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Guide XIII-085

Won Buddhist Threefold Practice

Sotaesan1916Korea
A 23 · L 64 · M 1320 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: the Threefold Practice (samhak, 三學) as set out in the Won Buddhist canon (Wonbulgyo Kyojeon, 1962; English translation The Scriptures of Won Buddhism, University of Hawai'i Press, 2003), as currently taught by Won Buddhism USA (wonbuddhism.org) and by Venerable Juksanim (Head Dharma Master of Won Buddhism USA) in The Principles of Mind Training for Everyday Life, translated by Rev. Grace Song (Kyomunim; Won Institute of Graduate Studies). Korean terms follow the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture entry by Kim Nak-pil. [source: wonbuddhism.org; De Gruyter landing page for the 2003 translation; Buddhistdoor excerpts 2025; Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]

Won Buddhism (Wonbulgyo) is a modern Korean Buddhist religion founded in 1916 by Pak Chung-bin (1891–1943), known as Sotaesan; its 1943 canon was redacted under the second patriarch, Chongsan, into the 1962 Wonbulgyo Kyojeon, which joins the Canon (Principal Book, Jeongjeon) and the Scripture of Sotaesan (Daejonggyeong). [source: De Gruyter abstract] The Threefold Practice is the tradition's core method of self-cultivation, and it is a practice that the tradition teaches openly. Its three parts are:

  • Cultivation of Spirit (jeongsin suyang, 精神修養): growing a clear, calm mind free of discriminating thought (bunbyeolsim) and attachment (juchaksim), and not being pulled by circumstances. [source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]
  • Inquiry into Human Affairs and Universal Principles (sari yeongu, 事理硏究): investigating "affairs" (right and wrong, benefit and harm in human life) and "principles" (the great, small, being and non-being of the universe: its essence, its diverse forms and its cycles of change, birth, ageing, sickness and death). [source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]
  • Mindful Choice in Action (jakeop chwisa, 作業取捨): in the working of the six sense organs in daily affairs, taking up what is just and letting go of what is unjust. [source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture; Buddhistdoor 2025]

How change happens, as the tradition states it: suffering arises from greed, anger and ignorance; the three practices together polish the "original mind", which the tradition likens to a perfect, impartial, selfless mirror. The three support each other like the legs of a tripod and are mapped onto the Noble Eightfold Path. [source: wonbuddhism.org] Practice is not confined to the cushion: the tradition teaches that daily life is itself the place of practice ("Timeless and Placeless Seon"). [source: Song, Tricycle 2019; Buddhistdoor 2025] These are religious claims, attributed to the tradition; the practice is not a treatment for physical or mental illness.

For the psychotherapist, this guide covers two layers: (a) the method as the tradition teaches it, for understanding a Won Buddhist client's practice; (b) the therapist's own work: client-led integration in spiritually integrated psychotherapy (Domain VII), published adaptations, referral to a Won Buddhist minister (kyomunim), trauma sensitivity and adverse effects. The therapist does not teach the practice as a religious authority. [synthesis]

2. Framework

The Threefold Practice has no clinical phases; it is a lifelong religious discipline. The structure below is the tradition's own; clinical session counts do not come from the tradition. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; wonbuddhism.org]

Tradition structure

  • Three practices, one process. Juksanim presents the three as a sequence for any moment: stop and become present (cultivation of spirit), think carefully about what should be done in light of affairs and principles (inquiry), then decide and act (choice in action). Beginners work through them as three distinct steps; with maturity they merge into one movement. Practice begins with stopping, because clear thought requires a settled mind. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025 and June 2025]
  • Practice at rest and practice in activity. Seated meditation and chanting the Buddha's name are the "at rest" practices that remove distracting thoughts and nurture a single, unattached mind; they are one part only. Practice in activity continues through work and family life. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019]
  • Fixed-term and constant training. The canon's Practice part has seventeen chapters, from the essentials of daily practice to the ranks of dharma stages. [source: De Gruyter table of contents] Juksanim says regular participation in Won Buddhism's fixed-term retreats builds a deep experience of Seon that gives a richer standard for daily self-checking. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025] The detailed subjects of fixed-term training are [uncertain: not verified].
  • Supports: the Eight Articles (paljo). Four to develop: faith (sin), courageous zeal (bun), questioning (ui), sincerity (seong). Four to abandon: unbelief, greed, laziness, foolishness. [source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]
  • Developmental markers in the tradition. In the mindfulness method, beginners judge only whether they acted with deliberate attention, whatever the outcome; later the standard becomes whether the outcome was good. Self-checking continues until "the mind needs no checking". [source: Buddhistdoor 2025] Juksanim reports that scheduled self-checks become nearly automatic after one to three months, after which practice is linked to specific tasks and then to all situations. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025]

