현대 한국의 승려 예불: 구조와 의미

Abstract

Traditional scholarship has argued that "Daily Buddhist rituals function to solidify the identity of the monastic community" and "these rituals are none other than the representation of key Buddhist doctrines." Are these views always correct? The purpose of this paper is to critique such conventional ideas of daily Buddhist rituals by monks in contemporary Korea and attempt a new interpretation of the meaning of those rituals. To this end, this paper examines the structure and content of daily Buddhist rituals performed at T'ongdosa, the Buddha-jewel Monastery in Korea, focusing on an in-depth analysis of the spatial and temporal structure of the rituals and their functional, ideological, and practical meaning. This research led me to conclude that the structure and meaning of daily Buddhist rituals in Korea were different from common views. First, there is no solid evidence to support the contention that daily Buddhist rituals in Korea function to solidify the identity of monastic members. Moreover, it is difficult to observe that these rituals are outward expressions of key Buddhist doctrines. As a result, it appears that daily Buddhist rituals are actually a minor part of monastic life in Korea. Rather, those rituals in use are products of uncritical acceptance of the tradition. Therefore, a new pattern of daily Buddhist rituals that express the Buddha's teaching as a life education system is an urgent necessity.