'Bunsinipjeok' Former Jogye Order Chief Administrator Ja Seung's 49th Day Memorial Ceremony Held... Monk Jinwoo "Repeatedly Recall the Lion's Roar"

Jinwoo Sunim "We Must Coldly Face the Past, Present, and Future of Jogye Order"

The final 49th-day memorial ceremony praying for the repose of the late Ja-seung, former Chief Executive of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, who self-immolated and passed away last November, was held on the 16th.

On the 16th, the 49th-day memorial service for former Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism Chief Executive Monk Ja Seung was held at Yongjusa Gwaneumjeon in Hwaseong-si, Gyeonggi Province, where Jinwoo, the current Chief Executive Monk of the Jogye Order, delivered a eulogy.
[Photo by Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism]

On this day, Yongjusa Temple, the head temple of the Jogye Order's 2nd district located in Hwaseong City, Gyeonggi Province, held the final 49th-day memorial service at the Yongjusa Gwaneumjeon Hall. The ceremony was attended by Buddhist figures including Jinwoo Sunim, Chief Executive of the Jogye Order, and Jukyung Sunim, Chair of the Central Buddhist Assembly, as well as political and social figures such as Joo Ho-young, chairman of the Jeonggakhoe Buddhist group in the National Assembly and member of the People Power Party, and Hwang Sang-moo, Senior Secretary for Civil Society at the Presidential Office.

The ceremony was led by Namjeon Sunim, head of the Jogye Order’s Propagation Department, and proceeded in the order of the striking of the wooden fish bell signaling the start of the memorial, three prostrations by the assembly, offering incense, and offering food.

In his eulogy, Jinwoo Sunim said, “Following Buddhist tradition, we have held memorial services weekly, and now we have reached the seventh and final one. Now, as we gather our hearts, we reflect one by one on the sincere intentions you wished to leave to the sangha and the lay community, and we try to gauge the path we must take going forward.”

He continued, “If at any time even the slightest desire for personal comfort arises within us, we must repeatedly recall the lion’s roar you taught us with your whole body.”

Furthermore, he added, “All members of the sangha and lay community must look at the past, present, and future of the Jogye Order with a clear and objective perspective, boldly discard what must be abandoned, seek and create desirable alternatives for the future, and devote all efforts to concretizing and implementing them.”

The final 49th-day memorial service was also held on the same day at Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where the late Ja-seung served as the head monk before his passing.

Ja-seung Sunim, who served as the 33rd and 34th Chief Executive of the Jogye Order, passed away around 6:50 p.m. on November 29 last year due to a fire that broke out in the monks’ quarters inside Chiljangsa Temple in Juksan-myeon, Anseong City, Gyeonggi Province.

The Jogye Order stated that based on writings left by the late Ja-seung during his lifetime and closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage showing him bringing a container presumed to hold a flammable substance into the monks’ quarters, his passing was due to “self-immolation (Soshin Gongyang) and self-cremation (Jwahwajang).”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.