쇼펜하우어의 윤리에 대한 선禪불교적 접근 -쇼펜하우어의 의지와 지눌의 불성을 중심으로-

Abstract

Both Jinul and Schopenhauer believed that the physical and phenomenological world were nothing more than creations of the mind. Because these creations are impermanent, they believed that the world has no substantial existence. Accordingly, they said that if one realizes the true reality of the world, one will realize that self and others, and all things are not inherently separate, and that altruistic acts arise naturally. Unlike deontology in which one’s actions become the ultimate basis for judgment about rightness or wrongness, Jinul and Schopenhauer are found to have characteristics of virtue ethics which focuses on the capacity of the person who behaves ethically. Jinul thought that the process of fully understanding one’s inherent true nature was required before engaging in full-fledged Buddhist practice, while Schopenhauer thought that an individual’s transcendental self could be experienced in aesthetic contemplation through art. However, both of them regarded these processes as understanding or discovering the true self, but not the equivalent of enlightenment. Regarding this, Jinul said that Buddhist practice after enlightenment could largely be divided into the practice of concentration and wisdom or the practice of Ganhwa Seon. The practice of concentration and wisdom is again largely divided into two aspects: the gate of concentration and wisdom based on true nature [自性定慧門], and the gate of concentration and wisdom based on the four subsidiary marks of arising [隨相定慧門]. Ganhwa Seon is a practice that controls the maladies of conceptual understanding. Schopenhauer speaks of “abstinen-ce” to attain sustainable pure cognitive subjectivity. In this case, “abstinence” is the negation of voluntary will where one embodies pain by self-sublimation of the pain one feels. The negation of the will through this abstinence does not mean the extinction of the object, but the act of not willing. Schopenhauer only speaks of three requirements for abstinence in the area of asceticism, but he does not explain in detail how to reach the stage of involuntary abstinence.