Won-Buddhism originated from the Great Enlightenment of Sotaesan, the Founding Master of Won-Buddhism in 1916 in Korea at the age of 26, after many years of searching for the truth.
The Founding Master, Sotaesan, foreseeing that the human spirit will become more weakened and enslaved by the rapidly developing material civilization and will bring great suffering to human beings, established a new religious order with the founding motto:
With this Great Opening of matter,
Let there be a Great Opening of spirit.
Therefore, Won-Buddhism aims to lead all sentient beings to a vast and immeasurable paradise by expanding spiritual power and conquering material power through faith in a religion based on truth and training in morality based on facts.
Won-Buddhism puts the buddhadharma on the core principle of its teaching. Because the Founding Master, Sotaesan, recognized the Buddha as truly the sage of sages and considered him as the original guide after his enlightenment.
Won-Buddhism, although embracing the Buddha’s teachings, revitalizes, expands, and modernizes traditional Buddhadharma in order to realize Sotaesan’s ideal:
‘Buddhadharma is daily life and daily life is Buddhadharma.’ The Founding Masters said a living religion is one where spiritual practice is not separate from real life.
From now on, however, as we construct a new world out of the old, the religion of this new world should be a living religion in which cultivating the Way and life itself are non-dual.
The Principal Book of Won-Buddhism
The Dharma of the Wholeness of Both Spirit and Flesh
As the goal of Won-Buddhism is to lead all sentient beings to be free from suffering and distress, Won-Buddhism embraces and accepts those of other faiths, and seeks to work together to create One World.