이승만 정부가 한국불교에 미친 영향과 그 극복 방안

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of Syngman Rhee government on Korean Buddhism and ways to overcome it. The “Quarrel of the Saṅgha,” one of the most devastating blows to Korean Buddhism after the liberation from the Japanese rule in 1945, originated from President Syngman Rhee's May 20, 1954, allocution on the “Buddhist temple purification”. The two purposes of President Syngman Rhee issuing the speech can be summarized as follows. One was political and the other religious. The latter was a maneuver carefully planned to induce the self-destruction of Buddhism through divisions of the Saṅgha. The Buddhist leaders at the time, however, were unable to recognize President Rhee's hidden intention and were solely preoccupied with taking over the temples in the name of 'temple purification' in assentation. While the Buddhist community was in a state of internal strife, President Syngman Rhee, a Protestant fundamentalist, was blatantly favoring Christianity and conducting missionary activities to realize his dream of “making Korea a sheer Christian nation.” As a result, Christianity in Korea grew rapidly. The Buddhist circle, on the other hand, was deeply hurt by the “Saṅgha division (Saṅghabheda)” which sparked off under President Syngman Rhee. The harmful consequences and after-effects of the Saṅghabheda still linger to this day. Among them, the biggest problems are sectarianism, the loss of Buddhist property, and a culture of violence within the Saṅgha. In order to overcome these troubles, I propose three measures. First, an authoritative, non-sectarian, pan-Buddhist organization should be created to actively respond to government policies based on religious biases and incidents of pagan desecration. Second, the purification of the Saṅgha should not be imposed by any outside power but should be addressed by the Saṅgha itself, and should be an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Third, conflicts within the Saṅgha or Saṅgha conflicts should be resolved by the inherent Buddhist method of extinguishing disputes (adhikaraṇasamathā-dhammā) as outlined in the Vinaya Piṭaka. It is un-Buddhist to take a dispute to a secular court and waste the Three Treasures for legal costs. Finally, the reason we look back at the dark history of the past is to avoid repeating the past mistakes. In other words, we want to draw a lesson from history. If we do not learn from history, we cannot expect the future development of Korean Buddhism.