‘소성거사 원효’의 왕생 가능성 -『무량수경종요』와 관련하여-

Abstract

In this article, I aim to re-illuminate Wonhyo(元曉, 617-686)’s Faith on the Pure Land Buddhism, by answering the question whether so called ‘Retrogressed Layman(vaivartika-gṛhastha) Wonhyo’ could attain the rebirth in the Pure Land(淨土). For this purpose, I re-examined the paragraph, in which Wonhyo broke Buddhist precepts not to have relationship with woman, had a son and finally changed his monk clothes into the secular, by Illyeon’s storytelling in his book Legendes and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea(Samgukyusa, 三國遺事). I asked two questions about ‘Retrogressed Layman(vaivartika-gṛhastha) Wonhyo’s Rebirth in Pure Land, and searched the answers in Wonhyo’s Essence to Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra(無量壽經宗要), in which Wonhyo shows his standpoints about the Pure Land Buddhism. As consequences, I found out that even though he broke his precepts, he still took its qualification for rebirth in the Pure Land and that chanting “Namo Amitābha”, which came from the Sūtra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immesurabla Life(觀無量壽經) was recommended by Wonhyo as writer of Essence to Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra. Therefore it has been highly significant for us to ascertain that Wonhyo’s standpoints have shown his choice to chant “Namo Amitābha” as the method of going to the Pure Land. But he also emphasized that practioner’s have to concentrate and repent during his chanting “Namo Amitābha”.