Portraits In Faith - Han Young Ho Preview

BUDDHA-MIND AND BUDDHA-NATURE
“I grew up in a small town, an underdeveloped town. When I was a child, I had many difficulties. I faced the Korean War. Yes, a Korean war had erupted. I was in the sixth grade at that time. There were bombings in my town; a lot of people were killed. So after going through those things, I think back, after going through such painful experiences about the war, I began to think about what would come of this world. So...after graduating school, to live in this world, I thought that I needed to change significantly. In 1951, I turned to Buddhism.
“A brother of my grandmother believed in Maitreya, and he told me a scary world will pass and a good world will come. He recommended believing in Buddhism and led me.
So even though I was a young student, I decided to turn to Buddhism. I don't think I knew much about religion at that time. But as time passed, I began to wear a robe, and I shaved my head, and through much meditation and studying, I was more into Buddhism.
“So after the war, I went into training. I studied the Sutra and began hard training through Zen meditation to find myself.
“When I was studying, I needed food, so I picked up mugwort and ate it. I went into cold water, and meditated while rubbing the cold water on my body. I also picked acorns and ate them. Some of my fellow students lost a lot of hair and felt very painful. It was a part of our training.
“We followed the life of a mendicant to get food. After monks finished 100 days of meditation at the temple, we went to all parts of the country to receive alms so that we could have food to eat. It was a training that Buddha had done. So through that training, we were able to collect food as well as to learn how people are living and how they are leading their daily lives.
“In that training, sometimes I was bitten by dogs, I almost drowned in a river when I tried to cross it under heavy rainfall. It was painful. I also found random places to sleep on the street when the sun went down.
“After getting offerings from people, we went back to the temple, and went into a 100-day training. During the training, we would eat just one meal a day, and we would eat only raw vegetables.
“There were some difficult moments while I went to get offerings. Some Christians kicked me out just because I had a different religion. I felt suffering from those experiences. I felt a huge difference between theory and reality.
“Although I felt disappointed by those people, I chanted for them and wished for their success and well-being.
“Everyone has a mind, and the mind itself is Buddha. People have a tendency to have greed and desires, and be obsessed with objects. But you should refrain from greed and desires as well as try to avoid them with a Buddhist mind. If you keep making efforts and progress in this way, you can have a Buddhist mind.
“As I am a disciple of Buddha. My greatest wish is to become a Buddha until death with my Buddhist mind. That's why I'm continuing with my training, meditation and exercise. My intention is continuing to tell Buddha's law so that we can all be Buddha.”