Kyŏnghŏ's awakening

my Great Great Great Grand Teacher Kyŏnghŏ Sŏnġu (1849–1912)

Kyŏnghŏ distinguished himself in the depth of his knowledge of Buddhist texts and was appointed as a sūtra–lecturer at the monastery at the age of 23 (1871). His fame as a sūtra–lecturer grew until a dramatic incident led him to fully reject the textual approach to Buddhism. The incident took place in 1879 while Kyŏnghŏ was attempting a trip to Seoul for the purpose of meeting his previous master Kyehŏ. On the way he entered a village looking for a cover to avoid a rainstorm only to find that the entire village was devastated by an epidemic. Staying a night under a tree outside the village in a rainstorm, facing the reality of death, Kyŏnghŏ realized that his knowledge on Buddhist sūtras could not help him in dealing with the issue of life and death. Thereupon, Kyŏnghŏ returned to his monastery, dismissed his students, and entered into a rigorous life of meditation practice. The huatou he worked with was Master Lingyun’s (771–853) “The donkey is not yet done and the horse has already arrived.” A breakthrough in his hwadu practice occurred as he heard the passage, “Even though I should become a cow, there will be no nostrils.” Upon this stimulation, Kyŏnghŏ attained enlightenment (November 15, 1897). In his ‘Odoga’ Song of enlightenment which was composed several months after his awakening, Kyŏnghŏ wrote:

upon hearing that there are no nostrils,
I realized that the entire world is my home;
on the path under the Yŏnam mountain in June,
people in the field enjoy their time,
singing a song of good harvest.