뉴노멀 시대의 양명학, 치양지를 통한 돌봄과 치유의 길

Abstract

The pandemic of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that initially broke out from Wuhan city, Hubei province, China, in December 2019, is now changing completely all our ways of life. This led to change our life rapidly from the ‘contact society’ in which people are widely and directly meeting face to face to the ‘untact society’ in which there is no contact. In this process, the melancholy and lethargy, called ‘corona blue’, are gradually spread out. The origins of COVID-19 can be found in the destruction of wildlife habitats, the global warming, and the climate change. The climate change originates from actions and desires of human beings: human beings regard the nature as a tool and destros it cruelly to satisfy their desires; as a result, polluted things excessively discharge so the nature loses its capacity for growing and self-purifying. The true reason behind it is the role of consumer civilization which encourages endlessly the increase of human desires. In this study, the author at first examines the lessons that the COVID-19 pandemic teaches us, and then – based on the theory which explains Heaven, Earth and all things are one body (天地萬物一體說) and the theory of the fulfillment of innate knowledge (致良知說) of Yang-ming studies – investigates whether Yang-ming studies can help us in resolving difficult problems caused by the pandemic. Specifically speaking, the present study includes various sections as follows: ‘innate knowledge as the subject of care and healing’, ‘selfish individual desires which are killing the life’, ‘realization of innate knowledge and the way of care’, and ‘healing by realizing innate knowledge and the world as one body’. Since both the theory telling Heaven, Earth and all things are one body and the theory of the fulfillment of innate knowledge in Yang-ming studies help us treat maladies of the consumer civilization, they can provide us ways to restore the relationships between man and man as well as man and the nature, and also give us implications in terms of the change to the ecological civilization which is more excellent and based on care and co-existence. With the lessons learned from Yang-ming studies, which emphasize the self-reflection and self-examination on human-nature and the relationship between man and the nature, we are aware that man and the nature are originally one organism; and man is the subject that takes care of the nature and all things in the world. Through the understanding that we can gain the satisfaction and genuine pleasure when treating injuries of other people and things in the nature and taking care of them, we can free ourselves from the consumer civilization, selfishness, priority to the strong, and egocentrism, and try to change to the ecological civilization of care and co-existence in which all living things live a happy life.