The Korean Seon (Zen) master Venerable Pomnyun Sunim (법륜스님) wears many hats: Buddhist monk, teacher, author, environmentalist, and social activist, to name a few.* As a widely respected Dharma teacher and a tireless socially engaged activist in his native South Korea, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim has founded numerous Dharma-based organizations, initiatives, and projects that are active across the world. Among them, Jungto Society, a volunteer-based community founded on the Buddhist teachings and expressing equality, simple living, and sustainability, is dedicated to addressing modern social issues that lead to suffering, including environmental degradation, poverty, and conflict.
This column, shared by Jungto Society, presents a series of highlights from Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s writings, teachings, public talks, and regular live-streamed Dharma Q+A sessions, which are accessible across the globe.
The following teaching was given at Jungto Social and Cultural Center, the headquarters of Jungto Society in Seoul on 31 May 2025. On this occasion—which marked the end of Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s special 100-day practice period** and followed commemorations for the birth anniversary of Shakyamuni Buddha—the Dharma teaching was given by the revered senior Dharma master Ven. Bulsim Domun, the 91-year-old teacher of Ven. Pomnyun Sunim.
Concluding 100 Days of Dharma Talks
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s 100-Day Dharma Talk Festival has completed its long journey. Today, to commemorate the completion of the 100 days, a special Dharma talk was held with Venerable Bulsim Domun, the teacher of Ven. Pomnyun Sunim and senior advisor of Jungto Society.
After completing morning practice and meditation, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim waited to greet Ven. Bulsim Domun as he arrived. As the senior monk stepped out of the car at Jungto Social and Cultural Center, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim presented him with a bouquet of flowers: “Venerable Master, thank you for making time for us.”
Ven. Bulsim Domun had difficulty walking alone because of the senior monk’s limited mobility. Ven. Pomnyun Sunim and Ven. Yusu Sunim assisted the senior monk to the founder’s quarters inside the center.
After offering three prostrations in greeting, the senior monk joined his palms and recited the Three Refuges in Pali:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā sambuddhassa. Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Dhammaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi.
[I pay homage to and take refuge in the Buddha who has departed from defilements and attained enlightenment by himself. I take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.]
Ven. Bulsim Domun expressed gratitude for being invited to the Dharma talk.
“Starting on 16 February and ending on 1 June, I prayed and gave Dharma talks every day for 105 days,” Ven. Pomnyun Sunim told his teacher. “I gave my first 100-Day Dharma Talk in 1999, and after 25 years, I have now completed my second 100-Day Dharma Talk. About 7,000 people registered for the course and listened to the Dharma talks for 100 days, and approximately 30,000 people attended at least one Dharma talk.”
“You’ve worked so hard,” Ven. Bulsim Domun exclaimed. “Thank you for not abandoning this worthless old monk who is near death, and for giving me the opportunity to teach the Dharma. I feel so sorry. I devoted my entire life to realizing Master Yongseong’s legacy and didn’t provide even a little support to you. If I had known this would happen, I should have done only half the work on realizing the legacy and used the rest to support you.”
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim protested: “Not at all. Because you realized the legacy so well, Venerable Master, we were able to inherit and continue it.”
“Thank you for thinking of it that way,” Ven. Bulsim Domun responded.
A special Dharma talk
The special Dharma talk with Ven. Bulsim Domun began at 10:30 a.m. with the recitation of the Three Refuges and the Heart Sutra. About 400 Jungto practitioners filled the Dharma Hall.
When the senior monk entered, the audience rose to their feet in unison to welcome him with loud applause and cheers. The hall was filled with reverence and emotion.
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim: Today marks the completion of our 100 days of continuous practice, listening to Dharma talks and studying without missing a single day. To commemorate this day of completion, we have invited our teacher, Ven. Bulsim Domun, to share his concluding words with us.
Ven. Bulsim Domun has very deep connections with Master Yongseong, not only through the Dharma but also through worldly ties. Master Yongseong, the 68th Patriarch in the lineage of Shakyamuni Buddha’s Dharma transmission and the Sixth Patriarch of the Korean Buddhist Revival, was one of the 33 signatories of the March 1st Independence Declaration, representing the Buddhist community. He also worked behind the scenes to enable three different religions to unite their efforts for the March 1st Movement. The person who supported Master Yongseong economically and in many other ways was Ven. Bulsim Domun’s great-grandfather, the lay practitioner Sa-eun Im Dong-su. Im Dong-su and Master Yongseong were friends, Dharma companions, comrades, and teacher-student, with Im Dong-su also serving as a powerful supporter.
In this way, Master Yongseong not only led the Buddhist reform movement by translating and distributing scriptures and establishing propagation centers for the intellectualization, popularization, and practical application of Buddhism, but also supported the independence movement and spared no financial support in nurturing many independence activists. Following Dongheon Wangyu, who inherited Master Yongseong’s Dharma, Ven. Bulsim Domun has continued this lineage. As the great-grandson of Sa-eun Im Dong-su, Ven. Bulsim Domun has inherited all of Master Yongseong’s legacy. He has devoted his entire life to realizing Master Yongseong’s 10 legacies.
The main temples of each Jungto Society branch—such as Adomoraewon, Cheollyongsa, Bonglimsa, and Jangsu Jukrimjeongsa—are all sacred sites that Ven. Bulsim Domun has devoted his entire life to cultivating. Ven. Bulsim Domun also founded Daeseong Seokgasa, the largest temple in Lumbini, Nepal, where the Buddha was born. As we listen to today’s Dharma talk, I hope we can all make a commitment to continue carrying forward Master Yongseong’s legacy.
