대한불교조계종 비상종단의 의미와 한계

Abstract

On September 5, 1983, the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism attempted to enact a sweeping set of democratizing reforms, popularly and collectively known as the Emergency Order. However by August 1, 1984, the Emergency Order was dissolved, and a lack of complete success of the proposals of the Emergency Order have earned it a reputation as an 󰡒unfinished󰡓 reform. It is true enough that reform proposals hastily deliberated and implemented are likely to be recognized as incomplete; nevertheless, in retrospect many of the proposals of the Emergency Order found a more sympathetic hearing in the Jogye order’s 1994 Reform Conference and have been successfully implemented today. To be sure, the Emergency Order was flawed. It did not offer solutions to be applied specifically within the community of monastic monks rather, it put forward solutions addressed to the combined community of monastics and lay Buddhists. Although these alternatives were based on insightful attempts to anticipate current and future needs of the Buddhist community, their execution was not embraced by influential senior members of the Jogye order because of the alleged inexperience and impatience of reform measures’ supporters. And ironically, the very environment in which the Emergency Order was created one in which the inability to cope with change and denial of the circumstances it was meant to address made the Emergency Order necessary also rendered it vulnerable to challenges by those skeptical of proposed reforms despite the failure of the Jogye Order to meet the needs of its increasingly democratic constituency. Moreover, the highly specific nature of much the Emergency Order’s guidance may have undermined more pragmatic reformist solutions. Nevertheless, the Jogye order needs to reevaluate the assertion that the Emergency Order failed or was an incomplete reform. It should consider the implications of the Emergency Order’s language and context, and reconsider its strengths and its limits. The Emergency Order was enacted in response to the demands (Buddhist mission) of the times and to reiterate Buddhism’s social responsibilities. If the Jogye Order reflects on its repeated trial-and-error approaches at reform and re-establishment of the Middle Way as a practical philosophy, it could re-establish and reinvigorate the spirit of reform that originally inspired the Emergency Order. Furthermore, when compared with the 1994 Reformist Order of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, the 1983-1984 Emergency Order might likewise be considered successful, both as an emergency measure addressing immediate needs, and as a tactic that buoyed the spirit of reform into the future.