HAN YONGUN’S SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS BUDDHISM
IN KOREA
By
Ozmo Hyonjin
Piedmont, Ph.D.
INTRODUCTION
Han Yongun (1879-1944) was a
visionary leader during Korea ’s
transformation under late 19th and early 20th century
Japanese colonial rule, a time of upheaval and challenge in both the political
and social domains. Han Yongun is seen
as a national hero whose attempts to reform and modernize Korean Buddhism
coincided with the national struggle for independence, freedom and self determination.
Han Yongun is noted for his involvement and guidance during the March First
Independence Movement of 1919; his rejection of the civil registry to the
Japanese authorities with its correspondingly required change to Japanese names;
and resistance to Japanese intervention in Buddhist affairs. His call for reform
was grounded in his Buddhist philosophy of freedom, equality, and compassion,
transcending Korean political agendas, and arriving at a universal vision of
identity and social consciousness relevant to a contemporary modern world.
KOREAN BUDDHIST HISTORY
Surviving 500 years repression
The repressive measures of the 500
year Choson Dynasty served to dispossess, discredit, and damage the self image
of the Korean Buddhists, all which contributed to their later vulnerability in
the face of western modernization, creating at first a need to emulate Japanese
Buddhist entrance focused on colonization efforts of the government, and as a
way to counterbalance Christian missionary influences. Later, these same
positive attitudes toward emulation of a Japanese standard of modernity,
changed to a nationalist identity on the part of Korean Buddhist monks,
rediscovering their own foundations, teachings, and style of Buddhist faith and
lineage.
Buddhism
had enjoyed a privileged status of royal patronage from its introduction in the
Korean peninsula in the latter half of the fourth century C.E. up to the
establishment of the Chosen dynasty in the fourteenth
century C.E. The Choson court preferred
Confucian ideology, and set about targeting the Buddhist order with
anti-Buddhist policies designed to damage the Buddhist Sangha both financially
and socially. As a result, Buddhist clerics fell to one of the lowest social
strata.
The
Choson anti-Buddhist policies focused first on the dispossession of Buddhist
financial resources. They instituted laws in which no land could be donated to
the monasteries, and no cleric could possess land. This reduced the amount of
holding of the Buddhist monasteries, and the loss of taxes and revenue derived
from them. The court then confiscated all lands and slaves in excess of certain
allocations of land. With nearly 60% of monastery land confiscated, most
monasteries ceased to exist without a sound financial basis to count on. Many
monks defrocked and the number of Buddhist schools was reduced from 12 to 7
schools. Eventually, all the schools were merged into two: the Son school
focused on meditation and the Kyo School
Buddhist
clerics became the object of institutional control and abuse. The court
instituted a licensing identification system, whereby one had to pay large
amounts in order to be licensed as a monk. This was aimed an even higher
payments for poor people so they would not be interested in becoming monks, but
rather serve for taxes, forced labor and the military. Many monks were force to
laicize, and many escaped trying to avoid the forced labor and military. Then
monk examinations, from which orders selected their leaders, were suspended,
leading to the severing of ties between the court and the Buddhist orders,
obliteration of the official hierarchy within the order, and the intellectual
quality of the monks reduced. One of the most damaging policies of the court
was the prohibition of monks from entering the capital. They were thus removed
from the social and political arena, severely lowering their social status.
This policy stayed in place right up 1895.
Nevertheless,
the Buddhist monks had a great tenacity that allowed them to survive the Chosen
policies through peasant support, liaisons with royal families, skilled
production of manual labor production, bringing them income and the capacity to
acquire personal property. They also survived by gaining financial security
through self-supporting associations called “kye,” a popular form of friendship alliances and mutual financial
assistance. These associations had a long term legacy of a mutual help, putting
the Sangha before the individual self, showing respect for religiously
practicing monks, the democratic handing of funds, and creating a public
council of monasteries. However, the anti-Buddhist policies of the court had a
lasting effect on the Buddhist culture, resulting in their loss of influence,
their tension with a predominately Confucianized society with anti-Buddhist
sentiment which disparaged Buddhists with negative epithets and considered them
as part of a by-gone era, irrelevant, and antiquated.
