Gyeongheo Seongu
Gyeongheo Seongu
1846 – 1912
Gyeongheo Seongu (鏡虛惺牛, 1846–1912) single-handedly revived Korean Seon practice at the close of the Joseon dynasty, when centuries of state suppression had reduced disciplined meditation to a remembered form[1]. A precocious scholar-monk, he had a breakthrough awakening in 1879 at Cheonjang-sa while reading about illness and death, and spent the rest of his life travelling between monasteries reinstating the seonbang (meditation hall) and the biannual three-month retreat schedule (kyolche)[1]. His principal dharma heirs — Mangong, Hyobong, Hanam, and others — carried the revived tradition into the twentieth century and made the modern Jogye Order, Seongcheol's orthodoxy, and Seung Sahn's international mission all possible[1].
Names
Disciples of Gyeongheo Seongu
Teachers and lineage of Gyeongheo Seongu
Teacher / root master:
Teachings
- proverbNo Need to Leave the World
When the world is on fire, monks discuss whether to leave it. While they discuss, the world goes on burning. Sit down where you are; the fire becomes light, and the light shows the road.
- proverbReviving What Never Died
Some say I revived the Korean Sŏn. The Sŏn was never dead; only the people sleeping in front of it were. To revive them was simpler than they thought, and harder than I thought.
- proverbCholera and the Mountain
When the cholera came, I went into the village instead of the mountain. The mountain has been there a thousand years; it can wait. The dying cannot.
I have eaten at the table of the king and at the table of the leper. The mouth that opened was the same mouth, and what entered it became the same body of the Way.
- proverbSermon of the Meadow
The meadow has not asked any of these wildflowers to bloom. The wildflowers have not asked the meadow to hold them. So a teacher and a student are when nothing is asked.
Other masters in Seon
Master Record Sources
- biographyThe Zen Monastic Experience — Robert E. Buswell