문화생태주의에서 본 대순사상의 천지공사와 지상선경의 경계 : 해소와 화해의 지속가능한 시선

Abstract

The article takes a critical perspective that reunderstanding the canon of Daesoon Thought is necessary to expand its application to the needs of modern society given the rapid speed of societal changes. The key point is the emergence of a cultural ecologism within Daesoon Thought. What is called the cultural ecologism is focused upon the sustainable horizon of unifying culture and ecology in the organic structure of a total-life culture. A reciprocal unity of culture and ecology is characteristic of a coherent whole with an original unitary process in the circle of Nature. Cultural ecologism, therefore, aims at seeking after the sustainability of culture wherein the value of culture is integrated in the grand stream of the ecological spirit of Nature. In the Late Joseon Dynasty, Daesoon Thought paid attention to the Great Opening (開闢) to secure the people’s livelihoods and it offered edification concerning anti-feudalism in a dimension of realistic awareness which guided people’s lives. The process of the Great Opening functions as a process for the world of the Reordering Works of Heaven and Earth (天地公事) which culminate in the experience the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) of the Later World (後天). In the cultural ecologism of Daesoon Thought, this course is equivalent to a process of Haewon (grievance-resolution) in the sense of dissolution and reconciliation. From the wide umbrella of cultural ecologism, consequently, it is possible to say that Daesoon Thought can arrive at the reality of the Earthly Paradise (地上仙境) through the Great Opening of the Later World, in which human beings can enjoy the infinite vitality of the universe from within their own finite vitality.