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English Books on Korea... and More!
Hyun Gak Sunim on Buddhism
This entry was written by Robert Koehler, posted on December 11, 2007 at 2:11 pm, filed under Korean Culture, Ministry of Barbarian Affairs. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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43 Comments
Does anybody know any good book about the history of Korean Buddhism (or religion)?
Recently I am interested in the history of Korean religions (alongside with Japanese history of religion).
In Japan scholars are discussing the possibility that virtually “Shinto” and “Buddhism (Japanese)” are merely modern inventions during the Meiji-era, because the word and concept of “Religion” was introduced and translated in Japanese via English, which means that the Japanese concept of religion (shukyo) has a strong protestant flavor, and because of the introduction of modern religious policy (Shinto was intentionally and haphazardly created by the Meiji government).
Are there any similar arguments ongoing in Korea? I mean for better or worse the Korean concept of religion would be heavily influenced via Japan during the colonial era, but I found always fascinating that Christianity gained some ground in Korea before the colonialisation. What impact would have had Christianity on Korean concept of “religion”?
tomojiro,
You do know that buddhism was brought to Japan by Baekje (Kudara), right?
Try “Korea: A Religious History”
http://books.google.com/books?.....&hl=en
Yup, that tome by Prof James Grayson is the standard — i use it when teaching my “History of Korean Culture” course… It does leave some gaps, one of which is filled in by my own San-shin book
Anyway, that is an excellent video of Hyeon-gak, who does give great interviews (and lectures) — he goes both deep and broad, and he “gets it” thoroughly — always worth listening to. Korean Buddhism is fortunate to have him as a 21st-Cen spokesman…
And as a symbol of its increasing globalization. Out of all the non-Koreans who’ve ever tried to join in on what’s going on here, tried to make a difference and “become somebody” (with actual infuence) in Korean society, outside of the Christian-missionary world at least, Hyeon-gak is one of the most successful ever (along with Saint Hiddink). He’s thus something of a leading positive role-model for us expats, although i’m sure he would reject any such designation…
Thanks Wangkon and Sanshin
I will definitly buy the book (and maybe yours Sanshin).
“You do know that buddhism was brought to Japan by Baekje (Kudara), right?”
Yeah, well I wasn’t trying to say that there was no Buddhism in pre-Meiji era, but that as soon as Buddhism came to Japan via Baekje, that it merged with local deities (which is now considered “Shinto deities”). In other words, from the beginning of the history (literal written histories at least), Japanese religious belief was a mixture of beliefs about local Gods and the foreign originated Buddha’s and Bodhisattas, and it is meaningless to discern what is “Shinto” or what is “Buddhist”.
With the Meiji restoration the Japanese Government recognized that such kind of “mixed religion” was considered uncivilized and simultaneously they felt a need to establish a “national religion” (in the western sense) that could be a vehicle for the modernism and a “shield” against the danger of penetration of western religions to Japanese soul.
So they separated native deities and Buddhism （神仏隔離）, purged all Buddhist aspects from shrines （廃仏毀釈）, and created “Shinto” (coupled with Tennoism).
Buddhist monks on the other hand, with purpose to prove that Buddhism was a more “civilized” “authentic” religion than Shinto, purged all what they (or in western sense) considered “uncivilized” (magic’s, shamanism, belief which they considered superstitious,etc).
So as a result there you have the “new” quasi-philosophical religion, Buddhism.
And after that people like Suzuki Daisetsu introduced Japanese Zen Buddhism as the purest essence of Japanese tradition (in writing extensively in English).
Ironically, I believe that this kind of vision about Buddhism became the archetype in the western society about Buddhism in general.
There is another book in English that focuses on the history of Buddhism, though I forgot the title.
Its all well and good that this guy has devoted his life to Buddhism, but he hardly looks corpulent so I don’t see any need for him to hide his folds under such venerable folds.
So the goal is just to “be here”?
Thank God the goal was not to finish listening to that mumbo jumbo, accentuated with all the awkward emphatic stress and gestures. I guess I am just a lost soul when it comes to Buddhism.
