龍城 禪師의 ‘大圓覺性’ 이해

Abstract

The traditional discipline system of Korean Buddhism is represented as what is called ‘Three Gates’ consisting of Zen, Doctrine and Buddhist prayer which has been rooted since the 17th century. The purpose of this study is to explain thought of the doctrine of Zen master Yong-seong, a pioneer of modernization of Korean Buddhism, in the light of the Three Gates’. Back then Buddhism was integrated into Zen Buddhism, and Zen masters had already acknowledged and encouraged Gyohak of Wondonmun(the gate of perfection and epiphany) and recitation of Yeombulmun(the gate of chanting) while advocating Gyeongjeolmun(the gate of direct cut), a traditional Buddhism practice. Then Zen masters practiced Gyohak with other practices realizing the importance of Gyohak, which is why it’s reasonable to regard Gyohak of the time as ‘reinterpreted in terms of Zen.’ On the surface it seemed that Zen and Gyo coexisted, but in fact, it was the time when the common ground between Zen and Gyo developed through reinterpreting Gyo in terms of Zen. Zen master Yongseoung was a Zen monk of the late 19th～early 20th centuries who succeeded Buddhism disciplines of ‘Three Gates’. His thought of the doctrine is based on the theory of the contingency of suchness which says that originally pure world of Tathata is hidden by Avidya, thereby the phenomenal world is appearing. This world view is shown commonly in other sects of Zen order affected by Daeseung Gisinnon. Although each denomination uses different terms, Zen master Yongseong frequently used ‘Daewongakseong’ instead of ‘Tathata’. Daewongakseong was the main purport of Buddhism to him and attaining it was his ultimate goal of Buddhism practice. This paper notes the structure and meaning of his ‘samgak (Threefold or three kinds of enlightenment of the Awakening of Mahayana Faith)’ consisting of bongak(Primal awakening), sigak (Inceptive awakening) and gugyeonggak(Ultimate awakening). Therefore, it compared and analyzed the structures of ‘Samgak’ from Gisinron(the same as ‘Daeseung Gisinron’) and Yongseong’s ‘gak’. The comparison found that ‘samgak’ from Gisinron developed from Sim Saengmyeolmun(The phenomenal aspect of the mind) while Zen master Yongseong took ‘ilsim(一心)’ from ‘ilsimimun(一心二門)’ and discussed ‘samgak’ based on it. As a result, ‘bongak’ amongst ‘samgak’ is elevated to the status of The essence of becoming and cessation equal to Tathata and the result of its working is sigak. Bongak, which is equal to che(體), and sigak, the working of bongak and che are called Gugyeonggak as they are not separated considering ‘Zeuyongjiche(卽用之體)’ and ‘Zeugchejiyong(卽體之用)’. Thus Zen master Yongseong further emphasized Bulsangli(不相離) of The essence of becoming and cessation and function while accepting basic ideas of Daeseung Gisinron, and replaced the structure of ‘Ilsimimun (一心二門)’ with ‘Gakjacheyong(覺自體用).’ What was found through this is that Zen master Yongseong broke away from the elaborate and complicated structure of ’Daeseung Gisinron’, simplifying and clarifying the structure of gak. As is known, Zen master Yongseong was a pioneer in modernizing Korean Buddhism, and the influence of his ideas on modern Buddhism in Korea was not trivial. Therefore, the study explaining his Thought of the doctrine is expected to offer an opportunity to have a glimpse of how the then Zen monks interpreted Hwaeomgyohak(華嚴敎學) in terms of Zen.