Clinical frame (therapist's work) [synthesis unless tagged]

  • Phase A: Assessment and consent. Spiritual history; how the client practises (temple, kyomunim, retreats); what they want from therapy; screening for adverse effects of practice, psychosis, mania, trauma and dissociation; explicit consent to include religious practice and how much.
  • Phase B: Client-led integration (ongoing). The client's own practices (stopping, mindfulness tally, diary, inquiry, choice) are used as the client already understands them and linked to therapy goals. Move on when the client can describe how a practice fits the problem and has used it between sessions without distress.
  • Phase C: Consolidation and handover. The client's practice continues within the community; therapy ends or tapers. Criteria: goals met; practice is self-sustaining; any doctrinal questions are with the kyomunim.
  • Format. Individual sessions as usual. One published Korean study ran a Maumgongbu ("mind study") group counselling programme for adolescents in 14 sessions [source: Yang, Kwon & Park 2010]; this is the only session count from a source here.

3. Guiding principles

  • Attribute, do not assert. Describe the original mind, karma and Il-Won-Sang as the tradition holds them. Practical meaning: "In your tradition, …" rather than stating or doubting doctrine. [synthesis]
  • Client-led, in the client's own language. Use the client's terms (maeum gongbu, yunyeom, ilgi) only if they use them. Practical meaning: ask, "How does your temple describe this?" [synthesis]
  • Consent before integration. Practical meaning: agree in writing or in notes what religious material enters therapy and what does not. [synthesis]
  • Stop, think, choose. The tradition's sequence is a natural bridge to emotion regulation. Practical meaning: frame skills as "pause, reflect, choose" when the client finds that familiar. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; application synthesis]
  • Daily life is the practice. Practical meaning: homework lives in ordinary situations (work, family), not only in formal sitting. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019]
  • Present moment and the six senses. Practice happens only now, at the point of sensory contact (gyeonggye, 境界, "sensory conditions"). Practical meaning: work with concrete recent moments, not abstractions. [source: Buddhistdoor June 2025; Jang Jin-young 2012]
  • Watch the mind like a mother watching a child. Juksanim's image: constant, warm attention at first, becoming easier. Practical meaning: model non-punitive watchfulness. [source: Buddhistdoor June 2025]
  • No self-blame. Song's method reviews slips "without self-blame", sets an intention, lets go of guilt. Practical meaning: monitor for scrupulosity and harsh self-judgement. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019]
  • Self-power and gratitude. The daily checks include living with gratitude and relying on one's own power. Practical meaning: these can support agency, but do not let "self-power" become a reason to refuse help. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; application synthesis]
  • Graduated standard. Beginners count effort, not outcomes. Practical meaning: reward attempts first. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; Song 2019]
  • Role clarity. The therapist is not a kyomunim, dharma teacher or confessor; doctrinal questions go to the client's minister. The APA Ethics Code's general requirements on competence and multiple relationships apply [synthesis]. Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists (Vieten et al. 2013) are a common reference [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
  • Safety above practice. Reduce or pause intensive practice when adverse effects appear. [source: Farias et al. 2020; Lindahl et al. 2017; guidance synthesis]

4. Intervention inventory

Part A gives the practices as Won Buddhist sources teach them, with how the therapist supports a client who already practises them. Part B gives the therapist's own clinical work. Only bring a practice into session with the client's consent and at the client's lead. [synthesis]

