After graduating high school, Son Master Songdam ordained as a Buddhist monk under his teacher Son Master Jonkang and immediately entered into a vow of silence which lasted for ten years and culminated in his spiritual enlightenment. Son Master Songdam has been teaching Son Buddhist meditation to monks and laypeople in Korea for the past forty years. He is the most venerated Buddhist master living in Korea today. Son Master Songdam is also universally recognized in Korea as the authentic transmitter of the Son Buddhist Dharma for attaining enlightenment. Here for the first time in English is an excerpt from his Dharma speech, translated by Hwansan Sunim.
Since the time when we were born, there is a problem that has been given to us, to all people, whether we believe in the Buddha Dharma or not and regardless of which religion we believe in. There is a question.
What in the world is this thing called life?
Where did we come from? What have we come to do? And after living one lifetime, we must depart, but when we go, where in the end do we go?
What in the world is this thing called life?
What is it that we come into this world and live a lifetime where when it's short, it's short, and when it's long, it's long -- a lifetime lived in joy and anger, sorrow and pleasure, weeping, laughing, and flailing about until inevitably we depart? And when we go, ultimately where is it that we go?
What in the world is this thing that I call "me?"
What is it about it that it came to be born between those parents, born among those siblings, and meet that husband or wife to live with?
Why, of all things, did it meet those parents, meet that husband or wife, and have those children?
Though you may stay up many days and nights with your eyes open to think about this, it's unknowable. We were born into this world, holding in our arms a mysterious problem that we cannot solve even if we were to think about it and investigate it for our whole lives.
In order to solve that problem, many scholars of the east and west, past and present, have researched it from all possible viewpoints. All of the scholars, all of the philosophers. They did that, but all people remain confronted with this problem, still unresolved.
The Buddha has told us that even though you may analyze this problem on a theoretical level and obtain some kind of conclusion, that is not really a true method of solution.
Do not try to understand it by questioning it on a theoretical level.
If you're curious about it, consider the thing that knows to be curious...
If you're frustrated because you don't know the answer, don't attack the problem on a theoretical level. Instead, first solve the question: What is the thing that's frustrated, the thing that's thinking about it in a frustrating way?
For further teachings regarding Son meditation practice, please refer to the Youtube channel "Hwansan Sunim: Son Meditation for the Modern World" and to the Facebook page "Yonghwasa International Seon Buddhist Program".
If you have questions for Hwansan Sunim, you may send an email to ask.hwansan@gmail.com.