Find the Treasure Within: Buddhism and daily life

By Daehaeng

A collection of frequent questions and answers from the Dharma talks of Seon master Daehaeng. These cover basic issues such as why life feels empty, how to become a more spiritual person, why life seems unfair, and is there such a thing as previous lives. Her answers are very down to earth, and filled with a deep sense of non-duality.

Seon Master Daehaeng(1927-2012) was a Korean Buddhist nun and seon master. She taught monks as well as nuns, and made laypeople a particular focus of her efforts. She taught people how to take all the stuff of our daily life and use it for spiritual practice, and she emphasized relying upon the eternally bright Buddha-nature that is within all of us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hanmaum Publications
• Release date: May 1, 2014

Book preview

Find the Treasure Within: Buddhism and daily life

by

Seon Master Daehaeng

Look at how water flows.

When it meets a hole, it fills it and continues to flow.

When it meets a rock, it flows around it.

The path of finding your true self is like this.

Preface

This book is a collection of several questions that were asked to Seon Master Daehaeng, and the answers she gave. The overall theme is that suggested by the title: There is a great treasure within us, and to find it, we have to search within ourselves, not anywhere else. Regardless of the things we face, the strength to face them, together with wisdom and energy, all arise from only one place, our foundation, our Buddha-nature.

In fact, our foundation is already doing everything, so Seon Ma st e r Daehaeng teaches people to trust in its ability, to entrust everything we face to that foundation, and then to keep observing while moving forward. While we experiment with what comes back out, she reminds us to let go of even the things we learn and experience. Our foundation knows all about what we have experienced, so we don’t need to worry about forgetting those things.

Although this may sound easy, we have to make the effort to actually do it, and although it may sound a bit vague, with practice it becomes a wide-open path that frees us from all our habits and karma. By continuously melting down the narrow-mindedness, greed, and anger that are hidden within us, we are left free to become true human beings. This is what we were intended for when we were born into this world.

Seon Master Daehaeng was born in 1927, in Seoul. After several enlightenment experiences and many years practicing in the mountains, she started the first Hanmaum Seon Center in order to teach people about the treasure within themselves and to help them learn to rely upon that in all the things they face.

Hanmaum International Culture Institute was started by a group of Seon Master Daehaeng’s students in order to make her teachings available in