인도 고대종교의 회통으로서의 석가모니의 인식과 실천

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the Śākyamuni's Recognition and Practice as a Principle of Reconciliation in Ancient Indian Religions. Indian religion means the various religions born in India. Religion in India is a way of life according to a conception of reality. Ancient Indian Religions is classified as orthodox or unorthodox according as it accepts or rejects the authority of the Vedas, the oldest and most sacred scriptures of the Hindus. Brahmanism is generally regarded as orthodox system. The unorthodox systems are Cārvākism(materialism), Jainism, and Buddhism. In the sixth century B.C. Jainism and Buddhism, rose in prostest against the Brahmanism. Upaniṣads which form part of the Vedas are the real foundations of Brahmanism. They are "the finest flower of Vedic thought". All orthodox schools of Brahmanism look upon Upaniṣads as their supreme authority. The Upaniṣads try to answer the questions like "Where and how does God exist? How are man and the Universe related to Him?" The Upaniṣads explain various theories of the creation of the Universe. According to the Upaniṣads God and the soul are fundamentally indentical. One of the mahāvakyas, the great utterances of the Upaniṣads are 'Tattvāmasi', 'You are that' and 'Aham Brahmāsmi','I am the absolute'. In other words there is the same divine spirit in every human being. Brahman, the Universal Spirit, is identified with Ātman-self. The Ātman is imprisoned in a particular body, mind and understanding, which create in the individual ignorance of his own infinitude and of his oneness with all beings. Mokṣa is the liberation from this prison house of individuality. Mokṣa can be attained by Jñāna or the transcendent knowledge. Other important doctrines of the Upaniṣads are transmigration of souls and karma. There is no death of the soul. After the death of the body, the soul migrates to another body resulting in a cycle of births. The Karma or action determines the nature of life of man in the next birth. It is an age-old belief in almost all cultures that there exists in man an eternal and permanent entity variously known as the 'Soul'. the 'Self' or the 'Spirit' - in short, there exists in many substance called the 'Soul'. Brahmanism and Jainism teach that the soul of man is an immortal substance. These philosopgers hold that the soul is the essence of man. Thus, although man's body changes and perishes, his soul is changeless and immortal, abiding and immutable. It is the soul which animates the body. The soul is to be equated neither with any part of the body nor with the body as a whole. The soul is known in Jainism as the Jīva and in Brahamanism as the Ātman. But the Śākyamuni teaches according to the Doctrine of Dependent Origination, everything exists dependently and conditionally; and we have seen that the fact of universal change and impermanence logically follows from the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. As such, there can be nothing which is permanent and unchanging. It is worth noting that th doctrine of universal change and impermance follows from the fundamental teaching, namely, the Doctrine of Dependent Origination, according to which nothing exists unconditionally and absolutely - this arising, that arises and this ceasing to be, that cease to be. If anything exists absolutely and unconditionally, then it is incapable of entering into interaction with anything else, for to enter into interaction is to undergo change. Thus the view that anything exists permanently contradicts the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. The conclusion, then, is that the thesis of universal change and impermance logically follows from the Doctrine of Dependent Origination(pratītyasamutpāda), the foundation of the Buddha's Recognition. It should be emphasized that the Śākyamuni recommends the Doctrine of Dependent Origination as the Middle Way which avoids the two dogmatic extremes of eternalism(śāsvatavāda) and and annihilationism(ucchedavāda). The Doctrine of Dependent Origination is truly the Middle Way, the way of becoming, in that it teaches not only that the objects of our experience exist not, however, absolutely and unconditionally, but also that owing to its conditional existence every object, instead of simply perishing away, produces some effect or other. The Śākyamuni is unique among the teachers of the world in that he not only clearly saw the bearing of ontology on ethics but also taught an ontology that is most conducive to the moral development of man. Thus the Śākamuni's Practice flow from his doctrine of anattā, which in turn is ontologically firmly grounded in the Doctrine of Dependent Origination. The remarkable insight of the Śākyamuni is that moral perfection cannot be attained without knowledge(right views, Sammādiṭṭhi) concerning existence. We can see now why right views constitute the first step of the Eightfold Path(aṣṭaṅgika-mārga). We can also understand why the Buddha untiringly exhorted men to give up the pernicious illusion of a permanent self. The destruction of this illusion is the first step toward enlightenment, conquest of suffering, and perfection it self. In his very first Sermon at Sāranātha he said: 'There are two extremes, O monks, from which he who leads a religious life must abstain. One is a life of pleasure, devoted to desire and enjoyment:that is base, ignoble, unspiritual, unreal. The other is a life of mortification: it is gloomy, unworthy, unreal. The Perfect One, O monks, if removed from both these extremes and has discovered the way which lies between them, the Middle Way which enlightens, the eyes enlightens the mind, which leads to rest, to knowleelge to enlightenment, to Nirvāna'. This is the Noble Eight-fold Path contained in the Four Noble Truths. In conclusion , the Śākamuni's Recogintion is the Doctrine of Pratītyasamutpāda, his Practice is the Middle Way. The path he chose was self-discipline and self-analysis through concentration and meditation, avoiding egually the extreme of asceticism and self-mortification on the one hand and that of unrestrained pursuit of pleasure and enjoyment on the other. By following the Śākamuni's Recognition and Practice each man can break the chain and attain liberation by eliminating ignorance, the root cause of suffering.