a life of itʼs own. And you either become, become
involved in it as a player, or you are that which
watches it and enjoys it, or suffers through it, which has
itʼs own attitude, style and manner. Well look here, this is
the life of man.
Then what is his response? Why do we ever come
out of it? Why do we ever come out of it?Now to play this
you really need to simply do nothing other than what you
always do, not asking you to do anything else, this is going
to take place isnʼt it, just direct your understanding to
what is going on. Thatʼs all, no yoga, no fancy breathing,
no mantras, tantras, nothing, what are you going to do?
Just going to take a look at yourself. And you discover
something quite interesting, this is the moment, invariably,
hey, invariably, you realize that, that image of yourself in
this drama, or your role watching it with all of those qualities,
is not you. Wake up. That is to say, thatʼs the moment
when you recognize you were fooled, you were
fooled, you were conned, you were fooled and here is a
moment of waking up, isnʼt it?
Thatʼs waking up. You wake up to the fact that it isnʼt
you. Thatʼs not what you want to be and what you are.
But that only occurs for the briefest of moments, that occurs
in the most briefest of moments, bang, and what
happens, another one may then take off, or what often
happens is you may then call yourself all kinds of name

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for indulging in this curious activity. That is to say, youʼll
judge yourself for having done that and allowed yourself
to do it. Wasting time and all of those things. Or you
might judge the morality of the story. You were doing
what? You were thinking what? You allowed this and
that? Why, why, why, why? So it turns against you, or a
new one starts, it doesn't make any difference itʼs still a
new drama. It takes on the same form, but for a moment
you woke up, for a moment you woke up, I woke up, you
can wake up.
Thatʼs the direct understanding that you arenʼt this
image. In that briefest of moments, thatʼs no thought. In
that briefest of moments, thatʼs no thought. Thatʼs enlightenment.
Thatʼs buddhahood. But itʼs so fast. Twinkling
of an eye. But it isnʼt any different that this pursuit
on the highest level. Now look here, letʼs go back, and
see whether we can go back and ask our question again.
What is it about these two states? The presence, the absence
of a thought. Itʼs not just the absence of a thought,
if thought involves all of this. When you have an absence
of a thought, that means, you see anything that would
even, even begin to emerge, see, that entrée is this.
The more you can become familiar with this little
seed-like precursor to a thought, and can grasp it, then it
doesnʼt play, it doesn't play itself out. Letʼs go further. For
as long as this state no matter how brief it is, what that
means is that you were not, you were not seizing it, right,
youʼre not seizing it, you're not, thatʼs it, you see, weʼre
seizing on an image of the self. You canʼt have the fantasy,
the thought, the daydream, unless you are willing to
say that that tonality, and that attitude and the style you
have is you.
To the degree that you remove yourself from that, to
that very degree, itʼs not going to function as a springboard
into the thought realm. This is called in Chinul the
phenomenal world. This is the phenomenal world. This
is the noumena world, right? Phenomenal, the way things
appear, you see, this is the whole world of appearance.
The whole mental panorama of the mind is the realm of
appearance. Now, notice what we are saying, we are
saying that once there is an identification with this, as the
self, that means we have grasped what we think is real.
We think we are in touch with a reality, our own reality.
Since that self with that aspect of reality has itʼs own, inherent
properties, attitudes, style, mannerisms, gestures,
articulations of this and that and other things, right?
Which contain within itself an implicit drama, that can then
be unfolded in a series of thoughts, much like a movie
script, which we then watch or identify with.
Whatʼs missing, see, whatʼs missing? What accounts
for the difference between the two? You see, whatʼs the
difference between this, and this moment of waking up?
