Author: Chong Go Sunim

If you are going to be in Frankfurt for the book fair, be sure to stop by and have a cup of tea. Our booth is in hall 6.0 C942.

The start of the book fair began when our flight landed in Germany on Monday evening. We made our way to the House Busan, a bed and breakfast on the edge of Frankfurt. Aside from the friendly owner, perhaps its best aspect is the Korean breakfasts. I’m happy with bread and yogurt for breakfast, but the traditional Korean breakfast was a relief to the other members of our jet-lagged team!

On Tuesday we went to the grounds of the book fair, the “Messe.” The Messe, is huge, with eleven halls, some the size of football fields. There, in Hall 6.0, we began to prepare our booth for the opening of the book fair on Wednesday. Hye Jin Sunim brought buckets of cut flowers and began preparing beautiful floral arrangements, while the team from Korea began to organize the booth and arrange the books. Meanwhile, Holger and Young Ralf worked to install a foot-wide (30cm) sign around the top of our booth, which said “Hanmaum Seonwon” and “Hanmaum Publications,” which is the name the International Culture Institute uses to publish books.

The booth was finally prepared at about 7pm, and everyone went to Mr. Koh’s house for dinner and a meeting. Many of the female Frankfurt members of Hanmaum Seon Center had gathered there and were working hard to prepare dinner for everyone. After eating a great meal, we discussed our plans for the next day and finally headed back to the bed and breakfast.

Wednesday opened the book fair, and was a bit of a slow day at first. Many publishers have appointments to meet other publishers, and so have no time to visit other booths. Meanwhile, we were also busy, preparing for a one-hour forum on Thursday about the Thousand Hands Sutra.

Some of you may have noticed a drop in my posts over the last couple of months. Things here in Korea have been very busy with finishing translations, proofing, and last minute errands as we get ready for the book fair in Frankfurt. I’m leaving today (Monday) for Germany, and won’t have time for regular posts for a while, but I thought I’d share something I wrote last year about the book fair. (This piece will be spread over about three posts.)

As I look at the title of this post, I can see where some of you might be expecting more detailed info about Buddhist books and publishers at the book fair, and as I think about it, that sounds like a great topic for a post. So I’ll take a camera and do some blogging about the book fair when I return. (It’ll be a couple of weeks, though.)

Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s Teachings at the Frankfurt Book Fair

For the last several years we (the Hanmaum International Culture Institute) have been going to Frankfurt Germany for the annul Book Fair. Each year, around 7,000 publishers from more than 100 countries gather in Frankfurt to exhibit their new books and to find books from other countries that might succeed in their country. Publishers try to find foreign publishers who can take the book back to their home country and best publicize the book and get it into stores where people can find it.

This may sound like a very commercial concern for a Buddhist organization, and in a sense it’s true. For “commercial” also means popular, something which many people are interested in. Our mission is to make Daehaeng Kun Sunim’s teachings widely available to people who don’t understand Korean. Thus, beyond just translating those teachings, we have come up with ways of reaching people. One way of doing this is through books that interest people, books they want to read. If we can produce books that have a lot of appeal, publishers in other countries will want to publish them, thereby making it easier for people in those countries to encounter Kun Sunim’s teachings.

I used to think that the translation was 90% of the work, but now I know that it’s barely 50% of what must be done. No matter how wonderful the content, if the look of the book doesn’t appeal to people, they won’t pick it up and won’t discover the content. The cover has to be interesting, the title must touch something within one, and the text layout and paper must draw the eye. Once those things are in place, then the contents can shine.

 The Road to Frankfurt 

Much of the year at the Hanmaum International Culture Institute is spent preparing for the Frankfurt Book Fair, but the last six weeks are the most difficult. It will take two weeks to print the books, so we actually only have four more weeks to work. The ladies doing the designs and layouts have to get the text and then adjust the format so that it feels comfortable to look at. Once they’ve done this, everything has to be proofread again.

The programs for publishing are very fussy, and often create “broken” characters. Somehow there was a computer code conflict and the program turns a word or character in to nonsense garbage. And sometimes it was a person, working at three or four in the morning whose eyes were too blurry. These new changes are made, and everything is proofread again. And then again. Once the file is sent to the printers, we can begin work on the publicity materials, such as brochures, posters, and handouts.

This year our new books of Kun Sunim’s teachings arrived on Saturday evening, and we left on Monday morning, and I think the books were still warm from the printing presses!

Daehaeng Kun Sunim has often said that we need to keep what we experience a secret, for if we start talking about it, competition and comparisons often arise. In the end, our experiences become just another foothold for “I.” Instead we need to embrace those experiences and completely entrust them, let go of them, and move forward.

On a bit of a silly note, as I thought about this, I realized there have been secret practitioners showing us the way. ^-^

Although everything is part of our practice, we still have to make an effort to rein in our ADD, ordinary consciousness. Until we do this, it’s difficult to connect with our fundamental nature. Here are some words of gold by Daehaeng Kun Sunim about this. Although the idea seems simple, it contains deapths that are unimaginable. In this same Dharma talk, she pleaded with listeners, “Please, please don’t mistake intellectual understanding for the ability to do this.” Like developing good handwriting, we need to keep trying to apply the following until it becomes second nature.

A tree has its root, and is alive because of that root. Our every movement happens because of our root. So no matter what you confront, if you focus everything on one place, your fundamental mind, this becomes true samadhi, precepts, and wisdom. This is what’s called the “fragrance of precepts, samadhi, and wisdom.”
      Take care of everything in this way. Sunims practice by entrusting everything to their fundamental mind. Then they don’t end up causing problems for themselves, for their teacher, the temple, or their fellow practitioners. Of course, laypeople as well need to practice like this.

