Live Without Thinking? Mr. Kim Tae-wan of Musim Seonwon, That Is Not Buddhism — Questions Change Me

Is Buddhism a Religion of Stopping Thought?

Everyone has standards, beliefs, and thoughts of their own. The problem is that questioning those beliefs is far harder than it seems. Someone who never believed in fortune-telling, prophecy, or feng shui will not be greatly disturbed by questions about them. But if we hold even one belief firmly, the question “Why do you believe that?” catches us. We can insist that we believe simply because we want to, but the discussion changes once we ask where that belief came from, what influenced it, and whether it is actually true.

I describe Buddhism as a process of coming to know oneself. It is the work of deeply asking what I believe, what I like and dislike, and through which images and standards I see the world. This is why Buddhism connects with almost every issue in the world. Outwardly, it lets us discuss people and society; inwardly, it makes us examine our own thoughts and concepts.

Buddhism is not the elimination of thought. It is the work of questioning and examining what I believe and which fixed images hold me captive.

Why “Live Without Thinking” Is Anti-Buddhist

I came across a YouTube video titled, “Enlightenment Is Really Nothing Special. Live Without Thinking. That Is What Matters.” It concerned Dharma teacher Kim Tae-wan of Musim Seonwon. A title can be clickbait, so I looked at the actual content. Yet it also said that enlightenment comes not from intellectual understanding but from the direct experience of concentration that transcends thought and discrimination, and that this experience is described like a miracle or an incomprehensible event.

I state this clearly: calling a miraculous experience beyond understanding “enlightenment” is not Buddhism but mysticism. When a concentrated experience beyond thought, an extraordinary event, and a subsequent sense that the world has become lighter are bundled together and called wisdom, the foundation of Buddhism is distorted. It is worthwhile to observe how discrimination shakes the mind and to experience the calm that comes from focusing on one thing. But if we stop there, Buddhism has not even begun.

The moment thoughtlessness and non-discrimination are declared the completion of enlightenment, Buddhism loses inquiry and wisdom and hardens into a cult of meditative absorption.

How Can Someone Lecture While Preaching No-Mind?

Suppose no-mind literally means having no mind or no thought. How can a person speak without thinking? What composes a forty-minute lecture that tells people to “live without thinking”? The speaker is already making countless judgments, choosing sentences, and trying to convey something to an audience. He discriminates without pause while telling others not to discriminate.

Some people call the state of absorption, no-mind, or thoughtlessness—and the continuation of that experience—wisdom. They present themselves as having undergone a miraculous event and reached a complete state, then tell others to experience the same thing. But in the language of the realms of desire, form, and formlessness, that absorption is merely a state in the realm of form. Absorption may be a useful tool in Buddhist practice, but wisdom does not automatically arise from it.

Wisdom cannot even be glimpsed where there is no thought. Wisdom begins with thinking.

Wisdom Must Be Able to Judge Reality

A wise person should be able to consider how AI will affect society and labor, why the population is rapidly declining, and what we should do in the face of war and political violence. We should be able to ask whether the year, month, day, and hour of birth can reveal a person’s character and destiny; whether the five elements and the hexagrams of the I Ching disclose the future; and whether souls and gods actually exist. If we neither think nor distinguish, we cannot say anything meaningful about these issues.

Is inner calm all that matters while war rages nearby and people are killed? If Japanese soldiers kill one’s mother and children, should one refuse to distinguish between aggressor and victim and simply remain still? This is not the wisdom of non-discrimination. It is indifference to reality and bondage to another fixed image—the image of having no image. Buddhism should mean sharing another person’s troubles, explaining self and world through dependent arising, and asking what creates suffering and which choice is better.

Buddhist wisdom is the process of realizing dependent arising, and it must appear in daily life as the ability to explain, question, and judge dependently arisen reality.

Meditative Absorption Is a Tool, Not the End of Buddhism

Absorption itself is not extraordinarily mysterious. Anyone can experience fewer stray thoughts and a calmer mind while immersed in a comic, drama, game, or billiards. Something similar can occur while concentrating on breathing, chanting, or bowing. There is no reason to deny that benefit. But temporary calm cannot be made the final point of enlightenment.

If absorption were everything, there would be no reason to study Buddhism or ask questions. Sitting, breathing, or bowing would be enough. Life, however, constantly requires judgment: whether to sow today or tomorrow, how to handle pests, whether to perform a family ancestral rite, and how to offer condolences at a funeral when one does not believe in a soul. Sometimes I use the conventional words, “May the deceased rest in peace.” At other times I write, “May this person’s life be remembered for a long time.” Even choosing words requires observation, judgment, and care.

Absorption may steady the mind for a while, but if we remain there, not even a speck of wisdom is produced.

