Buddhism and Catholicism in Korea

Religion deals with  conscience. Each has to follow the dictates of conscience. However, when religion is an external and public reality, it becomes a matter also for the nation. Buddhism is the second article in the series on Religions and Catholicism in the Peace Weekly.  The writer  quotes Robespierre, a Deist, prominent leader of the French Revolution showing the necessity of Religion for the health of a nation.

Buddhism in Korea helped to legitimize the rule of the king. Lee Chadon was martyred because of his Buddhist beliefs but was the door by which Buddhism entered the Silla Kingdom and spread to the rest of the country. Buddhism united the aristocrats and gradually spread to the people. With the downfall of Goguryeo and  Baekje kingdoms,  the Silla Kingdom ascended and became the United Silla Kingdom. The King used Buddhism to unite all the beliefs into Buddhism, and the king became the Buddha King. The teaching was the unification  and harmony of all things. The universe is in the one, and the one is in the universe. Uisang was one of the illustrious monks of the Silla period his teachings  had more to do with the whole than with the individual.

The Silla dynasty lasted for almost 1000 years one of the longest in Asia. With the downfall of Silla, we have the Koryo dynasty  in which Buddhism turned to asking for help from the Buddha.  It was during the Koryo years that the Buddhist's monks would take national exams,  work in the royal house and in running the government.

The Joseon followed the Koryo which began with the policy of restraining Buddhism and giving the ascendency to Confucianism.This period showed great  disdain for  Buddhism. With the Japanese colonial rule the Confucian control disappeared and Buddhism was given freedom.

After the defeat of Japan and Independence, conflict arose between the traditionalists  and the independent Korean Buddhists. The problem with the married and celibate monks also surfaced. The government gave preference to the celibate monks.

 How does the Catholic Church look upon the Buddhists? In the Declaration on non-Christians, it says:   "Buddhism in its multiple forms acknowledges the radical insufficiency of this  shifting world. It teaches a path by which men, in a devout and confident spirit can either  reach a state of absolute freedom or attain supreme enlightenment by their own efforts or by higher assistance."  And continuing: "The Catholic Church rejects nothing, which is true and holy in these religions. She looks with sincere respect upon those ways of conduct and of life, those rules and teachings which though differing in many particulars from what she holds and sets forth, nevertheless, often reflect a ray of that Truth which enlightens all men."

Pope Paul VI made it clear that we respect these religions, but it doesn't mean we refrain from pronouncing the teachings of Jesus. There was a warning to the bishops of the world that the meditations of the Christians and non-Christians should not be seen as the same. The Korea Catholic Church mentioned the dangers of pluralism, syncreticism and a failure to analyze the different religious approaches.

As Catholic we continue to try to understand the other religions  and have a deeper understanding of our own. Our interest and concern with the other religions should grow.  Without  knowledge of their  teachings, in  dialogue we will have more confusion. We have to know our own teachings and those of the other religions if the dialogue is to be profitable.

Role of Religion in Society

The movie, The  Crucible, based on a novel of a true incident, was the recent topic of an opinion piece in the Catholic Times. It is the story of a school for the deaf and mute whose students suffer physical and sexual abuse at the hands  of their teachers. (It was the blog on this site for Sept, 12, 2009--"Whistleblower in Korea: 'The Crucible.'")
 
The writer of the opinion piece, after seeing the movie, was embarrassed, knowing that the hypocrisy and evil depicted in the movie occurred in a  school  affiliated with Christianity, and that what should have been a place for hope and salvation for disadvantaged children had become a crucible for disruption and evil.

Our writer now wonders whether a recently formed Christian political party, which will run a candidate for  president next year, will develop its own crucible and be found wanting. He has found the words and slogans used by the new party upsetting. They are attempting, he believes, to raise the Christian influence in society by this political effort, but similar efforts in the past have always failed. Although religion should be interested in the well-being of society, when it attempts to use earthly power to achieve its ends, it loses, he maintains, its spiritual power and often opens itself to ridicule.


Recently a Protestant minister was quoted as saying, "Religions can't take up the role of government, and the government can't take up the role of religion. Each has its own role." What the minister is saying is correct, as long as we understand that he does not mean to say that religion should not get involved with societal problems.

All believers, as members of society, have the duty to work for achieving justice in society. They also have the right to express their personal and religious views, as well as their political views, publicly.

These two domains should not be confused; each should be respected. Religion has to fight against becoming secularized, but knowing just where the dividing line exists between religion and our secular society is sometimes not easily discerned. To what extent should religion speak out against problems in society and how does she wield political influence when protesting a political decision deemed inappropriate or unjust? At all times she has to keep in mind what she would be contributing to society by intervening in the political arena, and whether these interventions are based on truth. When religion doesn't work for justice, it's like salt losing its flavor. Its very reason for being is gone.

Some say that religion has become secularized and corrupted, but we should never forget there are many--in and out of the religious sphere--who are very quietly bringing light and salt to the shadowy places. When society becomes confused, that is when the role of religion also becomes important. We should never forget that the knowledge of truth is our foundation and that the values of religion will always exceed the values of the world.

