Book Description
The Sun over the Sea of Enlightenment is one of the influential works by Baek Yongseong 白龍城 (1864–1940), the prominent Buddhist monk who revived Seon Buddhism and led the New Buddhism movement. This work offers an organized explanation of essential points of Buddhist doctrine and Seon practice. Baek Yongseong, who studied at the Three-Jewel monasteries of Korea, Tongdo Monastery 通度寺, Haein Monastery 海印寺, Songgwang Monastery 松廣寺, took the lead in the movement to establish the Imje Buddhist 臨濟宗 in 1911. He is also well known for having signed the Korean Declaration of Independence during the March First Movement as one of the thirty-three cultural and religious leaders. In 1920s, Baek Yongseong established the new religion of Daegakgyo (Teaching of Great Enlightenment) and translated Buddhist scriptures into modern Korean to spread Buddhism to the common people. He also played a significant role in founding the Seon monastic community to preserve and promote traditional Seon practice. In 1926, Baek Yongseong requested the Japanese Colonial Government to prohibit monastic marriage and meat-eating. The Sun over the Sea of Enlightenment is generally regarded the foudational scripture of Daegakgyo. Baek Yongseong explains in the preface that this work is so titled because the world of enlightenment applies to everything infinitely and equally just as does sunlight. This work is composed of sixty sections in three volumes and at the end the gist of the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch is added as an appendix along with its Korean translation. The first volume, consisting of the first eighteen sections, explains fundamental Buddhist doctrines and concepts such as tathāgatagarbha, consciousness-only, mind-only, cause and effect. The second volume, consisting of the next thirty-six sections, deals with contemplation practice and Ganhwa Seon, and offers the way to enlightenment describing that every phenomenon originates from the mind. The third volume, comprised of the remaining sections, suggests the right way of cultivating the mind by explaining how to do the meditative practice. The base text for the translation of this work is the printed edition published at Daegakgyodang in 1930.