This
anti-Buddhist climate lasted for 500 years, up to the opening of the Korean
ports in 1876, ushering in a time of tremendous competition on the part of
colonial powers in the form of three religions entering Korea :
Japanese Buddhist, Shinto, and Christian missionaries. Japanese Buddhists had
experienced their own share of anti-Buddhist measures in like fashion in the
nineteenth century with the anti-Buddhist policies of the Meiji government
(1868-1912). With the impending threat
of Western influences in the form of modernity, Western economic domination,
and Christian missionary zeal, the Japanese Buddhists set about defensive
measures to preserve their identity and resist Western intrusion. They pushed
for the separation of church and state. They presented themselves as protectors
of Japanese traditions and identity, promoting Buddhism as a way to defend the
nation and the intrusion of Christianity. Their genius was in co-opting
Western-style modernity as a way of coping with persecution, incorporating
Christian style missionary tactics by engaging in social action and evangelical
work in prisons, schools, and factories. To protect Buddhism from the Meiji’s
anti-Buddhist measures, they created a New Buddhism, a modern form of Buddhism
which appeared cosmopolitan, humanitarian, and socially responsible. They also
reformed Buddhist scholarship based on Western standards and methods of
research. Zen was also presented to the West as an empirical, rational, and
scientific mode of inquiry into the true nature of things, emphasizing
meditation and direct spiritual experience. On the whole, the Japanese efforts
were successful, allowing the Japanese Buddhists to change, modernize, and
maintain their distinctly Japanese identity.
With
the advent of the Sino-Japanese War and then the Russo-Japanese War in the
early 20th Century, the Japanese government solicited the Japanese
Buddhists to serve Japanese nationals in Korea ,
providing a buffer easing animosity between Koreans and the Japanese military.
The Japanese clerics supported the government and fulfilled their military
responsibility by establishing war missions, serving as chaplains, and doing
social work and outreach for the Japanese colonials. In this way, their Korean
foreign missions served both the monarchy and the nation. As a product of
winning these two wars, the Japanese population increased dramatically in Korea ,
ushering in a wave of Soto, Shingon, and
Rinzai clerics entering Korea
to serve the needs of the migrants, officials, soldiers, and setting up schools
for their children. However, the Koreans were understandably suspicious and
hostile toward the Japanese, which fomented many disputes. The Japanese clerics
tried to counteract these acts of violence and hostility by promoting public works,
education, and outreach to the poor and sick. They also targeted Korean clerics
sympathetic to Japanese rule.
Korean
clerics had been devastated and desperate due to their 500 years of repression
with the Choson court. They bought into the Japanese rhetoric of “modernizing”
and accepted the Japanese model for revitalizing their religion. In turn, the
Japanese government saw that if they could control the Korean monasteries, they
could use Korean temples and clerics for the propagation of their own religious
teachings and political causes. In the meantime, Christian missionaries were
making great inroads into Korean society, converting many Koreans through their
charitable works and educational programs. This posed a serious threat to the
existence and identity of Korean Buddhism. Korean Buddhists, taking a lesson
from the Japanese Buddhists in their co-opting of Christian missionary efforts,
began modernizing themselves as a way to preserve their institution and
identity, following the Japanese model as their ideal.
This
created a deep conflict for the Korean Buddhists, who first saw the Japanese as
Buddhist brothers and allies, but then came to view them as self-serving
nationalists bent on serving the expansionist efforts of their government. Many
Korean Buddhist clerics were initially sent to “modern” Japanese Buddhist
monasteries to study and learn their language, culture, and modern education of
science, business, and politics. To facilitate this interchange, the Japanese
Buddhists were key in influencing the Korean government to lift the 500 year
old ban on the Korean clerics from entering the capital. This provided a
renewed freedom and respectability in the eyes of the Korean society and
allowed their clerics to travel openly and freely. There was a great sense of gratitude on the
part of the Korean clerics for this boost to their image and self-esteem.
At
this time, many Korean monasteries petitioned the Japanese Residency General to
be affiliated with their supervision and control by the Japanese Buddhists as a
protection against Korean rebel attacks against anyone thought to support the
Japanese. The Korean Buddhists felt vulnerable to attacks due to their recent
interchanges and collaboration. Nevertheless,
after the Japanese annexation of Korea ,
many Korean clerics grew resentful of Japanese control. They no longer wanted
to follow the Japanese model as the standard of modernity and religious reform
and began to search for their own path to modernity, sparking a new wave of
nationalism and religious pride in their native Buddhist religion.
