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松廣寺

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Songgwangsa

Senses:

  • (lit. Temple of the Vast Pines) Songgwangsa is one of the most important Seon 禪 monasteries in Korea. The temple is situated in the province of Jeolla-namdo 全羅南道, between the towns of Gwangju 光州 and Suncheon 順天. It was established in its form at the beginning of the 13th century by Jinul (知訥 1158–1210) as a place to establish his Concentration and Wisdom Community 定慧結社. It has continued to serve as a major center for the practice of Seon ever since. Songgwangsa is regarded as one of Koreaʼs so-called 'Three Treasures' temples, representing in this case saṃgha treasure (僧寶, Buddhist community). (The other two are Haeinsa 海印寺, which represents the Dharma-treasure, and Tongdosa 通度寺 which signifies the buddha-treasure. By 1197 a large number of practitioners had joined Jinulʼs Meditation and Wisdom Community. At the beginning of that year, Jinul found the remains of a temple called Gilsangsa on Mt. Songgwang. The temple was not large, but he wrote that "the site was outstanding and the land was fertile; the springs were sweet and the forests abundant. It was truly a place which would be appropriate for cultivating the mind." As Jinul was an experienced practitioner, he came to assume more and more the role of teacher in this community. Jinul moved the Meditation and Wisdom Community to this new site, and work began on the reconstruction and expansion of the existing temple. This work took nine years and was not completed until 1205. To mark the occasion, King Huijong (熙宗 1204–1211), who much admired Jinul, issued a proclamation calling for 120 days of celebration. The name of the mountain was renamed Mt. Jogye 曹溪, in honor of the temple. (It was several centuries later when the name was changed again to its present Songgwangsa). Background on the practices engaged in at this monastery have been reported on in Buswell (1992).

    Buswell, Robert E., Jr. 1992. The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. Princeton, NJ:  Princeton University Press.

    [O. B. Chun]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bulgyo sajeon 482a

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 543a

    Fo Guang Dictionary 3319

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)361ba

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 1997-09-15

    Updated: 2007-12-16