In many established works, scholars have estimated Wonhyo in terms of general philosophies such as the reconciliation of dispute and harmony, insight of the Middle Path, the Consciousness-only, and the Flower adornment, etc. Due to his unpredictable life and asceticism, his philosophies were much more profound and unconstrained. It was ‘the liberal mind’ that consistently represented in Wonhyo’s works. Wonhyo exceeded a dichotomy set up in his age, such as a set of religious Order, a monk and a lay person, arising and ceasing and existence and non-existence etc. His life was full of implicated uses of all philosophies he insisted and practice of his works. Wonhyo got enlightened with true-thusness, that is, the world of awakening and desperately strived for awakening away from the logic of the dichotomy.
After Wonhyo’s enlightenment, he said, when the mind arises, all kinds of Dharma arise and when the mind is disturbed, all kinds of Dharma exterminate. In his last work, the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tras, a four-character line of a g?th? was illustrated that arising is in itself ceasing and ceasing is also arising, which is not the logic of the dichotomy. When he’s enlightened, all kinds of Dharma arises because your mind arises. Since production and calm extinction coexists, the calm extinction is in fact production, which refers to the production that is unproduced and the aspect of production is in fact extinction, which refers to the extinction that is unextinguished. Beginning with the dichotomy of arising and ceasing at the first stage of enlightenment, the coexistence of arising and ceasing can be completed in the logic of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes. Furthermore, at stage of distinction of arising and ceasing, it reaches the spiritual realm, that is, arising contains ceasing and the other way around. The realm is in itself true liberal thusness in which form itself vanishes.
Wonhyo used the terms, the absolute or ultimate truth of emptiness without differentiation[眞], the worldly, conventional, or relative truth[俗], the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth[眞諦中道], the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth[俗諦中道], and the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes[the middle way is neither absolute nor conventional, neither at the extremes nor in the middle[非眞非俗 無邊無中] in ?The Accessing the Edge of Reality chapter? of the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tra(金剛三昧經論). There are explanations regarding the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes once in the first article of ?The Signless Dharma chapter?, twice in the last article of ?The Tath?gatagarbha chapter? out of the six articles in the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tra. Those terms mentioned above were employed by Wonhyo, starting from the first ?The Signless Dharma chapter? to the final ?The Tath?gatagarbha chapter?. The term, the Middle Way, has always been accompanied with Wonhyo since he was enlightened into the first land of extreme joy and practiced the asceticism of a Bodhisattva.
In light of the fact that ?The Signless Dharma chapter? is the first article and ?The Tath?gatagarbha chapter? is the last article out of six, we can assume that there’s huge significance of his applying the term, the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes from the beginning to the end. The conventional truth[俗] is the worldly, conventional, or relative truth and The absolute truth[眞] is the complete and perfect real nature or reality of the first awakening: the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth[俗諦中道] is paratantra-svabh?va(依他起性) and the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth[眞諦中道] is parini?panna-svabh?va(圓成實性). The middle way that is free from dualistic extremes is the stage at which the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth and the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth coexist. The middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth conveys that the characteristic of voidness is also void. The middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth signifies that the voidness of voidness is also void. Finally, the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes, that is, ‘thusness’, indicates that what is voided is also the void.
The middle way that is free from dualistic extremes is the state of Wonhyo’s fully realized oneness with the Dharmakaya, or the absolute Buddha essence. He illustrated that he got enlightened into the sphere of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes where the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth and the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth are not contrary because they are based on true thusness. The reason why Wonhyo explained this structure was that he was eager for the Bodhisattva-practice toward the unenlightened multitude. He preached the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes to spread loving kindness and compassion toward common people who were in the cycle of rebirth, or birth and death so that they were capable of being enlightened.
We can summarize three key points that Wonhyo attempted to preach in the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tra.
First, it is the Dharma of a single taste and contemplating one’s original true mind and action in which we practice dhy?na[禪].
Second, it is the three voidnesses that clarify the foundation and meaning of the absolute truth, the conventional truth, the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth, the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth and the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes.