In
an effort to re-establish sectarian identity, Korean Buddhists created a
separate administrative office of the monasteries, called Imje-jong, claiming
it was the original school of Korean
Buddhism Korea ,
it no longer needed the Japanese Buddhist orders to subjugate the Korean
Buddhist orders, withdrawing its support. The Japanese Buddhists from this time
forward focused their attention almost exclusively on Japanese nationals living
in Korea and no
longer in controlling or converting Korean Buddhists to Japanese sects of
control.
In
order to maintain tight control over the Korean Buddhists, the Japanese
government enacted the seven articles of the Temple
Ordinance
The March First
Independence Movement of 1919
Under the Japanese occupation, Korean Buddhism had become Japanized and
secularized in the name of modernization based on Japanese models of
organization and bureaucracy. However, young clerics began to question the
docility of the Korean sangha, seeing them as collaborators with the Japanese
government’s colonial policies of control. These new clerics began to oppose
the Japanese, and began developing a nationalist stance and a sectarian
identity. These politically rebellious clerics came into direct clash with the
established, apolitical, survivalist, mentality of the older sangha that was
primarily concerned with education and outreach. For Korean Buddhists, this was
a time of confusion, comprimose, resistence, and a feeling of being caught
between colonial patriotism and Korean religious interests.
The March First
Independence Movement of 1919 marks a transition in the reform efforts of
Korea. The Buddhist youth were now challenging the apolitical sangha, and
attempted to gain independence through protesting against the Temple Ordinance,
adopting a minjung ideology, of Buddhism for the masses, replacing the
Darwinian definition of modernism. They formed the Buddhist Youth Association
in 1920 and its branch associations in local monasteries. They also formed the
Buddhist Reformation Association as advocates of the Buddhist Youth Association
in December of 1921. Their efforts served to sever ties with the Japanese
government and defy Japanese intervention in Buddhist affairs. This youth movement petitioned for separation
of church and state, since the temple monasteries had become corrupt due to
despot abbots seeking to maintain their own interests and power, having been
appointed by the Japanese government by the Temple Ordinance. The youth
movement was focused on modernizing
Buddhism with a national and ecumenical outlook founded on historical roots
that were both socially conscious and with a sectarian identity of historical
lineage. Their efforts also resulted in creating an organized and centralized
sangha which could resist the government’s religious interventions, giving
birth to the sectarian name of Chogy-jong.
HAN YONGUN’S LIFE
Han was born 1879 in poor family living in a small town of the Korean
countryside. He had one brother nineteen years older than he. He was married at
the early age of fourteen, as was the custom in his region. He was brought up
studying Confucian texts, and was considered a prodigy by the local villagers
for his mastery of the classic texts. By his late teens he was teaching in the
local village Confucian school. Later, Han’s brother and father were killed for
their involvement in a rebel army around 1894, forcing Han to leave the village
for his safety, intending to travel to the capital, Seoul, and help there with
the nation’s problems. However, on the way, he changed his mind and ended up
going to a monastery first in order to find himself and to learn from a
Buddhist master, which he thought would be more beneficial to help his country
in the long run.
In his Buddhist training,
Han explored the meaning of life and began to consider how he could serve his
country. He became a monk at nineteen and later entered the monastic life as a
postulate and then a novice. He was so talented in his abilities of learning
that he was ordained in a year rather than the normal three years of study.
Dissatisfied with his monastic training focused only on personal salvation, his
desire for social awareness and interest in modern Western civilization led him
to embark on a world tour to Siberia, Europe and the USA. However, upon
arriving to Russia, he was mistaken for a spy and nearly killed. As a result,
he gave up the trip and returned to Korea.
Han had a son by his first
wife in 1904, but returned to the monastery where he took full ordination in
1905. He took the Dharma name of Yongun at this time. His studies were focused
on Hwaom (Hwa-Yin) texts and masters, as well as the study of Mu and hwadu. It
was during this time that he began to consider reformed Buddhism as a way to
help modern society. In 1908 he traveled to Japan to study Buddhist reforms,
considering Japan the center of modern civilization. This led to his writing a
treatise of Korean Buddhist reform in 1910. Out of concern for the Korean lay
community, he wrote a digest of Korean Scriptures in the Korean vernacular.
In the winter of 1917, after
attaining enlightenment, he wrote the “Song of Enlightenment” at the age of 38.
