Enlightenment and Happiness
Anguk Zen Center President
Subul Sunim Discusses the Basics of Buddhism

What is the Zen School of Buddhism? How did Zen develop in Korea and what is the current approach?

The Zen School is a Practical School that places much more weight on practicing Zen than on studying the Sutra as a way of attaining enlightenment. Zen first originated in India when Buddha was alive, and was introduced to Korea during the Silla Dynasty by way of China. These days, Zen meditation practiced with hwadu (koan) is emphasized, and more and more people are becoming interested in it.

Many people believe there is a relationship between Buddhism, and fortune telling and superstition. Is this a misconception?

It is a popular misconception. In fact, Buddhism has nothing to do with them. Buddhism is scientific enough for a great scientist such as Albert Einstein to say that Buddhism is the only religion that can communicate with science. I think such a misconception is made because those who are engaged in fortune telling and superstition have Buddha statues in their workshops or pretend to be Buddhist.

Seoul and New York are home to Zen centers. What is different about Korea’s Zen tradition?

It is true that there are a lot of Zen centers in Seoul and New York, and there can be a lot of ways of practicing, I think. In fact, I don’t know very well how they practice, but there seems to be another misconception that Zen meditation of Buddhism is the same as general meditation. The truth is that one is quite different from the other. For example, the mind can be compared to a glass of dirty water. Our original mind means pure water, and dirt represents three poisons(greed, anger and foolishness). In other words, dirty water represents our mind contaminated with 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 perfectly. Water made pure in the first way can become dirty again when shaken, but water made pure in the second way will still remain pure, however hard it may be shaken. The second way is Korean Zen meditation using hwadu.

You’ve previously suggested that Westerners are faster learners than Koreans. Why do you think this to be so?

They seem to have less superficial knowledge about Zen meditation than we do, even though they have much curiosity about Zen meditation, which is introduced as a new way of practicing. Superficial knowledge about Zen meditation never helps to practice Zen but, in fact, disturbs practice. And Westerners seem not only to be more open-minded and more logically-minded, but also have more curiosity about new things than Koreans, probably because of a frontier spirit toward the world held from long ago.

Please explain the concept of hwadu(화두).


We can say that hwadu (koan) is a means which is used in the process of practicing, to attain enlightenment.

What is the Buddhist conception of suffering? Why do people suffer?


Suffering is the unhappy feeling we have when transitory shadows made by illusion and delusion that we are attached to, mistaking them for an entity, disappear. For example, we have suffering when our bodies disappear because we have taken them for an entity and have become attached to them. We should open the Eye of wisdom by practicing hard to be able to see everything as it is, so as not be deluded any longer by these transitory shadows.

What is the purpose of mediation in Buddhist training?


The purpose of Zen meditation is to be happy. Of course, the purpose of Buddhism is to attain enlightenment, and Zen meditation is one of the ways of practicing to attain enlightenment. To conclude, it can be said that the purpose of Zen meditation is to attain enlightenment. However, what other purpose but to escape the suffering of birth and death, and to find happiness by opening the Eye of wisdom, could enlightenment have? So, the ultimate purpose of Zen meditation, it can be said, is to be happy.

Interview by Robert Koehler
Photos by Ryu Seunghoo

*This article first appeared in the May 2007 issue of SEOUL.