Part A. The practices as the tradition teaches them

A1. Seated meditation and chanting the Buddha's name (practice at rest)

  • Purpose / when: The tradition's "at rest" practices for cultivation of spirit: clearing distracting thoughts and nurturing a single, unattached mind. Wonbuddhism.org describes cultivation of spirit as settling and focusing the mind through meditation and prayer, like weeding a field before planting. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019; wonbuddhism.org] Relevant when a client already sits or chants and wants practice to support calm.
  • Steps (public outline): The canon contains its own instruction for sitting meditation and for chanting; detailed posture, breath and attention instructions are [uncertain: not verified] and should come from a kyomunim or Won temple. The therapist (1) asks how the client was taught and how often they practise; (2) asks what they notice during and after; (3) supports a time and place in the client's routine; (4) does not add or change technique. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You said you sit at the temple on Sundays. How were you taught to do it, and what is it like for you these days?"
  • Watch for: Rising anxiety, intrusive memories, depersonalisation, sleep loss or unusual energy sensations during sitting (see B5). Working: client reports a calmer baseline and uses sitting by choice, not compulsively. [source: Farias et al. 2020; Lindahl et al. 2017 for adverse-effect types]

A2. Stopping (the first step of the threefold sequence)

  • Purpose / when: Juksanim teaches that mind cultivation begins with stopping and becoming fully present, because clear thought needs a settled mind. Useful at moments of emotional reactivity. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025]
  • Steps: (1) Notice the moment of contact with a trigger (a sensory condition). (2) Stop: pause the action and gather the mind in the present. (3) Only then move to reflection (A6) and choice (A7). In therapy, rehearse with a recent, mild example first. [source for 1–2: Buddhistdoor 2025; rehearsal synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your practice, the first step is to stop. When your manager criticised you yesterday, where could a stop have fitted in?"
  • Watch for: Stopping used as suppression or freezing. Working: shorter gap between trigger and pause; fewer actions later regretted. [synthesis]

A3. Watchful mindfulness in daily life (yunyeom; Timeless and Placeless Seon)

  • Purpose / when: Sotaesan's yunyeom (sustained, deliberate awareness) carries practice into all activity: practice is not limited to sitting, chanting or prayer. Juksanim compares it to keeping a room clean by restoring order at once rather than letting disorder pile up. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; Song, Tricycle 2019]
  • Steps: (1) Attend to what the six senses meet now. (2) Watch the mind as a mother watches a young child: close attention at first, easier later. (3) Reflect on no-self, so awareness does not harden into ego. (4) When the mind is disturbed, restore it promptly. [source: Buddhistdoor June 2025]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your teacher's image is a mother watching a child. Could you watch your irritation that way this week, kindly and closely?"
  • Watch for: Hypervigilant self-monitoring; constant checking can feed anxiety or OCD (see B6). Working: awareness feels warm and light rather than policing. [synthesis]

A4. Contrasting Mindfulness and Unmindfulness (yumu-nyeom) with Plan–Do–See

  • Purpose / when: A concrete daily-life method for choice in action. An act done with deliberate discernment about what should and should not be done is yunyeom (mindful); one done without it is munyeom (unmindful). Fits a specific, repeated habit. [source: Buddhistdoor June 2025; Song, Tricycle 2019]
  • Steps (Song's Plan–Do–See): (1) Plan: choose one mindfulness item tied to a persistent problem (her examples: arriving five minutes early, mindful speech, attending to the task at hand) and set a concrete supporting intention. (2) Do: tally mindful and unmindful instances on paper or a counter; at first count without judging outcomes; later note whether results were good, to avoid "knowing but not doing". (3) See: review whether the item was kept; if not, examine why without self-blame, set an intention, let go of guilt; if so, feel gratitude and continue, guarding against complacency. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019] In therapy, choose the item together with the client, linked to a treatment goal. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Which one item would make the biggest difference this week? Shall we count the mindful and unmindful moments the way your tradition does, just counting, no verdicts yet?"
  • Watch for: Tallying turning into self-punishment or perfectionism; very low counts producing shame. Working: rising ratio of mindful to unmindful, and the client speaks of slips calmly. Song notes that progress in one area tends to spread. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019; monitoring synthesis]

