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Wellsprings
Jinul (Bojo Jinul)

Jinul (Bojo Jinul)

1158 CE–1210 CE · Songgwangsa (Mount Jogye)

1158–1210 CE

Jinul (1158–1210 CE), often honored as Bojo Jinul, is one of the most important figures in the history of Korean Buddhism and a key shaper of the Seon (Zen) tradition there. Ordained young in one of the 'nine mountain schools,' he founded a reform community devoted to disciplined practice and gave Korean Seon its enduring framework: 'sudden awakening followed by gradual cultivation,' and the joint cultivation of meditative concentration (samādhi) and wisdom (prajñā). He also integrated the koan-observing (huatou) method with doctrinal study, and his lineage stands behind the modern Jogye Order. His career is well documented.

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Songgwangsa (Mount Jogye)

What they did here

DOCUMENTED: founded the 'Samādhi and Prajñā Society' and established the monastery at Mount Jogye (Songgwangsa), which remains a central seat of Korean Seon practice.

About Songgwangsa (Mount Jogye)

Songgwangsa, on Mount Jogye near Suncheon in South Jeolla Province, South Korea, is one of the principal monasteries of Korean Sŏn (Zen) Buddhism. The Goryeo-era master Jinul rebuilt and reorganised it as the seat of his reform movement around 1190, and it became known as a 'sangha jewel' temple of the Jogye tradition.

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The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Jinul (Bojo Jinul)’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Luminaries & Explorers world

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.