Here is my dictionary definition of “Buddhism”:
“Extinction of the self and of worldly desire…beyond existence”? It sounds to me like the goal is to “NOT be here.”
Yup, there’s a great difference between Indian / Theravada Buddhism, the Scriptural / Devotional Mahayana that dominated Korea/China 300-800 CE, and the Ch’an/Seon/Zen schools that now are most of Korean Buddhism, and Hyeon-gak represents…
It’s not a history book but the main denomination of Korean Buddhism, “Jogye Jong”, runs a site. The site does not give much history of Korean Buddhism, but gives idea what Jogye Jong pursuit.
http://www.koreanbuddhism.net/
A good book on Korean Zen Buddhism is Robert E. Buswell’s The Zen Monastic Experience. Professor Buswell, who is one of the foremost scholars of Korean Zen Buddhism spent five years as a monk in a Korean Buddhist monastery.
He goes into the history, the rivalry between the Jogye and Taego Orders, and what the life of a monk is like.
It is worth reading if you get the chance. The publisher is Princeton University Press and it is available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and elsewhere.
One of the big schisms in Buddhist history in Korea was the split between the Jogye Order, the largest order of Korean Buddhism and the Taego Order which is the second largest order. Unlike the Jogye Order, the Taego Order does permits the marriage of monks and the monks are not necessarily banned from eating meat.
An American by the name of David Zuniga was ordained a Buddhist monk in the Taego Order and now runs a Zen Center in Austin. He has a website which features some of the history of the Taego Order. You can access it by visiting http://www.sonbuddhism.org
Interesting, if somewhat tendentious, piece by Zuniga, especially the claim regarding the alleged resurgence of T’aego since Buswell wrote. As for the schism argument, I don’t think it’s true, either in the technical sense or even loosely speaking. First of all, if the dispensation from celibacy was given by the abbots of most of the temples, it hardly qualifies as a schism. Moreover, despite the prominence of Manhae in the propagandizing for promulgation of the new dispensation, the fact remains that the idea of dropping celibacy was not really an indigenous phenomenon, but very much part and parcel of the Japanese Soto missionary project, which itself was actively promoted by the Japanese colonial government, as part of its strategy of “Japanizing” Korea. In this regard, Manahe more or less played into their hands by inadvertently promoting the wholesale replacement of the existing Korean buddhist establishment with one that would in effect be controlled by Japanese. One has to wonder about how genuine the abbots compliance with Japanese suggestions was, and whether it wasn’t a species of “skillful means” intended to preserve as much relative autonomy for the indigenous establishment vis-a-vis Japanese as possible. Anyway, I’d be interested in learning more about claimed developments in T’aego since Buswell wrote. I have an acquaintance who is a T’aego monk. He’s a former gangster who ran sex clubs in Shinjuku and Itaewon before “getting it”. He still has a wife from his bad boy days, but they don’t live together; she seems to prefer the other life. He still has a panoply of tattoos, but the old dragons and tigers have been modified and updated with some more appropriate buddhist imagery. He lives in a quite picturesque and historically important temple in Jeolla-namdo.
Grayson’s book is, as Sanshinseon, says, the standard text on Korean religion generally. But for Korean buddhism in particular, the “go to” secondary source is Buswell’s “The Zen Monastic Experience”.
Or even Buswell’s previous classic “The Korean Way of Zen” which was derived from his PhD dis on Jinul Bojo-guksa, founder of the Jogye Order. Perhaps the first serious, well-informed and readable book on the history and character of Kor-Bud in English ever published (before that was only Christians writing about it, and poor translations of essays by Korean profs); when i arrived in 82 it was just about all there was of high quality…
Concur that Buswell’s earlier Thge Korean Way of Zen is good and important, as is his later work on Tsung-mi. But like the book on Tsung-mi (although less so, the Korean Way is more of an intellectual/doctrinal history, and doesn’t convey much about the actual, contemporary reality of Korean buddhism. Because it does, “The Zen Monastic Experience” is not only more readily accessible to the general reader, but in many ways more informative.
