Description
 
 
Preface
 
This book is a collection of the lecture-notes of the online-lectures on the Ethics of Won Buddhism delivered for Won Institute of Graduate Studies during the fall semester of 2012. This book can be of help to anyone who wishes to understand the true nature of the moral system of Won Buddhism.
 
The doctrine of a religion includes its moral system. A philosophical analysis of the moral system constitutes its religious ethics. Won Buddhism is a new religion whose doctrine takes the Buddha-dharma as its central tenet into which some essential moral teaching of Confucianism is infused. As the Neo-Confucian masters did a relentless criticism of Buddhism, one can wonder how the two opposing ideologies can be synthesized into a new religion especially because of the historical fact that Buddhism was ostracized into deep mountain valleys by the Confucian national ideology of Chosŏn dynasty (1392-1910) for over 500 years. The ethics of Won Buddhism is a philosophical reconstruction of the moral system of Won Buddhism. Its aim is to show how the two incompatible moral systems have been synthesized into a new religious moral system.
 
The root of the Won Buddhist moral system lies in Sot’aesan’s intention to deliver sentient beings and cure the world of moral ills by faith in truthful religion and training in sound morality. The whole doctrine of Won Buddhism is systematized as a way of realizing the dual goals. Thus, the ethics of Won Buddhism is a religious ethics. The Buddhist element of the doctrine constitutes the ethics of virtue which shows how one can be enlightened to one’s own Buddha nature and become a living buddha; while the Confucian element of the doctrine constitutes the ethics of duty which shows how one can fulfill the duty to requite the beneficence to which one owes one’s life. The two ways are complementary to each other in the sense that the Buddhist practice can be egoistic without fulfilling the moral duties to the source of one’s life and one cannot fulfill the moral duties without perfecting one’s moral virtues by the Buddhist practice. Thus the ideal moral being in Won Buddhism is one who has perfected one’s virtue by enlightenment to one’s Buddha nature and carries out one’s moral duty of beneficence requital in the world.
 
 
 
Contents

Preface.   ix
Abbreviations and Conventions.   xi
Doctrinal Chart.   xiii
 
Chapter One.   Introductory remarks      1
Chapter Two.   The Relevance of the Ethics of Won Buddhism      13
Chapter Three.   The object of morality of the Buddha, Confucius, and Sot’aesan      25
Chapter Four.   The Groundwork of the Won Buddhist metaphysics of Morals      35
Chapter Five.   The Moral System of the Buddha      47
Chapter Six.   The Moral System of Confucius      61
Chapter Seven.   The Relevance of Human Nature to Morality      71
Chapter Eight.   The Meanings of the Terms: Human Nature, Self-Nature, Principle of Nature      81
Chapter Nine.   Sot’aesan’s Method of Moral Improvement I      95
Chapter Ten.   Sot’aesan’s Method of Moral Improvement II      111
Chapter Eleven.   Chŏngsan’s Method of Moral Culture I      125
Chapter Twelve.   Chŏngsan’s Method of Moral Culture II      139
Chapter Thirteen.   The Fourfold Beneficence as the Source of Moral Duties      155
Chapter Fourteen.   Moral Duties derived from Fourfold Beneficence      167
Chapter Fifteen.   Justification of the Moral Rules      187

Concluding Remarks      199
Glossary of East Asian Characters      203
Glossary of Terms      207
References [Works Cited]      217
Index      221