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Monday, October 29, 2012

Buddhist From Both Koreas Hold Ceremony Together

7:36 AM category - news, country - south korea 2 comments

The Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism’s (South) Korean Community Advancement Organization and the Central Committee of the (North) Korean Buddhist Federation met at Kumgang Mountain’s Shingye Temple Oct. 13 for Buddhist services to mark the fifth year since the temple’s restoration.

These joint ceremonies were the first to be carried out by a South Korean Buddhist delegation visiting the North this year. At the services held that day, Lee Gyu-ryong, chief secretary of the North Korean Buddhist Federation said, “If Buddhists from both Koreas put enough effort into it, there will come a day when this very spot, Shingye Temple, can be reborn as a genuine venue for the reunification of our nation.”

Head the Jogye Order’s delegation, Ven. Ji-hong, said in his opening remarks, “I am dismayed by seeing a shroud of silence brought to the prayers for reunification of Buddhists from both Koreas at Shingye Temple following the suspension of tourism to Mt. Kumgang”.

He went on to say, “With the opportunity provided by joint Buddhist services, Buddhists from both Koreas can combine their energy and insights to preserve Mt. Kumgang, which is both a holy site for the people of Korea, and a symbol of reunification.” The two sides also upheld the ideals of the June 15th South-North Joint Declaration (from the 2000 South-North summit) and the October 4th South-North Joint Declaration (from the 2007 North-South summit) in their official joint declaration for removing the threat of war from the peninsula.

Their joint statement reads, “We, the Buddhists of both Koreas, will follow the road set forth in the North-South joint declarations through cooperation with a Buddhist heart, to rid our nations of antagonism and suspicion, tension and combativeness and will continue our alliance to eliminate the threat of war and guarantee a permanent peace.” Ahead of the joint Buddhist services, there was also an official presentation of a final draft of a report on the excavation of the Shingye Temple.

The Shingye Temple, one of four major temples on Mt. Kumgang, was first built during the sixth year of the rule of Shilla king, Beop-heung (519 AD), but was destroyed during the Korean War. It was later restored on Oct. 13, 2007, through the cooperation of the (South’s) Jogye Order and the (North) Korean Buddhist Federation. The joint Buddhist services this time was agreed to during a set of talks between Buddhists of both Koreas held at Kaesong on Oct. 5.

Including the Ven. Ji-hong, the South’s delegation was comprised of 19 people, while 22 people attended from the North, including Chief Secretary Lee Gyu-ryong, Vice-Secretary Cha Geum-cheol, and the Ven. Jin-gak of Shingye Temple.

Korean Monks Take Up Fire Fighting

6:06 PM category - photos, country - south korea No comments

Haeinsa Buddhist Temple located on Gaya Mountain in Gyeongsang province, South Korea is one of the country's most treasured temples. It house the complete copy of the Buddhist scriptures, the Tripitaka Koreana. The fully wooden temple was built in the 9th century but was rebuilt in the 19th centrey after it was devastated by a major fire in 1817. The temple's library together with the woodlocks of the Buddhist Scriptures it houses were designated as a Korean national treasure in 1962 and a UNESCO Heritage Site in 1995.

To protect the entire wooden temple and it's woodlocks of Buddhist Scriptures from fire, recently a fire fighting truck was donated to the temple and the resident monks were taught fire fighting skills.

Buddhist Flower Discovered In A Convenience Store

4:38 PM category - news, country - south korea No comments

Korean news outlets are reporting that an udumbara -- a legendary flower in Buddhist literature believed to bloom once every 3,000 years -- has sprouted at a humble Family Mart in Seoul, South Korea

Store manager Kim Jong-woo was cleaning when he spotted the 17 tiny flowers growing on the window.

( Mr Kim Jong-woo in his family mart )

He recognized the flowers, he said, from images on television.

One of the most-searched keywords on August 31, 2011 was "udumbara," and Family Mart reports that the foot traffic to the Mapo Joongang branch has been explosive.

In the Lotus Sutra, the udumbara flower is used to reference how rare it is to meet a Buddha, and is also discussed in the context of enlightenment.

Ever ones to dispel any hint of romanticism, however, snarky netizens are asking if the threadlike stalks aren't simply some kind of mold or fungi.

All Buddhas come into the world but rarely, and are hard to meet ... like the udumbara flower, in which all take delight." (from the Lotus Sutra)

'Fish' In Korean Buddhism

3:12 AM category - culture, country - south korea 1 comment

Anyone interested in the temple decorations of Korean temples will discover painted and sculpted fish all around the main halls _ on the pillars, brackets, ceiling and walls. It is also easy to find wooden fish gongs and wind chimes.

The origin of the use of the fish in Buddhism is unknown: one version tells that a fish always has its eyes open day and night; thus it is a reminder to always be aware. Another version comes from a story:

long time ago, there was a monk who committed many unwholesome deeds. Eventually, he died and was reborn as a fish with a tree on its back. One day when the monk's old master was crossing the river, the fish came to him sadly. The master looked into its past life and held a memorial ceremony to save the fish. That night, the fish appeared in the master's dream, appreciative of his master's kindness. He asked his master to please cut the tree from his back and make a fish-shaped instrument and tell this story as a lesson for practitioners.

