‘시대와 삶과 학문’과 불연 이기영

Abstract

It is inevitable that we live in a certain period of historical era and should be a member of a community. At this time, the era and the community stand right opposite us as a overwhelming power, and as a result we must internalize the norm or the spirit of the era and the community which we live in. On the other hands, the human being is not solely passive, he is active in creating the society, and such an ability of man may be called the externalization of man’s power. In such a way the human being and the society have the relationship of dialectical process between them. We can find the similar process in the formation of the scholarship of Prof. Rhi who was widely known as to open the new age in the field of Korean Buddhist Studies. He lived in the age of Japanese colony, the 2nd world war, the political conflict between the communist and the democratic parties caused by the foreign influences and the Korean War which have brought utter destruction all over the state. And he could observe West European imperialism and the race discrimination as a foreign student while he stayed in Louvain and Paris between 1954 and 1960. It would be highly possible that Prof. Rhi has reached - as a reactionary response to the tide of the age - at the studies of Buddhism and especially to the thought of Monk Wonhyo which had become the basic foundation of Korean culture. Though he can be regarded as a nationalist scholar in such a case, it should be remembered that he became to have such mind in the long spiritual quest to find the answer for his existential questions. The scholarship in the oriental meaning inevitably includes the practice of self-discipline especially when that scholarship refers to Buddhist studies. Wonhyo’s catch phrase which was paraphrased by Prof. Rhi, ‘Return to the source of one-mind, and Profit widely to all people’, also reflects this compound meaning of scholarship. And the career of Prof. Rhi after returning to his country can be explained in this respect. He started his career as a professor at a university, but he devoted his life before long to the education of the ordinary citizens which brought him a great reputation and gave great opportunities for the ordinary people to approach to their brilliant tradition. The society which confronts us now is the world which Prof. Rhi had poured himself so passionately during his life. It would be quite right that Prof. Rhi would have merits and demerits in a certain sense. But like Prof. Rhi at his time, in our age we ourselves are responsible to create our future.