The Source of Dharma Transmissions in Korea

10. The Source of Dharma Transmissions in Korea

A. The Tradition of Transmission

Sŏn (禪), Ch'an (in Chinese), or Zen (in Japanese) is the heart and marrow of Buddhist dharma, which Sakyamuni Buddha and the Zen Masters of the past apprehended and handed down to the next generation. It's so mysterious, so inexplicable, and so abstruse that Sakyamuni Buddha, having pondered it for three to seven days after his enlightenment, said, "The very nature of dharma is so mysterious and so inexplicable that I think I'd rather enter nirvana than preach dharma discourse."

Zen is so abstruse that it cannot be explained in language. It contradicts itself the moment you utter it. One ancient Zen master called the homilies of Sakyamuni Buddha and the earlier Zen masters "Selling dog-meat while hanging the head of a sheep in front of your door."

The gist of Zen, which Sakyamuni Buddha apprehended, was handed down outside the Buddhist Scriptures. In other words, it was delivered by means of emphatic transmission, that is, from mind to mind, from heart to heart. This became an orthodox means of preventing the discontinuance of, and maintaining the continuity of, Buddhist dharma.

Mahakasayapa, succeeding Sakyamuni Buddha, Ananda succeeding Mahakasayapa, and Bodhi-Dharma succeeding 27 generations of predecessors, came to China to disseminate the Buddhist dharmas through Zen meditation. Zen in China prospered during the time of the sixth patriarch, Hui-neng, from whom Zen branched out into six orders, including the Lin-chi branch. Zen Buddhism in Korea belongs to the branch of Lin-chi. Zen Buddhism in Korea prospered during the Unified Silla Dynasty (677-935), but it had its ups and downs during the Koryŏ Dynasty (918-1392). Buddhism was persecuted during the Chosun Era(1392-1910) because succeeding generations of kings had been influenced by the Confucian-oriented ruling class.

B. Zen Master Kyonghŏh

Kyŏnghŏh Sŏngwu (鏡虛惺牛; 1849-1912) went into the mountains to become a monk at the age of nine, and at the request of many other monks, eventually began to preach at Tonghaksa. He was on his way to visit his mentor when it suddenly began to rain. He sought shelter, but was turned away from every house because the village people were dying of diphtheria.

He felt the presence of death all around him. He returned to Tonghak Temple and sent away the assemblage, closing it down to seek the dharma. He had been able to solve: most of the kongan, but he could not for the life of him solve "Although the pony matter has not arrived, the horse matter has already arrived." It was just like facing a mountain of silver or a wall of steel. He made up his mind to solve this kongan with a life or death effort. When sleep seized him, he drove it away, pricking his muscles with a screwdriver and holding his chin up with the tip of a knife.

One day in November, 1879, when he was 31 years old, after hearing a certain monk's song, which went, "Even if I were to become a cow, he would have no nostrils to puncture." he attained enlightenment. He sang of his enlightenment with a poem:

忽聞人語無鼻孔

頓覺三千是我家

六月鷰岩山下路

野人無事太平歌

Hearing someone's song

Saying men have no nostrils to puncture,

I realized the great heavenly world

Of three thousand is my house.

On the road below Mount Yŏnam

On a June summer day

A farmer who is idling away

Is singing a taepyŏng song.

(* taepyŏng song is a song that admires the virtues of the king and that appreciates the happiness of the people)

He clarified that his transmission lantern originated from Master Yongam, with Master Hyujŏng becoming his 12th-generation progenitor and Master Hwansŏng Chian becoming his 8th generation progenitor. Since that time, the Korean Zen Buddhist order bustled with the fresh wind of Zen study. Meditation halls were erected. Zen adepts and monks practicing asceticism freshened the desolate atmosphere of Korean Zen Buddhism.

