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PersonAD 617 – AD 686

Wonhyo

Silla monk who taught the One Mind and hwajaeng (reconciliation of doctrines) and spread Pure Land devotion to ordinary people; author of commentaries on the Awakening of Faith and the Vajrasamadhi Sutra

He set out for Tang with Uisang in 661, but is said to have turned back after realising that the water he drank in a tomb at night had been rainwater in a skull, awakening to the insight that "all things are made by the mind." Singing his Muae-ga as he wandered the villages, he turned Buddhism from a religion of aristocrats into one for ordinary people. With Princess Yoseok he fathered Seol Chong. Under King Sukjong of Goryeo he was posthumously honoured as National Preceptor Hwajaeng.

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1 related event

  1. 1
    AD 661 – AD 686Wonhyo Brings Buddhism to the Peopleleader

    Wonhyo taught the One Mind and the reconciliation of doctrines, and spread Pure Land devotion — salvation by chanting "Namu Amitabul" — among ordinary people.