Ep. 27 - 5 Roots - 4. Meditation and Stillness as Your Birthright

What prevents us from accessing the stillness that already resides within us? MyongAhn Sunim tackles this profound question in our continuing exploration of the Five Roots, focusing today on Jong Kun—the root of meditation, stillness, and quietude.

This episode unpacks a revolutionary perspective: we already possess everything needed for transformation. The root of meditation isn't something external to acquire but an innate quality waiting to be consciously activated. When we recognize and intentionally direct this inherent capacity for stillness, it transforms from a passive root into an active power (Orlyok)—specifically, the power of meditative absorption (samme).

MyongAhn Sunim illuminates a fascinating paradox of human experience: our minds can effortlessly leap between thoughts in ordinary circumstances, yet become paralyzed when gripped by strong emotions or rigid viewpoints. "I stand in my own way," he explains, pointing to the ego as the primary obstacle to accessing our innate qualities. This insight offers a liberating truth—we're not fundamentally blocked from our inner resources by external barriers, but by our own unconscious patterns of thinking.

The teaching extends beyond meditation to challenge how we approach spiritual growth itself. "You cannot read yourself into enlightenment," Myung An Sunim emphasizes, cautioning against mistaking intellectual understanding for embodied wisdom. True transformation requires practice, not just consumption of information—a timely reminder in our knowledge-hoarding culture.

Perhaps most practical is the discussion of noticing the subtle gaps of silence between thoughts, those hairline fractures in our mental chatter where stillness already exists. Meditation practice trains us to recognize these momentary spaces of quietude that have always been present but typically go unnoticed in our busy mental landscape.

Share your experiences or questions with us by submitting a recording for future episodes. How has this perspective on meditation as an innate quality changed your approach to practice? We'd love to hear from you as we continue exploring the transformation of roots into powers.

Chapters

• 0:14 Introduction to the Five Roots Mini-Series
• 3:00 Understanding Chong Kun: The Root of Meditation
• 9:42 Roots as Innate Qualities in All of Us
• 17:22 Accessing What We Already Have
• 24:38 The Puzzle of Mental Movement
• 31:01 Samme: The Expressions of Meditative Absorption
• 36:25 Closing Thoughts on Discovering Stillness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

Welcome back to another episode of the World Truths and Eyes podcast. I am Myunggan Se-rim flying solo today. I am Myung Han Sunim flying solo today, perhaps appropriately so to a certain degree on the account of that, the continuation of our recent theme, or mini-series if you will, of the five roots, ogun and their transformation into Orlyok. Orlyok is power, o is five, o is five, gun is roots. So we've been talking about the transformation of the five roots into five powers and today we find yes, Chong kun, the fourth root, and Chong is meditation, perhaps, but associated with it is the idea of stillness, calmness, silence, peace, and the idea of it is very similar or practically the same as all the other routes and those of you if you haven't listened to the mini-series with all the associated routes, that is to say the ones we have talked about recently, then I advise you to take a look at that, perhaps, and continue.

Speaker 1: 2:21

In a series they don't per se build upon one another. We try to keep it where. If one listens to an isolated episode, things will still make sense. So we go over essentially what is meant by roots. And what is meant by roots is exactly what the word sort of suggests. Almost they're roots. They exist, and what we're talking about is innate qualities or functions, or these innate things that are part of the fabric of who we are, the makeup of who we are, the makeup of who we are. Everybody has them. This has no. There are no differentiations from one person to the next in terms of the roots themselves. The differences are to be found in whether these roots are transformed into powers on a conscious, purposeful, meaningful way, or simply as they drag us through life. Drag us through life and I use that term, drag us purposely, that is to say, we have the choice of utilizing these innate qualities of who we are. If we do it in an informed way, if we do it with intention, with purpose, with skill, then we could call them powers. It's a utilization of something, that is. If we, however, don't recognize them, that they exist within us, if we don't practice or train ourselves in ways in which we can in fact put these things to meaningful use, then we are dragged around by them. We've talked about the root of belief. The root of belief We've talked about in the last episode about the root of perseverance, and today we're talking about the root of meditation or its associated qualities the koyo the stillness, the silence, the peace.

Speaker 1: 4:59

If you will, there was a comment slash question posted in the fan mail, as you know. If you have any questions or comments and questions are very much appreciated. They give us some direction, some idea of what to talk about next, perhaps to return to a topic and approach it from a different angle or expand on it. What have you? If you have questions, thoughts, reactions, ideas, do let us know. Do let us know. You could do it via the Buzzsprout platform, to which you can navigate via our webpage, the socialmsatorg webpage. Of course, you can text it to me directly, you could email it to me directly and, by whichever means, we will try to address your fan mail, as it's called in Buzzsprout platform.

