한국 간화선의 세계화를 위한 제안 ─유럽의 불교수용 맥락에서

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to suggest some methods to globalize Korean Ganhwa Seon[Ch. Kanhua Chan 看話禪] in the context of acceptance of Buddhism in Europe. To achieve this, a historical examination of how European society could encounter and become interested in Buddhism was conducted. After this, some methods to globalize Korean Ganhwa Seon were sought by analyzing the merits and problems of it in the context of acceptance of Buddhism in Europe. First of all, three reasons of Europe’s interest and enthusiasm toward Buddhism were drawn as follows. First,Buddhism, which aids people to not only depart from the dependant faith of Christianity, but pursue spiritual freedom and share in a deeper sense of common cause with humanity,appealed to Western people. It was Schopenhauer(1788~1860)who made the historical turning point in those days. Second, as the pro-rationalistic trend and scientific development prevailed, skepticism about the existence of God increased. In the mean time, Westerners found it possible to have a “non-theistic religion” in Buddhism, so that they showed great interest in Buddhism. While Darwin(1809~1882) made an strong impact on the Christian faith with strong scientific evidence, Nietzsche(1844~1900), his contemporary, did the same via philosophical theory. Third, as information technology rapidly developed, information exchange between East and West expanded. Due to this phenomenon, the trend regarding non-western values as being equivalent with the western ones became more prevalent than before in the West. Analyzing Korean Ganhwa Seon in the context of reception of Buddhism in Europe has various merits as follows: First, it has a strong scholarly orientation inherent itself. Second, it has high possibility that aids people to not only depart from the dependant faith of Christianity, but pursue spiritual freedom and share in a deeper sense of common cause with humanity. Third, it has useful factors that could treat individual mental loneliness and anguish originating from the ills of individualism and capitalism prevailing in today’s Western society. Although there are diverse merits in Korean Ganhwa Seon,various problems could be found as well. First, Korean Ganhwa Seon places emphasis on investigating one hwadu[話頭] through life such an excessive extent. The second is that concerning the contents of hwadu, developing new hwadusfor the Western culture is needed. Third, the tradition of the Master -Disciple Encounter System[Kr. ipsiljedo 入室制度] has been invalid. The last is the teaching of mentors is authoritarian and unkind. Rectifying these problems, it is expected that the Chogye Order actively improve Ganhwa Seon corresponding to the Western context and over a period of time.