불교 경전 속 식물 연구 방법론

Abstract

The plant is a tool to heal the human mind, and is also inextricably linked to human life. Buddhism is a religion that values nature, including plants, so the plants are never away from the philosophy of Buddhism. Therefore, when we explore the plants which are listed in the Buddhist scriptures as botanical and show the meanings of plants as symbol, it is no longer botany but the religion and philosophy. On the other hand, it is enough to be called that the history of human culture is the history of symbol because human nature has been using symbol as an important factor of communication. The religion, for showing sacredness of God and the meaning of Bible clearly, has been using a variety of symbols such as pictures, patterns, and shapes and the Buddhism is not an exception. The plants are one of Buddhism symbols. It is important that the range setting of scriptures must take precedence in order for studying plants which are included in Buddhist scriptures properly because the range of scriptures is so vast and there are many other version of scriptures such as Treatise and commentary with another version. Furthermore, when the scripture was handed down to China, the translation process was not precise. The scripture was translated by confused way, for example, the criteria of translation are plural, transliteration and liberal translation. Even meaning was changed when the scripture was handed down into our country. So studying plants based on the comprehension of early scripture is very worthwhile as a new paradigm for understanding Buddhism precisely. If we recognize that the Buddhism has influenced our culture and lifestyle for a long time, it will be meaningful that this study can refocus and express its symbolism. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to derive the discussion about studying plants in Buddhist scriptures by cleaning up the meaning of study and suggesting a sample of the study.