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Through an investigation of two recently discovered paper sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment from the Silla kingdom, this paper reveals that early Korea had more diverse forms of dhāraṇī practices than previously assumed. Through analyses of these incantation sheets, this paper contributes toward filling the gap in our current understanding of the material practice pertaining to the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment of medieval East Asia. Previously, all known traces of material dhāraṇīs from early Korea, with just a few exceptions, were related to the Sūtra of the Pure Light Incantation enshrined in the relic crypts of pagodas—a practice that has little connection to contemporaneous Chinese dhāraṇī practice. However, the newly discovered Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets, whose date this paper infers to be between the eighth and ninth century, show that Unified Silla had a dhāraṇī practice closely linked to coeval Chinese practice. The Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment sheets from Silla show the modification and continuation of Chinese dhāraṇī practice. Unlike the Chinese amulet sheets of the Incantation of Wish-Fulfillment that were buried in tombs, the Silla amulet sheets were likely enshrined in one of the pagodas erected on Mount Nam in Silla's capital. At the same time, they were placed in the pagoda to wish for good afterlives of the soldiers who died at the battle, suggesting that they had a mortuary function similar to those buried in Chinese tombs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inscriptions of Buddhist mantras and dhāraṇīs were interred in Chinese tombs on behalf of the deceased from the Tang dynasty onward as the fear of postmortem judgment and punishment in the ten courts of hell became firmly rooted. This notion of the afterlife and the practice of enclosing dhāraṇī inscriptions in tombs seem to have been received by Korean Buddhists by the beginning of the Koryŏ (918–1392). This paper, through a close examination of a wooden inner coffin excavated in 2014 from a tomb in Nongso-myŏn, Ullim-ri, Sunch'ang-gun, North Chŏlla Province of Korea, sheds new light on the use of dhāraṇī on funerary objects and structures during the Koryŏ. The coffin bears, on its lacquered exterior walls, inscriptions of the Mantra of the Six-Syllable King of Great Clarities (Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ) and the Mantra for Shattering Hell (Oṃ karadeya svāhā). While defining the dhāraṇī coffin from Nongso Tomb as one form of funerary dhāraṇī, this paper situates it in the historical trajectory of such practice by comparing it with Liao (916–1125) precedents. The dhāraṇī coffins from Koryŏ and Liao tombs attest that the Buddhists made use of mantras and dhāraṇīs promising salvation of the deceased from hell during their lifetime and beyond. This study shows that two different kinds of dhāraṇīs, which are similarly named and believed to have the power of shattering hell, were practiced by Chinese and Korean Buddhists. It also proposes that the Mantra for Shattering Hell (Oṃ karadeya svāhā) may have been transmitted to the Korean peninsula as part of the food bestowal ritual before its incorporation into the funerary context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the life of Yi Ch'ŏngch'un 李靑春 (1886–1955), one of the first female disciples of Wŏn Buddhism, a 20th-century Korean religious movement. Her story shows modernity's impact on Korean women's psyche and social roles, and the progressive initiative of male teachers who advanced gender equality in new Korean religious movements. A range of data, including periodicals, letters, and newspaper articles, enable us to understand the changing face of women during the process of modernization in Korea. This paper gives voice to the significant role of Yi Ch'ŏngch'un, an exceptional financial sponsor in the formative years of Wŏn Buddhism and an advocate for women's rights. By highlighting her contributions, it becomes clear that the progressive males who pushed for gender equality relied on the support of female-ordained devotees to actualize the doctrine's ideal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last three decades of evolution, the Jogye Order's postulant education system has made considerable progress in standardizing, centralizing, and modernizing Buddhist education for aspiring monastics. As celebrated by the order's 2022 publication The 30-year History of Buddhist Monastic Postulant Education, the order's program has successfully seen over 9800 ordained novices graduate since its launch in 1991. However, there is a broad consensus within Korea's Buddhist community that the religion is in crisis and, within the order in particular, that its future is in peril. Unless it is reversed, the trend portends the very real possibility of the order's demise by the end of the century, if not sooner. The order recently vowed to reverse the downward trend in monastic recruitment and raise the annual number of ordained novices to 150 by 2025 through a multifaceted plan involving greater youth outreach efforts, an increased social media presence, and online Buddhist educational materials, along with an expansion of the order's international missionary efforts. Given that postulant recruitment is critical to the order's survival, this paper examines the past, present, and future of the Jogye Order's postulant education system in light of the current membership crisis, as well as the order's recent publication of The 30-year History of Buddhist Monastic Postulant Education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explore the public dimension of religion in Korea. First, it examines the Western and East Asian contexts on the concept of 'public', noting that the gap in notions of public is large between East Asian and Western traditions. The following section discusses Habermas' 'institutional translation proviso' in relation to the notion 'public'. The institutional translation proviso serves as the basis for further discussion on rethinking the public role