The following is the diary of Wontaeck Cheon, a stationer in a small city of Korea. His practice is none other than maintaining the calmness of his mind against ill humor, which so frequently arises.

Stop! You, the disturbed mind.

The most trying thing in my practice is my short temper, which flares up so frequently when I am in a situation that disturbs my mind. Being petulant almost always has led to my getting angry and, in due course, my mind gets very upset and my practice becomes confused.

Today while doing my business, I felt my short temper slowly start to rise. At that moment, I began to look at my mind closely and checked whether my mind was attracted or not. I said to myself,
"Vexation starts to arise."
"Vexation is arising now."
"Vexation has arisen."
"I am losing my temper"
"Oh! The vexation starts to vanish."
"The vexation has gone."
"Boy! Where is the mind that lost its temper moments ago?"
"There comes a customer. Let me see what sort of mind is arising."
"Vexation starts to arise"
"The vexation is slowly spreading all over my soul."
"The distinguishing mind and attachment begin to arise."
"A deep sigh comes."
"It's really mysterious that there is no this or that, but there is ill humor arising. But seeing the vexation come and go, maybe is the aspect of mind, called ‘True Emptiness and Marvelous Existence’."
"Why do I lose my temper so easily? It may be that I have been so well trained to be vexed, when confronting an offending situation."
In due course, i.e. watching my mind, the vexation came to nothing. It did not matter at all, as I checked and noticed my mind and its movement.  
When I become attracted to something, I see my mind and say, "Oh, I have been attracted." When unattracted, I say to myself, "Oh, I have not been attracted."
It seemed that there was nothing left for me to do. The practice has become really easy.

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Only checking my mind…

Returning home after attending Sunday service, I found my two daughters-the older one in her first year of middle school and the younger in her second year of elementary school-fighting. My mother and my wife said they had asked them not to quarrel, but they would not listen.
When I heard them quarreling and their shrieks, I started to lose my temper.
Whenever I saw them fighting, I usually shouted and said, “Can't you stop your fighting? Where did you learn this way, fighting and shouting before elders.” In this way, I had admonished - in fact shouted - creating a frightening atmosphere and would say, “Why are you fighting? Tell me the reasons, one by one.” After listening to them, I used to tell them right from wrong and distinguish who was right and who was wrong, what was right and what was wrong, making a long speech of admonition with regard to understanding and concession.
But today, I recognized this was the opportunity to practice and thus only checked my mind, seeing whether my mind was attracted or not.
Hearing them shriek, I watched my mind:
“The mind arises that does not want to hear them.”
“Anger starts to come.”
“The mind that wants to scold them has come.”
“Mind arises but it is not attracted to anything.”
In this way of seeing and checking my mind, I came to understand them.
“Right. Children grow, quarrelling. They don't wrangle because they hate each other, and it may be natural for the young to quarrel about trivial things.” This thought occurred to me.
When I came to this thought, it became fun to see them fight and I even burst into laughter.
After a while, it became very quiet so I entered their room to see one studying at the desk, and the other on a flat table on the floor, not facing each other.
It was so funny and I said, “Jinwoo, why did you stop fighting so soon? It was so much fun for me to see you fighting.”
The older one retorted sharply, “Father, are you provoking me now?”
“Not at all, but it was because it was just so funny that I said so.”
The older daughter gritted her teeth and stared at me with burning eyes, and I quickly left giggling.

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Whether I am doing right or not….

Before I learned the “Won Buddhist Mind Study and Practice,” I handled my anger by first questioning the cause of the anger and by inquiring, “Where does the anger come from?” Then, sometimes I tried to reflect on my original mind, which is calm and pure. In hundreds of thousands of trying situations, spiritual cultivation was none other than the way to illuminate the origin of our buddhanature, which is zen, I thought.  I have endeavored to practice this way of spiritual cultivation to calm my mind, but my daily life did not change much: the irritated mind or anger somewhat lessened but I still led the life of anger and vexation. There was no joy in daily life and I could not find the fourfold grace about which I had so often heard. When I listened to a preacher or studied the scriptures or koans, I felt my heart and mind burst open to the truth and the universe was mine, but I still often become irritated at trivial things with my mind becoming confused and hurt. So I used to blame the level of my spirituality, holding the idea that the practice is really hard.
After I learned the “Won Buddhist Mind Study and Practice,” the style of my practice became quite different. When confronting the trying situation, I just see my mind arising, not making an effort to illuminate the original nature. I just check whether my mind is attracted or not. When it is attracted, I just recognize, ‘Oh! It's attracted.’ When it’s not, I just notice, ‘it’s not attracted.’ This seeing and checking method is really easy, and I have found out that all the mysteries of mind are present in there.
It just required being mindful to watch the angry or deviated mind, instead of trying to discover the original state of mind; it spontaneously and mysteriously led to restoring the calmness and wisdom of original nature.
In the past it was not easy to return to the original state. When I flew into a rage, it was hard to find the source of that mind that made me flare up. Therefore I first suppressed my feeling and tried to calm down afterwards. And when I had restored calmness, I tried to find out the origin, asking myself, “What is the basis of mind that got infuriated a few moments ago?” But now it became so easy that I was nearly on the verge of bursting into laughter. Actually I do burst into laughter now.
When I get mad, it is just okay to recognize my state of mind, “Oh! I am angry now,” and all I need to do is to check whether my mind is drawn or not by looking at the mind. So I feel that I hardly have to do anything. ‘What an easy technique of practice it is!’ I sometimes wonder whether this method is really right.