What Did the New Supreme Patriarch’s First Dharma Address Reveal?
On March 30, 2022, Seongpa was installed as the fifteenth Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order. His first address left me embarrassed. Its themes were culture, harmony, beginner’s mind, and an instruction to maintain discipline. The motto—keep pure precepts, remain harmonious, and benefit beings—sounds unobjectionable. The problem is how far the actual address stood from that ideal.
Seongpa said Buddhism had played a central role in architecture, sculpture, art, and everyday culture, so Buddhists should advance national culture. He said spring had arrived while human hearts failed to bloom, urged harmony, and called people back to their initial aspiration. These are pleasant words. But what should a Buddhist patriarch have said in that historical moment?
The First Work of Compassion Is Listening and Seeing
A monk practices toward awakening, transmits the Dharma, and acts to benefit beings. Great compassion begins by listening and seeing. Avalokiteśvara symbolizes hearing cries of suffering. Kṣitigarbha vows not to become a buddha until beings in hell are rescued. Compassion therefore directs eyes and ears toward those in hell, not merely toward comfortable celebrations.
One cannot help people without interest in their lives. One must hear the drowning person’s cry and see the person desperately seeking aid. Attention precedes every meaningful act of compassion.
Calling for Cultural Promotion in the Middle of a Pandemic
In April 2022 COVID was spreading widely. People died, lost livelihoods, endured isolation, and reached despair. In poorer countries vaccines and oxygen were scarce, and hell unfolded before the world’s eyes. At that moment the new patriarch’s central message was that Buddhists should promote national culture because Buddhism had contributed to construction and art.
Was this a teaching that heard the world? The historical Buddha remained close to ordinary people. He walked from house to house for alms, went hungry when no food was offered, and heard the circumstances of those who fed him. Drought, flood, crop failure, and war were not abstractions but realities visible in empty bowls and human faces.
The Distance Between an Alms-Seeking Buddha and a Mountain Patriarch
A modern patriarch should see what the pandemic did to working people, why young people abandoned marriage, why demographic collapse arrived, how technological change frightened workers, and why women, men, and youth suffered differently. He should see that poorer countries lacked even basic medical protection.
Because hell was absent from his vision, he delivered a cultural address. Jogye monks recite the names of Avalokiteśvara and Kṣitigarbha, yet the voices of suffering do not reach their ears. When media and politics already favor the powerful, Buddhism must not devote its own attention to heritage and institutional prestige.
Before Preaching Harmony, See the Flowers the Order Prevented
Seongpa asked why hearts failed to bloom and said Buddhists should bring smiles through harmony. But if the Jogye leadership itself blocks those flowers, it must first examine the institution. Allegations surrounding former president Jaseung, including gambling debts, the Gamrosu business, and violence against someone seeking to expose wrongdoing, were never honestly resolved. Legal outcomes do not exhaust moral truth, while powerful monks continue to be packaged as eminent masters.
The House of Sharing and Wonhaeng
Then-president Wonhaeng was connected to controversy over the House of Sharing. Reports alleged that 8.8 billion won donated for surviving victims of Japanese military sexual slavery was not properly spent on the women themselves. Donors gave so the survivors could receive food, medicine, and care while alive, not so funds could serve institutional plans after their deaths.
Whistleblowing employees reportedly faced lawsuits, pressure, and attempts to remove them. The elderly women were said to have signed statements accepting a small monthly amount while relinquishing involvement with donations. Yet leadership remained in place. Calling for smiles and harmony becomes empty while money and power are left untouched.
Attacking Whistleblowers and Silencing Media
When investigative programs and insiders revealed problems, the order should have established facts, repented, and corrected them. Instead, reporters and whistleblowers were attacked while responsible figures retained office and influence. Critical Buddhist media faced discipline and pressure. Buddhist Focus eventually closed amid continued harassment, leaving media described as trumpets for power.
An institution cannot expect self-correction after blocking the channels that expose error. The order that should hear suffering silenced informants, and the order that should see the world covered the eyes of critical media.
Beginner’s Mind Cannot Erase the Past
Seongpa called for discarding accumulated knowledge and returning to initial aspiration. But no organization becomes new without acknowledging past wrongs and removing corruption. The description of the world as dreamlike cannot erase yesterday’s violence and dishonesty. Human beings remember both good and evil conduct.
Jogye wrongdoing will no longer disappear easily. Videos preserve investigative broadcasts and testimony for repeated viewing. Media suppression cannot erase the record. Beginner’s mind must mean admitting error, accepting responsibility, and then beginning again—not deleting memory.
Look at Human Suffering, Not Only Culture
People die because they cannot buy oxygen, while many desperate Koreans never appear in the news. This is not the time to speak chiefly of cultural promotion. Buddhists should recognize human interdependence, seek unheard suffering, and help those people.
Reform of the Jogye Order is necessary. If the patriarch cannot see the world, monks lose direction and make people’s lives harder rather than helping smiles bloom. Seongpa should recover the spirit of the age and see reality as it is. A patriarchal address must say who is in hell, what the order has done wrong, and how it will take responsibility—not hide behind safe slogans of culture, harmony, and beginner’s mind.
This article was edited by AI solely from the supplied video captions and description. No external sources were used.