Cheonggyu is the rules and method of management of a Seon Monastery. It is the Vinaya Pitaka of the Seon Tradition which Seon ja(ascetics who follow rules and tradition) should observe in their life in Seon and is also a life guide in Seon. The Cheong...
Cheonggyu is the rules and method of management of a Seon Monastery. It is the Vinaya Pitaka of the Seon Tradition which Seon ja(ascetics who follow rules and tradition) should observe in their life in Seon and is also a life guide in Seon. The Cheonggyu originated from Pai-Chang Hui-Yuan(720~814) in the Tang dynasty. Pai-Chang, a highly influential Chan monk in the Tang dynasty, established the Cheonggyu and laid the foundation of Zen Buddhism. He also formed the groundwork for making an independent body of Zen Buddhism, free from the existing bodies of Buddhist precepts.
Before the Cheonggyu was enacted in the Seon Tradition of Zen Buddhism, rules of Buddhist meditation practices were managed mainly by Buddhist precepts and Buddhist rules. Buddhist rules established by Doan in the Jin dynasty became a new rule of Chinese Buddhism, but it was not suitable for the rules of life in Seon because it was general rules of Chinese Buddhism, regardless of Zen or non-Zen Buddhism. In this respect, the Cheonggyu is a rule of life and culture, based on the spirit of Sangha, the Buddhist community, as it was established from the Sangha‘s natural features, weather and tradition.
The Cheonggyu not only systemized the ordinaries of life from eating, costume to shelter, the basis of life and culture in Seon. It also organized ritual systems including process and method of the head priest‘s Sang dang seol beob(buddhist sermon in a building that contains a statue of Buddha), provisions of one's mission, ceremony of offering meals and tea-drinking ritual. Food, clothes and housing patterns in Seon went through continued changes and developments according to culture, custom, environment and living habits in each times. These patterns had very different meanings and concepts from those in a secular life as they were formed in the framework of the Buddhist community which focused on becoming a Buddhist priest.
In this aspect, this research paper examines problems of food, clothes and housing patterns in a practical way, based on the Cheonggyu in Seon. In other words, this paper studies how eating, costume and housing culture have changed in terms of cultural life of a Seon temple and how Chinese documents about the Cheonggyu accepted and transmitted them. Through the research process, the paper aims at reviewing how internal rules or agreements of the Korean Seon have developed and how Seon Ja have understood and accepted costume and dietary culture in their life in a Seon temple.
As for ascetics for the Seon Tradition, everyday life of food, costume, and shelter does not merely mean easting, dressing and sleeping. It is sublimated into the enlightenment through Buddhist meditation practices because Seon Ja's meal is not simply for preserving their body and costume is not just for preventing cold and heat. Dressing is meant to wear a sacerdotal robe. This goes the same with living space for the meditation. Each construction has different usage and various meanings according to its structure and usage.
The Cheonggyu in the Chinese Seon Buddhism expressed everyday life of eating, dressing and housing in Seon as the features of the enlightenment. Thus, cultural life of eating, dressing and housing shown in the Cheonggyu is very important to understand the culture and the spirit of Seon. However, as in the Korean Buddhist order of Jogye, the Cheonggyu for Seon which inherited the spirit of the Vinaya Pitaka and the early Cheonggyu has not been codified, it is difficult to embody tradition and meditation of Jogye. In particular, the Korean Jogye has been locked into the frame of customs in past times and irrational norms although the spirit of meditation and rules of costume should be expressed in everyday life in Seon. For example, Buddhist costume fails to show the principles and the spirit of Jogye in its shapes and colors and a ascetic's dietary life doesn't show any clear regulations about meat and vegetable dietary, and Oshinchae(five vegetables including green onion, garlic, rocambole and leek which should not be used in temple foods). In addition, there are also problems about structures and usage of living spaces in Seon, which are important to ascetics. Therefore, based on the Vinaya Pitaka and Cheonggyu, Jogye should make it clear how it accepts and develops the Cheonggyu for Seon in Jogye under the rapidly changing modern society.
Recently, the Korean Buddhist order of Jogye has done studies on concepts of Seon and meditation, but there has not been enough research on the Cheonggyu. Researches on the Cheonggyu have been done only in a philological way so far. Studies of living and cultural aspects have not been focused on yet. The Korean Seon Centers are operating their own Cheonggyu which follows tradition of Mun jung(Buddhists who have the same sur name and birthplace) and characteristics of temple, but this Cheonggyu contains any problems including having unsystematic rules and contents contradictory to modern times, and showing only internal rules to escape from secular forms.
Therefore, this paper will become the groundwork for studies on constructing tradition and meditation practices of Jogye and lay the foundation for rules in meditation life in Seon. This is because the Cheonggyu for Seon in Jogye can present a new way of meditation for Seon, based on the culture and the spirit of the Korean Zen Buddhism. In this regard, Seon of Jogye, which stands for the spirit of Korean Buddhist meditation, should take the spirit of the Cheonggyu for Seon more importantly.
Through this paper, it is needed to newly construct parts of food, clothes and housing culture in the Cheonggyue to meet modern meditation life, based on its traditional rules. In particular, when Jogye establishes a new Cheonggyue, it should not look into food, clothing and housing culture in an extremely secular way and should not bring forms and ideas of the past to the new Cheonggyu.
Therefore, it is essential to make a new Cheonggyu, which goes with meditation culture of this time, and the culture and spirit of Seon. And, when these problems are solved, the Buddhist community will become one of the most ideal and the best leading groups in the society.