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Chapter 2

Buddhism

One might expect a transplanted religion to find balance uneasily, antagonistically even, with existing beliefs in a new country, but that was not the case for Buddhism in Korea. The relative ease with which Buddhism blended into the religious landscape following its arrival in 372 CE is testament to both the fluid nature of shamanism and the philosophical openness of the newcomer.

Today it is possible for a woman to pray at a Buddhist temple that she fall pregnant, and to consult with a shaman when faced with a tough decision. The temple might well be located in the mountains and contain a painting of Sanshin. Koreans who turn to both religions are aware there are philosophical contradictions in doing so, but they tend to overlook them—it is simply a matter of employing whatever works in a moment of need.

The Growth of Buddhism

Buddhism originated in India and is a product of the teachings of Siddartha Gautama, who is believed to have come from the state of Kapilavastu (part of present-day Nepal) in around the fifth century BCE. The religion entered the Korean peninsula some eight centuries later, via China. At the time, there was no unified Korean nation. Three major kingdoms, Goguryeo, Baekje, and Shilla held sway on the peninsula. Goguryeo, the most northerly of the kingdoms and including territory that is now part of Manchuria in China, was the earliest to encounter Buddhist teachings. In 372 CE, Goguryeo received Sundo, a Chinese monk who came with Buddhist texts and statues.

By 384 CE, Buddhism had spread to the court of Baekje via Goguryeo, with Baekje later serving as the conduit through which the religion entered Japan. (Baekje and Japan had extensive trade and cultural links, and a contingent of monks carrying Buddhist literature and images undertook a mission to the island nation in the mid-sixth century.) In both Goguryeo and Baekje, it was the royal family who first adopted this new religion, while the majority of the people continued to follow shamanism exclusively. In Shilla, the state that would eventually do more than any other to spread Buddhism throughout Korea, the initial reaction from the authorities was antipathy.

It took a martyr to convince the Shilla court to adopt Buddhism. In 527, a court official named Ichadon announced to King Beopheung (r. 514–540) that he had become a Buddhist, and he implored the monarch to adopt his faith as the state religion. Though Beopheung himself had studied Buddhism, many of his ministers were vehemently opposed to Ichadon’s request. Ichadon then requested to be executed and made into a martyr. When this was refused, he publicly insulted government officials in order to force them to punish him. He predicted that when his head was removed, the blood that flowed would be white, rather than red. According to tradition, this is what came to pass, and the shocked court made Buddhism Shilla’s state religion.

The king who succeeded Beopheung, Jinheung (r. 540–576) established the Hwarang, an elite fighting force whose members were instructed in Buddhist as well as Confucian teaching. His rule was marked by victories against Goguryeo and Baekje, and the Hwarang later played a crucial role in the eventual unification of the three kingdoms, which Shilla achieved in 668. With the Shilla court now in command of the whole of Korea, their state religion became the central faith of the peninsula.

Today, the Shilla capital city of Gyeongju can seem a living museum, because of the number of Buddhist temples and artifacts preserved there. To enhance the state religion, the government poured labor and resources into sites like Bulguksa, which remains one of the largest and most impressive temples in the whole of Korea, and monuments like the Buddha statue at Seokguram Grotto, completed in 774 during the height of Shilla power. Bulguksa means “Buddha Country Temple”, the word Bulguk (Buddha Country) being a byword of sorts for Shilla.

Buddhism’s zenith in Korea would not come until the fall of Shilla and the founding of the Koryo dynasty in 918. The founder, Wang Kon (later King Taejo), was a devout Buddhist and believed the creation of his kingdom was owing to the “protective powers of the many Buddhas.” Koryo thus also proclaimed Buddhism to be state religion, and great expense was lavished on ceremonies, the construction of temples throughout the country, and the employment of increasing numbers of monks. Two editions of the Buddhist canon, the Tripitaka, were produced; one was destroyed in a Mongol invasion, but the other—carved on 81,258 wood blocks and still housed at Haeinsa Temple—has remained one of the most precious Buddhist artifacts in the world since its completion in 1259.

Yet, by the end of the Koryo period, Buddhism had fallen into disrepute. The religion had become mired in corruption. Becoming a monk brought certain privileges, such as exemption from taxes, and this encouraged a costly growth in the ranks of monks as well as bogus practitioners. Monasteries had become extremely powerful: tax exempt status and state support gave them the ability to amass money, land holdings, and influence. Some monasteries employed private armies composed of monks.

