When writings of illumination come forth, all minds will awaken. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 5:198)

The Dojeon (“Holy Scriptures of Dao”) is the sacred scriptures of Jeung San Do, the name of both the great dao of Jeung-san Sangjenim and the spiritual organization that spreads his dao throughout the world.

The eleven chapters in the Dojeon record the lives, work, and words of Jeung-san Sangjenim (shortened as ‘Sangjenim’) and Taemo Go Subunim (shortened as ‘Taemonim’). Sangjenim was the human incarnation of God the Ruler of the Universe. In life, he was known as ‘Gahng Jeung-san’ (1871–1909). Taemonim was his consort and dao successor, who in life was known as ‘Go Pan-rye’ (1880–1935).

The eleven chapters of the Dojeon are:

Chapter 1 – The Advent of Jeung-san Sangjenim
Chapter 2 – Enlightenment into Humanity’s Right Path, and the Supreme Dao of Mugeuk
Chapter 3 – Sangjenim’s Dao Order and the Disciples
Chapter 4 – The Way of Spirits, and the Government of Creation-Transformation
Chapter 5 – The Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth
Chapter 6 – The Succession of Dao, and the True Masters
Chapter 7 – The Later Heaven Gaebyeok and the Immortal Paradise of Creation-Transformation
Chapter 8 – The Workers Who Conduct the Work of Heaven and Earth
Chapter 9 – Sustenance and Blessings, Life and Longevity
Chapter 10 – Jeung-san Sangjenim’s Ascension
Chapter 11 – Taemo Go Subunim: The Great Mother

At the heart of the Dojeon is the sacred work conducted by Sangjenim and Taemonim: the Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth. Through their work, they established a series of transformations in the spirit realm and human world to ultimately bring forth a new world on earth: the Later Heaven’s Paradise of Immortality. In this world, humans and spirits become one. Through this union, humanity in whole attains enlightenment and creates a world of harmony and peace, fulfilling all the infinite possibilities that reside deep within the human mind.

Through the words of Sangjenim and Taemonim, the Dojeon presents a vivid description of the Later Heaven Gaebyeok (or simply ‘gaebyeok’): the time of epochal transition from the Early Heaven to the Later Heaven. During the three years of gaebyeok, the entire world will be devastated by a final global war, a catastrophic disease, and a cataclysmic transformation of earth. The Dojeon also reveals the means of deliverance bestowed upon humanity by Sangjenim.

The Dojeon speaks to those who will answer the summons to the work of heaven and earth. Those who answer this summons will be Sangjenim and Taemonim’s workers, who will dedicate their energy, passion, and lives to the unprecedented labor of saving humanity during the time of gaebyeok and pioneering a magnificent world of the Later Heaven.

Taemonim: The Mother

Before his ascension, Sangjenim selected his consort Taemonim, who incarnated in 1880 in Korea as Go Pan-rye, as the successor of his dao lineage and authority. Uniting their virtues into one as the Father and Mother, and on this basis of equal yin and yang, they established a path to the new heaven and earth of right yin and right yang.

The uniting of our virtues into one will renew all three realms. (Sangjenim to Taemonim, Dojeon 6:27)

Revere my Subu, your Mother, faithfully. My work cannot be accomplished without the Subu. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 6:64)

Sangjenim called her ‘Subu,’ which signifies ‘the woman who is the head of humans and spirits’ and ‘the consort of God.’ Jeung San Do practitioners call her ‘Subunim’ or ‘Taemonim’ (“Great Mother”), signifying ‘the mother of all humans and spirits in heaven and earth.’ Sangjenim conferred his dao lineage and authority upon a woman, not upon a man, because he had decreed a new era of equal yin and yang.

Two years after Sangjenim returned to heaven, Taemonim attained ultimate enlightenment and wielded the spirits’ power of creation-transformation at will. She then established her dao order, which grew quickly. In 1926, Taemonim began her ten-year Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth.