He wrote many articles at this time on social reform, meditation, the
cultivation of the mind, and son philosophy. He also became much more politically inclined,
opposing attempts to merge Korean Buddhism into Japanese Soto zen. He was also
critical of monastery abbots for their cooperation with the Japanese
government. The repressive measures of the Japanese government prompted him to
work for Buddhist reform while supporting the youth movements for Korean
autonomy. He became a leader and key figure in the March First Movement in 1919
for the independence of Korea and protested against the forced annexation of
Korea to Japan, which led to three years of imprisonment for his involvement.
In 1924, after his
release, he became director of the Buddhist Youth Association and editor of the
Buddhist magazines, all focused on seeking the independence of the sangha from
government intervention, a centralized sangha, and the dissemination of
propagando for reformed Buddhism in support of the masses, called minjung
Pulgyo. In 1932, he wrote articles calling for the protection and support of
the masses, recommending the construction of factories for increased income,
support of the poor and needy, and the desire to improve people’s lives. His
approach to Buddhism was pragmatic, seeking practice as the love and suppport
of the society through embracing defilement, achieving Nirvana, and getting
socially involved, including the establishment of public libraries, welfare
institutions, and educational facilities. Han also wrote 5 novels and much
poetry referring to the suffering of the Korean people, Buddhist beliefs,
compassion, no-self, karma, social awareness, public virtue, and national
independence. He was married a second time in 1933, and had a daughter by that
union. He died in 1944 at the age of 64.
FOUNDATIONAL BUDDHIST BELIEFS
Han felt that Buddhism should be the foundation for contemporary society.
He lists three aspect of Buddhism that he felt was important: 1. that Buddhism
is based on a faith in one’s own self. Through one’s personal efforts, one is
able to realize one’s Buddha Nature which in turn is realized through helping
other people and doing good works; 2. since all people have Buddha Nature, all
beings are equal, whether they are awakened to their nature or not. 3. from a
philosophical standpoint, Buddhism understanda mind and matter as not being
independent of each other, since form is empty and empty is form, therefore,
idealism and materialism are inextricably linked and of equal importance: the
perfection of Buddhism is not otherworldly in its focus but rather located in
the present experience of this world in time and space, yet transcendent of
both. Likewise, if everything is empty, then nothing is born or dies, and our
basic essence of the universe, Buddha Nature, is eternal and immanent in all
things.
Religious Need
Han believed that there is a fundamental need for religion because it
provides hope for humankind, key for its survival and progress. Buddhism does
not place emphasis on an afterlife nor on any kind of immaterial world. Only
enlightenment is important, which brings wisdom and compassion into this very
life. Paradise is not some outside place located in space or time. Rather, it
is based on an essential awareness of Truth, or Suchness, a sense of one’s true
nature beyond birth and death which one comes to understand through one’s own
efforts of practice, freeing one from superstition, and based on a universal wisdom
that has direct application to everyday life. Along with personal freedom and
happiness that arises through study and practice, there is a great importance
placed on the bodhisattva ideal, that of helping all other beings to find
wisdom while emancipating them from suffering and bringing freedom through
enlightenment. The truth of Buddhism is universal and transcends any one
religion or philosophy. For Han, Buddhism can provide the basis for the ethics
and civilization of the future based on two principles, egalitarianism and
altruism. All beings are equally endowed
with innate Buddha Nature, and all beings equally seek freedom, which is the
basis for future world unity. This is achieved through altuism, the opposite of
egoism, and a desire to save all beings from suffering.
Son/Kyo Integration
Son means meditation and Kyo means
doctrine. These two terms became the basis of Han’s integrative approach to
Buddhism that would serve as a basis for social reform. Han developed his philosophy in order to find an
authentic Korean Buddhist identity that would be provide a relevant and viable
solution for Korea’s social problems while facing the challenges of
modernization.
In this unified approach,
one needs both the internal attention to the mind which opens one to the Truth
of one’s essence and Buddha nature through son, the direct experience in the
practice of meditation and awareness. Likewise, kyo is necessary as the study
of the teachings provided by Buddhist Dharma and sutras which teach how to
interact with others, providing the guidance for social involvement. Therefore,
son gives the experience of non-dual awareness of one’s essence outside of
words and letters, while kyo provides the wisdom to function in action in
society through the teachings in the words and letters of Buddhism.