Last year, tensions between North and South Korea escalated to the point where war could have broken out at any moment. On the 160th anniversary of Master Yongseong’s birth, 10,000 Jungto practitioners gathered to pray earnestly for peace on the Korean Peninsula, national unity, and the sustainable development of our nation.*** Miraculously, at the end of last year, President Trump was elected in the United States, and the declaration of martial law failed in Korea, significantly reducing the risk of war. When a new government takes office in South Korea soon, we must begin taking vigorous steps toward peace on the Korean Peninsula once more. Through this process, I have felt an invisible force that humans cannot predict. Many people might wonder why Sunim, who always speaks rationally, is suddenly saying such things. However, within the realm of religion, we also experience such transcendent moments.
Ven. Bulsim Domun has pursued many endeavors throughout his life in accordance with Master Yongseong’s legacy. He also taught me when I was a high school student and guided me to where I am today. Please welcome Venerable Bulsim Domun with a big round of applause.
A diligent practitioner
The assembly of practitioners then requested a Dharma talk from the senior monk with three prostrations. The senior monk began his Dharma talk by reciting the first verse from the Avatamsaka section of the six divisions of the Tripitaka Koreana:
If anyone wishes to know all the buddhas of the three times [past, present, and future], they should observe the nature of the Dharma realm and realize that everything is created only by the mind.
Ven. Bulsim Domun then recited the first verse from the Agama section of the Hinayana scriptures:
Do no evil, practice all good, purify your own mind. This is the teaching of all buddhas.
Ven. Bulsim Domun continued to recite core verses from various major Buddhist scriptures, explaining each one. After reciting the verses, the senior monk shared the circumstances that had led to the day’s Dharma talk.
Ven. Bulsim Domun: Since this is a commemorative ceremony for Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s completion of the 100-Day Dharma Talk, naturally Ven. Pomnyun Sunim should be giving the Dharma talk. But he hasn’t abandoned this old, sick, and useless monk, and he asked me to say a few words, so I’ve come up to this Dharma seat. Ven. Pomnyun Sunim is a genius, a diligent practitioner, and a good friend with integrity. You are truly blessed to have met such an excellent person. I never properly taught Ven. Pomnyun Sunim. When I offered to send him to Dongguk University’s Buddhist Studies Department, he said, “I’ve already graduated from Bulsim Domun University, so I don’t need to go to another university,” and he didn’t go. Yet, ironically, university graduates followed him around carrying his bag to learn from him. How blessed you are to be learning Buddhism from such a Ven. Pomnyun Sunim!
Establishing the Provisional Government of Korea in Shanghai
After loud applause from the audience, the senior monk related the historical basis for how a Provisional Government could be established so quickly in Shanghai in April, immediately following after the March 1st Movement [a nationwide protest movement against Japanese colonial rule] in 1919.
Ven. Bulsim Domun: At the end of the Joseon dynasty, Korea’s wealthiest man, Unbong Park Hyeong-jip, who owned 30,000 seok [a traditional unit for rice] of rice fields, bequeathed 10,000 seok to his only son Park Bong-ju, 10,000 seok to his only daughter Seonjeong-sim Park Jeong, and 10,000 seok to his son-in-law Sa-eun Im Dong-su, a military officer. Patriot Park Jong-am, the grandson of the 30,000-seok wealthy Park Hyeong-jip and the third son of the 10,000-seok Park Bong-ju, fought for independence along with his nephew, patriot Park Sun-hyeong, and patriot Cheolsaeng Im Cheol-ho, the great-grandson of the 30,000-seok Park Hyeong-jip.
They all joined forces to provide the funds needed for establishing the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai. The only daughter of Korea’s wealthiest man at the end of the Joseon Dynasty, the 30,000-seok Park Hyeong-jip, Seonjeong-sim Park Jeong, and her husband Sa-eun Im Dong-su, along with Master Yongseong, raised the funds to establish the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea. Master Yongseong donated this large sum as operating funds when the Provisional Government was established in Shanghai. This fact became known to the world when President Lee Gang-hun of the Liberation Association returned to Korea after liberation in 1945 and revealed it.
So I urge you all to follow in the footsteps of these ancestors and work hard for peace on the Korean Peninsula and world peace. With that, I’ll conclude today’s Dharma assembly. Are there any questions?
When there were no questions, the senior monk struck his staff three times and came down from the Dharma seat with the help of his disciples. As the Dharma talk concluded, the practitioners recited the Four Great Vows.
* Buddhist Monk Ven. Pomnyun Sunim Awarded the 37th Niwano Peace Prize (BDG)
** 100 Days of Dharma: The Bodhisattva Path of Ven. Pomnyun Sunim (BDG)
See more
Pomnyun
Jungto Society
JTS Korea
JTS America
International Network of Engaged Buddhists
Related features from BDG
Anyone Can Attain Enlightenment
We Are Already Buddhas
Eliminating Suffering Through Buddhist Practice
The Buddha’s Path to Peace
Enabling Everyone to Live Happily
Finding Good News in Difficult Situations
Raising Healthy Children
If You Know the Truth as It Is, There Is No Reason to Suffer
Exercise Your Right to Lead a Happy Life
Related videos from BDG
Dharma Q+A with Ven. Pomnyun Sunim
Wisdom Notes from Ven. Pomnyun Sunim
Thank you for the excellent article. I truly appreciate your work.