근기론으로서의 돈점론

Abstract

Throughout the long history of the Seon (Zen, Chan) School,sudden and gradual enlightenment, the two core theories of Seonpractice, sometimes stood at the center of controversial debates and atother times functioned as guiding principles for many practitioners. Although a considerable amount of research on sudden and gradualenlightenment has been done, it has concentrated too much on certainspecific areas. Most of the research has dealt with the following:enlightenment, cultivation, the theories of sudden and gradualenlightenment, the history and essential content of the debates onsudden versus gradual enlightenment and specific Seon masters’ viewson sudden and gradual enlightenment. However, little research has beendone to explore in a general way the theories of sudden and gradualenlightenment from a fundamental stance and to resolve the issues ofthe debates. The Sixth Patriarch Huineng was the first to deal with the issuesof sudden and gradual enlightenment since Bodhidharma; he said,“Dharma is not sudden or gradual. Rather it is people who are sharpor dull.” I regard this quote by Huineng as the core issue of the suddenversus gradual controversy and will try to shed light on the sudden vs. gradual debate based on this quote. From this perspective, Huinengtaught the Dharma and guided students to internalize it. When teaching,Huineng took into account the individual circumstances of each student; that is, he taught each student according to their spiritual capacity. Thismethod of teaching has been described in various ways, including theexpressions: “sudden enlightenment,” “sudden cultivation,” “supremecapacity,” and the admonition to “practice diligently after listening tothe teaching of sudden enlightenment.”Many Seon masters after Huineng were not consistent in teachingsudden and gradual enlightenment. Some masters believed exclusivelyin “sudden enlightenment and sudden cultivation,” others in “suddenenlightenment and gradual cultivation.” Still others taught both. Without considering the concept of “student capacity,” I think it isimpossible to explain sudden and gradual enlightenment, as well asenlightenment and cultivation. I base this statement on the fact thatvarious Seon masters specifically mentioned certain practices for certaincapacities, saying such things as: “Sudden enlightenment is for the[student of] higher capacity”; “Sudden enlightenment and suddencultivation is for the [student of] supreme capacity”; “Suddenenlightenment and gradual cultivation is for the [student of] highercapacity”; and “The [students of] medium and lower capacity shouldpractice diligently.” Moreover, their emphasis on faith, arousal of theaspiration for enlightenment and right view, attests to the excellenceof a teacher’s means in teaching Seon practice and doctrine in that theyadmonish practitioners not to take a narrow-minded view of inherentcapacity but rather to maximize their own enlightenment andcultivation.