Wŏnhyo

Wŏnhyo (born 617, Korea—died 686, Korea) was a Buddhist priest who is considered the greatest of the ancient Korean religious teachers.

A renowned theoretician, Wŏnhyo was the first to systematize Korean Buddhism, bringing the various Buddhist doctrines into a unity that was sensible to both the philosophers and the common people. The comprehensibility of his doctrines is seen in the five commandments he formulated for the people to follow in order to achieve enlightenment (nirvana). Those commandments are noteworthy not only for the systematic way in which they show how to achieve the final land of true peace, unity, and freedom but also for their common-sense approach to the everyday problems of achieving spiritual harmony.

Wŏnhyo’s realization of the need to practice a life that maintains harmony between the ideal and the real is illustrated by an anecdote that tells how he, as a priest, assumed to be practicing asceticism, one night slept with a beautiful royal princess. Rather than chastise himself the next morning, he merely admitted that true spirituality was obtained not by pursuing unreal ends but by admitting the limitations of one’s person. He is said to have led the people in dancing and singing in the streets to show how to lead this harmonized life of the present and the eternal.

Wŏnhyo’s works had profound influence on Chinese and Japanese as well as on Korean Buddhists. Most famous among them are “A Commentary on the Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana,” “A Commentary on the Avatamsaka-sutra,” “A Study on the Diamond Samadhi Sutra,” and “The Meaning of Two Desires.”