Pojo Chinul

Pojo Chinul.

Pojo Chinul (C. Puzhao Zhine; J. Fushō Chitotsu 普照知訥) (1158–1210) was an important master of the Korean Seon tradition. According to the Princeton Dictionary, he was "one of the two most influential monks in the history of Korean Buddhism (along with Wonhyo)." He is credited as the founder of the Chogye school of Korean Seon.

Chinul was born in 1158 to a gentry family in the Koryŏ capital of Kaesŏng. When seven years old, he was ordained into the Sagul-san lineage of the Nine Mountains school of early Sŏn and soon distinguished himself in both meditation and scriptural study. Chinul became dissatisfied with the quality of practice within the degenerate Sŏn schools of his time, however, and increasingly turned for guidance to the sources that he considered to contain authentic information on Buddhist meditative culture: scriptures and commentaries and the records of early Sŏn and Chan masters. Prompted by his vision of the basic unity of Sŏn and the scriptural teachings (kyo; Chin., jiao), Chinul developed an approach to Buddhism that combined the theoretical aids of Hwaŏm (C. Huayan) doctrine, especially as formulated in works by the Huayan commentator Li Tongxuan (635–730), with the practical concerns of Chan meditation, as typified in the instructions of Dahui Zonggao (1089–1163). This unique synthesis is rightly regarded as one of the most distinctively Korean contributions to Buddhist thought and illustrates the ecumenical penchant that is so characteristic of the Korean church.

Further reading

• Jinul, Wikipedia