Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism

Sŏn Master Pang Hanam: A Preliminary Consideration of His Thoughts According to the Five Regulations for the Saṅgha1

8 Sŏn Master Pang Hanam A Preliminary Consideration of His Thoughts According to the Five Regulations for the San . gha1 Patrick R. Uhlmann Pang Hanam (1876–1951) played a prominent role in the making of modern Korean Buddhism. One of Kyŏnghŏ’s main disciples, Hanam is widely perceived as an awakened Sŏn master and teacher who furthered the revival of Korean Sŏn practice.2 During the last two decades of his life, Hanam also was one of the representative spiritual leaders of Korean Buddhism, elected and reconfirmed as Supreme Patriarch of the Chogye Order and its antecedent institutions.3 His approach to Buddhist thought and practice undeniably influenced the fabric of modern Korean Buddhism. Despite this, however, Hanam remains to this day a relatively unknown figure. For decades, the concern to preserve his legacy and memory was limited to his immediate disciples.4 Until recently, Hanam likewise was a marginal figure in academia, mentioned only casually and cursorily in general works on Korean Buddhism.5 Thus, the prevailing perception of Hanam in Korean society remains mainly informed by popular accounts and novels.6 Facing the challenges of modernity, Hanam reasserted the vitality and pertinency of the Korean Sŏn tradition by putting it into practice.7 The Five Regulations for the San . gha (K. Sŭngga och’ik; henceforth Five Regulations) is Hanam’s guideline of practice. They include (1) Sŏn; (2) recitation of the Buddha’s name (K. yŏmbul); (3) scriptural studies (K. kan’gyŏng); (4) rituals (K. ŭisik); and (5) safeguarding the monastery (K. suho karam).8 The following discussion attempts to delineate Hanam’s approach to Buddhism according to the five topics of his Five Regulations, and thereby to describe his overall view of the Korean Buddhist tradition. 171 SP_PAR_Ch08_171-198.indd 171 SP_PAR_Ch08_171-198.indd 171 1/8/10 2:39:44 PM 1/8/10 2:39:44 PM 172 Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism Sŏn is listed as the first and most important item among the Five Regulations , the “fundamental concern” of practitioners for whom “in order to attain Buddhahood, it is necessary to pass through the gate of Sŏn.”9 Hanam’s own journey through “the gate of Sŏn” was a process characterized by three awakening experiences. His first two awakenings occurred in 1899, at the age of twenty-three, merely two years after he had become a monk. His first awakening had been triggered by reading a passage from Chinul’s Susimgyŏl (Secrets on Cultivating the Mind) and his second one occurred upon hearing Kyŏnghŏ quoting a passage from the Diamond Sūtra.10 Although Kyŏnghŏ had sanctioned his second awakening, Hanam realized a decade later that he had yet to achieve his final awakening.11 In Spring 1910, Hanam came across a scriptural passage he could not comprehend and which confused his mind.12 Hanam promptly withdrew to a remote mountain hermitage for intense practice. There, in the winter of the same year, he experienced his third, sudden, and final awakening while kindling a fire.13 The trajectory of Hanam’s awakening experiences is influenced by and similar to those of Chinul and Kyŏnghŏ. Hanam’s first awakening attests the persistent influence of Chinul’s writings since the early days of his monastic training.14 Chinul underwent three awakening experiences without the physical presence of a teacher. Hanam similarly had three awakening experiences triggered by the reading or hearing of Buddhist texts. While his final awakening was not catalyzed by a text, it was nevertheless the perplexity he experienced upon reading a text that motivated him to seek a final breakthrough. Although Hanam achieved his second awakening under Kyŏnghŏ, both his first and—perhaps even more significantly—his final awakening occurred without a teacher. Hanam was likewise profoundly influenced by Kyŏnghŏ, under whose guidance he studied for five years—a relatively short period if compared to that of Man’gong who attended Kyŏnghŏ for two decades. Together with Man’gong, Hanam is considered Kyŏnghŏ’s foremost disciple who promoted the Sŏn renaissance initiated by Kyŏnghŏ.15 It was Kyŏnghŏ’s acknowledgement of his second awakening that established Hanam’s reputation as an accomplished Sŏn practitioner and secured him continuous requests from several monasteries to supervise their Sŏn centers. Paradoxically, Hanam’s third awakening simultaneously seems to deemphasize and reinforce Kyŏnghŏ’s influence on him. On the one...