Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism

Sot'aesan's Creation of Won Buddhism through the Reformation of Korean Buddhism

62 Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism they were not really enlightened mentors. Since his father passed away in 1910 leaving the household affairs with heavy debt on Pak’s shoulder, the state of the household fell into destitution while he could not free himself from the insoluble doubts. By the time he reached age 25, his body was covered with blotches. He was regarded as a pitiful lost soul by the villagers. It was at dawn on April 28, 1916, six years after Korea lost inpendence because of Japanese colonialism that, at age twenty-five, Pak Chungbin finally had an enlightenment experience and awakened from a long absorption. With this experience, Sot’aesan recovered his health with radiance on his countenance; his awesome appearance impressed his villagers so forcefully that he had over forty followers in a couple of months thereafter, most of them his seniors. He formed a body of ten members, choosing eight of them, but leaving the center position vacant, which was filled by his successor Song Kyu (1900–1962).2 Sot’aesan gave a name to this ten member body, “the savings union,” for the new life movement, which became the first order of the new religion he was about to establish. At the beginning, this order had nothing to do with Korean Buddhism. Upon his enlightenment he had a precognition that human beings were in danger of being enslaved to the material power. He felt it urgent to strengthen the spiritual power of humankind in order to help protect them from the formidable material power. He believed that the only way for humans to enhance their spiritual power was by having faith in truthful religion and by cultivating sound morality. Thus, the motto with which he opened the new religious order was: “Since material power is unfolding, let us unfold the spiritual power accordingly.” It goes without saying that his precognition was veridical, for the formidable power of material civilization has been threatening the very survival of human race. In order to check his enlightenment against those of ancient sages, Sot’aesan perused some of the basic scriptures of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Ch’ŏndogyo, and Christianity.3 Upon reading the Diamond Sūtra, Sot’aesan declared that Śākyamuni Buddha was the sage of all sages and that he would take the Buddha’s teaching as the central tenet of the doctrine of the new religion he was planning to establish. He did so because he realized that the Buddha’s teaching was the best in explicating the fundamental truth of the universe. However, he could not mention Buddhism to his disciples because Buddhism in Korea at that time had been ostracized for 500 years by the Chosŏn dynasty’s national ideology of neo-Confucianism, and Buddhist monks were treated as the lowest of Korean society’s eight low classes. Buddhism as practiced in Korean society at the time was not in a state to be the source for the spiritual power for the new era. Sot’aesan thus said, “When the world enters into the degenerate and troublesome era, a great savior sage comes of necessity with a truthful doctrine potent enough to rule the world, rectifies the world and harmonizes the spirit of mankind by redirecting the numinous power of heaven and earth” (SS 14: 1). SP_PAR_Ch03_061-090.indd 62 SP_PAR_Ch03_061-090.indd 62 1/8/10 2:38:00 PM 1/8/10 2:38:00 PM 63 Sot’aesan’s Creation of Won Buddhism Because the spiritual lights of ancient sages had been dimmed for a long time, they were not bright enough for the spiritual darkness of the new era. Sot’aesan, however, incorporated some of the relevant tenets of the ancient sages into the doctrine of the new religious order, taking the Buddha-dharma as the central tenet. The doctrine of his new religious order should be simple enough for everyone to practice and yet potent enough for anyone to realize Buddhahood and nirvān .a in this troubled world. Before mentioning anything about Buddhism to his disciples, the young Sot’aesan accomplished two things as examples of a new religious life. First, in order to show the way of transforming the old world into a new one, Sot’aesan set up guiding precepts emphasizing diligence and frugality, abolition of empty formalities, doing away with superstition, and abstinence from alcoholic drink and smoking. Second, he ordered his...