At this moment of waking up, itʼs reflective, we know we
are not that image, we know we are not that image, itʼs
recursive, it turns upon itself, itʼs recursive, itʼs aware of
itself, “Iʼm not that, I thought I was that”, “Iʼm not that.” for
that moment itʼs recursive, you know that you know something,
you know that you know something. Now look
here, here. It isnʼt empty, in that negative sense, itʼs an
understanding, a direct understanding, right, a direct understanding,
that this is, real, that this is reality. In that
moment, right, there is no image, idea, form of self, there
is an, right, an Atman, the Hindu concept, an Atman, no
self, there is no self in that state, there is just what is, just
what is. And there is an awareness that it is, see, there is
an awareness that it is. Itʼs not unconscious, there is
what it is, itʼs true. Aw, what do you know!
See, in Zen Buddhism, especially in works like “Three
Pillars of Zen” Kapleau and other works, the Yasutani Roshi
often says, the basic problem of man, the basic sickness
of man is thought, thought is the, thought is the
sickness of the mind.
Well, “Thought Is The Sickness Of ...”, thatʼs a very
nice bumper sticker. And even though he repeats it many
times, that is not what he means. Because it depends on
what you mean by this very curious word, “thought”. I can
give you an example. Driving down the highway, there
you go driving down the highway, and you say to yourself,
Iʼm kind of interested in knowing whether I can see something,
without recognizing what it is I see.
And when I recognize what it is I see, I wonder
whether I can keep from knowing what it is that I see. So
you are driving down the road, right? Itʼs one of my favorite
games. And you are driving down the highway, how
do you play it, you play this way, you see, you take, you
have to keep your driving skills right at a nice level, nothing,
no music, nothing, youʼre driving along, and you have
your eyes open, right? And so you see the billboards but
youʼre not going to read them, Right? Youʼre not going to
read them because, that would be a thought. So youʼre
not going to read them. Now can you see the sign without
reading it? Yea, no, yes, what? Well? You see, can
you look at chair and not know that itʼs a chair? Can you
look at chair and not know that itʼs a chair?
When you know itʼs a chair, when you recognize it as
a chair, is that a thought? Just what are we talking about
when we say “Thought Is The Sickness Of The Mind?"
What are we talking about because thought is indistinguishable
from recognition? And you canʼt see without
recognizing what it is you see, unless you go around like
that. So in “Three Pillars” there is a certain point where,
someone questions him about it, and they are in a private
discussion, ah, dokusan, private interviews, time between
the roshi and the aspiring student or monk. And this issue
comes up and he says look here, I donʼt mean to say that
all thought is the problem. He says, what I mean all the

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systems of belief, thatʼs the problem. Thatʼs the sickness
of the mind.
Well then wait a minute, then itʼs not thought is the
sickness of the mind, but belief, belief, because you, look
here. Would you not agree you would never drive with a
roshi and let him drive? Because he couldnʼt drive the car
without recognizing other cars on the road. And that recognition
is intimately bound up with seeing, recognizing,
knowing. So you canʼt be against thought as thought, so
Yatsutani goes into very interesting section, and he corrects
this and he says,
“This is what, I donʼt mind thought.” He says,
“Thoughts just naturally come up, he says if you mind is
working you have thoughts. He says, “Donʼt worry about
those, they come and go, itʼs when you add to it belief.”
Well he didnʼt expand on the word “belief”, too much. He
said a couple of more things, he said, “Belief is what men
get caught into, you see, conceptions they get caught
into.” You see, but to get caught into, is what we are talking
about here, this is what we are talking about getting
caught into. Now, what would it then be like?
Iʼm going to raise the discussion another level now,
alright. Okay? Suppose for the moment that you now, go
through this sufficiently so that you see from your own
experience and confirm everything thatʼs here on the
board. Alright? What will that do next time you have a
thought that has an image and a form? What will this reflection
do to you own mental experience? Itʼs going to
do something, because the more you see this way itʼs
building “understanding” isnʼt it? To the degree then that
you are able to see it take place, itʼs “direct
understanding.”Youʼre not creating theories about it.
Youʼre not listening to Pierre. Youʼre not reading a book.