However, when problems occur, many people just react to those, and run around looking for solutions in the material realm. Unless we first entrust things to our foundation, nothing will go right. Accidents will happen, big disagreements will arise, you’ll meet people determined to hinder you, and leading a normal life becomes impossible. Do you think you can solve all of these through your intellect and sweat? When you’re able to truly return and entrust everything you encounter to this foundation, such that what you input changes and manifests back into the world, then your life will become very relaxed and so many problems will cease to be.

 
 A few days ago, The Zennist included the following quote by Szu-hsin Wu-shin. It’s definitely worth repeating:
 
 
 
While still alive, be therefore assiduous in practicing Dhyana (contemplation).  The practice consists in abandonments.  ‘The abandonment of what?’ you may ask. Abandon your four elements (bhuta), abandon your five aggregates (skandha), abandon all the workings of your relative consciousness (karma-vijnana), which you have been cherishing since eternity; retire within your inner being and see into the reason of it.  As your self-reflections grows deeper and deeper, the moment will surely come upon you when the spiritual flower will suddenly burst into bloom, illuminating the entire universe.  The experience is incommunicable, though you yourselves know perfectly well what it is (Szu-hsin Wu-shin of Huang-lung [1044–1115]).  
 
  
 Quotes by Daehaeng Kun Sunim copyright 2010 The Hanmaum Seonwon Foundation

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be at our main temple for monks, Kwang-myong Sa. Daehaeng Kun Sunim  had gone there for a visit, and it also turned out to be one of the nicest days of the year.  

We’ve been working for a few years on building a new Dharma hall, completing each phase as money is saved to pay for it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Things here have been a bit busy as we get ready for the bookfair in Frankfurt this October. One of the projects we’ve been working on is a Spanish-English edition of a great Dharma talk by Daehaeng Kun Sunim.  Her focus in this talk is on the necessity of us connecting with this inherent nature, the effects of being able to connect with it, and the need to function from that place.  There are some great lines in this talk where she really lays it bare for the practitioner; here’s one that got my attention!  If your thoughts just spill out your mouth, you won’t be able to make this connection!

 Here is the excerpt:
 

My overall point is this: people who want to discover their fundamental mind, shouldn’t allow themselves to be drawn outwardly by the things that happen to them. Instead, they must take everything that confronts them and return it inwardly.

Even though you have a good intellectual understanding of what I’m saying, please, please don’t mistake that for true understanding. Instead, have firm faith in your inherent foundation, and entrust every single thing there.

No matter what confronts you, your practice needs to be such that when you quietly entrust something to your fundamental mind, that which you entrusted will change and manifest back into the world. Your understanding and practice have to be translated into action.

Only then will you be able to truly deal with all the problems of your life, your family, and even the Earth. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Copyright 2010 the Hanmaum Seonwon Foundation

In 1929, Hanam Sunim was asked about how to practice after enlightenment,  but I think his answer applies just as well to any point in our practice.  There’s also a bit of practical advice about how to avoid false teachers (or becoming one yourself!)

Yong-jia (永嘉玄覺, 665-713) said about people who are satisfied with one enlightenment experience and so stop practicing: “Saying that everything is empty, yet ignoring cause and effect, and behaving badly is to invite disaster.”

Don’t follow the example of those shallow people who misunderstand the meaning, who are too stubborn, who ignore the principle of cause and effect, and who don’t understand that what they receive is the result of their own actions.

If you don’t awaken to the living word and see only words and letters, or if you are caught by right and wrong, then you won’t be able to gather any strength, and your speech will not be in accord with your actions, so you won’t be able to avoid becoming one of those people who overestimate the level of their own practice. Thus you must have very sincere determination.

Here’s an Autumn benediction from Joseph:

I’m just looking out the window,
wishing I were on the other side.
Look! a small patch of red in the leaves!
I hope you’ll get to spend more time outside than I! ^-^

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 Here’s a very nice Dharma talk by Daehaeng Kun Sunim.
I had to smile as I reread this, because it really reflects her direct style and emphasis on each of us awakening to this bright essence that we each have.

Regardless of whether you are a layperson or a monastic,
everyone has to practice
relying upon their fundamental mind.
For each person has this one, true thing within them.
If you think that the best thing in the world
would be to truly know
this inherent foundation of yours,
this foundation that is leading the you of the material realm,
then you will succeed in grasping the truth.

You have to practice
such that the visible realm
and the unseen realm
always function together.
If you would have your body and mind
always function as one,
then entrust everything to your true self,
the master within that formed you.
If you live like this,
you’ll be one with everything
and know what peace is,
so entrust everything there.

 This physical body is a servant of our unseen self.
It just runs errands.
So it doesn’t really matter
whether you’re considered someone important or not.
When you’re frustrated or suffering,
remember,
“Okay true self,
you’re the one that can take care of this,”
and keep entrusting.
Only when you do this with everything in your life,
can you make some progress in your practice.

The personality traits that harm and hinder you
are still quite prominent,
so let go of those things,
over and over again.
Remind yourself,
“This inner master is leading me,
only this can show me the way,”
and entrust everything to it.
If you go forward like this
while viewing things positively,
refining virtue, and doing good actions,
then your wisdom will become abundant,
and your life will be well spent.
So really give this a try.

pppppp -Daehaeng Kun Sunim

Text copyright 2010, the Hanmaum Seonwon Foundation

Images copyright Joseph