Speaker 1: 6:20

I will not address the last comment slash question on the account that it does mention and it involves the topics of mental health, and I simply won't address it because I would like Dr Lambert to be here for that being that he is a psychologist. This isn't to say that Zen doesn't have a view on it, that the Zen, or the Buddhist psychology, as I frequently call it, which is a very appropriate name, and doesn't have a position for the thing or answer, for that matter. I just simply wanted to want him to be here so that we can have a broader perspective per se. So we will address it the question about perseverance and, in particular, actually perseverance, and the question is more pertaining to laziness, or the idea of laziness, as I had mentioned in the last episode, again one of those words that we learn and we swallow, hook, line and sinker, as they say, the definitions, the meanings, and we never revisit and I say these, you know, always and nevers, but there are so many various people, obviously, needless to say, that there's nuance involved, but for the most part, there are certain things that we encounter in life and have the tendency to learn the word, learn the meaning or grasp a concept, and then we never revisit that concept, that word, that meaning, that usability of it, and we just use it sort of the way that we've been trained to use it and think of it in a way that we've been trained to think of it. And there is a laziness in that. Let's call it that that the revisiting of a concept. It doesn't necessarily mean to find faults with it, by no means, but to grasp it and perhaps eke out some nuance out of it, where we're not just broad strokes, are discussing things, and laziness, as I brought up in the last episode, falls into one of those. And so we'll get to that when Dr Lambert is here. So we'll get to that when Dr Lambert is here Today.

Speaker 1: 9:31

Tongon the root of meditation, and it's not precisely meditation per se, it's the root of quietude. It's the root of quietude, it's the root of stillness, silence, immovability or unmovingness, and so the expression of it, so the power of it, when directed, when trained, when practiced, when put into conscious direction, result is samme, the meditative absorption. And, as it is the case with all the other roots, if we didn't have these qualities in us innately, we could not express them. If we didn't have within us the quality of perseverance and determination, they could not be expressed in our day-to-day lives. And there's, as always, levels to it. There's the more worldly or more practical or more obvious expressions, and then there are the more subtle and refined, all the way down to nearly imperceivable, imperceptible with, let's say, perseverance and diligence, as we talked about last episode. The obvious thought that comes up when we think of perseverance and diligence is, in some form of success, of accomplishment of something the go-getter getting it or the go-getter going after it at least, and those kind of things are true. They are obviously the expression that they more clearly perceived. But if you consider every other more subtle expression of perseverance, we could get down to the level of life itself the perpetuation of species, the survivalistic pull of everything in our physiology and biology and psychology, the impetus towards trying to hang around as long as we can, the impetus or the avoidance of early births, demise. That is a perseverance, that is a root, the silent root of perseverance, wafting or perfuming, if you will, the conscious mind or the unconscious mind, or the more subtle still, simply the nearly imperceivable biological mechanisms of what goes on. It is, you know, the layers of cells and the surface of the skin, the renewal aspect, the continuous, continuous, continuous perseverance and determination. Of course philosophers have tried to understand the motivations for said determinations, et cetera, et cetera. So I say this just to illustrate how broad, how broadly we are affected by these roots, how much of it is unbeknownst to us, how much of it is the secret, silent sort of driver of our existence, our day-to-day existence, and how much of it is consciously directed. And so this is the area of transformation. I have the thing. What am I going to do with the thing? Am I going to consciously direct it? Am I going to consciously use it to some end to accomplish something?

Speaker 1: 14:45

The big one, not necessarily listed in that obvious way in the five roots, is what we call, in the Zen tradition, the true self, or the Buddha nature, if you will, and the idea is that we all have it, we all possess it. It's innately in us, otherwise enlightenment could not be possible. It is extremely empowering, if you consider it, that there is no judgment, in a sense, that it's not some deservant or undeservant thing. It's nothing to do with race and age and gender. It's nothing to do with your socioeconomic status. It's nothing to do with your upbringing. We have it innately, every single one of us has it.

Speaker 1: 15:55

This is the sort of unifying field, and then we have our own individual idiosyncrasies, uniqueness, proclivities, karma, the fixed points of views, the perspectives, etc. Etc. Etc. Those things that, for the lack of a better word, are more things that divide us or make us unique. Perhaps is a better way. So there are things that make us unique and then deeply flowing is, in a sense, that sameness, and if it weren't for these roots, it would not be possible to express them.

Speaker 1: 16:45

This is an important thing. To remember them. This is an important thing to remember. That is to say, if your self-worth is suffering, if your confidence has taken a hit, know that you have not lost any of these things. It's not lost any of these things. It's not a matter of them being absent from your life. That's not how that works. You are, you have what covered.