of religion in Korea in the era of climate crisis. We argue that 'secular' translations of religious convictions can help religious citizens and communities engage in public discourses on ecological challenges. We then consider major limitations of Habermas' understanding of religion. In the following section, we move on to discuss Albert Schweitzer and process theology in order to demonstrate how religious languages can be reinterpreted on the basis of modern experiences of ecological challenges. We then consider Buddhist alternatives for overcoming the climate crisis. The final section introduces José Casanova's account of public religions and discusses its implication for envisioning the public role of religious organizations in ecological efforts. Reviewing the contributions made by religious organizations to the Korean society, we suggest that 'ecological publicness' of religion can be obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically scrutinizes the history and activities of South Korea's two largest Buddhist international aid organizations, namely, the Join Together Society, founded in 1991 by Venerable Pomnyun, leader of Korea's independent Jungto Society order of lay Buddhists, and the Global Community Association (Jiguchon Gongsaenghoe, Good Hands), founded by former Jogye Order president, Venerable Wolju (1935–2021). It examines the origins, organizations, and activities of both organizations, followed by a comparison of their similarities and differences, along with a discussion of their respective relationships to Korean Buddhist mainstream life and the advantages and disadvantages of each. They are significant, not only for the many benefits they have brought to their target communities abroad but also for what they represent to the Korean Buddhist community at home. As the Korean Buddhist establishment continues to grapple with a prolonged crisis of falling membership and loss of relevance within Korea's increasingly agnostic society, the long-term sustainability of Korean Buddhist international efforts remains an open question. Nevertheless, the two organizations represent new visions for the modes of meaningful Buddhist praxis and engagement with the modern world that have a strong appeal to Korea's younger, urbanized Buddhist laity. The further support and expansion of such activities by the Buddhist establishment might aid in reversing the current downward trends of belief. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Notably during the Yuan period of Chinese history, Korean Buddhists had a curious custom of making arduous trips to Buddhist centers in mainland China, by sea or overland. To the extent that monks made this trip despite the possible dangers of this long journey, Yuan Buddhism in the practice of Korean Buddhism was conceived as an important hub of monastic certification and the source of new Buddhist developments. In addition, the Chinese masters were seen as essential figures in the monastic careers of the Korean monks. Although there would have been qualified masters in Korea to lead the practice of kanhua chan and to verify the enlightened states of the Korean monks, traveling to China continued up to the end of the Koryŏ period. This continued because the Korean monks obtained obvious benefits after having traveled to China and received their certification of enlightenment 印可. On their return, these monks were given recognition for their spiritual attainment and assigned to high positions in the saṃgha bureaucracy, in many cases, as either a royal or state preceptor. This custom of visiting China was all the more heightened due to Yuan's domination over Koryŏ from the late-13th to the mid-14th centuries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As artificial intelligence (AI) outpaces the human brain, it is invoking wide-spread fear that men and machines are moving into a conflicting zone. Some even suspect that AI machines may one day consider human beings as slow and sloppy, and thus worthy of subordination or elimination. A growing challenge to mitigate the looming crisis requires science to expand its artificially augmented intelligence by incorporating elements from the ethical–spiritual and human universe. Our endeavor to bridge the prevailing gap between science and spirituality focuses on Buddhism, which stands out in its ability to achieve a rare fusion between natural, spiritual and human worlds. This unique synthesis is specifically mediated by Buddhist 'causality', where one aspect explains reality based on a scientifically proven cause and effect paradigm, but the other aspect interprets it by compassionate humanism. It argues that the missing human–spiritual dimension in artificial intelligence can be remedied by the Buddhist concept of 'causally' linked to the idea of 'self-enlightenment'. Being an integral part of Buddhist heritage and a leading player in cutting-edge science, Korea demonstrates abilities to emerge as a new balancer to incorporate the best of science, spiritually and humanism to build next-generation AI machines with distinct human qualities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the decades following the Korean War (1950–1953), support from Korea's Jogye Order, the largest of Korea's Buddhist sects, was instrumental for establishing Korean Buddhism overseas. However, in recent decades, Korean Buddhism has been facing a growing domestic crisis and the number of the Jogye Order's annual monastic recruits has been declining steadily. This domestic membership crisis has affected Korean Buddhism abroad, as the order has lost over half its foreign temples over the last decade. Nevertheless, despite these downward trends, the nine international branches of the Hanmaum Seon Center, founded by the Jogye Order's Seon Master Daehaeng, have remained strong. Given the successful example of the Hanmaum Seon Center's international branches, the Jogye Order's future efforts abroad might find success by focusing on lay-oriented modes of practice, while balancing their involvement both with local Korean émigré communities and with outreach to local non-Koreans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]