Meditation in Korean Seon stands at the very heart of the path, functioning as the primary means for realizing one’s original enlightened nature or Buddha‑nature. It is not treated as a secondary support to study or ritual, but as the direct vehicle for “seeing one’s true nature” and cutting through self‑centered delusion. Through this practice, calm concentration and penetrating wisdom are cultivated together, so that stillness and insight are not separate stages but two aspects of a single realization. The awakening sought is often described as sudden, yet it rests on sustained meditative discipline that stabilizes and deepens that insight over time.

Within this tradition, Ganhwa Seon plays a central role as the characteristic form of meditation. Here, the practitioner devotes intense, continuous attention to a single hwadu, a brief “critical phrase” or question that resists conceptual resolution. By focusing on such a phrase—whether in formal seated meditation or amid daily activities—habitual patterns of thought are exhausted, and a powerful “great doubt” is generated. This great doubt, coupled with unwavering inquiry, undermines discriminating thought and opens the way to a non‑conceptual breakthrough, sometimes described as kenshō or sudden awakening to one’s inherent nature.

Alongside this hwadu‑centered discipline, Korean Seon also values forms of “just sitting,” in which the mind rests without clinging to any particular object, allowing awareness to reveal its own clarity. In both approaches, the aim is to cultivate a “don’t‑know mind,” an open, ungrasping awareness free from fixed views. Such meditation is not confined to the meditation hall: the clarity and non‑attachment developed in seated practice are meant to permeate walking, eating, working, and speaking, so that everyday life itself becomes the field of Seon. As ego‑attachments and conceptual fixations are loosened, ethical conduct and compassion naturally find expression, and the practitioner’s realization is tested, guided, and confirmed within the living relationship of teacher and student.