Speaker 1: 17:31

It is a question. It's not even a question of misplacement, because now we're getting really bogged down with location. Where is this perseverance? Is it in my foot? Is it in my kidney? We have it. It's not the location, it's not that it's misplaced, it's not that it's, it's not even. It's not even that it's inaccessible. I mean, it is at times, but it's inaccessible because it's not.

Speaker 1: 18:08

There's a little nuance here. It's inaccessible because it's not. There's a little nuance here. It's inaccessible, but not in the sense that we think that way. Are not walls of iron and rock and stone? They're not fenced in or we are not fenced out. We are in no real sense blocked from them, and yet they're inaccessible.

Speaker 1: 18:52

It's one of those zany kind of things. They're inaccessible as anything is inaccessible and as anything is difficult. What is difficult? I don't know how that's difficult. In a sense, it's the idea of not knowing how to get it. I have it. What abstracts it Me?

Speaker 1: 19:24

I stand in my own way, in a sense, I stand in the way of accessing it. What is this I that stands in the way of accessing it? Precisely, to a large degree, I, the ego. Egoism, our rigor mortis, rigid viewpoints, our denial of possibilities of a broader, wider, or denial or refusal to acknowledge something different, a different angle of viewing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So these things are simultaneously. They are absolutely obstructing, but at the very same time, they're not, because to move from one to the other is simply to move mind from a thought to another thought. This is the great dilemma. In a sense, this is the great en great dilemma. In a sense, this is the great enigma. In a sense, this is the great struggle, if you will.

Speaker 1: 20:37

I move, I jump naturally from thought to thought, to thought. How come, then, I can't jump to a thought or jump away from a thought and to another thought? At certain times in life, if I'm really stuck on something and strong emotions play a role, if I'm angry, somehow, within that anger, the narrowing of perspective comes with some paralysis of the muscle that makes it possible for me to move from thought to thought. Meanwhile, I could move from thought to thought at any other occasion very swiftly, with great ease, and if I'm plunged into some emotional state or ideology that is so rigid, so fixed. So how come I can't move my mind from one thought to another to weigh the possibility of a broader perspective? How come I become so entrenched that I become imprisoned by my very own thoughts, and whereas in one moment I could fly, like a bird, freely from one to another, from one tree branch to another tree branch, or from one flower to another flower, or whatever imagery you'd like to conjure up.

Speaker 1: 22:26

We are free to move, as we do so frequently in life, and yet there come times where we cannot. It's a very, very bizarre thing, wouldn't you say? Because the mechanism isn't gone, the capacity isn't gone, the capacity isn't gone, the ability isn't gone, it's not like I don't know how I've just done it, and so how come? But I digress, or do I? I'm sort of riding an ox A little sideways reference to the ox herding pictures, or a horse, what have you? And you could hold on to the reins and direct the creature as it needs to be directed. Direct the creature as it needs to be directed, well-trained ones. You could kind of lean back and they'll get you home because they know the way. And at times when given their freedom, even though you're on your way home, as I let's say in these topics, moving towards a point or towards some idea oh, look at that, there's a patch of delicious grass that the ox wants to explore, and so it does. Oh, look at that, there's a butterfly over there, let me see what it's up to. And so this is kind of how we meander through these podcasts and frequently through my talks. If I allow the acts of the mind to roam freely, we get these what I call meanderings, meanderings.

Speaker 1: 24:29

But the topic today is the official topic. Today is Jeongun, the root of meditation, or the root of stillness, quietude or peace, and then its expression in its highest form, the. The expression is samme, the meditative absorption, and I had briefly mentioned in the last episode that for each one of those roots there are subdivisions. For this one, for the root itself, or the expressions of it, perhaps has subdivisions. So there are four, actually general four expressions of samme, and so we have sort of levels of meditative absorption. And so we have sort of levels of meditative absorption, Choson, isons, hamsons, hasons, that kind of thing. To get into those is really not needed at the time, nor the place, nor use nor. But just so you know that there's more detailed inspection that has been given, there's more detailed inspection that has been given, there's more detailed breakdown that has been given.

Speaker 1: 25:57

Useful at certain points in our journey, in our spiritual journey, not useful when consumed prematurely or at the wrong time. And this also is true with so many aspects of the Zen teachings and is met so frequently also with resistance, frequently also with resistance I myself am very familiar with that when pressed beyond the boundaries of what was necessary, needed and useful for me. Unsanimun say, you'll understand later. I loathed that, I hated that so much for a very long time. And the accountant would say well, I'm not a complete imbecile. I'm sure I could grasp the idea if he explained it sufficiently enough, and of course he could. But that's not the point.

