What does it mean to be a true dō-in (道人)?
According to Master Woo Myung, a dō-in is one who lives joyfully, having discarded all attachments and realizing that others are oneself. Practicing dō is about standing in Truth and creating a world without separation.
Through Santa Clara Meditation, learn how to liberate yourself from the false self and become one with all.
📺 Watch the video and read along below.
🎬 YOUTUBE VIDEO
📝 ORIGINAL WRITING BY MASTER WOO MYUNG
A True Dō – In (道人)
I commend you all for battling through your delusional thoughts and the difficulties of everyday life, all the while practicing ‘dō (Truth, or the Way).’
Practicing dō is about standing firmly in the state of the origin, but it is also a kind of ‘Way’ that everyone must take – a path that exists because one’s self exists. There has never been a time when we have not sought out dō. But in order to become a great ‘dō-in (a person who has reached Truth),’ we must practice dō for sure. The true mark of a great dō-in is to live joyfully.
The things that a person experiences in life after having been born into this world are all due to the fact that he exists. If he were to not exist, neither would everything else. The times one cares only for himself and causes turmoil about countless matters are all moments that are in vain. Mankind must live together in Truth, know Truth, and thus create a world where there is no separation between people – where we are all one: this is our mission.
It is both Truth and the flow of nature that man originally has nothing and that he lives absent of mind. But because he lives creating and eliminating countless delusional thoughts, they become him; they become his mold from which he cannot break free. For one to have reached the state in which he has no conflicts, inhibitions, or attachments toward anything means he has become truly content and liberated – he has become a person that is of Truth. But people are born in the world because of karmic ties, and because of it they depart. Due to their attachments, they confine themselves and those attachments become their regrets and unfulfilled desires. Therefore, what I do is teach people that they are all already saved and for them to save others. It is out of his greed that one would want to practice dō for his own betterment. When you eliminate all of your attachments, you will come to realize that others are you and so to live for you – in other words, for others – is indeed a true life.
What are man’s sins – his karma? It is our mission to be unconfined to our molds and to save others from theirs which are all self-inflicted. To live a life that stands in Truth means to live a life that is not bound to Heaven, Nature, God, or Buddha, and to live one that will not be engulfed in delusions even after death. It is a life that will be forever eternal with Truth. Such is the will of Truth.
Do not blame the passing of life. Do not blame the passing of time. Life and time exist only because you exist. The whole of creation in the world exists because you exist. As you live your life, you will see cows, you will see monks, and you will have times when you sigh. It is only in the state of Truth, which is free of all of such things, that there would be no fuss about anything and no confinement. Man exists because Heaven exists; Heaven exists because man exists. In other words, Heaven brought forth man, and it is because he is man that he is able to know that Heaven exists.
The foolish live bound to their bodies while those who have opened their eyes live as Heaven. Man may talk about life or debate what life is, but life is what one lives because one’s body exists. People do not know the true meaning of life; they compare their lives to the true life and come up with their own ceaseless opinions of what life is, but such opinions are all futile and dream-like.
Truth is the state in which the whole of creation exists amidst the non-existence. Truth is the whole of creation which is existent, but man is unable to know Truth, for his thoughts blind him from seeing the Truth that is existent. His thoughts are the conceptions and habits he has come to attain which were born of the idea that he is indeed his self. One must change these thoughts, which in all actually means that he must be rid of them, for only then will he come to realize that this place here is Paradise and Heaven. However, man is short of wisdom and so he continues to make things his at all costs, even when it means death.
So long as one’s self exists, there can be no goodness or righteousness. Therefore willingly discard all that you have in your mind and you will live eternally with your true self. You were never born nor were you ever meant to die. But if you continue to live trapped in your own standards, you will be unable to live with your true self. For it is only when you are absent of your false self that you will know that your false existence is also Truth.
Humankind is wondrous in that because his thoughts are his mind, if he were to simply change his mind, then Heaven, earth, and man would become one; then everything throughout all eternity would become one and so there would be no discernment, no distance between people, and everyone would be one. But in order for your thoughts to be of Truth, you must eliminate whatever mind you have as an individual.
Nothing is anyone else’s fault and everything of this world is inside you; everything is of your own doing. Therefore I hope that all of you will break free of your mind entirely so that you may all become Truth; I hope that all of you will gain enlightenment and reach ‘dōn-soo (the practice of maintaining immediate enlightenment)’ and thus become true saints.
🌱 REFLECT AT SANTA CLARA MEDITATION
Become a true dō-in by discarding attachments and realizing the oneness of all.
Through meditation, awaken to the eternal Truth.
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