It's just as much a mistake for people to be completely absorbed in the non-material realms, as it is for them to be completely absorbed by the the material realms. People say that there has to be balance between the two, but I would say let go of even the idea of "balance between these two" and instead take both existence and the spiritual, and combine them together in one place. When ideas of both existence or spiritual have been combined together in one place, then when you read the sutras, you'll finally understand their true meaning; even when you see a leaf falling from a tree, you'll be able to see the truths of your daily life. Eyes, ears, and nose: although they all have different names, they belong to one body. When your eyes turn to look, your ears also follow along, when you turn your head to hear better, your eyes naturally follow. Don't be biased towards one or the other.

   Because everyone in the world is already a Buddha, there isn't some special, separate pathway to the truth. Everything in our daily life is already the path and a hwadu. These don't exist somewhere separate, because every place and everything is already the path as well as a hwadu. The gateway is here, and here, and here, could there be something that isn't the path? It is your existence itself, from the moment you were conceived, that allows you to grasp this door. People who go far and wide, looking for the entryway, won't be able to truly practice. There's nothing blocking you, so just jump in right here! Only people who do this will find the gateway spoken of by sages past.

   Everything that confronts you is the entryway, everything that confronts you is your hwadu. Everything that confronts you is your Buddha-nature, everything that confronts you is the Buddha-dharma. None of these exist alone, so I call the whole thing Juingong, (that which truly does all things, with no fixed essence.) This is the truth: because you exist, you're the one doing things, because you exist, you are also empty. You come from emptiness, with no trace of having come, so even you are emptiness. If even you are emptiness, what is there to entrust to emptiness, and what is there to take out of emptiness? If you understand this, you'll be able to live with true equanimity; if you understand this truth of emptiness, nothing will ever again be able to tangle you up.

- Daehaeng Kun Sunim