Speaker 1: 27:18

The point is not just to feed the ravenous, insatiable thinking machine. We are in a business, if you will, of doing. We are in a business of transformation. We are in a business of accomplishing steps, suheng. This is a suheng tradition, meaning doing tradition, the doing of the transformative, the doing of the growth of wisdom, the doing of refinement, or understanding oneself, ultimately speaking, finding out who we are. And there are at times, steps to be taken A before B, and then C, d, e kind of a thing. And it makes no sense really to move on to F and G if you're learning how to write the letter A, becoming comfortable enough. Remember what the strokes are, remember what the thing is. What's business, what business have I to get to X, y and Z if I haven't fully assimilated, absorbed and processed to some degree varying degrees for different topics, but to some degree the writing of the letter A? That is just greed.

Speaker 1: 28:55

We have to understand how frequently greed plays, and this is a fundamental premise of our existence. We call this very world yokke, the world of greed and desire. How frequently does greed play a role? How does it invade our Buddhist path, our Zen learning, how greedily he wants to know, on account of some curiosity, or what the ego decides? No, I know how to use this. That's not the path, and so we have to be cautious of that and understand that to a large degree, this is where the idea of, of reading things, and and and again. I'm sure there's going to be backlash because still, somehow, still this concept of, of of understanding what we mean when we say beware of reading I'm not talking about newspapers or the classics of Dostoevsky's and Schopenhauer's or what have you. That's it. You do you.

Speaker 1: 30:24

The point is to put it as succinctly as I can in regards to the reading and consumption of that, that you cannot read yourself into finding out who you are. Let me try that one more time. You cannot read yourself into enlightenment. Let me put it that way. You cannot read yourself into enlightenment. The work must be done. And is it informative? Yes, informative. To what end? To what purpose? To what functions?

Speaker 1: 31:13

I have read numerous, numerous books and sutras and all these things. How much of these things do I put into my day-to-day practice? So, are they transformative or do they combine and cause some confusion, at a time where the confusion really wouldn't be there had I not added sort of fuel to the fire of bonde? We have the root of stillness in us On a more deep, profound level and on a more superficial level. We couldn't rest if we didn't have it. We couldn't sleep if we didn't have it, we couldn't enter into sammeh, the meditative absorption, if we didn't have it. The pursuit of meditative absorption or not, that one actively sort of pursues it per se, but the whole point of a particular type of meditation would be impossible or fruitless if we didn't have the roots already in us. I think that'll do.

Speaker 1: 33:03

It's a little bit of a short episode, not much that comes to mind right now. There is quiet to a certain degree In the absence of speaking. A brief, brief quiet, very brief quiet. How brief, thinner than the hair. Because the moment my speaking stops, how wide is the gap between the mind? Your mind jumps to something else. There's that sliver, very, very thin For many, and the experience for many is that no, there absolutely isn't. The second you stop, my mind is going, or it's been going or it never stops. That is not true. That is not true. We don't notice it.

Speaker 1: 34:22

This is where the wakefulness comes in. The practice of wakefulness comes in. This is where the wakefulness comes in, the practice of wakefulness comes in. This is where the practice of meditation comes in to notice, and if not to notice the stillness per se, but to notice the change, to be wakeful. To be wakeful, perhaps, to notice the gaps between thoughts, the gap between my eye meeting the world around me, contact, as we call the contact of senses against things, the contact of my ear consciousness against the absence of my voice. But is it or is it the contact of my ear, consciousness shifting from my voice and then to another sound? Whatever that sound is, one thing louder drowns out something more subtle, that more subtle drowns out something more subtle, that more subtle drowns out something more subtle still, that more subtle still drowns out something even yet still more subtle. And on and on, and on and on and on and on. Down the rabbit hole we can go, or present in every chalda, in every moment of our lives, is the possibility, with one swift swoop, to slice right through it all and find what really am I. Until next time, I'm Myung An Sunim. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Speaker 1: 36:45

Musang Sunim would say hit the like button if you like it, share with others, tell others about it. What else did he say? Provide the questions, give us the questions if you have those. Do submit a little recording, as you have been hearing at the beginning. We could stick it at the beginning before each episode to perhaps inspire others and to sort of share your experience of listening to the podcast, maybe if you want to get a little bit more detailed with it I mean, it's not a testimonial per se or a lengthy thing but maybe did it help you somehow to find it helpful and, and if so, maybe how you know? Oh well, I was in an mri and, uh, I was able to pacify my claustrophobic tendencies, or I have a better grip at my outbursts of anger, or what have you. If you'd like, it's helpful to the podcast in general. It's inspiring to others, yeah, so until next time, take care of yourselves and each other.