Yangil Sunim’s Memorial Announcement
All of a sudden, it came to my mind that everything is but a dream.
All the heroes and great people of the timeless ages are in their graves.
What is the use of prosperity and honor in the face of death?
Alas! My life is but a tiny dewdrop at the end of a blade of grass,
A feeble candlelight before the wind.
– from Gyeongheo’s “Song of Enlightenment
The 49 Day Memorial for Hwasun Yangil Sunim will be held at the Awakened Meditation Centre (Dae Gak Sa), 134 Sixth Street, Etobicoke, on Wednesday November 5 at 11:00 a.m. It will be conducted by Jigwang Sunim, the Abbot of Won Gak Sa and Youngdo Sunim, the new Abbot of Dae Gak Sa. The service will be conducted primarily in Korean. All are welcome to attend the ceremony to provide their respects to Yangil Sumin.
Yangil Sumim passed away on September 18, 2025, at the age of 89. He always conveyed the universal truth of Zen by letting the benevolent Buddha light shine through his actions. His Master remarked, “Whenever he delivers the Mujung Dharma, its power moves heaven and earth and makes the day into a glorious Tathagata trance.”
Yangil Sunim served as the Abbot and Zen Master of Dae Kak Sa Temple and the Awakened Meditation Centre in Toronto, Ontario and their affiliates. He taught the practice of Korean Ganhwa Zen meditation that looks into the living word of a question or Gongan (Japanese: koan) and which seeks the unfolding of the mind’s innate enlightenment.
Yangil Sumin was ordained as a monk in the Jogye Order and was the heir of a rich Zen tradition of conveying the Buddha mind in an unpretentious, rustic and earthy way. He trained with the late Venerable Wol Ha Kun Sunim, who served as the Grand Zen Master of the Tongdo Sa Monastery and from 1994 to 2004 as the Supreme Patriarch of the Jogye Order. In 1986, Yangil Sunim settled in Canada at the request of his master to spread the seeds of Dharma in the West. He has taught Zen meditation to the students in Canada and USA as well as in England, China, India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, and his home country of Korea.
As Yangil Sunim departs from this earthly realm, his essence lingers — a whisper on the wind, a ripple on the water — a testament to the enduring power of love to transcend the boundaries of life and death. Though Yangil Sunim may no longer walk beside us, His spirit lives on in the memories and the legacy he leaves behind.