Meditation (Son) and
Social Activism
Hon defined meditation as a type of cultivation of the mind involving right
thinking and concentration, which improves one in the process. Han believed
that meditation was something everyone should engage in, something ordinary and
necessary for living with the challenges of modern life. He felt that
meditation is synonymous with the cultivation of the mind and the development
of consciousness, which is necessary for putting a person’s actions in order
and living in harmony with others. He saw the mind as inherently empty,
luminous, free of bias and pure in essence, capable of reflecting all of
manifested phenomena. The only thing inhibiting one’s apprecitation of this is
deluded thoughts, and by calming the mind, one’s original nature is revealed.
This is done through applying the non-method of hwadu, en enigmatic phrase that
serves to focus the mind and free it from thought while one struggles with not
knowing and solving the enigma. The hwadu is nothing more than a device used in
order to arouse feelings of doubt which remove deluded thoughts, consolidating
the mind and consciousness, thereby revealing the original nature of mind. When
one attains this spiritual awakening to original nature, one sees that all
phenomena are likewise this same nature. Therefore, both seeing spiritually and
physically are the same, because all is fundamentally the same, emptiness and
form and form is emptiness. Hon felt that meditation could be practiced by
anyone anywhere at any moment, whether in nature or the middle of an urban
city. Likewise, meditation is not limited to sitting, but can also be practiced
while one is engaged in one’s daily life and activites, too. Meditation thereby
cultivates the mind and allows one to maintain balance, fearlessness, and
clarity, particularly important in managing modern day stresses and challenges
related to fear in danger, grief and anguish, and the transcendence of life and
death. In this way, human beings are not passive victims of their
circumstances, nor is one’s personal concious state dictated by external
circumstances. Han also advocated meditatioin outside of meditation, meaning
using everything in the world as a focus of meditation, contemplation, and spiritual
insight.
Han
listed ten benefits of meditation: 1. it calms the organs of perception so as
to reveal the original essence of things; 2. it develops compassion that
naturally cares about the welfare of others; 3. one is freed from mental
afflictions of greed, anger, and stupidity; 4. one’s sense organs of perception
are protected from agitation; 5. one experiences joy and pleasure that is not
based on external causal conditions, such as eating or sex; 6. one is freed
from attachments and desires; 7. one is freed from the fear and belief in
nihilism, or the complete and absolute elimination of being as well as freed
from the belief in the reality of the conditioned existence of things; 8. one
is liberated from temptations and attachments of life; 9. one attains the same
insights as the Buddha with a calm and immovable mind; 10. one becomes free of
karma and mental afflictions.
Hon’s approach to Son
practice leads to harmony, equality, and social activism. In meditation, one
observes the mind and calms it, leading to the insight that all is mind, the universal,
absolute, and impartial Buddha nature that is equally within every one of us
and all the world of phenomena. The absolute and the phenomenal world are thus
coexistant and a harmonious whole. The direct experience of this truth,
personal salvation from suffering, naturally expresses itself compassionately
as social salvation, the aspiration to save all beings from suffering, since
they are essentially aspects of ourself, a unified whole. Their suffering is
our own suffering, and our liberation is their liberation. When apparent
suffering arises, one attends to the alleviation of that suffering, in the form
of the bodhisattva ideal of saving all sentient beings. At the same time, no
one saves anyone, since all is empty and free, without any hinderance
whatsoever. Saving the world is the natural expression of Illumination as
active engagement with the world, not some kind of aloof, quietistic withdrawal
from society and its problems. Buddha Nature is love and wisdom, a natural
connectivity to others that applies effective methods and skillful means to
help them. Guidance and development of these skillful means are what the
teachings of Buddhism reveal, that which is referred to as kyo. This dynamic
tension between personal salvation through realization of non-dual essence,
manifesting as wise compassionate action in the world, is Han Yongun’s Unified
Approach to son/kyo practice which became the foundation for his advocacy of
socially conscious Buddhism.
SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS BUDDHISM
Han advocated Buddhist reform as a way to better serve society and in
addition contribute to the world’s evolution that would lead ultimately to an
ideal civilization. Han felt that Buddhism transcended national borders and
concerns. He believed in a kind of Buddhist socialism, whereby accumulation of
property was frowned upon, and one is prepared to give away one’s own
possessions to others for their care and benefit. He cited the fact that the
Buddha lived eighty years begging for food, but left behind 80,000 books of teachings
in the Tripitaka. These teachings were universal and beyond time and space. He
cites the Buddha saying on his deathbed: “Even if my body dies, the truths I
have been speaking about are eternal.” Han believed in the equality not only of
all people, but also of all things, including animals, plants and our
envirnonment and the world, which he saw as having a boundless nature, where
all things are created by the mind, and in which Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, the
ideal of Mahayana Buddhism, are capable to help others attain liberation and
freedom from suffering.
