Third anniversary of Ven. Beopjeong's passing commemorated

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Seoul, South Korea -- The third year funeral ritual of Ven. Beopjeong was held on March 7th, 2013 at Kilsangsa monastery in Seoul, Korea.

Venerable Beopjeong’s secular name is Park Jae-cheol. He was born in Haenam in 1932. While he was in university in 1954, he became a Buddhist monk by becoming the leading disciple of revered priest Hyobong.

Beopjeong trained himself and worked hard on his Buddhist studies at Songgwang Temple in 1975. After publishing his essay collection, “Without Possession,” in 1976, he continued to print other essays and other translation works. That’s how his spiritual philosophy became well-known to the public.

We need to meditate on the meaning of “pure poverty.” It means to suppress one’s urge to possess more. People need to feel satisfied with what they have right now. Pure poverty means not to envy others or become jealous of what others have, but to be satisfied with what has been bestowed to them in reality. It’s not to have unnecessary things.

People need to understand underprivileged people. We can’t own everything. We are all integrated in some ways, depending on each other. It’s unreasonable for a human being to possess a lot while their neighbors suffer. Though the things they own are theirs, it’s like taking away something others should have possessed.

The “non-possession” philosophy was born at the Buril hermitage, a small temple built in the deep mountain behind Songgwangsa. The secluded home was built by Beopjeng at his own expense. It was here where the late monk put his teaching of “non-possession” into practice by preparing his own meal, doing his laundry, and cultivating the soil. (excerpted from the biography of Beopjeong sunim)

The abbot of Kilsangsa temple states that, “Ven. Beopjeong did not allow us to have a funeral ritual for him. But despite his wishes, as his students we decided to have a funeral ritual out of great respect to the formalities and morals.”

Currently, the students of Ven. Beopjeong are also working to reconstruct the house that their master grew up in in Haenam.

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The Passing of Daehaeng Kun Sunim

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Seoul, South Korea -- Hanmaum Seon Center announces the passing of their teacher, Venerable Daehaeng, on Monday, May 21, 2012. She was 85 years old. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, May 26th, with more details to follow as they become available.

<< Daehaeng Kun Sunim 1927 - 2012

Ordained as a Buddhist nun 63 years ago, Daehaeng Kun Sunim* was a rare teacher in Korea. She was a female seon(zen) master, a nun who also taught monks, and a teacher who helped revitalize Korean Buddhism by dramatically increasing the participation of young people and men.

She made laypeople a particular focus of her efforts, and broke out of traditional models of spiritual practice to teach in such a way that anyone could practice and awaken. At the same time, she was a major force for the advancement of Bhikkunis (nuns), heavily supporting traditional nuns’ colleges, as well as the modern Bhikkuni council of Korea.

Born in Seoul, Korea, in 1927, she awakened when she was around 7 years old, and spent the years afterwards learning to put her understanding into practice. She would wander the mountains of Korea, wearing a ragged set of clothes and eating only what was at hand. Years later, she said that she wasn’t pursuing some type of asceticism; rather she was just completely absorbed in returning everything to her fundamental Buddha essence, and seeing how that affected what she entrusted.

This greatly affected her teaching style later, for she could clearly see the great potential, energy, and wisdom inherent within each of us, but saw that people suffered because they don’t know about this, and instead were looking outside of themselves. Clearly seeing the great light we each have, she taught people to rely upon this inherent foundation, and refused to teach anything that distracted people from that.

Her deep compassion made her a legend in Korea long before she formally started teaching people. She was known for having the spiritual power to help people in all circumstances with every kind of problem. She compared compassion to freeing a fish from a drying puddle, putting a homeless family into a home, or providing the school fees that would allow a student to finish high school. And when she did things like this, and much more, few knew that she was behind it.

She supported many social welfare projects, founded centers in 11 countries around the world (15 centers in Korea, and 10 in other countries), and her teachings have been translated from Korean into English, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, French, and Vietnamese.

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*Kun Sunim is the Korean Buddhist title of respect for a senior nun or monk.

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