A5. Recitation and checking with the Essential Dharmas of Daily Practice

  • Purpose / when: A short canonical text (ilsang suhaeng-ui yobeop) recited morning and evening; Juksanim stresses understanding and applying it, not only reciting. Its first articles underpin Won Buddhist "mind study" (maeum gongbu), which starts from the mind arising at a sensory condition. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; Jang Jin-young 2012]
  • Steps: (1) Recite morning and evening. (2) Review the mind generally once a day, and specifically at moments of sensory contact. (3) Ask whether the mind ground is disturbed, deluded or inclined to wrongdoing. (4) Ask whether faith, zeal, questioning and dedication are advancing. (5) Ask whether one lives with gratitude, relies on self-power, learns and teaches readily, and benefits others. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug and June 2025] The text itself is in the canon; do not reproduce it in session handouts without the client's own copy. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you check whether your mind ground was disturbed, what do you notice? Which question feels most alive for you right now?"
  • Watch for: Checking becoming moral audit and guilt; in a depressed client, the questions can become evidence of failure. Working: checking leads to correction and calm, as the tradition intends ("the mind needs no checking"). [source for aim: Buddhistdoor 2025; risk synthesis]

A6. Inquiry: scripture study, dharma discussion and questions of doubt

  • Purpose / when: Inquiry into human affairs and universal principles sharpens wisdom through scripture study, koan practice and dharma discussion. [source: wonbuddhism.org] Juksanim's middle step is to consider carefully, in stillness, what should be done in light of affairs and principles. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025]
  • Steps: (1) The client studies within their community (temple dharma talks, study groups) and brings questions to the kyomunim. (2) In therapy, use the "affairs" side: right and wrong, benefit and harm in a concrete situation, as a structured reflection. (3) Leave doctrinal and koan questions to the teacher. [source for 1: wonbuddhism.org; 2–3 synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before deciding, your tradition asks you to look at right and wrong, benefit and harm. Let's lay those out for this situation."
  • Watch for: Rumination dressed as inquiry; doubt practice amplifying obsessional doubt. Working: reflection ends in a decision. [synthesis]

A7. Mindful choice in action and the precepts

  • Purpose / when: In every act of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind, discern what to take up and what to set aside, and act on it; observe the precepts. [source: Buddhistdoor June 2025; wonbuddhism.org]
  • Steps: (1) After stopping and reflecting, decide. (2) Act on the decision. (3) Review the outcome later in the diary (A8). The content of the precepts is the tradition's and is [uncertain: not verified] here; ask the client. [source for 1–2: Buddhistdoor 2025]
  • Example language (illustrative): "You've paused and weighed it. What would taking up the right thing look like, in one small action?"
  • Watch for: Rigid moralism, guilt, or values conflicts the client wants to explore. Working: values-consistent action with less avoidance. [synthesis]

A8. The daily diary (ilgi)

  • Purpose / when: End-of-day review supporting all three practices. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025]
  • Steps: At the end of each day, write about the day's actions: mindful or unmindful, progress in study, and whether precepts were kept or broken. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug and June 2025] In therapy, the client may choose to bring diary entries; the therapist does not grade them. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "If it would help, you could bring one diary entry that you'd like to look at together. Only what you choose."
  • Watch for: Diary as a confession ledger, sleep delay from long reviews, shame. Working: brief, honest entries followed by settling. [synthesis]

A9. Scheduled self-checks and task-linked gathering

  • Purpose / when: Juksanim's method for building continuity: gathering the mind at set times, then in set tasks, then everywhere. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025]
  • Steps: (1) Set specific times in the day (his examples: 7 a.m., noon, 4 p.m., 9 p.m.) to gather the mind, and later observe whether you did. (2) After one to three months, when this is almost automatic, link it to tasks ("when I do this, I will gather my mind this way"). (3) Extend to any situation. (4) Review the day each evening. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025] In therapy, phone reminders can support step 1. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your teacher suggests four set times a day. Which times would actually work in your schedule?"
  • Watch for: Missed checks producing guilt. Working: the client gathers the mind spontaneously at hard moments. [synthesis]