Become your own teacher. You want to discover
somethng about the operations of your own mind.
I mean, I donʼt have the time to go into books. Well
that will have an effect on this whole thing. In the following
way. You can now say, you know, I wonder whether
or not this attitude and style, that seems to be present, or
this image and form I adopt, either one, either one now.
Whether or not that attitude and style and tonal qualities
to the formations that Iʼm watching in my thought patterns,
I wonder whether or not I have ever been exposed to that
attitude, style, mannerism and tone of voice of someone.
Well, hey, do you know what you are into now? Nothing
special. You just want to see whether you can put from
your own past a face on this from your own past. Now
look here, suppose it turns out, by doing this, that you can
say by heavens isnʼt that curious, that attitude is very
much like my Uncle Harry, my Aunt Mary, now what does
she, what is her drama doing in my mind.
You donʼt have to answer it, donʼt have to answer it.
Oh by the way, you might then might you not take a look
at this drama, you are not going to criticize it, you are going
to allow it to go on. And you are going then say to
yourself, is that a curious drama, what theme is operating
there. And what Iʼd like to do is to have a gentle, you
know, just a, keep it just a small little journal,on the back
of a napkin, right, nothing fancy, and all Iʼm interested in,
Is seeing if I can put a name on what kind of drama is going
on here? Just what kind? Thatʼs all. What kind of a
drama is it? Is there a recurring drama? Hey, I wonder
how many dramas I have, that account for most of the
thought formations I go through.
Huh, this one had getting caught, oh, how often is getting
caught a theme in my day dreams? Oh, being a victor,
over coming disasters, being a Joan of Arc. Whatever,
right?Establish the theme that recurs behind the
drama. Then when you have all the dramas, all you are
going to do then is to get the particular themes, and just
check them off, youʼre not going to do anything complicated
like try to stop it, yoga, become fierce, all you are
going to do is on this back of this napkin, or letter, back of
an old letter, make a note of what themes occurred. And,
how many people from your personal past, have attitudes,
styles, manners and that tonal quality in their own voice
that I can identify. So you are going to have, a very interesting,
we are going to call it, “The Actors File”.
Right, Mom, Dad, whoever it might be, right. Right,
when you get this, just check them off, you're not changing
anything, you are not taking any vows of celibacy,
right, or agree not to eat meat, right, no disciplines, no, all
you are doing is watching, right, all you want to do is to
just understand what is going on, in you own mind. One
more step now, alright. Now suppose these actors that
you have identified, with the particular themes you identified
in the dramas, actually have a source, appears to
have a common source, in your past. Some event that
took place, that keeps coming up, but you donʼt remember
the particular event.
You get these formations of it, this transformation of it,
because you know what, maybe we have only a small
number of themes, small number of our actors file, and
suppose equally well, we only have just a small finite
number of past scenes, that echo, that are echos, and
echo in the various forms and account for the thought
formations in our mind. Well look here, then, that suggests
just one thing, what it suggests is there is something
in your past that you havenʼt finished reflecting on.
You havenʼt understood, and it keeps coming up, and
it keeps coming up as an object for your attention, because
it wants to be resolved, itʼs the mind presenting in
itʼs image form, in a mirror form, those most vital things of
your past that you have yet to understand, that are important
to you for your own development. If thatʼs the case,
and you can check this out without any trouble. Then, the

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mind, when you are at ease, is giving you an opportunity
to see what yet needs to be clarified and understood.
And if it does, is it likely, that you may have come to some
false understanding of this past event that you really
didnʼt understand it, if you didnʼt understand it, itʼs because
you understood it in a certain way that isn't understandable.
And therefore if you can review these past scenes
freshly, it may be then that you might see that the conclusion
that you drew from those past scenes, wasnʼt the
only one. Look here, itʼs worthwhile seeing whether this
is the case because, if you can see that your past experience,
you misunderstood, and your mind is offering it to
you for another look, then if you do understand it, you are
going to drop that image arenʼt you. That misunderstanding,
and that is the same as this isnʼt it, the same as waking
up. Now, what is that showing? you see, now we
have to take a look at this, if this is true what is that showing?
