The Peace Foundation, Contributing to World Peace by Working for the Unification of the Two Koreas
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim realized that the problem of starvation in North Korea could not easily be solved despite continuous aid efforts. Perceiving that the lives of the North Korean people could not be improved without the relaxation of military tension on the Korean peninsula, he established the Peace Foundation in 2004 in order to pursue specific and concrete efforts for a peaceful reunification. Through the Peace Foundation, Ven. Pomnyun Sunim focused on establishing peace on the Korean peninsula and improving US-North Korea relations. For instance, he contributed anonymously to the drawing of the September 19 Agreement in 2005, at a time when the North Korea nuclear tensions were at their peak.
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim also realized that however many good policies are drawn up on North Korean nuclear and security issues and reunification based on peace research, they were useless without a group of people to execute the policies. He set up the Peace Education Center and Peace Leadership Academy to foster social leaders. He further perceived that it was important for ordinary citizens to participate in politics. To encourage people’s political participation, he started out by helping people to resolve various personal problems they were facing in their lives through his talks.
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim said, “There is a Korean saying that goes, ‘The voice of the people is the voice of the heavens.’ I am holding talks all over the country with the hope that visiting every corner of the country, meeting people to listen to their problems, and helping them is the way to move the heavens. His Q&A Dharma talks, which he started in order to move public sentiment, have now become widely known and loved by people of all age groups, from children to the elderly.
Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s Q&A Dharma talks are not consultations. Rather, they are completely based on the way the Buddha spread his teachings. In his talks, the Buddha also held conversations with the questioners and helped them to realize their contradictions or ignorance so that they could alleviate their own suffering. He stated, “In my Q&A Dharma talks, I am not giving out answers. Life has no answers. One must make a choice and take responsibility for it. In Q&A Dharma talks, people find their own way in life while holding conversations with me.” Ven. Pomnyun Sunim has been travelling tirelessly all over Korea and the world to explain the teachings of the Buddha in a very realistic and easy manner so that people can realize their own contradictions and become happy.
The Peace Foundation
The Peace Foundation opened its U.S. office in Washington D.C. in 2007. In 2007 and 2008, it hosted U.S.-Korea Expert Workshop, where a group of Korean senior scholars and former government officials visited New York and Washington D.C. to have discussions with U.S. experts on the Korean peninsula. With Good Friends USA, it has hosted Ven. Pomnyun Sunim’s talks on bringing peace in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula, improving U.S.-North Korea relations, resolving North Korean nuclear issues, and reunifying the two Koreas.