「목불」(木佛)에 나타난 유희적 ‘말놀이’와 반야사상

Abstract

A Wooden Buddhist Image is about the process of realizing the mercy of Buddha by finding a wooden Buddhist image. It has the main accident which happens after a monk named Tangong who practices asceticism, meets an old Buddha sculpture called Dalnoin. Tangong's purpose of life is to find a wooden buddhist image and the meaning of his purpose is revealed indirectly through Dalnoin's life. In this paper, three things can be summarized briefly as follows. First, A Wooden Buddhist Image has a circular structure of tense repetition and its content has cause and effect. It also has a journey structure towards enlightenment which a main character attains throughout his wondering and suffering without the clear reversal and conflict. Second, the word play of concealing and revealing can be found in a main character's name, place name, Buddhist sermon and a note written in blood. Third, both the truth that matter is void and the emptiness idea which are based on Buddha's reflection on wheel of life, are showed by means of enlightenment through Dalnoin's nirvana and Tangong's endless obsession and anguish. In other words, Tango must escape from the obsession about a hopeless reality of his existence. Then, he must find and make his own Buddhist image in his mind for himself. But, A Wooden Buddhist Image doesn't explain the reasons why Tangong becomes a monk and why he is so obsessive about a wooden Buddhist image. Also, he seems to lack truth-seeker's intenseness because he can attain easily the enlightenment not by his own efforts but by Dalnoin's.