1. National Master Doseon Guksa and his Legacy of Pungsu-jiri and Great Temples
a Dharma-Talk for the
International Seon Center
of Dongguk University, Seoul
September 20th, 2014
By Professor David A. Mason
Department of Public Service, Chung-Ang University, Seoul

2. Architect of the Goryeo Dynasty
Doseon
Guksa
Uniquely Double-Enlightened –
presaging the Unification of Korean Buddhism
Architect of the Goryeo Dynasty

3. Buddhist Master of Geomancy;
Doseon Guksa
Buddhist Master of Geomancy;
Creator of Korean Pungsu-jiri-seol [風水地理 Feng-Shui] and the concept of the Baekdu-daegan

4. Doseon Guksa
道詵國師
도선국사
Lived – 898

5. Doseon Guksa
also called
Yeon-gi Doseon
and
Yogong Seonsa

6. Early Life: Birth Family name was Kim
Born in Yeong-am-gun [Spirit-Rock County]
of Jeolla-namdo, western slopes of Wolchul-san.
There is rumor that he had descended from a secondary
son of Shilla's Great King Taejong Muyeol (r ).
His mother had a conception-dream
that she swallowed a beautiful pearl,
and for her pregnancy she chanted Buddhist scriptures while abstaining from meat, onions and garlic.

7. Early Life: Wolchul-san
He was a Buddhist prodigy from infancy onwards,
learning to chant basic Sutras soon after he could talk.
One local myth tells that he was accidentally
abandoned soon after birth,
but was protected by birds
at a gigantic boulder called Guksa-am
[National Master Rock],
behind Wolchul-san's Gukam-sa Hermitage.

8. Wolchul-san

9. Becoming a Monk at Wolchul-san
Doseon spent the latter part of his childhood
at Munsu-am [Bodhisattva of Wisdom Hermitage]
on the western slopes of Wolchul-san.
He first had his hair cut off
so as to officially become a novice-monk
at Wolnam-sa [Moon-South Temple]
on the southeast side of Wolchul-san.

11. Moving to Jiri-san Doseon left Yeongam in 841 at 15 years old,
and walked to the Exquisite Wisdom Mountains

12. Monk at Hwaeom-sa Doseon was accepted to study Hwaeom Buddhism
in Jiri-san's great Hwaeom-sa Temple.

13. First Enlightenment at Jiri-san Hwaeom-sa
It is said that he attained
“the ineffable wisdom of Munsu-bosal
and the mystic gate of Bohyeon-bosal,
penetrating the Great Meaning
(of the Hwaeom-gyeong Sutra)”
in only three years!
He was given the name “Yeon-gi”;
which was a great honor,
as that was the name of the missionary-founder
master-monk who first built Hwaeom-sa in 544.

15. Monk at Taean-sa By 20 he was already highly respected
as a very wise adept with unusual spiritual powers
of the sort usually attributed to Daoist masters,
and he began to study Seon [Zen]
under the great Master and Sect-Founder
Hyecheol Jeogin-seonsa (d. 861)
at Dongni-san Taean-sa Monastery
(one of the Gusan-Seonmun “Nine Mountains”),
just SW of Jiri-san.

16. Dongni-san Taean-sa He achieved full enlightenment there,
receiving the mubeob-beob [the Dharma without dharma]
transmission from Hyecheol in just 3 years,
and becoming his leading successor.

17. Studies in China He then travelled to Tang China
for further advanced studies around 850,
focusing on esoteric Daoist and Buddhist
astronomical, astrological, mathematical,
geomantic (Feng Shui), cosmological
and I Ching [Juyeok-gyeong] teachings.
{Some modern Koreans state or imply that they doubt that he ever
went to China at all, however, probably for national-pride reasons}.

18. Return to Korea: Establishing Dogap-sa
They say that when Doseon returned
from his studies in China
he reconstructed Wolchul-san Munsu-am
further up the valley,
renaming it Dogap-sa.
All that we know for sure about this is that Dogap-sa was large, famous
and prosperous during the Goryeo Dynasty, and its official history claims
Doseon as its Founder. It's a well-known temple today, within the
National Park -- it promotes Doseon as the leading factor of its legacy,
and now has a museum dedicated mostly to him.

