JUNGTO - VEN. POMNYUN SUNIM

Introduction of the Ven. Pomnyun Sunim

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A Boy Whose Dream Was to Be a Scientist

In the winter of 1969, a 10th grade student who was studying for his semester finals at the Bunhwangsa Temple in Gyeongju ran into the chief monk, Ven. Domun Sunim. Ven. Domun Sunim had taken note of the student’s exceptional intelligence and suggested several times that he become a monk. However, the bright student had been hesitant about it because had a dream of becoming a scientist. Ven. Domun sunim called out to the student. The student told him that he was busy, and Ven. Domun Sunim asked him,

“Where did you come from?”
“I came from school.”
“Where did you come from before that?”

“I came from home.”
Ven. Domun Sunim continued to ask questions until he asked,
“Where were you before you were inside your mother's womb?”
“I don’t know.”
“I see. Where are you going?”
“I am going to the library.”
“Where will you go after that?”
“I will go home.”
“Where will you go after you get home?”
Ven. Domun Sunim continued to ask questions until the student answered,
“I will die.”
“Where will you go after that?”
“I don’t know.”
That is when Ven. Domun Sunim roared,
“You stupid boy! How come someone who doesn’t even know where he came from and where his is going is so busy?”

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim reminisced about that time of his life. “I was first introduced to Buddhism in 9th grade when I joined the Buddhist Students Association. Then, I first became a monk in 10th grade. Until then, my dream was to become a scientist. Bunhwangsa Temple was right next to Gyeongju High School, my alma mater. I met Ven. Domun Sunim when I became the vice president of the Buddhist Students Association. I learned a new kind of Buddhism from him.

Ven. Domun Sunim was a disciple of Ven. Baek Yongsung Sunim. Included among the 33 leaders of the Korean independence movement against Japan in 1919 was Ven. Yongsung Sunim, representing Korean Buddhism. As soon as the Josun Dynasty lifted its ban on Buddhist monks entering Seoul, he founded a dharma center named “Daegak Temple” in Jongro, in the central part of Seoul. He was the first person to translate sutras written in Chinese into Korean. He was a true pioneer, and Ven. Domun Sunim was one of his disciples once removed.

Not surprisingly, Ven. Domun Sunim had strong nationalistic tendencies. The Buddhist view of the world and the universe that he taught was in accord with the scientific views that I pursued. I became infatuated with Buddhism under his guidance. After my exchange with Ven. Domnu Sunim in 10th grade, I went to live at Bunhwangsa Temple.”

Two years after he entered the temple, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim became interested in putting the Buddhist spirit into practice in society. Having grown up in the countryside, he had a strong affection for farming communities that were disintegrating in the industrialization age. He was educated at the Christian Academy in his early twenties. He focused on teaching Buddhism to adolescents, and in 1983, he became the dharma teacher of the Buddhist Association of College Students, becoming more actively involved in the nation’s democratic movement.

Become a Pine Tree in Front of a Stupa

In 1979, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim was arrested and taken to the Anti-communist Division of the Police Department, where he was beaten and tortured with water for several days on charges of funding the farmers union and other social movement groups. He was also arrested in 1983 for violating the Law on Assembly and Demonstration. Although he participated actively in the Buddhist reform movement and the democratic movement, he became greatly disappointed in the Korean Buddhist community and skeptical about his own Buddhist activities around the time of the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising. He reconsidered his old dream of becoming a scientist while staying at a Temple of the Jogye Order in New York for about six months in 1981. During that time, he met an old monk to whom he vented all his complaints and criticism about various problems with Korean Buddhism and asked him whether there was a way to fundamentally reform it. The old monk who had just listened for over two hours finally answered calmly.

“Young man, when a person sits down to meditate next to a rice paddy and makes his mind pure, that person is a monk and that place is a temple. That is Buddhism.”

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim was extremely shocked at these words. Years later, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim told Yunho Oh, a reporter, during an interview “They were only a few words, but I was shaken to the core. I had thought that those with shaved heads and in dharma robes were monks that the tile-roofed houses in the mountains were temples, and that such institutions were Buddhism. However, the monk I met in New York said that a person with a pure heart is a monk regardless of how he looks and that the place where such a person stays is a temple although it may be a rice paddy. It really made me reflect. I thought to myself, ‘What a fool I was to consider something that wasn’t even Buddhism as Buddhism and trying to reform it. I will stop criticizing something that is not really Buddhism and start practicing Buddhism according to the teachings of the Buddha, starting with myself.’ That is one of the reasons I established Jungto Society in 1988.” The old monk who enlightened Ven. Pomnyun Sunim is Ven. Seo Am Sunim. He was the eighth patriarch of the Jogye Order of Buddhism and the greatest Zen Master of Korea.

