Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

After the death of Kumarajīa, who had introduced Madhyamaka studies to China through his sutra translation work, the teachings of the Sanlun were being distorted and pushed aside from the mainstream of Buddhist studies. The true lineage of the Sanlun was only revived when Seungrang (僧朗: circa 450~530), a native of Yodong Fortress in Korea’s Goguryeo Kingdom, came to China’s Southern Dynasty, located south of the Yangtze River, and began to teach. By that time, Bodhidharma had come to China and began to propagate Dharma. Exchanges continued for almost a century between the Seon School and Sanlun scholars beginning with the first encounter between Huike(慧可: 487~593), the 2nd Patriarch of the Seon School and Sanlun scholar Huibu(慧布: 518~587), and later between Shanfu(善伏: ?~660) and Faru(法如: 638~689). Farong believed that all things are intrinsically empty and without substance, and Bodhidharma taught that enlightenment is not a goal to be attained but that all beings are originally Buddhas. These similar thoughts indicate that the philosophical basis of the early Seon School was not much different from the Sanlun studies of PrajñāMadhyamaka. Although the Seon School was established on the foundation of Sanlun studies, that is, PrajñāMadhyamaka studies, it did not use Sanlun texts or quote its scholars, but rather, adopted its methods. In other words, Seon monks thoroughly understood the teachings of PrajñāMadhyamaka studies and embodied it in their daily lives through their words and deeds. Among Sanlun thoughts, ‘Two Truths in Three Steps(三重二諦)’, ‘The Two Truths as Principle(理內二諦)’ and ‘Buddha Nature as a Middle Way’ are found in the Dialogues of Seon Masters. In Vigrahavyāartanī, Nāājuna used a simile of “There is no Devadatta in the house.” to express the right meaning of Emptiness. This simile is not different from Mazu’s Claim that the Way does not Require Cultivation(道不用修). The three essential elements of Seon meditation are often said to be: great faith, great indignation and great doubt. When we define Seon(禪) as a “practice which cultivates concentration and wisdom together,”great faith and great indignation become the foundation of concentration, and great doubt connects us to wisdom. If Ganhwa Seon practice is seen as a Buddhist practice which transcends the “concentration of revisionists,”one good reason may be that it has the perspective of the Middle Way and it exhorts practitioners to harbor great doubt. The “mental state called doubt”is none other than the Middle Way. When doubt is sustained, our thoughts cannot settle on any single thing. The reason is, even when a hundred thoughts arise, none of them is the “right answer to the question.”When the state of doubt is sustained, the minds of practitioners discard hundreds or thousands of alternatives and venture to the edge of the Middle Way. It is the place Seung Sahn(崇山) described as “Only Don’t Know.”It is a place completely free from hundreds and thousands of knowledges. It is a place where conceptual discrimination ceases. The Sanlun term “detached from the four propositions”corresponds to the Middle Way, and the Sanlun term “severing one hundred negations”corresponds to doubt. The Middle Way and doubt are mainstays of Ganhwa Seon which lead us to the wisdom of the Middle Way, the wisdom of non-duality, the wisdom of deconstruction and the wisdom of emptiness.