Buddhist reform meant for Han
a radical change in monk education and training. He was a supporter of
education, which he considered bears the fruit of civilization. He felt that
monks should be have a broad understanding of the world through humanistic
studies that would connect monks with society in general, thereby better able
to serve society’s needs. In addition, new schools and improved pedagogical
techniques would bring a freedom of ideas and facilitate the revelation of
truth. This should be supplemented with study abroad to give monks a wider
perspective of how the world functions and its social concerns. Likewise,
monasteries and places of worship should be moved out of the isolation of the mountains
and forests and into the urban centers of civilization where contact between
clergy and lay practitioners could more readily be provided. Han advocated
facilitation of access to doctrine as well through streamlining and focus
Buddhist teachings and texts to the most essential that express the core
concepts and practice of Buddhism. In a contemporary world, monks must also be
encouraged to work and become self sufficient without relying on lay donations
and contributions.
Han
believed that social action is no
hinderance to existential freedom, while existential freedom naturally
expresses itself as social action. Han’s approach to son practice was both
pragmatic and human-centered. He felt that through self-cultivation, one
benefits and contributes to the well being of the world, since mind, buddhas,
and sentient beings are not different from one another. Buddha is thus the
ideal of how to live compassionately with others. Buddhas and bodhisattvas are
equal in their power to save sentient beings, and humans awaken to their Buddha
Nature which activates their bodhisattva vows to save others. Enlightenment is
only possible in relationship to suffering, thus they are complimentary rather
than opposites to one another. There is nothing beyond this very life where
apparent suffering arises, and in which apparent Enlightenment takes place
freeing one from suffering. Through facing life as it is in the here and now,
one masters the challenges that arise as suffering both individually and
collectively. This mastery of daily life, finding personal peace and harmony
and helping others through compassion, giving, caring for the sick, gratitude,
and courtesy, are all attributes of Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, which should be
the goal of all practicing Buddhists.
Spiritual/Material Dialectic
As a reformer, Han faced two problems: 1. Buddhism needed to become
socially active to survive the challenges of modernity and make a contribution
to society; 2. Buddhist clerics had become corrupted by their involvement with
the world, their integrity and role in society undermined by their increasing
contact with a secular world, blurring the distinction between their religious
career and lay livelihood. To resolve these two problems, han developed an
integrated philosophy based on the principles of equality and saving the world,
which he believed were both at the core of Buddhism. He saw that equality
refers to the absolute, universal, impartial nature of the Buddha or truth. In
this aspect, all beings have inherent Buddha nature. This Buddha nature
expresses itself in compassion and vows to save all beings from suffering. Han
set up a dialectical tension between these two principles which served to
justify social activism and salvation for the world. He stated that the
equality of Buddha Nature seeks to live in a world based on love and saving of
all beings equally. In fact, one’s personal salvation is intimately tied to the
world. In order to transcend the world, one must enter into it, engaging in
active participation in society. One is enlightened by one’s acceptance of the
predicaments of the world and working for the salvation of the world, which is
Nirvana itself. One transcends the world
by entering into it, not by trying to avoid or escape it. One’s personal
salvation is realized through engagement with the world and society. At the
same time, secular involvement is balanced with absolute truth, which is
revealed through the wisdom revealed in through Buddhist teachings themselves.
This creates balance and harmony for the individual and society.
It could be argued that
enlightenment has a timeless universalizing tendency that could be
misinterpreted as being ultimately unconcerned with society and seeing the
phenomenal world as some kind of impediment to personal liberation or an
acceptance of the status quo as acceptable since all is perfect and empty. But
Han resolves this problem by introducing a value system into enlightenment
through active engagement with the world drawing from social values of freedom,
equality, and peace, which Han sees as qualities of equality, essence or Buddha
nature. Absolute equality means freedom, and anything that obstructs that
freedom is not yet the full expression of enlightenment. Therefore, absolute
freedom includes social justice, a liberalism for all individuals to be free,
and cosmopolitanism, whereby all the world is viewed as one house and all are
brothers and sisters. Though initially Han applied his philosophy for the
national identity of Korea to be free and independent, he recognized that this
was a stepping stone for the universalization of social values on a world level, and not just for nationalist
concerns. Both the individual and all nations need to be free and the entire
human race is one family. It is therefore core to Buddhism that both social and
existential salvation be based on social engagement, creating a new sense of
Korean Buddhism in response to modernity.