A10. The Eight Articles as a self-assessment

  • Purpose / when: Faith, courageous zeal, questioning and sincerity drive practice; unbelief, greed, laziness and foolishness block it. [source: Encyclopedia of Korean Culture] Useful when motivation is the issue.
  • Steps: (1) The client names which supports are strong and which hindrances are active. (2) Link one support to one therapy goal. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Of faith, zeal, questioning and sincerity, which do you have most of right now? Which hindrance shows up most?"
  • Watch for: "Laziness" as a label for depressive anergia; reframe gently and assess mood. [synthesis]

A11. Fixed-term retreats

  • Purpose / when: Regular retreats deepen Seon experience and give a richer standard for daily self-checking. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025]
  • Steps: The retreat is led by the order; its programme is [uncertain: not verified]. The therapist screens before any intensive retreat (B5), plans support for the return, and encourages the client to tell the retreat leader about relevant health issues. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Before the retreat, let's think about what you'd do if something difficult came up, and who there you could talk to."
  • Watch for: Destabilisation during or after retreat. Working: client returns with practice deepened and stable. [source: Lindahl et al. 2017; Farias et al. 2020]

Part B. The psychotherapist's work

B1. Spiritual assessment and consent to integrate

  • Purpose / when: First sessions, or whenever the client raises their practice. Establishes what the practice means to the client and whether they want it in therapy. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask open questions about affiliation (temple, kyomunim, years of practice), daily practices (sitting, chanting, diary, mindfulness tally, retreats), and what the practice means. (2) Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including its supplementary module on spirituality, religion and moral traditions, if trained in it [uncertain: not verified]. (3) Ask how the client wants religion handled: not at all, as background, or actively used. (4) Record the agreement and revisit it. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people want their faith to be part of therapy, some prefer to keep it separate. What would feel right for you?"
  • Watch for: Client deferring to the therapist's apparent preference; therapist enthusiasm for Buddhism shaping the agreement. Working: the client sets the terms. [synthesis]

B2. Client-led integration: stop, reflect, choose as a regulation skill

  • Purpose / when: For a consenting client, the tradition's own three-step sequence (A2, A6, A7) maps onto common emotion-regulation and problem-solving work. [source for the sequence: Buddhistdoor 2025; mapping synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Ask the client to describe the sequence in their own words. (2) Pick a recent, moderate trigger. (3) Walk through stop, reflect (right and wrong, benefit and harm), choose. (4) Agree one real-life rehearsal, recorded in the client's diary or yumu-nyeom tally if they wish. (5) Review next session using Plan–Do–See (A4). [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your tradition already gives you three steps. Let's try them on Tuesday's argument, slowly, one at a time."
  • Watch for: The therapist sliding into teaching doctrine; the client feeling their faith is being "used". Working: the client uses the steps spontaneously and reports fewer impulsive actions. [synthesis]

B3. Published adaptations and cross-references

  • Purpose / when: When the client or a service wants a structured or secular format. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Won Buddhist mind study (maeum gongbu) has been delivered as a group counselling programme: one Korean study ran 14 sessions with adolescents, comparing group and individual formats and measuring physical symptoms, self-esteem and self-identity before, after and eight weeks later. [source: Yang, Kwon & Park 2010] The programme's session contents are [uncertain: not verified]. (2) For secular mindfulness formats, cross-refer to Domain II (MBSR, MBCT, MSC, CFT). (3) For Buddhist and spiritually integrated psychotherapy, cross-refer to Domain VII. (4) For body-based trauma work, cross-refer to Domain IV (trauma-sensitive yoga). [synthesis] A secular adaptation is not the same as the client's religious practice; say so to the client. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "There are non-religious mindfulness programmes too. Would you rather keep your temple practice separate and use one of those here?"
  • Watch for: Blurring a religious practice into a clinical technique without consent. Working: the client chooses the format knowingly. [synthesis]

