Mindful Interactions and Recalibrations: From Chinul to T'oegye

Religious and philosophical traditions often generate intercultural inter-actions that cross-fertilize different traditions. Some of these “after-effects,” as I refer to them, are often underplayed or ignored between traditions and at times even attacked. In this regard, Sŏn Buddhism in Korea owed much to the development of Chan Buddhism during the Tang (唐朝, 618–907) and Song (宋朝 960–1279) dynasties. However, these Sinitic meditational Buddhist developments also influenced the recalibration of Neo-Confucianism, which focused on the mind, even shaping its own concept of “quiet-sitting” (C. jingzuo, K. chŏngjwa 靜坐), though Confucian scholars typically denied and renounced these impure “after-effects.” If we examine the broader intellectual “history of effect,” to draw on Gadamer’s term “effectual history” (G. Wirkungsgeschichte) in Truth and Method, it becomes necessary to examine the “after-effects” of Chan Buddhism that have cross-fertilized the sophisticated spiritualism of Neo-Confucianism, especially its “study of the mind” (C. xinxue, K. sim)