The fish shape is applied to large wooden drums, small handheld wood percussion instruments and metal clappers for the wind chimes as well. These numerous examples underscore its significance. All can be used as non-verbal sign to minimize talk during meditation and other solemn proceedings. The sounding of bells and drums also helps calm the mind and prepares participants for spiritual practice.

As the wind chime clappers, fish- shaped gongs (``moktak'') are symbols to inspire constant diligence and alertness. Moktak is a hollow, wooden percussion instrument used to mark the rhythm of chanting. It is shaped like the wooden fish but is smaller and round and used in Buddhist ceremonies when reciting sutras and chanting.

It is the most representative among the ceremonial instruments used by Buddhist priests. To make a moktak, they carve wood into a large bell, cut it in half and hollow it out and glue it back together. Then, it is played by hitting it with a wooden stick. Originally it used to be made bearing the likeness to fish. Moktak is a small version of ``mogeo'' (wooden fish), one of the four Buddhist instruments.

A moktak

The best material for making moktak is the jujube tree, yet wood from birch, ginkgo, or zelkova is popularly used as well. There are two types of moktak: one is the large moktak, which is placed upon a small cushion and usually used in gathering the temple people; the other is a small handheld one used in chanting, services, and reciting the sutras inside the Dharma halls.

It is also a necessity in conducting ``doryangseok" (the daily predawn chanting service) in which a monk or nun walks around the temple, also waking up the other practitioners. In the ritual of ``beompae'' ( Buddhist music), it is played keeping in tune with the music. Historically, people made both fish-shaped and circular moktak, but after successive generations the circular design prevailed.

Fish are not restricted to the grounds of temples; they also are suspended in the air. Fish wind chimes are found on the eaves of Buddhist halls and pagodas. The wind rings the chimes, awakening the monks and nuns. Practitioners, like the fish who are always aware in the sea, practice to continuously cultivate themselves, even in their dreams. The wind in the chimes is likened to the condition of complete freedom from obstruction.

The fish adorning temples is not only a metaphysical symbol of tranquility and unrestricted freedom; it also a character in Buddhist fables. An example of this can be found in the Jatakas, the stories of the Buddha's previous lives as follows:

In one of his former lives, Sakyamuni Buddha followed bodhisattva practices while dwelling in the sea. There he witnessed a large fish preying on smaller ones, which in turn, did the same with still smaller ones. So Sakyamuni caught and ate the biggest fish, sparing the life of the small fish. This Sakyamuni's soul was transformed into the king of the ``makaras'' (a mythical animal with the trunk of an elephant, the front legs of a lion, and the body of a crocodile) with a massive body measuring several ``li'' (a distance of about 400 meters). At that time, famine had struck the land by the sea and people were turning to cannibalism. A huge makara, Sakyamuni beached himself on the shore and offered himself up as food, thereby saving the people from starvation.

On a related note, traditional keys in Korea were usually shaped like fish. The primary purpose of a lock and key is to bar thieves from entry, and the fish is a cautionary sign for its owner to remain alert day and night.

Buddhist Against Street Name Change

7:04 AM category - news, country - south korea No comments

The nation’s largest Buddhist sect is strongly protesting the government’s new address system in which some streets named after temples have been given new names unrelated to Buddhism.

Ven. Jeongman, a spokesman of the Jogye Order, expressed Buddhists’ opposition to the name changes to officials at the Public Administration and Security Ministry who visited Jogye Temple in central Seoul yesterday.

The protest may re-ignite the dispute between the Lee Myung-bak administration and the nation’s Buddhist sector, which has claimed Lee, a Christian, discriminates against Buddhism.

“Replacing the original temple-related names with new ones is depriving people of identities which have ‘stories.’ We fear the new names may take away from the Korean tradition,” Ven. Jeongman said.

“In the nation’s 5,000-year history, temples have been able to maintain the tradition most effectively. Names of roads and places near temples have stories handed down from ancestors and have been deeply rooted in the lives of nearby villagers,” he said.

The protest follows the government’s introduction of a street name-based address system, giving names to all roads and alleys. The new system will take effect on July 29, while the current system will also be available concurrently until the end of 2013.

But Buddhists recently raised objections to the system, as about 100 temple-related street names have been changed into unrelated ones. For example, Hwagyesa-ro in Gangbuk-gu, northern Seoul, which was named after Hwagye Temple and has been called that since 1984, became Deongneung-ro, named after Deongneung, a nearby royal tomb of Joseon Kingdom.

The Korea Youth Buddhist Association also said that the authorities didn’t take tradition, history and residents’ opinion into consideration in renaming the streets. “About 100 Buddhism-related road names were changed. It indicates the government intends to eliminate Buddhism,” a director of the association said.

The Jogye Order recently asked people from all of its temples across the country to collect cases of such “improper” name changes.

Officials of the order also plan to meet new leaders of the ruling Grand National Party to express their opposition to the new system.

The ministry said it was local authorities who named the streets. “Local authorities decided on the names according to their own circumstances. In most cases, they kept the names,” a ministry official said.

But he showed anger at the order’s current move. “We informed people of the new names last year. We received objections until June 30, and changed some of the names which residents disliked. But people from those temples didn’t raise objections at that time and now say the government is religiously biased.”

The official said there still is a chance for modifications: Residents can file their objections with local authorities three years after the name is first adopted. “If their insistence against the change is reasonable, the name will be changed,” he said.