What is a True Believer?

What is a true believer? There are many Christians but how many are mature  believers? A professor at the Taegu Catholic University searches for answers in his article in the Bible & Life magazine. Why do we modify the word believer, he wants to know, with adjectives like true and mature? Is it because there are few who actually are true believers, mature believers?

What does it mean to be a believer? The word means one who believes, but what is important is 'what' and 'how' one believes. Many understand belief too narrowly, as meaning the acceptance of certain propositions. However, the professor says that is not what it means to a Christian. Christian belief is a personal acceptance of Jesus not only intellectually but with the whole person, with the emotions, with the will, and with our actions. It is believing in Jesus, imitating Jesus, and living the Jesus life. Believing certain propositions is the foundation, but it doesn't stop there.

What we believe should be affirmed by the life we live. Believers should be reliving the life of Jesus, and when this is not understood, it makes for a narrow, intolerant Christian. One can't judge another person's internal spiritual life, but we can make judgements on how this belief is manifested in life.


Our writer feels that a major stumbling block keeping us from true belief can be found in our all-consuming concerns for personal and family well-being, concerns that can turn our belief into an egotistical, self-serving belief. The traditional Christianity is concerned for the welfare of others, and places a high value on sacrifice and service. Concern for the self is of course not excluded. However, many fall away from their faith life  by too exclusive an interest in self and secular matters.
 
Ideology is the other problem he deals with. Following the downfall of Communism, many other beliefs, religious and non-religious, have appeared on the social horizon. Sound ideologies are necessary if there is to be a vibrant society; they help us go in the right direction. But in our society, the values of community and sacrifice are disappearing, replaced by an overly aggressive competitive spirit in many areas of life; by the search for ever greater profits, without concern for the welfare of the consumer; and by a world-wide financial system that has become more interested in its casino-like potential for making huge personal and corporate profits than in facilitating the efficient operation of the marketplace. Only religion, the writer feels, will weaken this tendency. However, religious fundamentalists, in trying to protect religion from an increasingly secularized society have come up with their own ideology. Using rationalization as a tool to protect what they feel is their possession, they are degrading religion.

A person of belief, says the writer, is not one who speaks loudly about what he believes, nor one who has merely the external ways of a Christian. A person of belief is one who can  face the difficulties of life serenely, strengthened by the love that animates her life. She  doesn't fuss about her own pain but  can  commiserate with the pain of others. Isn't that what a true believing Christian is?                                                               

     

Words Without Deeds...

"Words without deeds are like a garden full of weeds." These words, and similar sentiments, are often heard, and the desk columnist  of the Catholic Times reflects on their usefulness in living a fulfilling life. No matter how acquainted we are with the words of Scripture, he believes that when they are not lived  they are of little use. They are not the way we move God or even ourselves. 

Those who live the words of Scripture live their lives truthfully and serenely. The words bring repentance, and help others to repent, and those who pray inspire others to pray. Living by  the Word means to carry out what we believe. Our columnist gives us the example of Mahatma Gandhi who lived what he preached and received respect and  acclaim from all. 

The columnist presents us with three self-reflections: When we approach the Scriptures do we do it with humility and respect for the Word? Do we use God like a tool to attain what we want? When the Word does not match our desires do we discard it?

What effort is necessary on our part to make the Word effective in our lives?  It starts, he says, by becoming familiar with the Word, not only having knowledge of the Word but having the experience of the Word in our lives. Knowledge and experiencing the  truth of the knowledge are two different realities.  Knowledge, understanding, practicing  and experiencing the Word may be our desire, but it is only in experiencing the truth of the Word that changes us.  That's God's gift to us. That is the life of Faith.

We all desire to have our requests answered but how faithful are we in listening to God in the many ways he speaks to us. We are too busy and miss much of the happiness and grace that we should have in life. 

How precious do we consider the words of Scripture? Do they touch the heart? The columnist tells us that if we have read the Scriptures with the head, we should make a change and read them with our heart and and put them  into practice in our daily lives. Where the Word  exists  there is life. We should  yearn to make it a part of our life.

Our Heart is Where our Treasure is

The vocation director of the Incheon diocese, Fr. Matthew Cho Myeong-yeon, has just written his seventh  book which many received in the mail a few days ago. Fr. Matthew has a very popular blog at http://www.bbadaking.com, which he keeps updating. He is kept busy with his vocation work, the blog (nicknamed Butter King), and his writing.

In one of the essays in the recent book, he recounts clicking on the TV to see the rebroadcast of a popular drama, wanting to find out what people liked about it. The drama dealt with overcoming the difficulties that surrounded the main characters and the tender love they had for each other. The viewers were captivated by  the story, he believes, because they longed for the same love and happiness they found depicted in the drama.

Most of us do not appreciate the love and happiness that is present in our own lives, most often thinking it less than ideal. Fr. Matthew feels this way of thinking is an illusion. The love that we see dramatized is always seen as greater than the love we experience, and yet our love can be deeper and more beautiful.  As our proverb teaches, "Anothers  rice cake seems bigger than our own." To be truly happy, he says, we have to jettison the misunderstanding and illusion that others have a more beautiful happiness and greater love than we have.

