34 Facts About Seongcheol

Seongcheol was a key figure in modern Korean Buddhism, being responsible for significant changes to it from the 1950s to 1990s.

Seongcheol was widely recognized in Korea as having been a living Buddha, due to his extremely ascetic lifestyle, the duration and manner of his meditation training, his central role in reforming Korean Buddhism in the post-World War II era, and the quality of his oral and written teachings.

Seongcheol was rumored to have been an exceptionally bright child who read constantly, having learned to read at the age of three, and being proficient enough to read such Chinese classics as Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Journey to the West by age ten.

Seongcheol felt as if "a bright light had suddenly been lit in complete darkness," and that he had finally found the way to the ultimate truth.

Under the recommendations of renowned Seon Masters Gim Beomnin and Choe Beomsul, the young Seongcheol left for Haeinsa in the winter of 1936.

In March 1937, Yi Yeongju received his dharma name of Seongcheol, forsook all relations with the outside world, and became a monk, writing this poem:.

Seongcheol was known to have practiced this for eight years after his enlightenment.

Seongcheol wanted to catch Seongcheol dozing off to sleep, so spied on him secretly throughout one night.

Seongcheol was known to be completely indifferent to the outside world, focused intently only on meditation and guiding fellow monks to enlightenment.

Seongcheol's indifference was so thorough that he even refused to see his mother when she visited him at Mahayunsa in Mount Kumgang.

Seongcheol insisted on giving away all monastic assets to the public and reverting to the original Buddhist way of wandering and begging for alms while investing all energy into meditation.

Seongcheol contended this was the only surefire way for true reforms to take place, warning that otherwise, full-scale conflict could ensue between bikkhus and married monks fighting over temples.

In 1955, Seongcheol was appointed as the patriarch of Haeinsa, but disappointed by the direction that the reformation was taking, Seongcheol declined, removing himself from the forefront and moved to a hermitage near Pagyesa in the Palgong mountains near Daegu to deepen the meditative and enlightened stage that he had attained.

The hermitage was named Seongjeonam and it was here that Seongcheol began to build the scholarly foundations that would later support his spiritual teachings.

Seongcheol surrounded the hermitage with barbed wire so as to keep outsiders out and himself within its boundaries.

Seongcheol finally opened the doors of Seong Juhn Am hermitage in 1965.

In 1967, with the insisting of Jawoon, Seongcheol became the patriarch of Haeinsa temple.

Ushering in a revival of the Seon tradition of intense meditation and strict monastic lifestyle, Seongcheol spearheaded the reformation of modern Korean Buddhism from the rubbles of Japanese colonialism into an epicenter of meditation training.

Around this time, many people came to pay their respects to him, and to further guide the pilgrims in their practice, Seongcheol first started using his famous 3000 prostrations.

On November 4,1993, Seongcheol died in Haeinsa Toesoeldang, the same room in which he had first become ordained as a monk.

Seongcheol's death was followed by the largest funeral ever seen in Korean history for a monk, with over 100,000 people attending.

Seongcheol's cremation took over thirty hours and his sarira numbered over a hundred.

Whereas Jinul initially asserted that with enlightenment comes the need to further one's practice by gradually destroying the karmic vestiges attained through millions of rebirths, Huineng and Seongcheol maintained that with perfect enlightenment, all karmic remnants disappear and one becomes a Buddha immediately.

Seongcheol expounded on the true definition of the Middle Way, stating that it was not limited to avoiding the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification as many understood, but that it was an explanation of the state of nirvana where all dualities fuse and cease to exist as separate entities, where good and bad, self and non-self become meaningless.

Seongcheol compared this to the fusion of space and time into spacetime, and formed the analogy of ice and water.

Seongcheol strongly advocated the gong'an meditation technique, asserting that it was the fastest and safest way to enlightenment.

Seongcheol set a clear benchmark that the practitioner could apply to gauge his level of practice.

Seongcheol therefore reiterated that every enlightened person from the Buddha and on had asserted the same definition of what enlightenment is.

Seongcheol was very critical of the Japanese style of Zen meditation.

Therefore, Seongcheol repeatedly made clear that the study of many gong'ans was antithetical to true meditation.

Seongcheol stated that attaining perfect enlightenment was equal to becoming a Buddha, and this was equal to definitively solving the gong'an, remarking that this was not his unique teaching, but that of numerous masters including Huineng, Ma Tzu, all the way down to current masters.

Seongcheol played a key role in revitalizing Korean Buddhism which had been in deep disarray from the Japanese occupation.

Seongcheol was one of the leaders in the reformation, bringing back celibacy, strict practice, monasticism, and mendicancy back to Korean Buddhism.

Seongcheol contributed significantly to bringing back Huineng's 'sudden enlightenment, sudden cultivation,' and clarified the notions of gong'an practice, meditation, monasticism, and enlightenment.