Beopjeong Inspires in Life and Death

When he chose to "abandon time and space", the picture of his coffin-less cremation in open-air caught my attention. I was curious to find out more about Venerable Beopjeong or Beopjeong Sunim, the spiritual Buddhist leader who passed away on the 11th of March. I'd never heard of him before but I was struck by the choices he made. For instance, his dying wish was not to be placed in any coffin or shroud for his own funeral - no colourful streamers, no banners, no pagodas to be erected in his honour.

He died as simply as he lived - he chose, in his own words, to live " in a place with no signboard and no address". He lived out his philosophy of "non-possession" or detachment from material things by living alone in Buril-am, a hermitage behind Songgwang-sa. He cooked his own meals, did his own farming, chopped firewood and did his own laundry. The English translation is somewhat awkward but as he put it so eloquently, "The goal of humanity must not be to affluently possess, but to abundantly exist." The idea isn't a new one but how many preachers practise what they preach?

Even when a devotee who was impressed by his teachings donated a  former kiseang house cum high-class Korean restaurant, Daewongak to the priest, Beopjeong Sunim never stayed in the converted temple which was named Gilsang-sa in Seoul. Instead he chose to make the trip back to his simple hermitage in Gangwon-do no matter how late the hour was.

Here's another anecdote he recounted that I also find striking:

" Some hand has pulled down the wind chime that was hanging from the empty space in the eaves of my cabin. Since an animal would come and go without leaving a trace, this certainly had the mark of a human's work. Since this is a mountain valley far from the sea, instead of real fish, there is a fish hanging from the chime. Even so, someone must have wanted to take it down, boil it and eat. If not, it may have turned into a dragon and taken flight. With the chimes having been missing for a while, this caused me to think about this and that. Wanting a chime like the one I had before, I searched for another but now, without one, I just go on without. I'm enjoying the desolation in the absence of the sound of the chimes."

It's not easy to live with, let alone enjoy, the desolation from the absence of loved ones. Many of us know this from personal experience and I am reminded again of  the recent sad losses of lives in Korea with the naval tragedy and the death of Choi Jin-young. Still, I'm grateful for the example of Beopjeong Sunim.

sources:
http://world.kbs.co.kr/english/culturenlife/culturenlife_realfield_detail.htm?No=1989
http://www.koreanbuddhism.net/master/priest_view.asp?cat_seq=12&priest_seq=21&page=1
http://zendirtzendust.com/2010/03/19/venerable-beopjeong-passes/
http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2010/03/15/201003150044.asp
http://rki.kbs.co.kr/english/culturenlife/culturenlife_realfield_detail.htm?No=1989
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/include/print.asp?newsIdx=34825
http://www.jc.go.kr/genbrd/genbrd/view.do
http://www.asianwindchimes.com/wind-chimes/korean-wind-chimes/types-of-korean-wind-chimes.html