As Jesus said, "Remember where your treasure is, there your heart is also." What we think is important is where our heart will  be.  If we consider God our treasure that is where our heart will be. This is also true with love and happiness. If we think that love and happiness is somewhere  other than in us,  then we will never have it.

What and where is our treasure? If we look for our treasure in the world and in material things, we will not find love and happiness in ourselves. We can  never find satisfaction in things outside of ourselves. When our treasure is in God, it is then that we become acquainted with love, and we learn that  giving, more than receiving, brings greater happiness. And in every situation we will  know that we can find satisfaction and have the opportunity to give thanks.

Do the Good and Avoid What is Bad

 An opinion piece in the Catholic Times introduces us to a learned gentleman from the past who placed first  in the state exams, and was appointed a county magistrate. Wanting to govern the county the best possible way, he went in search of some wise counsel. 
 
He found a celebrated scholar he trusted, who told him, "Just do the good and avoid the bad, that's all."The magistrate answered that a mere child knows this and wanted something more rewarding. The scholar repeated the same words.

The magistrate, disappointed, was about to leave when the scholar invited him for a cup of tea. The scholar poured the water into the magistrate's cup until it began to overflow. The magistrate yelled, " Master, the  water is overflowing! The scholar replied, "You know that  the water is overflowing the cup because you see it with your eyes. Why don't you know that knowledge can at times surpass wisdom?"
 

The magistrate understood immediately what was meant and, embarrassed, left the room and hit his head on the door frame. The scholar told him if he had bowed his head, he wouldn't have hit his head.


This is an anecdote that is often used, our columnist says, when lecturing  to those involved in welfare work. Do the good and avoid the bad is easily said but in practice, it is not  always easy to determine the good from the improper. In our society, the judgement on what is good and what is not  is hard to make, and our columnist would  like more clarification from our master scholar.

Shamanism in Korea

"All Koreans when they mingle in  society are Confucian; when they deal with philosophical questions they are Buddhist; when they come up against difficulties in life they are shamanistic." This was the way a  Protestant missionary described the Koreans back before the colonial rule of the Japanese, as reported in a Peace Weekly Series on different religious groups in Korea, the first article beginning with Shamanism. The writer agrees that there is much truth in the description: Those who go to a shaman when faced with life problems, no matter their alleged affiliations, belong to Shamanism; those who go to the Catholic Church are Catholics.

Korea has  over  300,000  shamans. They are, for the most part, not registered and are spread out into all areas of society. In the past, they were mostly found in certain sections of a city. Today they can be seen in market areas and wherever people congregate; they have become fashionable.
 

Although some consider Shamanism a religion, with  rituals to drive out evil spirits; others say it has only the appearance of a religion. They have no systematic teachings and have no ultimate concerns with life or death, good and evil, and have no world vision. Much of their ritual is focused on the shaman achieving an ecstatic state, which at times is also experienced by those participating in the ritual.
 

The history of Shamanism has little to do with the myth of Tan-gun, which deals with the history of Korea, says the writer. The shamans of the past were called to the royal court in the early kingdoms of Korea to offer sacrifices for rain, and other sacrifices similar to the rituals of Confucianism.
 

Some see Shamanism as rooted in the indigenous culture of Korea and for that reason should be preserved. Buddhism and Confucianism, and now Christianity with its 200-year history in Korea, have to be considered the religions of the Korean people. Those who consider Shamanism the native religion of the country want to see it develop and thrive. The writer agrees that preserving its contribution to Korean cultural history makes sense but to see that it develops is another completely different question. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Concluding  her article  she  gives us the words of Pope Paul VI, taken from his apostolic exhortation, "Evangelization in the Modern World," as a guideline on how to communicate with Shamanism:

        

Here we touch upon an aspect of evangelization which cannot leave us insensitive. We wish to speak about what today is often called popular religiosity.

One finds among the people particular expressions of the search for God and for faith, both in the regions where the Church has been established for centuries and where she is in the course of becoming established. These expressions were for a long time regarded as less pure and were sometimes despised, but today they are almost everywhere being rediscovered. During the last Synod the bishops studied their significance with remarkable pastoral realism and zeal.

Popular religiosity, of course, certainly has its limits. It is often subject to penetration by many distortions of religion and even superstitions. It frequently remains at the level of forms of worship not involving a true acceptance by faith. It can even lead to the creation of sects and endanger the true ecclesial community.

But if it is well oriented, above all by a pedagogy of evangelization, it is rich in values. It manifests a thirst for God which only the simple and poor can know. It makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is a question of manifesting belief. It involves an acute awareness of profound attributes of God: fatherhood, providence, loving and constant presence. It engenders interior attitudes rarely observed to the same degree elsewhere: patience, the sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, devotion. By reason of these aspects, we readily call it "popular piety," that is, religion of the people, rather than religiosity.