experiences as the result of the classical so-called personal “mind-to-mind transmission” between teacher and student as characterized in the Seon school. Rather, each of his three enlightenment experiences came in connection with the contemplation of a passage in a Buddhist text. In his final articulation of the issue, Jinul was highly influenced by the explanation of the relationship between Seon and Gyo provided by the Tang Huayan master Li Tongxuan (???; 635-730). Jinul’s philosophical resolution of this issue brought a deep and lasting impact on Korean Buddhism.

Jinul produced a number of important disciples who passed on his teaching and continued to work within his discourse. There were also a number of other Seon teachers of considerable merit who were contemporary with him, but whose names, due to spacelimitations, we must pass at this time. One monk who lived just after Jinul who cannot go unmentioned is Iryeon (??; 1206-1289), mainly because without his work it would be much more difficult to write a history of Korean Buddhism of this kind. Along with a number of other works on Seon and various Buddhist topics, Iryeon’s major contribution to subsequent historical researches was his Samguk Yusa (????) in which he pieced together historical facts and anecdotes to provide an account of the transmission and development of Buddhism in Korea.

The general trend of the Buddhism of the latter half of the Goryeo is that of decline due to corruption and the rise of strong anti-Buddhist political and philosophical sentiment. But on the other hand, this period of relative