............	Venerable Ji-Kwang, who had graduated from Seoul National University, served The Hankook Daily News as a journalist for years. In 1980, he was dismissed by force of the 5th Military regime for having reported the Kwang-ju Movement of Democratization. Thereafter he roamed about monasteries in Ji-ri Mountain and Deok-you Mountain where he learned and practiced the Buddha Dharma as a layman by virtue of masters of those monasteries. These experiences served him a turning point. He was in the end ordained as a religious novice (Sa-mi, Sramanera in Sanskrit) by the great master Ja-Woon in 1982, and subsequently was fully ordained as a Buddhist monk (Bi-ku, Bhiksu in Sanskrit) by the great master Cheong-Hwa.
	Even if Ven. Ji-Kwang was a Seon practitioner residing in caves and Seon centers, he always deplored the decline of the Korean Buddhism which to him seemed to have failed to come in upon the heart of the people. He made a vow that he would realize a Buddha land in this country by preaching on Buddhism in succinct words. This was the second turning point. In 1986, he established a missionary institute, the Neungin Seonwon, in the southern province of the capital Seoul, a strategic point for propagating religions. His mission has been echoed on a large scale by citizens in the city who had thirst for an explicit interpretation of the Buddhist doctrines.
	As of 2001, the institute brought come forth more than 200,000 faithful Buddhists across the nation ever since its opening. It is not an exaggeration to say that Ven. Ji-Kwang made an epoch in the field of Buddhist missionary work. He was awarded a grand prize in 1999 from the Korean Cho-gye Oder for his devotional contribution to Korean Buddhism.