동아시아 불교에서 계율의 수용과 발전 - 범계 판단의 기준 변화를 중심으로 -

Abstract

In this paper, one characteristic of the interpretation of Bodhisattva precepts that appears in the process of acceptance and development of the precepts of East Asian Buddhism, focusing on killing, sexual intercourse, and drinking is examined. These three acts are all strictly prohibited regardless of the Hīnayāna or Mahāyāna Buddhism. However, in the precepts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, these acts are also held to be innocent when they are done at the level of altruism. This is a phenomenon that appears from the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, which was established in India around the 4th century AD. In the second volume of the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra, which was established in China in the late 5th century AD, ten major and forty-eight minor precepts are preached. This is a norm with a pure Mahāyāna character that must be observed as a Mahāyāna Bodhisattva. It is a standard that the Buddha who has already attained enlightenment and the Bodhisattva who will attain enlightenment in the future do not spare the body and life to learn and practice. However, these norms emphasizing absolute principles may exist as ideal norms, but when they become problems of practical practice, they face various difficulties. Above all, it is not easy to fill the gap when confronted with the most important practice of a Bodhisattva, ‘selflessness’. Chinese and Korean commentators of the Brahmā’s Net Sūtra are trying to bridge this gap flexibly based on the teachings of Bodhisattva, which praising the act of violating the precepts for the sake of altruism as an act of merit.