Kyŏnghŏ was a devout Buddhist, but he was beyond and above dharmas; He guided lay people, but in his eyes there were no lay people. He rowed a boat of no bottom, frolicking in the ocean of life and death. He sang a lifeless melody with no vocal cords and let the deaf hear the priceless treasure of the world. In his later years, he was freewheeling and unrestrained with regard to social norms. He traveled incognito under the name of Nanju, hiding himself among the people of the Kapsan and Kanggye areas, not cutting his hair, wearing the clothes and headgear of a traditional Confucian scholar, while offering spontaneous Buddhist instructions. He entered nirvana at the age of 64 in 1912. Immediately before his nirvana, he made a circular movement and left a nirvana poem:

心月孤圓

光呑萬像

光境俱亡

復是何物

The moon of mind is round and alone;

Its light engulfs

All the images of the world.

Light and atmosphere are all empty;

How can there be this thing again?

In the summer of that year, his disciples Manggong and Hyewŏl, hearing of their mentor's departure, went to Kapsan, brought the corpse back and had it cremated on Mount Nandŏk.

C. Zen Master Hyewŏl

Hyewŏl Hyemyŏng (慧月慧明; 1862-1937) went into the mountains to become a monk at the age of 12, and he was illiterate when he met Zen Master Kyŏnghŏ. Kyŏnghŏ once said, "Four major organs of the human body, head, eyes, nose and ears, have originally been falsely formed; they cannot preach dharmas nor hear about it, and the air cannot preach dharma nor hear about it. But one clear thing before your eyes can lecture and hear about dharma. What is this solitary bright thing?" He continued, "Do you understand? What kind of thing hears and lectures dharma? Tell me what that thing is which is formless but bright."

After a strenuous three-year search for the answer, while making a straw-knotted shoe, Hyewŏl suddenly attained enlightenment at the sound of the hammer striking the bottom of the shoe. When he went to his mentor, Zen Master Kyŏnghŏ, Kyŏnghŏ questioned him, saying, "What is the bright thing before your eyes?"

"I do not know. Nor do the one thousand preceeding saints know it."

"What is Hyemyŏng?"

Hyewŏl stepped to the west and from there he stepped to the east and stayed there.

Kyŏnghŏ said, "Right. Right." He approved his enlightenment, ordained him as Hyewŏl, and transmitted the dharma lineage to him, singing:

付慧月慧明

了知一切法

自性無所有

如是解法性

卽見盧舍那

依世諦倒提唱

無文印靑山刻

一關以相塗糊

水虎中春下澣日

萬化門人鏡虛說

To Hyewŏl Hyemyong

Once you've known the nature of things

There is nothing in self-nature.

Once you've known the nature of dharma

Soon you'll see Virocana Buddha.

If you see things in the worldly way

You'll see things upside down.

If you carve a blue mountain

On a letterless seal

You trap it within the physical aspect

D. Zen Master Unbong

Unbong Sungsu(雲峰性粹 1889-1944) went into the mountains at the age of thirteen and made a complete study of the sutras, precepts, and treatises. Realizing the limitations to the road of dharma through scriptural study, he knocked on the door of Zen meditation. He inquired of many well-learned masters, traveling to the famous monasteries of the country. Ten years passed and he was still not able to focus his concentration on the kongan. In 1923, when he was 35 years old, he undertook a 100-day prayer, making the wish that he would solve the kongan at Unmunam of Paekyangsa. Due to his arduous practice, night and day, he was able to concentrate his mind on the hwadu. One month passed, and on the fifteenth of December in the lunar calendar, as he was going through the gate, his mind opened and all his doubts vanished. He praised the state of his enlightenment, singing:

出門驀然寒徹骨

豁然消却胸滯物

霜風月夜客散後

彩樓獨在空山家

When I walked out of the gate,

Chilly air penetrated my bones

And the thing stuffed in my lungs

Vanished.

On a frosty moonlit night,

After the guests have returned to their nests;

The tower of tanch'ŏng-coloring stands alone.

In the still mountain

Water runs loud and clear,

Breaking the stillness.

* Tanch'ŏng is a traditional color scheme for holly buildings, and the colors are composed of blue and red. The literal meaning of tanch'ŏng is blue and red.

In order to have his enlightenment approved Sŏnim Unbong paid a visit to Master Hyewŏl, who was known as the best Zen adept at that time. Unbong asked, "Where are the Buddhas of the past, present, and future resting in peace?" The Zen Master sat silent, unanswering. Sŏnim Unbong struck him with his fist and asked again, "Why is a live dragon submerged in dead water?"

