Hyobong Yeonghak

Hyobong Yeonghak (1888–1966) came to Seon practice through one of the most dramatic conversion stories in Korean Buddhist history. Before becoming a monk, he served as a judge under the Japanese colonial court system. Tormented by having sentenced a Korean independence activist to death, he experienced a crisis of conscience so severe that he abandoned his legal career, his family, and all worldly attachments to enter monastic life. He studied under several teachers and undertook grueling solitary retreats in the mountains, eventually attaining deep awakening through hwadu practice.

Hyobong became one of the most respected Seon masters of the twentieth century, known for the penetrating quality of his dharma interviews and his uncompromising insistence on genuine realization over mere intellectual understanding. He served as Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order and played an important role in the postwar purification movement that sought to restore celibate monastic discipline after the compromises of the Japanese colonial period. His most significant legacy was the training of Seongcheol, who would become the most influential Korean Seon master of the late twentieth century. Hyobong's life — from secular judge dispensing death sentences to awakened master dispensing the Dharma — embodies the transformative power of genuine repentance and practice.