Marriage vs. Celibacy
The issue of clerical marriage
began to appear in Korea
in the twentieth century, before actual colonization began. There was a rapid
increase of married monks in the 1910s and the 1920s. Nevertheless, many
Koreans strongly disapproved of clerical marriage, seeing it as a contamination
by Japanese Buddhism, and associating celibacy with religious purity, national
identity, and patriotism. Han believed that monks and nuns should be allowed to
marry, first citing the fact that the seven previous Buddhas before Shakyamuni
had been married. Han cited four reasons why celibacy was not relevant to contemporary
society: 1. It is immoral since it fails to produce offspring; 2. A lack of
population is injurious to the state and its evolution; 3. With less people,
there is less missionary activity to spread the message of Buddhism around the
world; 4. The desire for food and sex is natural, and their suppression only
brings frustration to ordinary people.
Han
Yongun proposed that clerics should be able to choose whether to marry or not
as a kind of skillful means to bring the Dharma to modern society. He felt that
celibacy was no longer relevant to contemporary society, and had only been
advocated by the Buddha as a way to help people refocus their energies and
practice leading them from impermanent attachments to deeper spiritual
concerns. What was relevant in Buddha’s times was no longer relevant to modern
times, and was actually a threat to the propagation and sustenance of Buddhism
in the present. He argued that celibacy
was antithetical to the ethical norms of filial piety, harming society because
it contributed to the decrease of the population, and a certain elitism that
separated the clerics from the lay society, hampering proselyzation and
interaction with the world. After much
controversy between among scholars and clergy, the marriage of monks became
official in 1926.
Nevertheless,
right up to the 1970s, the sangha was still consumed with internal conflicts
regarding marriage and celibate clerics. At the beginning of the 20th
century, the liberal majority of clerics, influenced by ideas of modernization
and following the example of Japanese Buddhists, gave up the traditional
practice of celibacy and took wives. In
the early 1950s, the conservative minority of celibate clerics initiated a
Purification Movement, with fighting and litigation resulting in a separation
of the two factions in 1970. The married clerics formed a new sect called the
T’aego sect of Korean Buddhism, completely separating from the conservative
Chogye sect of Korean Buddhism. Though married clerics were originally a majority
in the early 20th century, by the 1950s, the celibate clerics had
come to far outnumber the married clerics by 20 to 1. This reflected the
changing attitudes of society, equating clerical celibacy with purity and
national identity.
Idle Spectators
Han believed that one of the
greatest obstacles to change, reform, and modernization was the idle spectator,
which he called thieves harming humanity and enemies of the world, the people
who stand around with folded arms, inactive, non-participatory, and critical of
others. He listed six sorts of idle spectators: 1. the confused who are
completely ignorant about things going on in the world; 2. the egoists who have
no interest in anything that does not benefit them directly; 3. the lamenters,
those that constantly mourn and bewail how bad things are in the world but make
not effort to improve anything, preferring to just idly chat about the horrible
states of affairs as a topic of conversation only; 4. the cynical denouncers
who cynically ridicule and curse others behind their back, sneering and
denouncing everything but with no desire to change it; 5. the resigned who are
unable to do anything because they only look up to others, sages, teachers,
politicians, instead of relying upon themselves to create change; 6. the
waiting who are unable to predict the success or failure of anything
beforehand, the hypocrites that are always waiting for better times when they
can turn some personal profit from the situation.
CONCLUSION
In his time, Han was addressing several societal
concerns, including: Korean sovereignty free of colonial rule; declining membership due to
competitive influences of other religions and political movements; materialism
and moral corruption based on capitalistic values of competition, consumerism,
and greed, resulting from a belief in Social Darwinism, individualism, and the
survival of the fittest; dehumanization of the individual in subserviance to
the needs of the state or large corporations; disempowerment of the poor; and
gender inequality. His innovative ideas of reform were particularly significant
due to the fact that he applied the principles of Buddhism first to his own
self, then to the institution itself, that of the monasteries and the monks
themselves, which helped them to redefine their role in society, boost their
self esteem, and connect to the world beyond the borders of Korea, helping
Koreans Buddhists and society enter into the contemporary modern world.