B4. Trauma-sensitive adaptation

  • Purpose / when: Clients with trauma histories, dissociation or panic during stillness. Treleaven (2018), Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness, is the usual published reference [uncertain: not verified]. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Offer choice: eyes open, shorter sitting, movement, external anchors (sounds, objects) rather than inner focus. (2) Favour practice in activity (A3, A4) over long silent sitting while symptoms are high. (3) Teach grounding before practice: orient to the room, feel feet, name objects. (4) Agree a stop signal and permission to end early. (5) Encourage the client to tell their kyomunim about adjustments if they wish. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your tradition says practice is everywhere, not only on the cushion. While sitting still feels unsafe, we could put more weight on the in-daily-life practices."
  • Watch for: Flashbacks, numbing, losing track of time, shutdown. Working: the client can stay present and choose to stop. [synthesis]

B5. Screening and responding to adverse effects of practice

  • Purpose / when: Before intensive retreats (A11), when practice increases sharply, or when new symptoms appear. Farias et al. (2020) found adverse events reported in 65% of 83 studies, with pooled prevalence 8.3%, most often anxiety, depression and cognitive anomalies, including in people without prior mental-health history. [source: Farias et al. 2020] The Varieties of Contemplative Experience study (Lindahl et al. 2017) documented meditation-related challenges in Western Buddhist practitioners; Cheetah House offers consultations, support and clinician training. [source: Cheetah House VCE page]
  • Steps: (1) Screen: history of psychosis, bipolar disorder, trauma, dissociation, current severe depression, recent sleep loss. (2) Ask directly about practice-linked experiences (perceptual changes, fear, energy sensations, changes in sense of self). (3) If adverse effects appear: reduce dose (shorter, less frequent formal sitting), shift to activity-based practice, add grounding, protect sleep. (4) Assess differential: psychosis, mania, depression, dissociation, versus a religious or spiritual problem. DSM-5-TR includes a category for a religious or spiritual problem; its code is Z65.8. (5) Do not pathologise meaningful experiences, and do not miss illness; refer for psychiatric assessment if risk or psychotic features. (6) With consent, coordinate with the kyomunim or retreat leader. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people find meditation brings up hard experiences as well as good ones. That's known, and it's not a failure. What has it been like for you lately?"
  • Watch for: Insomnia, agitation, derealisation, grandiosity, suicidal thoughts. Working: symptoms settle with dose reduction; the client resumes at a level they choose. [source for symptom types: Farias et al. 2020; guidance synthesis]

B6. Scrupulosity in self-checking, diary and precepts

  • Purpose / when: Daily moral self-checking, precept review and diary (A5, A8) can be taken over by religious OCD. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Distinguish ordinary conscientious practice from compulsions: excessive time, reassurance-seeking, rituals to neutralise doubt, marked distress. (2) Use exposure and response prevention, adapted for religious content, as clinical sources such as the IOCDF describe [uncertain: not verified]. (3) With consent, consult the kyomunim about what the tradition actually requires; the tradition's own teaching that slips are reviewed without self-blame and guilt is let go [source: Song, Tricycle 2019] can support response prevention. (4) Agree a "good enough" diary length and checking frequency the teacher endorses. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "Your teacher's way is to review a slip, set an intention and let the guilt go. What happens for you when you try to let it go?"
  • Watch for: Checking that grows rather than eases. Working: checking time drops and practice feels lighter. [synthesis]

B7. Referral to and collaboration with a Won Buddhist minister

  • Purpose / when: Questions of doctrine, technique, retreat suitability, or practice changes. Won Buddhist ordained ministers are called kyomunim (also kyomu). [source: Won Institute; Tricycle] Won Buddhism USA lists temples and programmes. [source: wonbuddhism.org]
  • Steps: (1) Ask whether the client has a minister. (2) With written consent, agree what is shared. (3) Keep roles distinct: the minister guides practice, the therapist treats the clinical problem. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "That sounds like a question for your kyomunim. Would it help to take it to them, or would you like me to speak with them, with your permission?"
  • Watch for: Over-reliance on either party; disagreement between them. Working: aligned, non-conflicting guidance. [synthesis]