Shamanism too continued to flourish during the Shilla and Koryo eras. Musok’s animistic nature-worship was not seen as contradictory to the state religion, and the two were able to blend. The practice of placing depictions of Sanshin and also Chilseong (the Seven Star God), in Buddhist temples is a vestige of this. It was always possible for villagers to practice Buddhism, and then visit musok-in when they wished to exhort the gods to produce a bountiful harvest. Thus, though shamanism held no official status, its practitioners could enjoy esteem of Korean society if they were judged to do their job well.

Years of Decline

Yi Seonggye, who overthrew Koryo and established the Joseon dynasty in 1392, was a Buddhist, but the kingdom he founded was to take a radical new turn. The philosophy of neo-Confucianism, not truly a religion but a kind of ethical code for social order and harmonious living, was to become the dominant state ideology. Its proponents—among them Jeong Do-jeon, one of the strongest supporters of the new king—saw Buddhism as both corrupt and wrong, and wanted it suppressed.

Thus, the long Joseon period saw the retreat of Buddhism, its practitioners pushed to the margins of society by the repression of the state apparatus. Though several of the period’s monarchs were Buddhist, they were constrained by the elite Confucian administrative class around them. The role Buddhists like Master So-san (who led a band of five thousand warrior-monks) played in repelling the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598 won them some favor, but the path of the religion over the six-hundred-year-long Joseon period was one of decline. Like shamanism, Buddhism became associated with mountains. Several early Joseon kings had ordered the destruction of temples in towns and built-up areas, and the isolated mountains served as a natural refuge.

Also like shamanism, Buddhism became a religion mainly for the sangmin and cheonmin, the lowest classes, who made up at least 70 percent of the population but were the least powerful. It also became a religion for women of all classes. Joseon society was ruled by men, and any man of status or ambition did not want to be identified publicly as a Buddhist, as that would harm his estimation in the eyes of government officials. United in marginalization, Buddhism aligned with shamanism to a greater extent than before, and the people who practiced one also tended to practice the other. After the promulgation in 1485 of the Gyeongguk Daejeon (Grand Code of State Administration), the corpus of laws that would govern Joseon society for four hundred years, anyone holding rites at a shaman shrine could be flogged one hundred times.

The Modern Era: A Revival of Sorts

After many years of trying to colonize Korea, Japan succeeded in 1910. At that time, Buddhism was more prominent in Japan than in Korea, and some Japanese colonists started promoting the religion and establishing new temples. Centuries after the Joseon ban, Buddhists became active in cities again. However, while the colonizers brought Buddhism down from the mountains, their practices were not truly consistent with Korean Buddhism. In the dominant Korean Buddhist sect, the Jogye Order, the monks were celibate, but Japanese monks did not have to be. This set off a sometimes violent feud, with no doubt nationalistic overtones that continued into the 1950s, well after Japan had been defeated. During the colonial period, the Japanese looted Buddhist artifacts and removed them to Japan, depleting the cultural riches of Korean Buddhism and creating lasting resentment.

Following the division of Korea in the late 1940s, the Communist North officially renounced religion of any kind. South Korea entered into an era of American influence and began to embrace Protestantism, which saw rapid growth in the postwar period. However, Buddhism’s relevance to Korean life persisted. President Park Chung-hee, the military strongman who ruled from 1961 to 1979, ordered the restoration of temples such as Bulguksa, which was in a state of disrepair prior to his intervention in 1969.

Today, 23 percent of the population counts itself as Buddhist. Buddhism trails Christianity slightly in terms of its number of adherents, and it has less influence: according to the 2005 census, 29.2 percent are Christian, and the percentage of Christians in high-ranking government and corporate positions is higher. Notably, an estimated 40 percent of South Koreans are believed to have no religious faith at all. Yet, Korea still needs Buddhism, as can be witnessed every time one visits a beautifully restored temple and sees the devotees absorbed in prayer and meditation.

The Influence of Buddhism on Korea

Buddhism teaches that life is full of suffering, caused by the “three poisons” of desire, aversion, and delusion. These are the fundamental cause of the bad karma that traps us in a continuing cycle of rebirth and suffering. The way to escape this fate is to follow the Eightfold Path prescribed by the Buddha and consisting in “right intention,” “right action,” and so on—in other words, ways of thinking and behaving that are selfless and bring one nearer to the path of enlightenment. The ultimate goal is to reach “awakening,” breaking the cycle of rebirth and achieving a kind of nothingness, thus escaping from suffering.