His teacher Domun Sunim also gave a similar teaching to Pomnyun Sunim who became disappointed in Korean Buddhism and denounced it. He said, “Become a pine tree in front of a stupa.” Pomnyun Sunim explained, “When the pine tree is young, it complains because the stupa shades it from the sun. However, when the tree grows tall, it shades the stupa. In modern language, it means that rather than criticizing the old model, we should create a new model that others can follow. Then, the problem of the old model automatically disappears. That is the reason I founded Jungto Society. Rather than attacking the existing Buddhist order, we need to build a new model that the existing Buddhism can follow.”

The Creation of Jungto Society, a Community of Practitioners who Cultivate Pure Land where Individuals are Happy, Society is Peaceful, and Nature is Beautiful

Based on the valuable lessons imparted by his teachers, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim sought to find a new direction for his practice, so in 1989, he went to Bongamsa Temple in Mungyeong to work as a menial. Ven. Seo-Am Sunim was an elder of Bongamsa Temple at that time. Under his tacit approval, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim practiced in silence doing various tasks of a menial, including chopping firewood, cleaning the toilets, and cutting weed. After a period of quiet reflection, far away from pending issues, he went back to his colleagues and had a profound discussion with them on the most pressing issues of the time. They narrowed down to four issues.

“First, from the dimension of the Earth, I thought that the environmental problem was the most serious. Second, for humanity, starvation, disease, illiteracy were the biggest issues. The third was peace that will resolve the conflict created due to differences in skin color, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, and class. The last task was to cultivate ourselves in order to heal the mind tormented with insecurity, anxiety, rage, and hatred. I concluded in the end that the only thing that could give hope to the disoriented people in modern times due to the loss of humanity is practice. Practice should not be limited to the exclusive realm of monks or religious people but should be disseminated among ordinary people as a general resource of human civilization. So I began the practice movement of practice through Jungto Society from 1988."

정토회

Jungto Society was established with the aim of creating “Jungto,” a pure land where individuals are happy, society is peaceful, and nature is beautiful. Jungto Society is largely composed of two types of sub-organizations. The first one is the popular organization that focuses on spreading the Buddha Dharma to the people. The second one is the social organizations which include Ecobuddha for the environmental movement, Join Together Society for the relief activities and welfare movement, Good Friends for the human rights movement, and the Peace Foundation, the Righteous People for Korean Unification, Ad Hoc Committee on Unification for the peace and unification movements.

Ven. Pomnyun Sunim's movements are powered by the efforts of the participating individuals to Change their lives first. The participants’ persistent effort to cultivate and purify themselves differentiates Jungto Society from other NGO organizations. Jungto practitioners seek refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha under the guidance of Pomnyun Sunim. Participating in the Ten-Thousand-Day Practice with the aim of changing themselves and the society they live in for the better by living the life of a Mahayana bodhisattva through practice, donation, and volunteer work.

Becomes Ven. Jigwangdang Pomnyun Sunim After Being Ordained a Bhikkhu in 1991 by the Ven.Domun Sunim

In 1991, Ven. Domun Sunim told Ven. Pomnyun Sunim, “Since you have been active outside the Buddhist community for twenty years, it’s time to come inside.” Ven. Pomnyun Sunim retorted defiantly, “How can there be an outside and an inside in the path to Truth.” Ven. Domun Sunim shouted back, “There is an inside because you insist on the outside!” Years later, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim recalled “Ven. Domun Sunim knew precisely that I was fixated on the outside.” That day, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim was ordained a bhikkhu (an ordained male monk), Dharma preacher, and Dharma teacher. Pomnyun also received Ven. Domun Sunim's alms bowl, walking stick, and robe. He received the Buddhist name “Jigwang (light of wisdom).” He became the disciple of the 70th generation protector and disseminator of the Buddha Dharma, Ven. Bulshim Domun Sunim, who is the disciple of the 69th Ven. Donghun Wangyu Sunim who in turn is the disciple of the 68th Ven. Yongsung Jinjong Sunim.

At the 1st Righteous People for Korean Unification Rally in 2015, Ven. Domun Sunim said, “Past Buddhist patriarchs became the roots that enabled a tree to grow, Ven. Yongsung Sunim made the seed sprout, I helped the trunk grow, and the tree trunk is Pomnyun Sunim. Branches will come out of the trunk. Who are you? (The audience replied “We are branches.”) From the branches will come out the stalks. They are the awakened people of Korea. Branches grow out of the trunk, stalks grow out of the branches, and from the stalks grow the leaves, flowers, and fruit. When Pomnyun Sunim first became a monk, I told him, 'The founder of Donghak, Jewoo Choi had a 100-year vision. You should look 1000 years ahead.' This is what connects Pomnyun Sunim and me.” He encouraged the members of the Righteous People for Korean Unification to continue their efforts with indomitable will in reforming Buddhism and reunifying the two Koreas under the guidance of Ven. Pomnyun Sunim.

 

Source: www.jungto.org/english/overview/#introduction

JUNGTO | Overview