원효의 해골물 알레고리와 그 철학적 의의

Abstract

This article interprets Wonhyo’s skull water story as an allegory. And through this, I attempted to explore the core of Wonhyo’s thought by focusing on the Dependent Origination (pratītya-samutpāda, 緣起) that reveals the Impermanence (anitya, 無常) of all existence and the interconnectedness between individual existences. The story of Wonhyo’s skull water is widely known, but its historical accuracy is still being questioned. This is because there is an opinion that it is somewhat distant from historical facts. For this reason, in this article, I first conducted a literature review by looking for literature that could be related to Wonhyo’s story of the skull water. As a result, it was revealed that there are still certain limitations in reaching specific conclusions. Accordingly, this article aims to clarify the reason why Wonhyo’s thought was expressed through the skull water allegory, especially as a means of confirming the philosophical significance of the skull water allegory. As a result, it was confirmed that Wonhyo’s allegory of the skull water is not a simple story, but contains the core Buddhist teachings of Impermanence and Dependent Origination. In short, the characteristic of Wonhyo’s skull water allegory is that it attempts to reveal the Impermanence and interconnectedness of all existence. I believe that these allegory can contribute to a certain extent to exploring the causes of and solutions to the aversion and conflict that are rapidly emerging as major problems in modern society. I leave the specific study of this modern linkage method as a future task. The exploration of Wonhyo’s Reconciliation and One-mind Thought, which inevitably must be discussed in this process, also remains as a subject for future research.