"Then what will you do?"

Sŏnim Unbong showed a broom. Master Hyewŏl, pretending ignorance, said, "No. That's not it."

To this, Sŏnim Unbong responded,

"Sŏnim, the wild ducks have flown past the window a long while before this."

Then Master Hyewŏl guffawed with delight. "I can't pretend to disregard you." He was very satisfied. Zen Master Hyewŏl approved Sŏnim Unbong's enlightenment and gave him the transmission lantern.

付雲峰性粹

一切有爲法

本無眞實相

於相若無相

卽明爲見性

諸相本無相

無相亦無住

卽用如是理

此是見性人

On Behalf of Unbong Sungsu

All things of every form

Are formless in origin;

If you know

All things are formless

You see the nature of all things.

All things of every form

Are non-form in nature;

Non-forms reside in nothing.

If you know

How to use this truth,

You deserve the designation

Of an enlightened one.

Since that time he guided many pupils, and the studious atmosphere of Zen meditation became very pronounced. In 1929, when he was head of Naewŏnsa Monastery, he met Hyanggok, who became his dharma disciple.

E. Zen Master Hyanggok

Hyanggok Haerim (1912-1978) entered Naewŏnsa Monastery at the age of 16, and he listened to a lecture delivered by Zen Master Unbong. Although Unbong's lecture was totally incomprehensible to him, the words remained in his mind as a doubt. In this way, he arduously practiced asceticism day and night after his daily work. His enlightenment came relatively early, when he was an initiate who had not even had his head shaved. It came with the numbing strike of a gust of wind against the door of the monastery. His mind's eye opened and he knocked on the door of the head of the Meditation Hall. Master Unbong, figuring out what had happened, pointed to a wooden pillow in the room, exclaiming, "Shout out what you saw!" Hearing this, the initiate kicked the wooden pillow. "Say it again!" the Zen master urged.

"They have deceived me, the Buddhas and Zen Masters! Tens of millions of discourses have been nothing but the presentation of dreams in dreams!" Zen Master Unbong showed great delight and from then on Sŏnim Hyanggok attended him and received his kind tutorship. Before entering nirvana, Zen Master Unbong conferred a poem of transmission on him and gave him the dharma name of Hyanggok:

付香谷蕙林丈室

西來無文印

無傳亦無受

若離無傳受

烏兎不同行

On Behalf of Hyanggok Hyerim

The letterless seal

Coming from the West

Is neither to be transmitted

Nor inherited.

If you detach from not being transmitted nor inherited,

Crows are flying and

Rabbits are running!

In 1947, at Pongamsa Monastery in Munkyŏng, in the northern part of south Korea, Sŏnim Hyanggok organized a study group of serious Zen adepts and declared with determination, "Setting all established knowledge aside, I want all of us to make a fresh attempt to solve the profound stage of the hwadu, by which we will be able to rank with Buddhas and the preceeding Zen Masters." They set out on the road of hard study. One day, one of the students of Zen meditation asked of him: "If you kill a dead man to the utmost degree, you will see a man alive; If you save the life of a dead man to the utmost degree, you will see a man dead. (殺盡死人方見活人; 活盡死人方見死人) Stuck on this difficult kongan, he tried tackling it with all his might, deeply concentrating as if he were a dead man. One day as he was walking around the area, he saw his two hands shaking, and his mind opened wide and clear. He composed a poem describing the state of his enlightenment, singing:

忽見兩手全體活

三世佛祖眼中花

千經萬論是何物

從此佛祖總喪身

鳳岩一笑千古喜

曦陽數曲萬劫閑

來年更有一輪月

金風吹處鶴唳新

The whole world appears as it is

With the sight of two hands shaking.

Buddhas of the past, present, and future

Are nothing but illusory flowers.

What on earth is all this about--

Thousands of Scriptures and dharma discourses?

They lost their lives

Going after these illusions.

A hearty laugh at Pongamsa

Is the supreme delight of all ages.

The valleys of Mount Huiyang

Have beeb peaceful for millions of years.

Will there again be another year,

The full moon as round as

The wheel of a cart?

Where gold wind is blowing,

The cry of a crane is fresh again.

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