Korean Buddhism follows the Mahayana tradition, one of the two dominant divisions within Buddhism. In comparison to Theravada, the other division, Mahayana is considered more theologically liberal and “universal,” and even flexible or relativist, in that it allows for “relative truth.” Something is true or false depending on whether it is spiritually positive or not; whether it is objectively true is of less importance. From this perspective, other forms of belief could be accepted so long as they helped the believer on the path he or she needs to be on. Buddha in this tradition is more than a mere human, and there are different Buddhas for different purposes: a healing Buddha, an education Buddha, and a compassionate Buddha, for instance. In fact, there is a limitless potential number of Buddhas in Mahayana. This relativism and the multiplication of Buddhas with semi-divine qualities compares on some level to shamanism, in which people worship different gods and spirits depending on what they want to achieve.

Although philosophically different, the two belief systems of shamanism and Buddhism were spiritually compatible, because of their practicality and openness. To the present day, Korea enjoys a high level of tolerance for different faiths and an aptitude for syncretizing them in combinations that may seem illogical to outsiders.

Mahayana also contains the concept of the bodhisattva—the enlightened person who is concerned not only with their own state but with the enlightenment of others, too. In order to assist others in reaching enlightenment, the bodhisattva must attain “six perfections,” namely, the perfections of giving, discipline, forbearance, diligence, meditation, and transcendent wisdom. Mastery of these six perfections encourages selflessness and devotion to others, yet with a strong emphasis on personal development.

Another key aspect of Buddhism that has influenced Korean society and culture is the Sangha. Sangha, which means “assembly” or “community,” is understood in two ways. It either describes Buddhist monks and nuns collectively, or it denotes the wider group of followers of Buddhism with higher levels of spiritual understanding. The members of the Sangha work together to help each other pursue improvement, rather than seek merely to benefit themselves as individuals.

Korean friendships can encompass an extraordinary level of self-sacrifice. There is also a strong degree of loyalty to group structures. For example, Koreans may feel obliged to extend a helping hand to a fellow graduate from their school or military unit, even when they may not have a close relationship with the person in question. This relates strongly to jeong, which is explored in detail in chapter 7. Among the reasons why the concept of jeong developed in Korea is the existence of the Sangha and the boddhisatva, which encouraged selflessness and group-mindedness.

According to Professor Kim Ui-cheol, president of the Asian Association of Social Psychology, the concept of Sangha carries over into and influences the way businesses are managed, as well. Indeed, the Sangha’s efforts to collectively and continuously improve itself find their parallel in the corporate management philosophies of companies like Samsung of South Korea and Toyota of Japan. Western students of business will know the Japanese term kaizen (which translates as “gaeseon” in Korean), which is about making continuous, incremental improvements to one’s business processes. This key business concept shows obvious Buddhist influence. The importance of collectivity is also reflected in Korean businesses, for the progress or success of a company is considered a reflection of group effort, not the triumph of a single leader. Unlike in the United States, there are no rock-star CEOs with nine-figure stock option payouts in Korea.

If one considers the products of Samsung, one may observe that they are never truly original, unlike those made by “individualistic” American firms like Apple. However, where Samsung excels is in taking the big ideas of others and refining them to near-perfection. This ability to perfect the products of others stems from a laser-like focus on continuous improvement, which owes as much to Buddhist thinking here as it does in Japan.

Overcoming

According to Professor Kim, Buddhism should be credited for Korea’s higher than average capacity for overcoming obstacles. In Buddhism, one can escape one’s karma through enlightenment, which comes about through continuous self-improvement and self-cultivation. Hinduism teaches an acceptance of fate, but at a deep level Buddhism is about transcending fate by improving oneself. As a consequence of their Buddhist (as well as Confucian) heritage, Koreans constantly seek to improve themselves and ameliorate their condition. Study doesn’t stop with a college degree. Middle-aged people will engage in vocational study in order to get ahead at work, and even many older Koreans will take up the study of foreign languages. During the Korean War, up to one a third of the population was made homeless, yet the imperative to learn was so strong that universities set up tents in the mountains and students would receive lectures there by gaslight.

Generally tolerant and even receptive in the face of new religions and ideas, the Korean character does not resign itself in the face of tragedy and misfortune. People believe in their power to overcome almost any situation. Indeed, the greatest illustration of this Korean mindset is the way the nation has overcome the terrible consequences of war and poverty to forge a wealthy, stable democracy in just two generations. Buddhism may not be responsible for the Korean miracle, but it certainly contributed to the Koreans’ ability to believe the miracle was achievable—and indeed to achieve it.

The desire for continuous improvement in Korean culture comes from Buddhism. However, the choice of method that Koreans usually take to effect their improvement—the relentless pursuit of education—is strongly influenced by another foreign belief system: Confucianism.