19. 1653 - Dogapsa Doseon-sumi Biseok
Wolchul-san Dogap-sa
Dogapsa Doseon-sumi Biseok 

20. Return to Korea: observant wanderer
After establishing Dogap-sa he trekked
widely around the Korean Peninsula,
observing its geography and
searching for the source of its unique energies,
without basing himself at any particular temple.

21. Return to Jiri-san After his extensive travels,
he built a hut to rest and
meditate in on Nogo-dan
of western Jiri-san.

22. Jiri-san O-san Saseong-am Four Sages Hermitage

23. Doseon-gul Cave at O-san Saseong-am

24. Sanshin at Jiri-san Sanshin appeared to him at “Sand Chart Village”,
offering the deepest secrets of Pungsu-jiri
as (another) “method by which
great Bodhisattvas grant salvation to humankind”.
Perhaps a nationalistic claim that his Pungsu-jiri system/wisdom came
from a indigenous-Korean source, not from study of Chinese Feng-shui.

25. Pungsu-jiri 風水地理 Korean Geomancy Derived from Chinese Feng-Shui,
But different in some ways – Doseon adapted it to Korean geography and outlook
also called Pungsu-jiri-seol or just pungsu

26. For over 1100 years, practiced by all Korean traditions:
Pungsu-jiri
風水地理
Korean Geomancy
For over 1100 years, practiced by all Korean traditions:
Shamanists, Buddhists, Neo-Confucians, Daoists
tombs, buildings, towns, gardens, temples, etc.
Doseon brought it to the national scale!

27. Doseon’s system is often called "Bibo-pungsu-jiri"
[Bi-bo can be the Chinese characters for
"Hidden Treasure" or for "National Prosperity"],
Focused on "harmony with nature”

28. Geumo-san Doseon-gul Cave

29. The Baekdu-daegan “White-Head Great-Ridge”
conceptualized as the “Spine of Korea”
Mountain-System running down the entire Peninsula, with a mildly-sacred character
A key theory of Doseon’s Pungsu-jiri system

30. Baekdu-daegan Divider of Regions Magnificent Scenery
Origin of Spring-waters
Buddhist Temples
Neo-Confucian Shrines
Shamanic Shrines
Historical & Folk Sites
Passes thru 7 National Parks, 4 Local Parks

31. Baekdu-daegan Banya-sa

32. Settling at Baegun-san
Doseon finally settled down to teach disciples,
In what he called Baeghak-dong
(White Crane Village, paralleling Jiri-san's Azure Crane Village)
on the southern slopes of Baegun-san [White Clouds Mountain]
after determining that it had an ideal geomantic location,
safe from natural troubles.

33. Settled Master: Baegun-san Okryong-sa
He then founded, constructed and lived at
Okryong-sa [Jade-Dragon Temple]
in what is now Gwangyang City.
He taught there for 35 years,
with occasional travels around Korea,
assisting hundreds of adepts to achieve enlightenment.

34. Okryong-saji Site

35. Portrait of Doseon at Baegun-san Unam-sa

36. Great Master of Shilla He is said to have not spoken very much at all,
teaching the mubeob-beob by
museol-seol [the explanation without explanation],
able to spark realization with only a piercing gaze.
His reputation for wisdom and insight-powers
eventually got him proclaimed as
Shilla's leading Master-monk
by King Heon-gang,
invited to lecture at the palace in Gyeongju several times.

37. Builder of Temples: Seoul’s Samgak-san Doseon-sa

38. Samgak-san Doseon-sa

39. Samgak-san Doseon-sa

40. Builder of Temples: Seoul’s An-san Bongwon-sa

41. Posthumously the Advisor to Goryeo Taejo Wang Geon
Doseon was the most influential advisor to Wang Geon
(born 877), destined to become Goryeo's King Taejo
(r ) in founding the Goryeo Dynasty –
although they never met.
Tale often told is that in 875 he passed by a mansion under construction at Songak-san (near today's Gaeseong City) he recognized the grand auspiciousness of the site that would confer a fresh Mandate of Heaven, and predicted the birth to a son who would grow up to be a great man, to lead a new age for Korea. He gave the man a sealed document and told him to keep it safe and secret, only giving it to the boy when he attained maturity. This was done….

