[One Thousand Characters a Day] Hwaeomgyeong for Humanities Readers <5> - 'Chalnachalna Balsim'

Editor's NoteProfessor Park Boram of Chungbuk National University, author of Hwaeomgyeong for Humanities Readers, states, "The Hwaeomgyeong is not a scripture that tells us to become a different being or state by learning something unknown or acquiring knowledge that did not exist before." He emphasizes, "The Hwaeomgyeong is a scripture for a specific purpose. It urges us to make a vow to believe that 'I' am the complete Buddha and to do what the Buddha must do." Spending as much time as possible reading and reflecting on the Hwaeomgyeong is the way for 'me' to live as a Buddha. At the moment of reading Hwaeomgyeong without seeking to gain, know, or become, Buddha, sentient beings, nirvana, life and death, joy and suffering, enlightenment and ignorance, you and I?all are just a moment. Word count: 914 characters.

The practice understood by early Hwaeom teachings regarding the Hwaeomgyeong is not a practice for attaining Buddhahood. The practice of the One Vehicle Bodhisattva Path is precisely the vow to believe that "'I' am the complete Buddha" and to continuously do what the Buddha must do, which is a form of unhappiness. Therefore, I previously stated that "this is not a matter of becoming or not becoming, but a matter of doing or not doing." In fact, even the phrase "what the Buddha must do" is somewhat misleading. It is only because of my limited expressive ability that I risk misunderstanding by using it. If one understands the Buddha as a fixed and attainable stage, being, or state, then that is not the Buddha of the Hwaeomgyeong. There is no separate entity worthy of being called Buddha whose actions, i.e., unhappiness, are performed. We merely discriminate and label certain phenomena as Buddha, unhappiness, sentient beings, the Bodhi tree, or Jebadalda.

Furthermore, does the mind that arises to believe "'I' am the Buddha" occur only at the beginning of the Ten Grounds? Since the initial aspiration has already arisen, is everything thereafter merely unhappiness without any initial aspiration? Early Hwaeom teachings understand this as moment-to-moment aspiration (念念發心). That is, after the initial aspiration, the bodhisattva continuously generates the will and vow to believe at every moment. This is unhappiness. As introduced earlier, if the head and legs are one and the father and son's ages are the same, the first aspiration is also the last aspiration, which is called moment-to-moment aspiration. Therefore, the common saying "returning to the initial mind" is possible only because the initial aspiration is confined to the first ground of the Ten Grounds and the current self is discriminated as separate from the initial mind. We must not "return" to the initial mind. The bodhisattva of the Hwaeomgyeong is always in the initial mind.

The initial mind is a place where sentient beings have never entered, bodhisattvas do not dwell, and Buddhas do not leave.

- Park Boram, Hwaeomgyeong for Humanities Readers, Bulgwang Publishing, 16,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.