How to Reduce Karmic Retribution: Cultivate a Good Mind

Cultivate a good mind. This is the way to reduce the operation of karmic causes and effects. So, how do we cultivate a good mind? Reducing the three poisons is one method, and practicing the six paramitas is another. This means abandoning the three unwholesome minds of greed, anger, and ignorance. When you abandon greed in particular, virtuous actions naturally follow.

As you practice generosity, moral discipline, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom are naturally cultivated. The six paramitas support each other like Indra's net. Practicing the six paramitas reduces suffering, and as suffering diminishes, we find ourselves naturally practicing the six paramitas. 

We practice Seon meditation to cultivate this wholesome state of mind. This practice rely on various methods, including chanting, reciting sutras and mantras, sitting meditation, and prostration. These training methods all aim to gradually reduce the karmic suffering from your emotions.

When seeing, hearing, and feeling no longer evoke likes or dislikes, the six sense organs ultimately become pure. With pure sense organs, we do not experience problems with the six sense objects. The reason for the mind to become clouded no longer exists. We should avoid responding sensitively with likes or dislikes to what is perceived through the six sense organs as much as possible. To achieve this, one must diligently practice Seon meditation.

Sitting meditation is good, but standing or walking meditation is also acceptable. What you see or hear does not matter. We practice because we cannot control the emotions our mind generates. If this practice feels difficult, choose any method that works for you—five-minute meditation, pause meditation, or mindfulness meditation. Ultimately, problems of the mind must be resolved through one's own effort; otherwise, it becomes a vicious cycle. I urge you to begin practicing today.

If our citizens find mental stability and eliminate anxiety through Seon meditation, our society will be a better place. I believe that the unity of our currently divided nation will also follow. The future well-being of Korean society and humanity as a whole lies in Seon meditation. 

When the six sense organs are purified, there are no problems with the six sense objects. How should we handle the countless thoughts that arise from the six sense organs, six sense objects, and six sense consciousness? Some ask whether one should simply observe thoughts without clinging to them, or whether one must eliminate thoughts that have already arisen.

The world of phenomena we experience is empty in essence. It simply is what it is. Suffering arises when we superimpose the emotions of like and dislike or the discrimination of good and bad onto it. When thoughts arise, simply notice them and just watch them pass. When we feel unpleasant or distressed, know that this is our karmic habit. The same applies when we feel unbearable anger. Just leave it be. Temper too is subject to birth, aging, sickness, and death.

First, wait just for four seconds. Then, hold the hwadu, “What is this?” This is the best approach. A hwadu is a sound made by an enlightened Seon master. It is akin to a mantra. Holding onto one hwadu and immersing oneself in it is Ganhwa Seon. Focusing completely on a hwadu prevents distinctions of liking and disliking from arising.

If humanity continues to live as it does now, the world will become nothing but a mass of karma. The mind is like an atom in that, after the body dies, only the karmic consciousness remains. This means that even after death, one cannot escape the suffering from painful emotions. Seon meditation is absolutely essential for humanity's salvation.

Therefore, we are offering lectures and practice programs on Seon meditation. These programs should be implemented at every level of public education, from daycare centers and kindergartens to elementary, middle, and high schools, and finally, universities. To achieve this, the programs require further refinement.