True ’nuff, Sperwer.
I also really like the intro to JC Cleary’s book on Taego-guksa “A Buddha From Korea”, as it also gives a “real world” and readable overview…
I guess I need to look at it then. I know T’aego-guksa but haven’t read Cleary’s version or intro. Thanks for the pointer!
I’m sure this is really bad juju and all that, but I find this guy remarkably abrasive. What really confounds me is that no one else here has commented upon that. This guy just seems to be almost yelling and browbeating his audience and when he acts sincere and gentle it’s like he’s faking it. His schtick grates on me. Again, I’m really astonished that no one has commented on this - am I just out of my tree?
Peninsular Aborigine,
Read #7. I was not impressed with his presentation, either.
gbevers,
I thought you were a little kinder - you, at least, had the courtesy to address his ideas. To me, however, his delivery is so brutal that I could care less for his ideas. I guess if we find one more we’ll have a quorum.
@18,
My thoughts exactly.
I can’t stand listening to him even for as long as it takes to reach for the remote. Every sentence is an irritant.
18, 22 I’m with you. Not worth all the energy to explain why when an anecdote will do…
A friend of mine visited the temple at Daejeon he’s heading and he accosted and asked her “Why did you come to the temple today?” A bit flustered she replied, “I don’t know.”
*He takes a long dramatic pause*
“That is the best answer.”
Dude.
Props for the moral support.
#18, I agree about his abrupt style of speaking, though I don’t think it comes from browbeating; I honestly think he’s trying to help one understand what he means better. Questions he asked himself and had difficulty answering once, and still is hard to explain, and so uses that shtick, if you will, more as an emphasis. The style, though not exaggerated so much, reminds me of quantum physics lectures where the prof really wanted to get students to understand better, simply because the dropout rate of the subject in the first week were so high.
I like him… the “style” comes from his Master Seongsahn; hang around the /seon/ scene and you’d get used to it, even if you still don’t “like” it.
# 26,
I was wondering about that. There certainly is a “rude” manner to some stripes of Buddhism - (as far as I know). I agree I could get used to it (I’m from New York), but what could I not get used to?
I would think that Koreans hate him. He seems like the “whitey knows best” kind of Westerner that they rightly detest. His audience never looks overly engaged.
I enjoyed watching and listening to it closely all the way through. Thank you, Hyun Gak Sunim and Dennis Wholey, for the presentation. I will probably listen to it again as I found Hyun Gak Sunim’s way of presenting these complex ideas graspable.
And thank you, Robert, for posting this. I had never heard of Hyun Gak Sunim until now. If he ever comes to speak in Northern California, I’ll be in attendance. BTW, does any one (perhaps Sanshinseon) know if he speaks regularly in Korea, and if it is possible for the general public to attend?
#28
Hyun-Gak used to regularly speak and I saw him a few times, but recently he left Korea. I’ve heard conflicting reports of where he is and why he left.
His were the only dharma talks in my not-so-humble opinion that were any good and had some originality. The other monks are still brandishing old worn-out Seung Sahn antics with no heart or depth, eg., banging the stick on the ground and asking, “What is this?” whenever someone asks a remotely intelligent or difficult question.
That being said, HG seems to lack warmth and compassion. Not surprising, considering the training regiment of the “meditation monks.” Staring at a wall 10 hours a day for 6 months a year will not likely make one warm-hearted or even sane.
My wife, being the direct Korean that she is, asked him point-blank: “Are you happy? You gave up your life to be a monk, and I’m just wondering, are you happy?”
To which he cantankerously replied:
“What do you think?” And just as quickly turned to answer a different question.
A good zen answer if there ever was one, however nobody was convinced that the guy is any happier than the average ajeosi. Think of the same question being asked of the Dalai Lama and you can imagine quite a difference of character, which also illustrates the different approaches of these two brands of Buddhism.
