퇴옹성철(退翁性徹)의 백일법문에 대한 고찰

Abstract

The Korean Buddhist circles in the 1960s were too gloomy to predict their future in the vortex of ‘the cleanup drive「淨化」’. Ven. Master Songch'ol's ‘Hundred-Day Dharma Talks[百日法門]’ resounded like a yelling throughout in this very darkness. The Hundred-Day Dharma Talks became an alarm to help mediate on the true meaning of the Buddhist priesthood to the priests who were emotionally adrift in the midst of the religious order's conflicts. It also became the Buddhist preaching that implants beliefs in the Dharma for the believers who were disappointed at the division. The core of the Hundred-Day Dharma Talks is summed up as the middle path. The pivot that penetrates through the Hundred-Day Dharma Talks is the very principle of the middle path. This is an important principle of integration in the situation of Korea where various Buddhist factors exist. Furthermore, the preaching of the middle path was like a torch for those who suffered from the national division and ideological conflicts to overcome the dichotomic values. With these meanings, the Hundred-Day Dharma Talks is seeing its coming 40th anniversary. However, the reality is that few studies and evaluations on it have followed. Ven. Master Songch'ol was a mentor who lived with us in the same age. He delivered the preaching of the middle path from the same point of view with us when he saw the circumstances faced by the Korean Buddhism. In other words, in terms of containing the keen insight of Zen knowledge closest to us, the Hundred-Day Dharma Talks has plenty of implications from a present perspective like any other discourse. By considering the general summary of the Hundred-Day Dharma Talks on the basis of this awareness, this thesis purposes to reestimate its significance in the Korean Buddhism.