"Don't Try to Untangle a Knotted Thread, Cut It in One Stroke"... Jogye Order Supreme Patriarch Delivers Haangeo Dharma Talk

Haangeo (Summer Retreat) Begins on May 12

"A practitioner striving to break free from Mumyeong-eopjang (the fundamental ignorance that gives rise to afflictions) and to achieve Hwacheoldaewoo (complete and profound enlightenment) should not try to untangle a knotted thread, but rather cut it in one stroke."

On May 7, Seongpa, the Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, delivered this summer retreat (Haangeo) Dharma talk, urging practitioners to devote themselves to their practice as fiercely as a cat catching a mouse or as someone putting out a fire on their own head. Haangeo is a period of intensive summer practice during which monks are prohibited from leaving the temple for three months and remain in the meditation hall (Seonwon) to engage in meditation practice.

Seongpa further encouraged, "If you become fully absorbed in Hwadu meditation (the investigation of a critical phrase), the principle of non-self will be revealed, your mind will become as pure as the sky, and the miraculous powers realized by the Buddha and the patriarchs will manifest themselves from this state."