Thatʼs showing then, that there is a profound dimension
to our mental life, that is offering us, again and again,
the opportunity, to redirect our energies, to right, to right,
to discover things that we havenʼt fully understood, and
misperceived and misunderstood. If thatʼs the case, and
itʼs the very kinds of things that are key to our own development,
well then the mind is providential.
Itʼs giving you opportunities to see yourself most positively,
that means therefore your mind is pretty clever.
Not only is it pretty clever, but suppose, just grant one
idea, thatʼs all we need, one idea is all we need now.
Suppose it turns out that, when you see, understand, that
this misunderstanding, brought you to a certain false belief
about yourself, which then working backwards, right,
becomes a theme which is repeated again and again, in
your thoughts, that takes on figures in your day dreams,
or in your thoughts which we call the actors file, and plays
out the themes of those very past scenes, then the mind
is offering us the very conditions for our own growth and
development, but suppose it goes further.
I mean, suppose it turns out that by giving up those
false thoughts about the self, you are purifying the mind of
false images of the self and that is buddhahood. If thatʼs
the case then the everyday mind is the buddha mind.
And whatʼs going on, is intimately concerned with your
own growth and development, offers you in the finest multimedia,
right, multimedia event isnʼt it, that you think is so
real, man, you identify with it, you go with it, right, you
even style you life in respect to it to some degree, and it
does this amazing thing which, just by reflection, just by
reflecting and trying to understand it without any theories.
You might see that in every way what the mind is doing,
is disclosing to you opportunities for breaking
through, by directly understanding that what you are experiencing,
is of such a nature, that it binds you to a false
image of yourself, and therefore directly understanding
that it is false, directly realizing that it is false we wake up.
You can wake up here, you can wake up here, you can
wake up when you recognize in a fantasy or a daydream,
that thatʼs not me, for that split second you are awake.
Or if you go through this process at that moment
when you give up those false ideas of yourself what you
are doing is purifying the self, by using the mind itself, and
it doesnʼt cost you a dime. Right, doesn't cost you anything,
donʼt have to dress in any particular style, no robes,
right, no vows, other than, maybe you have to take a look
at whatʼs gong on in your own mind.
Therefore to see the nature of the mind, or the buddha
mind. You see buddha is a title, itʼs not a name, itʼs
not a name of a person, buddha is really Gautama, buddha
means the mind, mindhood, buddhaʼs mind, boddhi,
comes from the word boddhi, b-o-d-d-h-i. Right? Right?
So what we are saying then is rather simple isnʼt it,
that you can talk about enlightenment as this kind of
event, you can see the mind or the buddha mind, in the
moments of enlightenment, you can also see buddhahood
in the operations of our everyday mind, same mind. The
only difference is whether or not you want to understand it
or not.
So well maybe we should have gone into Chunil tonight,
but since we didnʼt have the term Chinul on it tonight
I thought maybe Iʼll put the book aside and have a
little bit of fun, and play with Chunil in another way.
So thank you very much for another opportunity to
play. And as I say this great book called, “The Collected
Works of Chunil” is a very fine piece of work. And I recommend
it to you. And my old teacher Myo Bong will certainly
chuckle when he hears about it. Korean Buddhism
by the way used to be called the great secret, because
everyone knows about Japanese buddhism, Chinese
buddhism, Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan buddhism, everyone
knows, but Korean buddhism people donʼt know
about, he said. Thatʼs the best kept secret in Buddhism,
Korean Buddhism, itʼs the only intellectual one, itʼs purely
intellectual. So thank you.
D i r e c t U n d e r s t a n d i n g o f a n d A t t a i n m e n t o f B u d d a h o o d
p a g e 5 o f 5