Seon / Ch’an / Zen is “strict”, blunt in expession, straight-to-the-point-beyond-words… Not trying to be “friendly” — and never claims to be a path for everyone — the teachings of compassion come inat the side…
> Hyun-Gak used to regularly speak
He has been fairly regular at the Sunday sessions in English of Samgak-san Hwagye-sa here in eastern Seoul (the capital of the Jogye Order’s international sector). Many of his Dharma-talks delivered there can be watched on the Jogye website.
> recently he left Korea. I’ve heard conflicting
> reports of where he is and why he left.
I had not heard this — of course he has taken quite a few international trips over the past years — you’re implying that he’s gone for good? That would be strange… — does anyone know any reality or details of this?
> I would think that Koreans hate him.
No, he’s tremendously popular — has become one of the most popular media-attention monks in Korea, which is just head-spinning. My oun university tried to invite him as a VIP speaker, but he was too busy with other engagements! His popularity started just because he graduated from Harvard, and you know how Koreans feel about that…
Speaking of Baldheaded Harvard Grads: Did you ever hear Kim Yong-oak dissing his teachers at Harvard?
This is a typical Seon teaching, with an original style (specific references to the Christian Bible, updated traditional analogies etc.).
I know this is the Internet, but, perhaps a criticism on the content of what he said would me more helpful than cynicism and psychological projections?
Would a candid ask me a naive question on my research field, I would probably let him dissatisfied with my answer too, because asking a difficult question is so much easier than understanding the answer.
Despite the appearances, what Hyun Gak Seunim explained is very hard to grasp without several years of study and practical training.
Don’t be fooled.
The reaction of some of you guys reminds me of the comment one fellow made about if Jesus returned, people would be disappointed because he could not be anything like they imagined. The guy is working with what he has and he does okay.
I have heard ideas from him that I have also heard from a Church of Christ pastor (very oddly enough) back in the states and that is an interesting experience to hear and compare the same message expressed in different ways.
Ah hell, if Jesus returned now many of this blog’s guys would just dismiss him as a “pathetic commie peacenik”…
You are mistaken. It is a different message expressed here in the same way. The biblical references were a skillful means, not the message. The message of Seon is not to compare religions but to sit and practice, here and now, single-pointedly. As such, and if we add the refutation of God, Buddhism is as far as you can imagine from theist religions. The problem is that we lack of imagination in the West, due the pervasiveness of Christianity in the culture, as secular we believe it is.
“Ah hell, if Jesus returned now many of this blog’s guys would just dismiss him as a “pathetic commie peacenik”…”
That’s right:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GN3j-nJW1EE
“Christian” WTF are you babbling about!?
I wrote of one particular point the monk made that I have heard expressed by a Christian pastor elsewhere, using different terminology; not the whole Buddhist experience.
If someone is a totally rude, condescending prick, you want for me to respect him? Wrong again.
“Despite the appearances, what Hyun Gak Seunim explained is very hard to grasp without several years of study and practical training.”
I am guessing he would disagree with you on this! No study at all will help you with: when driving, drive. When eating, eat.
Yes, it’s hard to do. I’ve sat my share of countless hours staring at a blank wall and read hundreds of useless ancient Chinese antics. In fact, studying only greases the gears of the brain more and more. That being said, I do think HG has one of the most succinct and best articulations of what Zen is really about. You can tell he’s digested it and made it his own, rather than just imitating old, dead asian guys.
One caveat though: it’s irritating when people use Jesus’ quotes to somehow give legitimacy to their ideas or to imply Jesus’ teachings are similar or the same as theirs. For example, HG pulls out quotes from the NT to suggest that Jesus was implying the same thing that HG (or Zen) is talking about…”They have ears but do not hear, they have eyes…” The worldviews of Zen and Christianity are worlds apart.
@38: If someone answers a question you did not ask, you would think that person to be condescending. It doesn’t mean that the person in question is condescending in all contexts. Maybe, maybe not. For example, I may be condescending now but this is not my intention, and I apologise if you think so.