B8. The teacher relationship, power and leaving

  • Purpose / when: When the client describes pressure, distress around a teacher or community, or wants to leave. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Explore the relationship neutrally. (2) Assess signs of coercive control: isolation from others, financial or sexual exploitation, punishment for questioning, control of information. (3) Support decision-making either way; for those leaving, attend to loss of community and identity and to religious trauma. No independent investigation of misconduct by a named Won Buddhist teacher is cited in this guide. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "How free do you feel to disagree with people at your temple?"
  • Watch for: Therapist bias for or against the group. Working: the client makes choices freely. [synthesis]

B9. Role boundaries and the therapist's own beliefs

  • Purpose / when: Throughout. [synthesis]
  • Steps: (1) Do not act as a dharma teacher, confessor or spiritual director. (2) Avoid dual relationships, for example practising at the client's temple. (3) Disclose your own religious commitments only when it serves the client. (4) Seek consultation if you lack competence with Korean Buddhist traditions; spiritual and religious competencies (Vieten et al. 2013) [uncertain: not verified] and the APA Ethics Code are standard references. [synthesis]
  • Example language (illustrative): "I'm not a teacher of your tradition, so I'll follow your lead on what it means. My part is helping with what's troubling you."
  • Watch for: Client wanting the therapist as a teacher. Working: clear roles, client feels respected. [synthesis]

5. Handling problems

The tradition's sources give the first two responses (graded standards and non-blaming review); the rest is clinical synthesis. [source: Buddhistdoor 2025; Song, Tricycle 2019; otherwise synthesis]

  • Stuck in the cycle of checking and relapse. Juksanim notes that without depth of practice, people repeat the same faults in a cycle of checking and relapse, and recommends deepening Seon through fixed-term retreats. [source: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025] Clinically: narrow to one yumu-nyeom item (A4), make it smaller, and look for the function of the repeated behaviour (avoidance, reward). Raise retreat suggestions only after screening (B5). [synthesis]
  • Harsh self-judgement or shame. Return to the tradition's beginner standard: count attempts, not outcomes, and review slips without self-blame. [source: Song, Tricycle 2019; Buddhistdoor 2025] If shame persists, assess depression and scrupulosity (B6). [synthesis]
  • Non-adherence to between-session practice. Ask what got in the way; shrink the task (one self-check a day rather than four); tie it to an existing routine (Juksanim's task-linking, A9). Do not frame non-practice as "laziness" (A10) without assessing mood. [source for task-linking: Buddhistdoor, Aug 2025; rest synthesis]
  • Resistance to bringing faith into therapy. Honour it; keep religion as background only, or use a secular format (B3). Revisit the agreement later only if the client raises it. [synthesis]
  • Overwhelm during sitting or chanting. Stop formal practice for now; ground (B4); move to activity-based mindfulness; check for adverse effects and risk (B5); involve the kyomunim with consent. [synthesis]
  • Spiritual crisis versus illness. Unusual experiences after intensive practice: assess sleep, mood, psychotic and manic features, dissociation, and risk. Respect the client's religious frame while arranging psychiatric assessment if indicated. [synthesis; adverse-effect types from Farias et al. 2020]
  • Rupture around religion. If the client feels the therapist misunderstood or dismissed the tradition, name it, apologise for the specific error, and ask how they would put it. If the therapist has taken a teaching role, step back and refer the doctrinal question (B7). [synthesis]
  • "Self-power" as a reason to refuse help. The daily checks include relying on self-power and gratitude [source: Buddhistdoor 2025]; explore with the client and, with consent, the kyomunim whether accepting medical or psychological care is consistent with their practice. [synthesis]
  • Conflict between teacher's and therapist's advice. Clarify domains (practice versus clinical treatment); with consent, meet or speak jointly. Where safety is at stake, clinical safety takes precedence. [synthesis]
  • Bypassing. Using equanimity or "no attachment" to avoid grief, anger or relational problems. Gently note that the tradition also asks for concrete right choices in affairs (A6–A7) and bring attention to the specific situation. [synthesis]

Sources

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