more fulfilling

It has been one year since the onset of acute prostatitis. After taking tamsulosin, finasteride, and fluoroquinolones for several months, the symptoms improved significantly. Urination frequency has returned to normal, and padyatri no longer feels any discomfort in daily life.

However, about six months after taking the medication, the frequency of urination gradually began to increase, and he also started waking up more often at night to go to the bathroom. Around that time, he thought carefully about whether he should keep taking the medication, and he learned that tomatoes are good for the prostate. He also looked up foods that can be harmful to the prostate. 

After taking a health supplement containing lycopene, an antioxidant in tomatoes that benefits the prostate, together with prescription medication for a week, he noticed a difference in efficacy before and after, and decided to stop the prescription medication. 

He also stopped consuming dairy products, which may be harmful to the prostate, and replaced them with black soybean milk, and ate a lot of cabbage salad, generously topped with tomato ketchup. Although it was a bit disappointing to give up dairy products he had eaten all his life, especially his favorite fermented cheeses like Emmental, it wasn’t tough. He originally didn’t drink alcohol or coffee, didn’t smoke, and didn’t eat meat except for fish, which has likely helped maintain his prostate health. He also reduced his cycling time by a third. 

As a result, he has been able to maintain prostate health for five months without medication.

The healthiest state is when you don’t even notice your body. If you free yourself from greed and attachment and live without suffering, what could be more fulfilling than that?

deep within the valley

At the tail end of autumn, for the first time in almost two years, padyatri made a loop around a remote area on the eastern outskirts of Gayasan National Park 가야산 국립공원. It was a bit chilly, but the pleasantly cool autumn weather made it a great day for cycling. Because this area is rural and the harvest season was almost over, mud spilled by passing farm machinery had dried and stuck to various parts of the paved road. Every time a car passed, it kicked up a cloud of dust. At this time of year, the hard part of cycling on country roads is breathing in dust whenever a car passes.

Starting from the Unsu-myeon 운수면 township office parking lot, heading north, you’ll soon reach a stream you have to cross, and in the distance, Mt. Gayasan comes into view. A three-story stone stupa is located on the road leading to Jageun-ri 작은리 鵲隱里, standing on the site of a former Silla-period temple.

Jageune-ri, a small village nestled deep in the mountains, is made up of several small hamlets. Jageun 작은 means 'small' in Korean, but here it means a place where magpies hide—that is, Magpie Hidden Village. The apple orchards around the village sit just below the mountain summit at the very end of the valley. Whenever padyatri came to a remote area like this, he always wondered how the people living in such mountain villages made their living, because there was hardly any land suitable for farming. But that curiosity was resolved when he saw the apple orchards scattered around. He realized that apples are the specialty product of Jageun-ri.

A Catholic chapel(mission station, 공소) is located next to an elementary school in Suryun 수륜. After passing Suryun and riding along the road toward Goryeong 고령, he turned right and went through a village. After a while, he climbed a short but fairly steep hill and then rode down the slope heading toward Baekri 백리, a secluded mountain basin village that he passed through while going from Suryun to Deokgok 덕곡. Since the route from Deokgok to the starting point in Unsu was flat, he pedaled comfortably.

the deepening autumn

As November arrives, the temperature drops sharply, and people’s clothing gets thicker. It’s a bit chilly, but it’s the perfect season to ride a bicycle comfortably without breaking a sweat. The crisp air feels refreshing, and the cool breeze makes pedaling pleasant rather than tiring. 

Last Sunday, padyatri rode his bicycle along the streams and riverside paths in the northern area of Daegu 대구, making a full round trip. On the way, he passed through a rural village where the villagers were finishing up the harvest. Continuing on, leaving the countryside behind, he entered the city. To shorten the return time, he entered the bike path along the stream running through central Taejeon-dong 태전동 area. A new bike path had been built along the stream, with a monorail running above it. 

the Buddha's path

A very significant insight padyatri has recently gained about Buddhism is the legendary anecdote that the Buddha transmitted his enlightenment to Mahākāśyapa 마하가섭 when he held up a flower and Mahākāśyapa smiled was a fiction created in China. Besides, realizing that the Buddha’s original teaching and Chinese Buddhism, along with Seon(Zen) Buddhism 선불교, are not the same, padyatri had to reconsider Buddhism from a new perspective and in a new way.

견성성불 見性成佛 expresses the core idea of Seon Buddhism: enlightenment is attained through directly perceiving one’s own true nature and attaining Buddhahood. On the other hand, it is a statement that greatly distorts Buddhism. In fact, the Buddha realized anatta(non-self) and did not acknowledge any kind of substance or existence.

As Buddhism was transmitted to China and became indigenized, it absorbed Daoist and Laozi thought, giving rise to Seon Buddhism. It was a process in which the logical and analytical Buddhism transformed into the intuitive and non-logical Seon Buddhism. 

It is almost impossible to attain enlightenment through Seon Buddhism. This is proven by the fact that since Seon Buddhism was introduced to the Korean Peninsula around the 4th century, very few have truly attained enlightenment. Therefore, in modern times, since Korean monks cannot find answers within Korean Seon Buddhism, they often go to Theravada Buddhist countries such as Myanmar, Thailand, and Sri Lanka to seek the path.

A well-known Seon dialogue can be cited as an example of the limitations and problems of Seon Buddhism. Such lofty, abstract stories, heavily colored by Chinese Buddhist influence, are not the way the Buddha kindly taught the truth to his disciples.

A monk asked Zhaozhou 조주,                                                                           “What is the meaning of the Patriarch’s coming from the West?”

Zhaozhou 조주 replied,                                                                           
“The cypress tree in the front yard.”

The Buddha's enlightenment is the doctrine of dependent origination 연기법(pratītyasamutpāda), which is expressed through the Four Noble Truths 사성제, and the Noble Eightfold Path 팔정도. The precise map leading to that path is also Dependent Origination, the Four Noble Truths, and the Noble Eightfold Path.

Even if one has not yet attained enlightenment, the fact that enlightenment exists and the method to reach it are presented by the Buddha with utmost clarity. It is by no means an unrealistic or fanciful story. Therefore, by following that path, we can have confidence and hope that we will eventually attain enlightenment.