In the Early Heaven, yin and yang have been unbalanced, spawning a history of bitterness and grief. I will usher in the Later Heaven to bring forth a new heaven and earth. (Taemonim, Dojeon 11:139)

Through her work, Taemonim also ensured that Sangjenim’s great dao was firmly rooted in history. But she faced continuous opposition from Korea’s male-centered Confucian society and from the ironfisted Japanese Government General in Joseon, the Japanese colonial government that ruled Korea from 1910 to 1945. Surmounting these struggles, she established an organized movement to disseminate Sangjenim’s great dao. In 1935, after fulfilling her role as dao successor, Taemonim returned to heaven to rejoin Sangjenim.

Gaebyeok: The Passage to the New Heaven and Earth

Heaven and earth now stand upon the cusp of the Autumn Gaebyeok, the transition from the current cosmic summer to the coming cosmic autumn. The Autumn Gaebyeok (or ‘gaebyeok’) is the most pivotal time of the cosmic year—the time when nature’s order brings fruition to everything. Thus, the impending gaebyeok is that very time of glorious renewal for which humankind and spiritkind have so long yearned.

Yet, gaebyeok is also the time when cataclysmic change will sweep across the world:

When gaebyeok arrives, mountains will be overturned and the ground will split open, swallowing up everything. Such a sight will be utterly horrifying. Some people will be buried underneath the rubble of overturned mountains, some will fall into the gaping fissures of the splitting ground—the world will descend into chaos. When you return to the place where a house stood just the day before, you will find a mountain instead. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 7:17)

 At the coming of the time, a world war will erupt. At that time, war will not be stopped by human actions—it will be stopped only by a disease.
Of all the disasters, the disaster of disease will be the most devastating.
If a magnificent world is to be, the world’s illnesses must first be cleansed away by the catastrophic disease. Only through the catastrophic disease will the world be united. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 2:107)

At the outbreak of the catastrophic disease, all the world’s arts of medicine will become useless. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 7:31)

A disciple asked Sangjenim, “When the mysterious disease sweeps across the world, which country will it afflict first?”
 Sangjenim revealed, “It will break out in [Korea] first, because it is in [Korea] that the dao of deliverance from this catastrophic disease lies.” (Dojeon 7:32)

There will be three years of utter chaos. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 7:26)

After the passage of gaebyeok, a magnificent world will arise, ushering in the destiny of the Later Heaven’s fifty thousand years. It will be the age of the Paradise of Immortality, in which humans and spirits will live in the company of one another. (Taemonim, Dojeon 11:92)

Ultimately, gaebyeok signifies renewal, maturation, and fruition on many levels and in varied contexts, such as nature, civilization, humanity, and the spirit realm. 

A New Dawn for the World

In the Dojeon, Sangjenim and Taemonim reveal in rich detail a magnificent new beginning for humanity in the Later Heaven, led by twelve thousand enlightened ones. At that time to come, the world will achieve harmony and oneness. Everyone will transform physically and spiritually, becoming radiant beings.

Confucius led seventy-two of his three thousand disciples to enlightenment, and Shakyamuni led five hundred to enlightenment. I, however, will bestow enlightenment of varying degrees upon twelve thousand and through them grant benevolence upon all people. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 8:83)

The trial of aging, illness, death, and burial will be defeated, and all will enjoy glory and bliss through ageless longevity. Your body will be transfigured, your physique becoming taller and more robust, and you will be statuesque and splendid. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 7:4)

In the Later Heaven, all nations will live in harmony and peace, and their people will be free of bitterness, grief, sanggeuk, violence, greed, lust, anger, and all other afflictions that plague the mind. People’s voices and smiling faces will overflow with warmth and vitality. All movements and stillness, words and silence, will harmonize with dao and virtue. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 7:5)

The Later Heaven will be a world in which humans and spirits become one. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 2:15)

Jeung San Do

Jeung San Do is the spiritual organization founded by Ahn Un-san the Taesang Jongdosanim (“Great Supreme Dao Master”) and Ahn Gyeong-jeon the Jongdosanim (“Supreme Dao Master”) to spread the great dao of Sangjenim and Taemonim. In the years since Jeung San Do’s inception in 1974, we have grown continuously and fruitfully with over two hundred dojangs (“dao centers”) in South Korea and other countries.