Third, it is a four-character line of a g?th? articulating the fact that arising and ceasing are not two separate things.
The philosophy of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes was embodied in the Dharma of a single taste and contemplating one’s original true mind and action, was well grounded in the three voidnesses and was finally convinced in a four-character line of a g?th?. Because Wonhyo’s enlightenment was the void, but was not the fixed one, there could be the myriad things, both internal and external, in the universe, and the law of their existence. His liberal tolerance made it possible that ‘Not being one’ has ‘Two’ and ‘Not being Two’ doesn’t have to preserve ‘One’. I manifested it as his peculiar ‘slaphappiness’. His slaphappiness was regressed into the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes, keeping up with his liberal mind with its being crooked but not being broken. His life was filled with maintaining his enlightenment without losing its fundamental principle. The cycle of transmigration and the utmost bliss coincided with the enlightenment, where the dichotomy of arising and ceasing, existence and non-existence, and truth and convention were annihilated. Wonhyo advocated and achieved the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes, the liberal realm, in the latter part of his life writing the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tra, away from the viewpoint of the former part of his enlightened life seeing into self-nature and the physical world where the people abide such as towns, mountains, and plains on a basis of the dichotomy.
Elucidating the realm of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes, Wonhyo arranged the path of liberally going in and out of the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth and the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth. He represented the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes from the perspective of the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth returning to and the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth turning back to. The ultimate reason which made the logic of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes possible was that it was in itself regressed into the one mind. The recurred true-thusness and the one mind is Buddha’s loving kindness and compassion toward the common people. The main logic of Wonhyo’s the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes is that the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth of the recurred singleness of mind progresses into the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth for the unenlightened multitude. The logic of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes constantly circulates in the form of the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth and the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth between the absolute truth and the conventional truth.
Wonhyo moralizes the liberal realm of the Buddha-dharma in the Exposition of the Vajrasam?dhi S?tra. If a Bodhisattva settles only into the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth, there shouldn’t be ever changing flux of mutations. What is the use of Buddha who only has regard for himself without doing any favor for Sattva or living beings? The fundament of being Buddha is loving kindness and compassion toward all living beings who are in misfortune or suffering. Maitri-karuna[慈悲] is the state of mind which can’t possess the permanent, the doctrine of eternity. Ascetic practices of lots of years and the Six P?ramit?s should be employed to emancipate the foolish and pitiful multitude from distress, for whom Buddha should exist. At first, Buddha was also one of the unenlightened multitude but it was the great loving kindness and compassion of the Buddha and Bodhisattvas that made Buddha attain the Buddhahood. Wonhyo was able to sustain the great loving kindness and compassion of the Buddha through the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes. Since, to Wonhyo, there’s no utmost bliss to acquire and cycle of transmigration to abandon, he must be boundlessly liberal without any dispute and distinction triggered by him or others.
The middle way that is free from dualistic extremes seemed very appropriate for explaining Wonhyo’s realm of the liberal mind. It wasn’t deprived of the fundament of true-thusness and there was no form because it disappeared without a trace going back to the original place. This dedications ended with tolerance which gobbles up the next stage. The stage of the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes is calm extinction, but not wholly extinct, which is the eloquent void of possibility because it doesn’t have any trace, fixed form and obstacle in making use of it. To enlightened Wonhyo, the evil world and the pure land were not dissimilar. Coexistence of the evil world and the pure land was attainable since there was no Dharma to abide by and it was One without any form due to the maintenance of true-thusness. The middle way that is free from dualistic extremes made it possible to embrace Two without any form because there’s no One without attachment. In the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth, there was probability of the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth and the middle way from the standpoint of conventional truth didn’t lose the fundament of the middle way from the standpoint of the absolute truth. The middle way that is free from dualistic extremes is in itself Wonhyo and his Maitri-karuna executes the middle way that is free from dualistic extremes. It bestows benefits to all beings by returning to the fountainhead of the one mind.