@40: Very interesting. I see your point. In my experience, there is a time for study and there it is always the time for contemplation. On the one hand, too much study indeed feeds the hungry ghost in us, leading to more cravings. On the other hand, it provides a context in which insight in meditation is given meaning, i.e., relationship, so it can be applied in daily life, when not meditating. For example, some texts or oral explanations remain obscure for years until progress in meditation suddendly clarifies the intention of the authors. This is especially true for Buddhist poetry, which contain a lot of wisdom in a self-encoded form. In the case of Ch’an/Seon/Zen, knowledge of the classics is a must.
When I said that what Hyun Gak Seunim was explaining actually has a deeper meaning than it sounds, I had particularly in mind the explanation of the Four Noble Truths (which should more accurately be translated as the Four Truths for the Noblemen, perhaps). “duhka” (skt.) has a metaphysical meaning which goes beyond what commonly is understood as “suffering”. That is why he cleverly tried the translation “discontentment”, but that falls short too. It is impossible to really understand what it is without years of practice. That was my point.
I wholeheartedly agree with you about the improper usage of Christian references when expounding Buddhism. Even the Dalai-lama do this. I always feel that saying that “Jesus was a bodhisattva” is akin to a preemptive strike using roses.
@23: This was a reference to the “Don’t-know mind” of Master Seung Sahn. Had your friend been wondering for a long time about the meaning of this expression, as a kôan, his answer could have been a moment of insight.
A couple of things to say:
FIRST, and foremost, Marmot, thank you so much for posting this video. I had not yet seen it, and really appreciated having it. Love it or hate it, I think this guy does an amazing job of bringing Zen closer to our everyday experience. And for that alone, he deserves at least a fraction of the enormous respect which is heaped on him by people in Korea. I don’t know yet if the guy can walk on water, but I do know that, when I walk out of the temple at the end of one of his shockingly clear talks, I can SMELL the air, I can HEAR the wind chimes, I can SEE the falling leaves, one by one, and I know, in that moment, that I am right THERE.
There are no other monks I have listened to who have had such a BRACING effect as that. And a lot of people in this country (and around the world) also don’t seem to be being fooled. One of the commentators called him “abrasive” — I would say “bracing.”
NEXT, it is very interesting to read the many comments about Hyon Gak Sunim. Lots of interesting reactions! Whatever you like or dislike about this incredibly controversial monk, he certainly DOES inspire a strong reaction in people. I think that this is probably his intention. The guy seems congenitally unwilling to be the conventional “holy man,” a.k.a. someone’s comments (above) comparing HG’s style to some hypothetical composite of “what the Dalai Lama would do.” (Maybe that reader would have us all start wearing “What Would the Dalai Lama Do” bracelets, in line with the “What Would Jesus Do?” movement…. Hee hee heee!)
Recently, I came to know someone who is a long-standing student of Hyon Gak Sunim. We had many, many long discussions about his teaching and his life, and I was able to learn many interesting things about him which might address some of the misunderstandings about him which a few of the commentors seem to possess.
(And, as a caveat, I must say at the outset that I am not one of his died-hard “fans,” in the sense of many of the people who gather at his talks. I have just been helped enormously by the boldness of his Dharma, and find it a refreshing — you could say, bracing — alternative to much of the religious talk going on out there. AND this student of his who I recently spoke with is also by no means a fanatical devotee, but someone who seems to see him more or less in a frank way, while still respecting him pretty solidly. So, what he had to say about HG I found to be very insightful….)
As to the reasons for HGSN’s leaving Korea: Apparently, from what this student said (and I confirmed this with other members of the Seoul International Zen Center community), Hyon Gak Sunim has been deeply disgusted about this fame thing that has grown up around him. Even entering the mountains for intensive practice, he has people in this incredibly small and ubiquitously wired and talkative country locating him and making demands on him — kind of hard as a big-nosed monk to blend in to the forest scenery, it seems, as any one of us foreigners who has walked down a street in Seoul, much less Jinju, understands!!! His student said that Hyon Gak has even had people breaking into his retreat places to find him!
