[Article] “Let’s Be Awakened!”: Sotaesan’s Great Opening of the Spirit / An Sae-myung
The Quarterly Changbi 195, Spring 2022
Abstract
“Articles” in this issue reminds us of the need for a radical re-thinking of our system in this period of a grand transformation. Minister An Sae-myung of Won Buddhism continues the discussion at the “Special Colloquy: Seeking Donghak Again in Order To Ask Guidance in Our Way Forward,” published in the 2021 fall issue. Beginning with different opinions expressed in it by Paik Nak-chung and Kim Young-Oak, about the place of Su’un and Sotaesan in the history of Korean thought, An Sae-myung goes into an in-depth discussion of Sotaesan’s philosophical achievement. In particular, he points out that the interpretation of the Won Buddhist motto, “With the great unfolding of the material civilization, let there be a great unfolding of spirituality,” from the perspective of a dualistic understanding of spirit and material, is the result of Western and modernistic biases. According to him, Sotaesan’s “spirit” is a state beyond the dualism between material and spirit, a state where one does not insist on either being or non-being. Rather, Sotaesan expected the intensification of capitalism and emphasized that we pursue spiritual awakening equal to capitalist materialistic civilization. An Sae-myung's argument is insightful: urging us to be awakened in order to continue the ultimate questions about our origins and the visions about our time offered by Sotaesan.