일엽선사一葉禪師의 생애와 사상 - 『행복과 불행의 갈피에서』를 중심으로

Abstract

This is a study on the life and thought of bhikkhuni Seon Master Iryeop (1896-1971). Focusing on her last book published during her lifetime titled In Between Happiness and Misfortune, I reveal core elements of her thoughts through the structure and sentence analysis of her writings. As a modern female Buddhist pioneer, Iryeop published works under her own name. However, her books’ value as collections of pioneering essays by a bhikkhuni was overshadowed by interest in her life. In the same context, metaphorical Buddhist concepts in her books were hard to discern, and only curiosity about her love life inspired interest. Later, as time passed and social perspectives broadened, her achievements and value have gradually attracted more attention. However, research on certain unconfirmed parts of her life continued to be based particularly on a novel written about her, which should not be accepted as the basis for scholarly theses. Accordingly, I raised questions about the value of fictional anecdotes presented in a novel she did not write, and this became my basis for academic research. I pointed out that fictitious data should not be used as the basis for academic theses, citing several grounds. Next, I identified two core ideas that were constants in Iryeop’s writings: life and emptiness. For Iryeop, the inherent “life” is a term representing Buddhist truth. In that sense, the term “life” was used in the same sense as the term “emptiness.” In fact, looking at Iryeop’s talks on emptiness, I found this to be the case: Iryeop stated that since “the essence is emptiness,” and “life is the essence of all things,” the term “life” can be replaced with “emptiness” and vise versa. Lastly, I examined Iryeop’s Seon practice. Iryeop entered monastic life under the tutelage of Master Mangong and practiced Seon under his guidance. Mangong guided and led Iryeop in the traditional way of Korean Seon Buddhism. In other words, in my study of her life and writings, I confirmed that she practiced in the style of Patriarchal Seon, which is the traditional Korean Seon Buddhist method.