Wonhyo's thoughts on Buddhist precepts have been strongly colored by his image of a free thinker highlighted with the expression, “Wonhyo, the unbridled” (Kor. Wonhyo pulgi. T.49, 2039.1006a7). His transgression of Buddhist disciplines has also been celebrated as evidence of the superiority of the Mahayana spirit over a strict observation of rules in the Theravada tradition. The sectarian discourse of whether Theravada Buddhism, which Korean Buddhism continues to refer to with the derogative term “Hinayana,” is actually an inferior and narrower version of Buddhism as Mahayanists wish to project is an issue that need a separate essay.
Considering the issue in a smaller scope, I want to point out that, accentuating Wonhyo's free spirit as a major feature of both Wonhyo's Buddhist thoughts and Mahayana Buddhism, Wonhyo scholarship has been blind to problems that could ensue when “Mahayana liberalism” is escalated without being properly thought out. As a result it has disregarded the gap in Wonhyo's writings when they are interpreted as a mere celebration of liberalism (Park 2002). Also, the scholarship risks the danger of falling into what an American Buddhist scholar calls a “transcendence trap” (Whitehill 2000: 21). This essay claims that Wonhyo's ethical thoughts as expressed in his major works on bodhisattva precepts do not support such irresponsible mystification of transcending Buddhist disciplines, nor do they remain silent on the importance of maintaining, before violating or transcending, bodhisattva precepts in Buddhist practice. Exploring Wonhyo's thoughts on bodhisattva precepts in his writings, this essay challenges the prevalence of Wonhyo scholarship of an overemphasis on the liberalist spirit in Wonhyo's Buddhist thoughts. This will be accomplished by examining the philosophical ground of Mahayana ethics in Wonhyo and examining his guide for practicing this ethics. In this process, I also want to consider contemporary American Buddhist efforts to create Buddhist ethics proper and provide this study as one example of the philosophical investigation of Mahayana Buddhist ethics.
目次
Abstract 147 Ⅰ. The One and the Many 148 Ⅱ. Emptiness in Mahayana Ethics 150 Ⅲ. Existence and Non-existence of Precepts 157 Ⅳ. The Ethical Meaning of Faith 160 Ⅴ. Dancing with Tears 164
