Eminent Buddhist Women by Karma Lekshe Tsomo

Author:Karma Lekshe Tsomo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2014-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

Studying under Mansŏng Sunim at Taesŏng-am in Busan

Hyechun Sunim meditated for ten years under Mansŏng Sunim, the greatest bhikṣuṇī Sŏn master in the modern period. Hyechun Sunim related this story about her training with Mansŏng Sunim:

In 1950, I entered the temple. In 1951, I became a postulant and, in 1952, became ordained [as a śrāmaṇerika]. I felt that existence was false and vain, and had no interest in worldly life. I wanted only to discover the truth and to become a liberated being. When I was a laywoman, I had already received a hwadu and was practicing meditation. Upon ordination, I meditated for ten years in Taesŏng-am Hermitage under the direction of Mansŏng Sunim.10

When Mansŏng Sunim was practicing at Kyŏnsŏng Hermitage, laypeople frequently came to request various ceremonies. Each day, the nuns beat a wooden bell calling everyone to work together. One day, Mansŏng Sunim wanted to practice meditation so badly that she quietly took her cushion to go sit in the mountains. The two nuns in charge of work duties ran after her, shouting: “Sunim, Sunim, the bell calling us to work has been struck. You must go work!” Mansŏng Sunim was frustrated, because there was always something in the way of her meditating as much as she wanted. So she shouted back: “You two, there are places where people who prevent someone from meditating go. You will end up in hell!” Then she disappeared into the forest. As a result of her experience, when she later created a Sŏn training hall at Daesŏng-am Hermitage, she showed great concern for the meditators under her care. They could sit in meditation as much as they wanted. The wooden bell was not struck and she did much of the work by herself, every day, all day long. Inspired by Mansŏng Sunim, Hyechun Sunim also focused all her energy on intensive meditation practice: “Once I did a week of non-sleep practice all by myself. Mansŏng Sunim came by and told me, ‘Hyechun, in this lifetime you will awaken to your nature; continue to put as much effort into your practice as you are doing now.’ ”

Meditators such as Mansŏng Sunim and Hyechun Sunim pursued their practice with fervor, despite their monastic duties. Undaunted by the many obstacles they faced, each persevered in her practice and each emerged from that practice as a consummate inspiration for the Korean bhikṣuṇī practice tradition at large.

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