It is meaningless to argue whether, in Seon Buddhism, one attains salvation through his own effort or through the help of another. The reason is that the teaching of Seon presents that everything in the world is beyond the relationship of the assistan...
It is meaningless to argue whether, in Seon Buddhism, one attains salvation through his own effort or through the help of another. The reason is that the teaching of Seon presents that everything in the world is beyond the relationship of the assistant and the assisted. As a matter of the fact, it does not make any sense to talk about the salvation through the help of another. The essence of Seon is the practice, which is a method of leading yogis to the world of moksa.
As well known, Buddhist teaching has the idea of the salvation by the help of another. It is known as amitabha belief. One may reach the Buddhist heaven when he continuously chants the name of the amitabha Buddha with attention and without intervention. However, it presupposes that one should chant by himself. So, the amitabha belief has no actual difference from Seon in the sense of doing by oneself even if they are distinct ways of salvation. Therefore, this paper concludes as follows: 1) there are many ways of salvation in Buddhist thoughts. 2) All ways of salvation requires the self effort to attain. 3) it is meaningless to insist whether any way of salvation is through the help of another or through the self effort. 4) The important thing is not the fact that one chooses a particular way of salvation but the fact that he is eager to practice it.