????? ?? ??(Ò»¿¼)- ???? ???? - (On the Seon(¶U) Practice of Sudden Awakening and Gradual Cultivation: From Wonhyo¡¯s Theory of Seeing the Buddha-nature)

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The sudden-gradual issue is an essentially important enterprise that practitioners have to undertake with right perspectives, and it is indeed a matter of praxis. Seongcheol¡¯s critique of Chinul have sparked immense repercussions through out Korean Buddhist communities. In academia, a large number of research papers and books have been published against or in support of Seongcheol. Nevertheless, it is found from the literature that not much research has been done to rigorously investigate the sudden-gradual issue, directly focusing on the perspective of a theory of seeing the Buddha-nature. Most research is polemical in nature, taking a position ex ante to support one of the two Seon masters while criticizing the other.
In this paper, rather than taking a position in support of either Bojo or Seongcheol, we rely on Wonhyo¡¯s theory of seeing the Buddha-nature ¨D a more objective ground for investigation ¨D to examine two masters¡¯ perspectives on seeing the Buddha-nature. So, on the basis of a common framework suggested by Wonhyo in his Doctrinal Essentials on the Nirvana Sutra, our focus is on the two masters¡¯ perspectives on seeing the Buddha-nature. This reveals the underlying structure of their point of views and the source of two masters¡¯ different viewpoints as well. In our analysis, a striking result is obtained that there is essentially no difference between two masters¡¯ perspectives. Further implications on this unexpected conclusion are discussed in the paper.