Chapter Three : Practice 14

The Founding Master addressed the congregation at a meditation hall,
“In recent years various lineages in the Sŏn school have been debating the relative merits of different Sŏn techniques. Of these, I have adopted the dharma of resting in the elixir field (tanjŏn chu), and have instructed you to focus exclusively on Cultivation during the Cultivation period, and to investigate the hwadu every now and then at the appropriate time. This is because the method for awakening to the cases for questioning (ŭidu) does not involve obsessively thinking on it for extended periods with a murky state of mind; rather, investigating cases for questioning with a bright spirit in the right context－that power will be far superior.”

Resting in the Elixir Field
As a rule, seated meditation is a common practice that, since ancient times, removes all thoughts by resting the mind on a single object. Therefore, although there are certainly many methods of bringing the mind to rest depending on the different types of dogma and expedients, if you rest the mind in either the head or an external object, the thoughts will be stirred and the energy will arise, making the mind difficult to calm. If you rest the mind in the elixir field, thoughts will not be readily stirred and the energy will readily descend, easily leading to calmness.
Moreover resting in the elixir field is important not only in seated meditation, but it is also an extremely important technique for physical health. If you rest the mind in the elixir field and swallow plenty of the water that is welling up from the jade pool, the watery and fiery energies will be in harmony, the suffering of illness in the body will decrease, and the face will become smooth. The fundamental energy will be replete and the mental elixir will result, protecting one’s life span. This method therefore is in fact a technique that serves a dual purpose, by perfecting both meditative absorption and physical health.
Advocates of the Sŏn of observing the hwadu (kanhwa sŏn) sometimes criticize this dharma of resting in the elixir field as falling into the dead Sŏn of inertness. The Sŏn of observing the hwadu may be a temporary expedient for certain persons, but it can hardly be prescribed to people in general. If one continues to practice just the hwadu for a long time, the fiery energy will ascend and one may well become ill. Moreover, people who cannot fundamentally generate the sense of questioning with regard to the hwadu will lose interest in meditation. Therefore, we schedule separately a time for seated meditation and a time for studying the cases for questioning, so that when meditating, we just meditate, and when inquiring, we just inquire. This will perfect both absorption and wisdom. One who practices in this way will not fall into void quiescence or descend into discrimination and will be able to experience the nature of true suchness that is free from action and rest.

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