The legendary anecdote that the Buddha transmitted his enlightenment to Mahākāśyapa when he held up a flower and Mahākāśyapa smiled was a fiction created in China. Realizing that the Buddha’s original teaching and Chinese Buddhism, along with Seon(Zen) Buddhism, are not the same, a 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, “What is the meaning of the Patriarch’s coming from the West?”
Zhaozhou 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.
