Chinul Puril Pojo Daesa
(1158-1210)

A Korean Buddhist writer and philosopher-reformer of the twelfth century. Chinul was an ordained monk in the Son or Ch'an tradition and held the rank of National Teacher (kuksa) during the period of the Ch'oe Military Rule (1170-1258). This same military had promoted and supported Son Buddhism over the teachings sects which had been supported by the monarchy it had displaced and the aristocracy and civil bureaucracy that it had oppressed. Chinul is most noted for his incorporatio n of Huayen Buddhism as explicated by Li T'ung-hsufan (635-730) into Son Buddhism and his attempt to unite all the sects of Korea (teaching and meditation) into a single sect (the Chogye Sect). Half a century before the royal monk Uich'on, with the backing of the throne of his father and three brothers, had decimated the ranks of the meditation sects by establishing a meditative T'ient'ai sect with the primary emphasis on T'ient'ai scholasticism and ritual. Chinul's response was to reverse that synthesis, by placing primary emphasis on instantaneous enlightenment achieved through meditation as the basis for understanding Buddhist doctrines.

Chinul's view of Buddhist sectarian unity rested on the notion that instantaneous enlightenment should be followed by study of the scriptures and the practice of rituals of the pure land cult. He based his understanding of enlightenment on the writings of the Northern Sung monk Dahui (1089-1163) and Dahui's understanding of how to use the living phrases (hwadu) or kongans of Ch'an teachers, Chinul's reform of Buddhism was important for the period because it defined Buddhism primarily as a practical tradition for the enlightenment of people, without reference to the state sponsored paradigm of Buddhism as an institution for obtaining blessings and warding off disasters. It was also important as a reform of meditative Buddhism, which previously had sponsored geomantic and prognostication services to the state. Finally, In line with this emphasis on meditation as the primary focus of Buddhism, Chinul also estabished lay meditation and scripture study societies, where ritualism, geomancy, prognostication, the seeking of fame and wealth, all mainstays of Koryo state Buddhism, were shown to be illusory and inferior to the realization of innate Buddhahood.