『법화경』 「견보탑품」에 나오는 寶塔의 상징성 고찰

Abstract

There is the story on a stupa in the sky which is aroused from a place on the earth in the chapter apparition of a stupa in the Lotus sutra. This paper’ aim is the consideration on the symbolic meaning of the stupa. To sum up, the first, in the point of thought, the story on the stupa may be able to be seen as the effect of Indian thought, but it is reinterpreted in buddhist view point. The thinking that Dharmakaya(the body of truth, or Buddha) is in the stupa, not sarira(Sacred relics of the Buddha), which is resulted from the effect of absolute monism of Brahmanism made the object for the salvation and devotion of Buddhism something transcendental and monistic. The second, many thinkers have desired to interpretate the earth as the mindground, the ignorance(avidya), and the mediocrity of the world in the reason that the stupa was aroused from the earth. And, from the fact that the stupa is in the sky, they understood dharmakaya-buddha is transcendental to time and space, and free from objective consciousness. The way to read the text as above made the symbolic meaning more important than a reading literally, and have opened the possibility of individual different interpretations. The third, three representative thinkers on the Lotus sutra in China as Tientai, Jizang, and Kuiji showed the tendency of reading the story on the stupa in the point of the skilful device(upaya) and the truth through traditional theory of substance and function in China. They are similar to the point that Buddha is a main agent of the salvation, but there are some differences in a detailed analysis. In such detailed point, Tientai interprets the stupa in the sky as the dharmakaya in the state of the factual reality(dharmata), but Jizang emphasizes, on the ground of logical analysis, that dharmakaya is the true nature of the Middle Way. The thinkers above interpret the voice from the stupa also in the point of the skilful device(upaya) and the truth, but we can also interpret it as a inner voice by buddhist strong faith and practice will, as it were, a voice of faith and a great aspiration in Mahaprajnaparamita Shastra. The fourth, we can understand that the sitting of the Buddha of abundant treasure(Prabhutaratna) in the stupa diffrently with sarira stupa in which there is sarira, buddha's bone. and the sitting together of Sakyamuni and Prabhutaratna shows the transmission of Dharma and the succession of the legitimacy of buddhist order which are putted emphasis on in early buddhism. And we can say that the unity of the past-buddha with the present-buddha symbolizes the ideological tendency of the Lotus sutra philosophy that desired to accept old buddhist order, and aim new buddhist value. The chapter apparition of a stupa involves the traditional myths and thoughts in India, the circumstance of early buddhist order, and a religious faith of the Lotus sutra thought activists. So although we would be not able to understand the story, because of symbolic and mythical expressions of it. but we can read the symbolism of the stupa in it in the point of the background of Indian culture and thoughts, and the development of buddhist order.