preface
About the Ten Ox-Dolls

1.
Why should we study the mind?
2.
Past, present, and future unfold here and now.
3.
Ah! This is everything in the world!
4.
I reached the top and got trapped in the clouds.
5.
Enter the place you cannot escape!
6.
A consciousness that unfolds endlessly
7.
There was nothing wrong originally
8.
Return to present life

Lim Soon-hee, who studied Zen while living as an ordinary housewife and opened her eyes to the consistent truth, has published a new book titled “Returning to Present Life” by Silent Fragrance Publishing.
This is the author's fourth book, following "Auntie and Zen" and "I Have a Path."


It guides you step by step on the path of mind training to wake up from the dream of discriminatory delusion, the cause of all suffering, and return to the world of truth, which is one and equal.
Based on the 'Ten Ox-Do', which shows the journey of awakening, the book weaves together the author's study experience, the insights of sages, and the words of scriptures, and the author's deep insights are densely embedded throughout like jewels.


A practical travel guide to awakening,
A detailed guide to the entire process from initiation to complete awakening.

Countless spiritual books have been published, each offering excellent teachings. However, it is difficult to find a book that provides a detailed, modern explanation and guidance on the actual process a seeker must go through to fully awaken to the true truth.
This is why this book has rare value.
The author, drawing on his own personal experience, guides us through the entire process from initiation to complete awakening.


This book, Return to the Present Life, is like a good travel guide.
Just as a guidebook is a great help when traveling to a foreign country where everything is unfamiliar, a guidebook from someone who has been there before can be very helpful to seekers entering an unfamiliar world.
Without such guidance, you could end up wandering around for a long time in a strange place far from your destination.


For example, one of the common mistakes seekers make is the misunderstanding of 'experience'.
As you practice mindfulness, you may have miraculous experiences, but you may mistake these fleeting, temporary experiences for experiences of your true nature or enlightenment.
Then, it is easy to waste time obsessing over that experience without being able to move forward.
To avoid falling into this error, we must know the criteria for distinguishing between a temporary experience and a true experience of our nature.


“As you study, various changes occur.
Most of the time, these are new and novel experiences that we experience for the first time, so we may treasure them and become obsessed with them, mistakenly thinking that they are learning.
What did not exist before has been created, and what is created is impermanent and will eventually disappear.
The original mind is always unchanging, and is the same before, after, and during the process of studying the mind.
(......) If you have experienced it, the important thing is, 'Is it still like that? Is it always like that?'
“The key to examining one’s own studies is whether it is something that remains the same now, whether it is something that is perceived in the same way, rather than whether it is a memory of the past or something that will happen in the future.” (pp. 42-43)

In short, the true nature or original mind we seek is always constant and unchanging, so we should examine whether our experiences are truly experiences of true nature by asking ourselves, "Is it still like this now? Is it always like this?"
This simple question is an important key to avoiding the pitfalls that can easily arise in the early stages of mind training.


The Ten Ox-Wood Path, the Ten Stages of a Journey to Mindfulness
Where am I and what do I need to learn?

This book unfolds its story based on the 'Ten Ox-Do', which depicts the inner changes that occur as one's mind becomes more deeply studied.
Among the Ten Ox-Dolls, there are two paintings: Bo-Myeong's 'Mok-Woo-Do' and Gwak-Am's 'Sim-Woo-Do', both made during the Song Dynasty in China. The author chose Gwak-Am's Ten Ox-Doll, which he believed was closer to reality because it depicted all stages of the painting within the original image.


The Ten Ox-Taking Path begins with the first step, Sim-u (finding a cow), and ends with the tenth step, Ip-jeon-su-su (entering the marketplace and offering a helping hand).
In other words, it begins with a thought and is completed by returning to the present life.
One of the great things about the Ten Ox Chart is that it gives you an idea of ​​where you are on your journey.

For example, the experience of one's true nature that many seekers misunderstand as the end of their studies or enlightenment corresponds to the cowherd (seeing the ox) in the Ten Ox-Tailed Tao, which is only the third of the ten stages.
This stage is not the end of study, but the true beginning, and we are not yet free from the illusion of discrimination.


“The discernment accumulated over a long period of time does not easily disappear.
If you are having a good time and then encounter a negative relationship, your heart will be greatly shaken.
“It was so quiet that I thought it was enough, but then suddenly it became noisy as if I had fallen into an abyss.” (Page 93)

The author also experienced his true nature and became much more comfortable, but three or four years later, he encountered difficult adversity and went through a difficult time.
When I encountered such an unexpectedly large obstacle, I couldn't study hard, and although I knew that this discomfort was nothing special, I couldn't truly accept it or let it go, and my body even became ill.
For the author who was facing such a barrier, a certain saying of Master Daehye provided a breakthrough, and through this, he was able to break free from the duality of good and bad.


“When I came to the brink of death, the standard of discernment that distinguished between good and bad collapsed, and all other standards of discernment collapsed at once.
It was like an experience where, when one piece falls in a game of dominoes, all the pieces fall in succession.
“All the standards of discrimination that had been building up the duality of phenomena, such as good and bad, right and wrong, happy and unhappy, beautiful and ugly, woman and man, human and non-human, me and the world, good and evil, etc., were all destroyed at once.” (p. 131)

The final destination of the journey of mind study,
Return to present life

After experiencing the true nature, the author continued to study and progress, and it is said that after 10 years, his mind disappeared.
The final destination on the journey of mind study, as mentioned in the ten stages of the Ten Ox Path, was the reality before our eyes and our current life.


“When my mind disappeared, reality became clear.
(.....) I entered the path of mind study to escape from reality, but the place I arrived at was the reality right in front of my eyes, which I had never left for even a moment.
Life was the way.
It was a study of every single thing.
I was experiencing a life of discrimination in a place where everything was equal.
Originally, it was freedom and peace without any conditions.
It was natural to live a life free from the weight of life and free from the burdens and bonds of all kinds of experiences.
It's not something you get through effort, it's just how it was.
“There is no one who is bound, and there was originally no one who could bind me.” (p. 212)

This is precisely the destination that the author wants to guide students toward through this book.
If you are a student who finally gets here, you might say something like the author said.
“When I first started studying, I tried to obtain truth and liberation with a discerning mind.
But once you become aware of the truth, there is no truth to be gained, and there is no me to be gained.
“Nothing happened originally.” (p. 192)