Q: What is awakening ?

A: Awakening is the intrinsic nature of mind that does not have false idea or false concept. It is called the original enlightenment or the body of truth.

Q: What does it mean to awaken?

A: To awaken means to deeply understand the nature of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the way leading to its cessation.

Q: Then, what is the practice of mind toward awakening?

A: The practice of mind is to intentionally make effort to awake the nature of suffering, its cause, and its cessation through the way leading to its cessation. In the end of practice, original enlightenment is exposed as the result of practice.

Q: If so, do we practice to see and awake the original enlightenment?

A: No, we practice to root out false idea and concept that veil the original enlightenment. We cannot see or awaken the original enlightenment because it is not a cognitive object.

Q: It is a little bit hard for me to understand.

A: If we try to see the intrinsic nature of mind, we can never find it. For, it does not have a form. That is, it is not the cognitive object known by the cognitive subject. It transcends discrimination between subject and object. Therefore, the more we seek enlightenment as the cognitive object, the further we move away from it. We can simply become enlightenment itself by rooting out false idea and concept in us; we can simply find false idea or false concept and throw away them through practice. Then, we can remain only in enlightenment free from ignorance.

Q: Buddhism always emphasizes absolute equality and oneness of all beings. Could you further explain about it?

A: All beings are equal in terms of having the same intrinsic nature of mind or original enlightenment. All beings are also one-body and one-mind from the point of view that they are not independent but dependent and interrelated. At the same time, they influence each other.

Q: If we have the same original enlightenment, we are already enlightened. Then, how is the level of enlightenment different among people?

A: It is different due to the thickness of ignorance that covers the original enlightenment. That is, although the light of wisdom is the same, the intensity of ignorance veiling it is different. It means that all of us have the same degree of wisdom, but we have different degree of ignorance. Therefore, depending on how much you get rid of ignorance, the degree of enlightenment manifests differently.