Chapter Three : Practice 1

The Founding Master said, “The purpose of having you recite the essential dharmas of daily practice in the morning and evening does not lie in reciting simply the words. Rather, it is intended to help you grasp their meaning in your hearts and assess it in your minds, reviewing them generally once a day, and more specifically examining them each time you are faced with sensory conditions. You must assess and check your mind over and over to see whether or not your mind-ground is disturbed, deluded, or subject to wrong-doing; whether or not you have been making active progress in belief, zeal, questioning, and dedication; whether or not you have been living in gratitude, living a life of self-power, readily learning, readily teaching, and benefiting others. You must do this until ultimately you reach a state in which the mind needs no checking. It is said that a person’s mind is so extremely subtle that it exists when you take hold of it, but disappears when you let it go. How then can a person cultivate one’s mind without checking it? Therefore, in order that you may realize this checking mind, I have established Items of Heedfulness in Daily Applications and Items of Heedfulness Regarding Temple Visits, and also established the Dharma of Keeping a Diary to examine thoroughly whether one has followed these instructions well. Thus, I have provided perfectly precise guidance regarding your methods of practice. I urge all of you to practice diligently according to this dharma, and to accomplish the great task of transcending the ordinary and entering sagehood as quickly as possible.”

The Essential Dharmas of Daily Practice
1. The mind ground is originally free from disturbance, but disturbances arise in response to sensory conditions; let us give rise to the absorption (samādhi) of the self-nature by letting go of those disturbances.
2. The mind ground is originally free from delusion, but delusions arise in response to sensory conditions; let us give rise to the wisdom prajñā of the self-nature by letting go of those delusions.
3. The mind ground is originally free from wrong-doing, but wrong-doings arise in response to sensory conditions; let us give rise to the precepts śīla of the self-nature by letting go of those wrong-doings.
4. Let us remove unbelief, greed, laziness, and foolishness by means of belief, zeal, questioning, and dedication.
5. Let us turn a life of resentment into a life of gratitude.
6. Let us turn a life of dependency into a life of self- reliance.
7. Let us turn a reluctance to learn into a readiness to learn well.
8. Let us turn a reluctance to teach into a readiness to teach well.
9. Let us turn a lack of public spirit into an eagerness for the public’s welfare.

The Dharma of Keeping a Diary
A. The General Significance of the Dharma of Keeping a Diary
The dharma of keeping a daily diary has been established in order for everyone, whether lay or ordained, learned or ignorant, to review for that day the handling of affairs in a mindful or unmindful fashion, the state of one’s study, and whether or not one transgressed the precepts. The dharma of keeping a fixed-term diary has been established in order to have practitioners who are undergoing training in either a seminary or a Sŏn center record for that day the number of hours they worked, their income or expenditures that day, the specific handling of the functioning of their bodies and minds, and their awakenings and impressions.

B. The Dharma of Keeping a Daily Diary
1. With regard to mindfulness and unmindfulness, you are to investigate and record the number of times you handled any event you faced in either a mindful or unmindful fashion. “Mindful” means when you acted with heedfulness in making choices with regard to items that you resolved either to do or not to do; “unmindful” means when you acted without heedfulness in making choices. In the beginning, you are to keep track of the number of times you acted with heedfulness or without heedfulness in making choices, regardless of how things turned out. As practice deepens, however, you are to keep track of the number of times the result was good or bad.
2. With regard to the state of your study, you are to record your calculations regarding the number of hours you studied each subject listed under Cultivation and Inquiry, and you are to review and record your attendance and absence at regular dharma meetings and Sŏn sessions.
3. Regarding the precepts, you are to review and record whether you kept or transgressed them; when there was a violation, record the number of times you transgressed that specific item.
4. For people who are illiterate or not comfortable with documents, we have set up the separate “bean-count” method of examination, so that they may simply keep track of whether they are mindful or unmindful: they may calculate the number of times they are mindful or unmindful by counting one light-colored bean whenever they act with heedfulness in making choices and one dark-colored bean whenever they do not.

C. The Dharma of Keeping a Fixed-Term Diary
1. The idea behind having practitioners keep a record of the number of hours we work for the day is so that we may compare hours spent valuably with those spent wastefully during the twenty-four hours of the day and, if there are wasted hours, to be heedful later not to repeat them, so that we may not fritter away even a moment of our time.
2. The idea behind having practitioners keep a record of income and expenditures for the day is so that we may find a way to earn income if there is none and work diligently to generate income; if there are lots of expenditures, we may find a way to curb them so as to prevent poverty and find happiness; and that even the affluent may avoid becoming indolent.
3. The idea behind having practitioners keep a record of the handling of the functioning of their bodies and minds is so that we may appraise our right and wrong conduct for the day and know the balance of the transgressions or merits we have made; and to illuminate the right and the wrong, benefit or harm, so as to gain the ability to make choices whenever we engage in any kind of activity.
4. The idea behind having practitioners keep a record of their awakenings and impressions is that we may assess our progress in understanding the principles of great and small, being and nonbeing involved in them.

Items of Heedfulness Regarding Temple Visits
1. Whenever you come to temple while practicing the items of heedfulness in daily applications, be heedful to engage in questions and answers about each and every aspect of those activities.
2. If you have awakened to some matter, be heedful to report that awakening to a spiritual mentor and to obtain his or her appraisal.
3. If you encounter a matter that raises a special doubt, be heedful to submit it to a spiritual mentor and gain the awakening of understanding.
4. Be heedful to set aside in advance each year the training fees for Sŏn-retreat (meditation-retreat), so that you may pursue specialized practice in a Sŏn center.
5. On the days of the regular dharma meeting, be heedful to come to temple and dedicate yourself exclusively to practice that day, after settling in advance any outstanding matters.
6. Once you have returned from temple, and after reflecting on whether or not you had some sort of awakening or had any specific doubt clarified

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