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To reform contemporary Korean Buddhism T’oeong S?ngch’?l proclaimed a return to the Buddha S?kyamuni’s teaching, promoted the sudden/sudden doctrine of awakening to the Middle Path through practice of Keyword Meditation (kanhwas?n), and adamantly condemned Pojo Chinul’s (1158-1210) sudden/gradual approach, thus giving rise to the ongoing Korean sudden/gradual debate. Despite S?ngch’?l’s reputation as a world renouncer who steered clear of politics, this essay examines the socio-political underpinnings of his reformation and defines six points of structural resonance between it and the way of the authoritarian state under which it was carried out. Those six points form a constellation suggesting that the famous master’s hermeneutics of Buddhism, i.e, his overall interpretation of the tradition in the second half of the twentieth century, reflect the national as well as the geo-strategic tensions resulting from the division of the Korean peninsula and the Cold War until 1988. Therefore, at the dawn of the 25th anniversary of the ROK’s democratization, when envisaging the future of the Korean peninsula, Korean Buddhism and the worldwide propagation of Keyword Meditation, it is imperative to keep in mind the socio-political context that sha ped S?ngch’?l’s approach and continues to inform his legacy.
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