He is apparently as surprised as anyone that so many people wish to make him into something he does not want to be.
SO, he has been agonizing with several of his students on how best to “get out” of what he feels is a confining performance, because in “uri nara,” once they label you, you’re stuck with it.
This student said that he decided to just spend more time practicing and teaching in other Zen centers OUTSIDE Korea.
Recently, too, there was a new Abbot installed at his temple, a very tough Korean monk who is fiercely anti-American, having led protests against American base expansion in Pyongtaek. The new Abbot has frowned on many, many aspects of Zen master Sung Sahn’s “internationalized” teaching style, considering it not “true” Korean Buddhism. AND the fact that it is being promoted by an American monk who is so incredibly popular among Koreans seemed to be more than he could take. So, last spring he decided to take over the Zen Center. He pressured HG Sunim out, which drew a reaction from other Western monks and the Korean people coming to the temple. The Abbot (a good monk, by the way, just one who doesn’t understand the “internationalizing” of Korean Buddhism style promoted by ZM Sung Sahn) was so heavily criticized all over the Internet that he had to flee into hiding for two weeks last summer!!!!! And he didn’t show up to greet all the hundreds of Westerners who descended on Seoul last month for ZM Sung Sahn’s 3-Year Memorial, fearing their reaction to his radical changes. He literally went on his first-ever trip outside Korea on the day before all of these Westerners arrived for an event SPONSORED by Hwa Gye Sah, his temple!!!!
So, from what I understand, this Hyon Gak has just decided it’ll be better for him to practice and teach outside Korea. A lot of his students are upset, but….
ANOTHER THING: Some commentators talk about his “abrasive” style. I couldn’t agree with you more. I’ve been to his talks; I know what you are talking about. But I guess you haven’t read your Lin-Chi, where when stduents approach him for a question, the master shouts at them, pours curses down on their heads, even BEATS them. The slapping and beating going on in these situations would NOT be considered “abrasive”? I guess we want our religious figures to make us FEEL good.
Zen is about waking people up, not Benny Hinn-style slickness and pablum. This is why I admire Hyon Gak Sunim, for all of his obvious excesses: The guy just seems relentlessly focused on pounding people into waking up, and he doesn’t seem to care a whit if people “like” him for it.
#38 misunderstands it best when he says, “If someone is a totally rude, condescending prick, you want me to respect him?” I doubt that Hyon Gak Sunim (or any other genuine Zen monk, for that matter) is genuinely interested in having you come to his talks so that you RESPECT him. From what I’ve heard about this guy’s situation in Korea, there are practically people out there who would drink his bath water. I don’t think he needs or wants respect. Hyon Gak SN is more in the Lin-Chi line: WAKE the %$#!+&*@ UP!
“Peninsular Aborigine” says that Hyun Gak Sn is “remarkably abrasive,” supposedly “yelling and browbeating” his listeners. I wonder how long such a one as this would last in the assembly of the epithet-wielding Lin-Chi, the one who literally bitch-slapped his listeners at the front of the assembly! Would the Dalai Lama bitch-slap his students, like Lin-Chi? Or curse? And —- does it really matter?
#23 says that a friend was accosted at the “temple in Taejon which (HGSN) runs.” Funny, from what I heard from HGSN’s student, the monk doesn’t run any temple there, and hasn’t stayed there at all!! One of the banes of life at Mu Sang Sah (a Sung Sahn international Zen center near Taejon) for many of the Wewstern monks is that so often, Korean visitors coming into the temple constantly mistake one or another of the Western monks — and even a Western NUN, from Canada!!! — for the Great Hyon Gak. So I wonder about the veracity of this encounter. (And ESPECIALLY when he claims his friend was “accosted” — I would have that monk ARRESTED………)
I don’t go to the temple to see peaceful little birdies whispering Dharma niceties. I go there to return to my own forgotten mind. And if shock is what it takes, hats off to the old Hyon Gak SN.
‘Nuff said
#42 — Great post! You hit many important points and bring the discussion back to the whole point of it all: waking up.