Even After Becoming a Buddha, One Must Keep Questioning and Observing

A Buddhist life is one that examines my thoughts and the world through dependent arising. It is a life of scientific and critical thinking, inquiry, and observation. I never say that after completing some practice there is nothing more to do. To become a Buddha, and even after becoming one, we must continue to question, observe, and think.

After making a video, I too ask whether I chose an appropriate example, tuned myself to the listener’s frequency, and posed a sharp enough question. Merely getting angry, mocking, or swearing does not necessarily communicate anything. Sometimes criticism must be forceful; at other times we need a calm, cold exchange of reasons. To find a better way, I must keep questioning and observing. “Live without thinking” seals off all these paths like an iron wall.

Enlightenment is not a state in which thinking has ended. It is an ongoing process of questioning and correction while knowing that my own judgment may also be wrong.

Four Delusions in Chasing Future Happiness

Later in the broadcast, a viewer asked whether thoughts such as “I will be happy when I do something, possess something, or achieve something” are all delusions. Hidden behind such a statement is the judgment that “without it, I am unhappy now.” When a child cries for a golden toy, the child already has family, friends, books, a phone, food, and a body able to run and play. Yet once the gaze fixes on the one missing object, everything already present disappears and the child becomes an unhappy person.

The first delusion is a lack of understanding of impermanence. I may die tonight or tomorrow. If I assume there must be a next time and mortgage today to the future, I fail to live the day that actually exists. The second is believing that effort guarantees the desired result. One may work for ten years toward business success, marriage, a profession, or a large house, yet the world changes through countless conditions and even the goal itself may disappear. In the age of AI, a profession for which one prepared for years may cease to exist. The third is failing to ask whether I am truly unhappy now. I stare only at what I lack and cannot see the relationships and conditions already here. The fourth is assuming that happiness will continue once the object is obtained. What is in our hands soon becomes familiar, and another desire arises.

“I must obtain that to be happy” contains several delusions: that I know the future, that I can certainly achieve the goal, and that I am unhappy now.

The Wisdom to Live Today Without Ignoring Tomorrow

This does not mean that we should stop preparing for the future and pursue pleasure like a caricature of YOLO. “You only live once” can remind us not to count on a second life or a guaranteed afterlife, but it does not tell us to ignore tomorrow. Saying that I do not know whether I will be alive tomorrow includes both possibilities: I may die, and I may live. If winter is likely to come, we should prepare; if rain is likely, carrying an umbrella is wise.

Conversely, it is foolish to mortgage a child’s present by demanding that the child never play and only study for a future ten or twenty years away. The child may die before entering college, or crucial years of life may already be gone when the goal is reached. I cannot hand down a final answer between living as though only today exists and sacrificing today as though only the future exists. What matters is that each person think the matter through on the basis of impermanence and dependent arising.

The answer is neither “live only for today” nor “prepare only for the future.” I must ask how to live while seeing both today and the conditions of a possible tomorrow.

Consciousness and Money Must Also Be Seen Within Dependent Conditions

When asked, “What is consciousness?” I answered that I do not know. A precise definition is difficult, but at minimum consciousness can be seen as a bodily and physical phenomenon, an outcome of many conditions gathering and dispersing. It should not be separated out like an independent soul; it must be understood within relationships.

Nor can external conditions be erased when we ask whether money makes us happy or unhappy. Under capitalism and a monetary system, money buys much of what we need to eat, receive treatment, and live. I can walk normally because gout medicine and health insurance are available to me. If I lacked even the money to see a doctor, I would suffer more. Continuing this broadcast also requires material support and the means to live. Human beings do not live independently of social phenomena. We therefore cannot say that all suffering disappears if the mind alone changes; we must also examine a social structure designed around ownership and favorable to capital.

Thinking through dependent arising is not merely looking inward. It means seeing the reality in which consciousness, body, money, medicine, education, and social structures affect one another.

Do Not Remain With Someone Else’s Answer—Keep the Question

Because a livestream has a delay between speech and chat, it is difficult to ask a question back and wait for a full real-time exchange. Yet my conclusion is not what matters most. My answer to “How should one live happily?” is still someone else’s answer. Buddhism does not begin by believing and following another person’s answer.

If the world is impermanent, what do I believe I must obtain before I can be happy? If I may die tomorrow, should I postpone happiness until marriage or success ten years from now? When we ask such questions ourselves, we often become stuck. I too have been stuck countless times. If we discard the question because we are stuck, that is the end. Even while stuck, we must keep the question and repeatedly direct it back at ourselves. That repetition of questioning, observing, and thinking is what I call Buddhism.

Do not discard a question when it reaches an impasse. Only by continuing to question for yourself can your own wisdom begin instead of another person’s belief.