42. Architect of Goryeo Dynasty
The advice and ideas Doseon left behind him, especially
in the Doseon-bigi, were important in choosing the site
of the capital and other important cities and fortresses,
and in constructing many new grand Buddhist temples
at geomantically-auspicious sites around the nation.
It is recorded that when Taejo Wang Geon had defeated
the last of his rivals and re-unified Korea, he first built Gaetae-sa [Exalted Beginning Temple] in a long narrow
valley just south of highly-sacred Gyeryong-san,
where Doseon had recommended,
to express his gratitude towards the Buddhas
and Mountain-spirits, and seek their further beneficence.

43. Architect of Goryeo Dynasty
Taejo Wang Geon then selected his hometown Songak, which came to be named Gaegyeong (and is now Gaeseong City), located next to sacred Songak-san --- Doseon had advised that far in advance, and supposedly predicted that Samgak-san
(Mongmyeong-yang --> Hanyang--> Seoul)
would become the site of the capital of the next dynasty in 500 years, and then southern Gyeryong-san would be the host of the following dynasty 500 years yet later.
Just before the King's death he issued the Hunyo-shipjo, a famous list
of Ten Injunctions for his successors, the second of which states that Doseon's advice on temple-locations should always be followed, lest Korea's Earth-energies be wasted and diminished -- sites that he recommended should have temples built on them, and no temples
should be built on sites that he did not recommend.

44. Improvements to Hwaeom-sa

45. Passing on to Nirvana Doseon is recorded to have died in 898
while sitting in the lotus position in front of
his many disciples, at Baekun-san Okryong-sa.
but no budo was found there.
The remarkable budo behind
Jiri-san Yeongok-sa might be his,
and its architectural elements support this theory,
but its accompanying biseok is missing,
(probably destroyed) and so we can't be sure.

46. Budo stupa at Jiri-san Yeongok-sa

47. Biseok stele at Jiri-san Yeongok-sa

48. Passing on to Nirvana Some Koreans believe that
Doseon actually became a Shinseon
[Daoist-type "Immortal"]
upon achieving nirvana,
and continued to advise Taejo Wang Geon
and even Muhak Wangsa (founder of Seoul)
in spiritual form.

49. Legacy of Temples Around 70 monasteries both large and small
are claimed to have been founded
either under Doseon's supervision and direction,
or by the orders of Taejo Wang Geon
(following Doseon's recommendations),
and most of them still thrive.

50. Legacy of Temples
The 22 temples said to have been founded by Taejo Wang Geon
under Doseon's influence are all fairly minor today;
the most significant among them is probably Gyeryong-san Gaetae-sa.
Temples that are claimed to have been established
either by Doseon or Wang Geon at the places
that Doseon decided would be most auspicious
are called Bibo-sacheol.

51. Legacy of Temples
In addition, there are dozens of pre-existing temples that are thought to have been reconstructed, renovated or added-to (usually with a pagoda), including some of Korea's greatest, such as Jiri-san's Shilsang-sa & Yeongok-sa and Jogye-san Seonam-sa.
Also, a dozen important stone-carved Buddha statues and pagodas are said to have been carved or built by his own hands (including the famous gigantic Gwanse-eum-bosal relief at Doseon-sa), and there are a dozen caves and crags around Korea that claim to be sites where he practiced his mystical arts.
Pagodas that were built at the places where Doseon decided
would be most auspicious are called Bibo-satap.

52. More Information: www.san-shin.org
Baekdu-daegan San-wang Dae-shin
Kingly spirits of the White-head Main-line Mountains are great spirits!
The White-head Great-ridge Mountain-Kings are truly great spirits!