Abstract
Despite its 17-century-long history, Korean Buddhism is currently undergoing a crisis. In addition to the declining number of lay practitioners, Korea’s largest Buddhist order, the Jogye Order (K. Daehan Bulgyo Jogyejong, hereafter “JO” or “the order”), is facing a significant drop in monastic recruitment. Compounding this crisis, a series of scandals within the order’s monastic leadership have caused widespread loss of confidence among the order’s laity. In addition to calls for greater financial transparency and moral accountability for JO monastics, many reformers are demanding greater lay participation within the order’s political hierarchy, challenging the centuries-old roles assigned to monastics and laity. However, these challenges have failed to produce any practical changes within the order while its monastic establishment continues espousing rhetoric reinforcing monastic authority and its supremacy over the laity. In light of these crises, this paper will conduct a perfunctory examination of the attitudes the JO’s monastic establishment exhibits towards its lay supporters and the roles it expects for them. Utilizing, in part, previously unpublished internal JO documents, this paper will begin by investigating monastic attitudes expressed towards the laity in the order’s 2015 General Meeting of the Four-fold Assembly as well as the ensuing debate over these roles in Korea’s Buddhist media. This paper will then explore how the laity are viewed within the JO’s lay education program, additionally examining how the needs and concerns of the laity are addressed in introductory textbooks used within this program. While not exhaustive, by examining this variety of sources, this paper seeks to clarify the roles the JO’s monastic establishment expects for its lay supporters and interrogate whether such attitudes are sustainable as the order attempts to respond effectively to the crises it currently faces.
Highlights
Introduction toBuddhism primarily adopt a historical approach to their presentation of Buddhism, often focusing on complex doctrines and devoting little attention to the needs of the laity
Neo-Confucian Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), Buddhism was progressively stripped of its wealth and power as prominent temples were disbanded and monastics banned from entering Korean cities
Heojeong’s comments, critics have questioned whether it is possible for senior monastics, who have spent the majority of their adult lives within the order’s temples, to design a religious educational program that is relevant to the laity and adequately addresses the concerns of those living in the secular world
Summary
Introduced to Korea in the fourth century C.E., Buddhism flourished on the peninsula for over a millennium under the patronage of successive dynasties. According to South Korea’s 2015 census only 15.5% of the nation described themselves as Buddhist, compared with 22.8% a decade earlier, while 56% of all South Koreans and 65% of young adults claim no religious affiliation.13 This decline in membership had been compounded by a growing loss of confidence in the order’s monastic leadership following a succession of scandals in the 1990s and 2010s which involved sectarian infighting and high-level corruption. As recently as 2012 a video depicting several high-ranking members of the order’s leadership drinking, smoking and gambling with millions of won from lay donations made national news, while in 2018 the newly-elected supreme patriarch of the order resigned following allegations of embezzlement and illicitly fathering a child These recent scandals have renewed calls for a reevaluation of the limited and subservient roles expected by the JO’s monastic establishment for the order’s lay supporters.
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