한국불교와 민간신앙의 혼합현상

Abstract

Korean society is a society in which folk beliefs as well as Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, indigenous ethnic religion created in the end of Chosun Dynasty coexist together. It is a society of religious pluralism that can not be found in world history. There are few societies where heterogeneous and diverse religions coexist without great conflict. Syncretism is a phenomenon in which various religions are mixed while claiming their own unique realms. Essentially, Syncretism can be said to be an effort to make various beliefs with different kinds or completely opposite character coexist in harmony and to converge the ideas of various schools. Particularly in the fields of Buddhism, theology, and religious myth, it appears to be an attempt to consolidate the underlying harmony by combining and deducing several traditions with completely different bases. In East Asia, the feature of Syncretism appeared as combination of three religions, which became Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. In Korea, Syncretism developed greatly in the Silla Period. Wonhyo interpreted it as the thought of ‘Hwajaeng’ in his 『Mahayana Shaddhotpada Sastra』. 'Hwa' presents unity and harmony, and 'Jaeng' presents diversity. Syncretism is to respect harmony and diversity. In this paper, the researcher intentionally selected the 'Syncretism of Korean Buddhism and Folk Beliefs' as headwords. It is a theme that we wanted to avoid or disregard ourselves while being embedded in the phenomenon of Korean Buddhism. The boundary between Buddhism and folk belief became shallow while we were avoiding and disregarding. At one point they were being believed in one space together. It is difficult to define purity in religion. It may not have existed originally. It is only defined by subjective judgment of people. In particular, those with strong religious beliefs have a strong belief that their form of belief is done as taught by the founder. This belief was convinced by the priests leading the believers' beliefs. Such a group leads the believer to 'prayer response,' 'attaining Buddhahood (folk belief),' and 'A place where prayer works well' than the ability to resolve the desire of those seeking power and wealth. 'Korean Buddhism and folk belief' discussed the present phenomenon which is a mixture of Buddhism and faith classified as superstition. There is no superstition. There is only an uncomfortable belief for the group with tangible and intangible force. They just divide the faith into faith for blessing and despise it. Most religions are based on blessing. There are thoughts that only my belief is an exception. The purpose of this paper is to examine the acceptance of Buddhism and folk beliefs especially Buddhism in the field. Its appearance is always changing. Continuous observation is needed about to what type it is changing.