대한불교조계종, 통합종단 50년의 3대사업 성찰 -1962년~2012년의 교육․포교․역경사업에 대한 성과평가를 중심으로-

Abstract

The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism has implemented three major projects, namely, education, preaching mission and Buddhist translation for 50 years since the launching of its united order. The education project aims at venerable education, the preaching mission project aims to preach Buddhism to urban areas and to shed the practice of praying only for good fortune, and the Buddhist translation project aims to translate the Sūtras into Korean. When the united order was launched, the venerable education had to improve those monks who were not properly trained and disciplined so as to establish their identity distinctively. The preaching mission had to construct temples in urban areas as well as educate believers because Buddhism was being practiced as Buddhism only in mountains and Buddhism only for praying for good fortune, which was even seen as shamanism. Also, the Buddhist translation project had to translate the Chinese-written Sūtras into Korean. The purpose of these three major projects can be epitomized by the modernization of Buddhism. Buddhist priests of the united order pursued the three major projects for the modernization of Buddhism with passion and dedication, but their efforts have not been so successful because of a lack of finance. The venerable education had maintained the education system of Joseon College of Monastics without major change until 2010 when the order prepared standard curricula of Saṅgha University, paving the way for modernization of Buddhism. The preaching mission sought to modernize Buddhism through preaching in urban areas and shedding the practice of praying only for good fortune, but the power of Buddhism is still weaker than that of Christianity in urban areas. Only the Buddhist translation project has been successful: Dongguk Translation Institute has completed the publication of the Hangul Tripitaka for 36 years, thus achieving the Korean versions of the Sūtras, and they are now being revised. When the united order's three major projects are evaluated in terms of modernization of Buddhism, the Buddhist translation project achieved its goals, but the venerable education and preaching mission projects have not achieved their goals.