8. Path to a wise faith

Buddhism advises us not to do miracles even though we can. If you do too many miracles, you will lose your intention for enlightenment and you will only be pursuing a form(miracles).
You had best not have a silly faith as to deceive others, and you would also be fooled through performing miracles. Even though you can, during the course of Zen(Seon in Korean) study, read another's mind, see through walls, and totally recognize what some person is thinking of, these are obstacles for your realization of the Truth.

These things are far from wisdom. Even if they appear to you, you need to hide them and not show off to others. You need to work hard with your pure mind to realize Mind.

Buddhism is ultimately to learn by yourself what Buddha is, how the Mind was created, and what the Truth is.

There is a wide difference between apprehension through education and the clear understanding brought about by personal Realization.

Up to this time, I've addressed my message on Buddhism by means of religion in general. Once again I say that it is Buddhism that can give us the shortest, easiest and the most definite way of realizing the Truth.

We may come closer to the Truth by means of religious common sense and knowledge, but we can't reach the Truth which we can experience in person through enlightenment. It is only possible by means of the light of wisdom which can break away the original darkness of the interminable hell.

Buddha showed us how to obtain the light of wisdom, and so we must study and practice hard to have a right understanding of Buddha's teachings until we fully understand and realize the Truth in person. Of the various ways of obtaining the light of wisdom that have been practiced by a number of zen masters since early times, Zen is the best, and of the ways of practice in the latter period, the best selected one is Zen of the ultimate question(Hwadu or Koan in Korean) or the ultimate question study. The study of the ultimate question can be practiced everywhere regardless of whether we are monks or laymen.

A genuine Buddhist ritual and service is to awaken our nature of Buddha and make up our minds to become Buddha. For this purpose, we must study the ultimate question hard, break the great ultimate question and obtain the light of wisdom.

The ultimate question, 'What is this?', is presented by a master only to a practicing student who has firm belief and eagerness to get enlightened. Once given to him, this question must be solved in any case, and he should ask his master for guidance and have his practice checked by his master without fail.

Our mind can be compared to a glass of dirty water. Pure water means our original mind, and dirt represents the three poisons: greed, anger, and foolishness. In other words, dirty water represents our mind contaminated with the three poisons. There are two ways to make the water pure again; one is to let the dirt sink to the bottom and the other is to remove all the dirt from the water completely. The water made pure by letting the dirt sink can be dirty again when shaken by someone, but the water made pure by actually removing the dirt will still remain pure, however hard it may be shaken.
The study of the ultimate question is the very way to remove all the poisons out of our mind. Even though it is hard and difficult, it can be completed in three to seven days if you are guided by a good master. This fact is proved both by the sayings of ancient grand masters and by the experience of many people who practiced it.

Though I feel my explanation about the reason and purpose of having a religion is not good enough, I do believe you are now fully aware of the fact that if you have a religion in a right way, you can realize genuine happiness and true freedom in your life and that you, divine Buddha Hall, are living in the everlasting world of truth.

As I mentioned before, Buddhism is a unique religion presenting us with the rightest and the most definite way to get to the Truth. And the core of Buddhism is Zen, more specifically Zen of the ultimate question (Ganhwaseon). Now I think you have understood clearly that it is why we should practice Zen meditation with Hwadu(Koan). I do hope you can have an enlightened future life through your wise belief referring to my words, and I do believe that you can get a good result if you firmly believe in the words of Buddha and put them into practice in a right way with a clam mind.