This essay made a brief comparative study between Toi’ong Songchol and Yongming Yanshou based on the texts of The Right Path to Seon (禪門正路) and Zong jing lu (宗鏡錄). Songchol laid great emphasis to the fundamental principle of the Chan tradition, “enlightenment on attaining insight into true nature”. He inherited the legacy of Yanshou in interpreting terms like “insight into true nature”, the interrelationship between “insight into true nature” and “attainment of Buddhahood”, and the interrelationship between “enlightenment of the mind”, “mindlessness”, and “sudden enlightenment”. Songchol’s major disparity from Yanshou lies with his theory of sudden enlightenment and sudden cultivation, and that he deemed the kongan practice essential for “enlightenment on attaining insight into true nature”. From the vantage of their overall Buddhist philosophies, Yanshou insisted an integrative inheritance of all Buddhist legacies, encompassing various theories and practices of Buddhist schools under the mind theory of Chan; while Songchol preferred a selective inheritance of Buddhist legacies and highlighted the theories and practices that are uniquely Chan.