Today, Jeung San Do constantly strives to convey across the world Sangjenim and Taemonim’s sacred message of the Autumn Gaebyeok and of the advent of the new heaven, earth, and humanity.

Ahn Un-san, the Taesang Jongdosanim 
Ahn Un-san, the Taesang Jongdosanim of Jeung San Do, was born in Korea in 1922. Both of his parents followed Sangjenim’s teachings. In his childhood, during a two-week period of intensive meditation, he became awakened to the way that Sangjenim’s Work of Renewing Heaven and Earth was unfolding in the world, and he realized that his own purpose in life was to spread Sangjenim’s truth.

After Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, he founded a movement to disseminate Sangjenim’s teachings, calling it ‘Jeung San Gyo’ (“Teachings of Jeung-san”). This organization constituted the second stage of dao dissemination, the successor to Taemonim’s dao movement. In the years that followed, the Taesang Jongdosanim tirelessly gathered and taught tens of thousands of people throughout Korea. He was the first to diagram the cosmic year cycle, contextualizing the birth, growth, and maturation of human civilization. With the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, Korea entered another dark and difficult period, and the Taesang Jongdosanim disbanded his movement the following year, instructing the followers to maintain their belief. In 1954, he retreated from publicly undertaking Sangjenim’s work for twenty years, until he and Ahn Gyeong-jeon, the Jongdosanim, founded in 1974 the modern movement of Jeung San Do, the third and final major development in Sangjenim’s dao.

Over the ensuing years, the Taesang Jongdosanim authored numerous Korean-language books about Jeung San Do, the most renowned being Birth in Spring, Death in Autumn (2007).

Having completing his lifelong mandate, he left this world in 2012.

Ahn Gyeong-jeon, the Jongdosanim
Born in 1954, Ahn Gyeong-jeon, the Jongdosanim, grew up with the tradition of Sangjenim’s and Taemonim’s teachings, and he has completely devoted his life to spreading these teachings. In 1974, he and the Taesang Jongdosanim co-founded the modern Jeung San Do movement. In 1977, at age twenty-three, he experienced spiritually the great cataclysm of gaebyeok and affirmed his resolve to spread Sangjenim’s and Taemonim’s truth throughout the world. In 1984, he established Jeung San Do University, a program to develop practitioners who would spread the teachings. In 1998, he founded the Jeung San Do Research Institute, where scholars from various fields undertake research and write about Jeung San Do.

The Jongdosanim’s mission of disseminating the teachings has led him to conduct numerous lecture tours throughout South Korea, and he has also lectured in numerous other countries, including the United States, Russia, Canada, England, Australia, Japan, India, and Indonesia. Today, he heads the effort to globalize Jeung San Do by training teachers and sending them to other countries and by guiding translations of Sangjenim’s and Taemonim’s teachings.

Over the years, the Jongdosanim has authored numerous Korean-language books about Jeung San Do, two of the most renowned being Jeung San Do’s Truth (1981) and This Is Gaebyeok (1982). Moreover, he annotated and translated into the modern Korean language a collection of texts on ancient Korean history titled Hwandangogi (2012). He devoted decades of research to publishing an authoritative and comprehensive book on the great dao of Sangjenim and Taemonim, leading to the publication of the first Dojeon edition in 1992, a revised edition in 2003, and the foreign-language translations in 2004.

[Abandon] all decrepit ways of living and strive for new life. (Sangjenim, Dojeon 2:37)

Do not dwell on what has been; strive to accomplish what is to be. (Taemonim, Dojeon 11:104)