The Paeg’am chŏngt’o ch’an 栢庵浄土讃 is a collection of 100 poems praising Pure Land Buddhism written by Paeg’am Sŏngch’ong 栢庵性聡 (1631–1700) in his later years.
He decided to devote himself to Pure Land Buddhism as he agonized his own approaching death, and questioned how a practitioner should meet his death.
After his abundant experiences of three gates practice the approach of equal maintenance of quiescence and alertness, sudden faith and direct serving with the “capping phrase,” he asserted that Pure Land Buddhism is relatively easy. Therefore, monks who have not attained enlightenment yet should follow this method of practice at the end.
His method of practice mainly focused on mindfulness of Buddha. As he devoted himself to Pure Land Buddhism, he abandoned previous practice methods such as doctrine and meditation. Rather he fully concentrated to the practice of invocation of the name of a Buddha.
Paeg’am entirely embraced the practice of invocation of the name of a Buddha, of the type of Shandao 善導, and admired the stage of ten kinds of mindfulness (shinian 十念) and one-pointed concentration on undisturbed recitation of the Buddha’s name.
In Korea, he is one of the rare figures who advocates invocation of the name of a Buddha and the Pure Land of the West. He had great respect for Lushan Huiyuan 廬山慧遠 and the White Lotus Society (白蓮結社) that inspired him to form a society by himself.
He was an exceptional Pure Land Buddhism scholar of the Chosŏn era, a devotee of mindfulness of the Buddha, and a practitioner of invocation of the name of a Buddha. Therefore, the Paeg’am chŏngt’o ch’an gave an impetus to the revival of Pure Land Buddhism in the late Chosŏn era and became a foundation for Pure Land faith in present day Korea.