Many
of the problems that faced Han’s contemporaries still exist today, but with
certain differences. Global warming, pollution, and environmental abuses and
over use, are major concerns. A Buddhist philosophy that emphasizes unity,
equality and respect for all forms of life can support an environmental program
of conservation, ecology, recycling of materials, environmental responsibility,
and respect for nature as part of a wholistic view of harmony and balance of an
ecosystem, of which humans are an integral part sharing the planet with many
species, rather than a social egotistical mentality of domination, competition
for resources, and survival of the fittest.
Gender
equality is also a major concern in contemporary society. Women have
historically been subjugated to male domination, prejudice, sexism, and
repression. Men have come to devalue women as lesser in value, with an attitude
that they should be controlled for the needs of men and a male dominated
society. Buddhism addresses this inequality in seeing both genders as equally
sharing in intrinsic value, all containing Buddha nature, and all equally
deservingn of respect and freedom.
Likewise,
the inequalities of a society based on consumerism and greed create a widening
gap between the rich and the poor. More and more people find it difficult to
have their basic needs met, increasing disease, hunger, homelessness, and
violence. Buddhism, in stressing caring for others, compassion and service, has
the potential in healing imbalances of society that are caused by a disregard
for the essential oneness of all and the preciousness of all forms of life. We
are stewards of this planet, and we are guardians for each other, in the
protection, rights and welfare of each individual. A socially conscious
Buddhism that practices in the world correcting the inequalities and suffering
of others as the path to Enlightenment, rather than an impediment to
Enlightenment, is what is indispensible for the harmonious functioning of a
global community. The world continues to
shrink, and we cannot continue to function for the needs of any one group,
nation, or power over and above the needs of others. We must come to an
awareness of the unity in plurality, the oneness that manifests in the
multiplicity. Buddhism has this perspective inherently within its non-dual
philosophy of shunyata and Buddha Nature.
Family
violence and abuse is also a major concern. When people are suffering, angry,
and frustrated, they tend to strike out and hurt others through violence. The
personal salvation and peace that arises through the practice of meditation and
the study of Buddh-dharma, can provide an antidote to the rampant stress,
tension, and disatissfaction of the individual, family, and society. As one
finds personal peace and harmony through insight and understanding which
Buddhism provides, then one becomes a healthier, functioning member of each
group to which he and she pertains, whether on the local level of families and
communities, up to the global level of national citizens and interspecies members of a planetary
consciousness and caretakers.
Buddhism
also stresses personal responsibility in the use of resources, since we are all
interconnected and effected by any abuses to the environment that impacts our
ecosystem. If we learn more and more to be conscious of what we do, what and
how we use things, caring not to waste or overuse any product or resource,
learning to recycle and consume less, then the priciple of no-self of Buddhism
can serve to teach how to free ourselves from greed and anger, and be in
harmony with others, while serving others and alleviating suffering in society
and the world. As we become more conscious of ourselves, we become conscious of
the suffering of others. We let it in. When we see famine, natural disasters,
political injustice, environmental abuse, violence, and sickness, we are
motivated to take action, because through our understanding of Buddha-dharma
and our cultivation of insight and wisdom, we know that these inequalities and
problems are precisely the realm of Buddhas and bodhisattvas to work, where
Enlightenment is achieved through our vow to help all beings, both sentient and
insentient, attaining liberation, peace and harmony, the realization in the
here and now of Nirvana for self, society, and the world.
Bibliography
Jin Y. Park. (2010). Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism. Suny
Press: Albany , N.Y.
Jung-Shim Lee. (2012). “A Doubtful national hero: Han
Yongun’s Buddhist Nationalism Revisted.”
Korean Histories 3.1.
Accessed 22/11/2013
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Pori Park.
(2009). Trial and Error in Modernist
Reform: Korean Buddhism under Colonial
Rule. Regents of the University of California: CA, USA.
Tikhonov, Vladimir and Miller, Owen. (2008). Selected Writings of Han Yongun: From Social Darwinism to Socialism with a
Buddhist Face. Global Oriental LTD: Kent ,
UK .
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