Seon (Zen): The Leap from Conceptual Notions to Absolute Practice — From the Diamond Sutra and the Awakening of Faith to the Realization of Ordinary Mind as Enlightenment

This paper explores Seon (Zen) Buddhism as the historical and philosophical culmination of Mahāyāna thought, representing a decisive leap from theoretical understanding to the lived realization of enlightenment in daily life. Rooted in the insights of the Diamond Sutra (Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra) and the Awakening of Faith in the Mahāyāna, Seon transforms the conceptual discourse of emptiness (śūnyatā) and suchness (tathatā) into direct experiential awareness. The Seon tradition, beginning with Huineng (慧能) and maturing through the Chinese Chan and Korean Seon lineages, actualizes the profound Mahāyāna formula: “Afflictions are none other than enlightenment, and birth and death are none other than nirvāṇa.” This equation, far from paradoxical, expresses the very essence of Seon practice — the realization that delusion and awakening, samsara and nirvāṇa, are not two. In this context, the ordinary mind (pingshangxin, 平常心) of Zhaozhou (趙州從諗) becomes the living expression of this unity, signifying the dissolution of all dualities and discriminations. Such realization transcends theoretical cognition and intellectual analysis, leading to a metanoic transformation of perception itself — the return to immediacy, to life-as-it-is. By integrating doctrinal foundations from the Diamond Sutra, Awakening of Faith, and Huayan (華嚴) cosmology, this study situates Seon as the existential completion of Mahāyāna: not as a negation of thought, but as its fulfillment through direct insight and uncontrived practice. The “ordinary mind” thus embodies the total convergence of theory and realization, marking Seon as the absolute practice of enlightenment in the midst of phenomena.