조오현 선시의 문학사적 의의

Abstract

‘The state of not to rely on letters’ [不立文字] is thought as one of the main characteristics of Zen Buddhism partly because letters are generally considered as the tool to cross the gateway without a door [無門關] and to be thrown away after crossing especially when you are enlightened, you are a Buddha [見性成佛]. The world of being spiritually awakened, namely, the world of Buddha can be achieved only by the Self Awakening of the Original Enlightenment [本證自覺]. Thus you are told to penetrate the real meaning of letters according to the ancient meditative atmosphere of Buddhism instead of relying on the letters. This paper is written in order to find a new way to explain the essence of ‘the state of not to rely on letters’ in Jo Oh-Hyun’s zen poetry because transcendental wisdom [般若] can not be said by a normal language. However, languages have been used by zen masters like Jo Oh-Hyun himself, especially when he writes his poems out of the Bodhisattva Ideal [菩薩思想] and Compassion Thought [慈悲思想], in order to help their students realize the way to the Enlightenment especially in the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism [大乘佛敎]. Most Buddhist monks and scholars talk about the insufficient efforts to communicate Dharma Talk [法語] in terms of modern languages. But the problem of communication in Buddhism has not been caused by the lack of its methods but by the discourse itself. ‘The state of not to rely on letters’ is to be explained to the public in this post-modern age, when language is no longer a reliable device for meaningful communication. Modern western thoughts, including Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction, have been suggested to solve the traditional communication problem of Buddhism. This paper is written to prove that Jo Oh-Hyun’s zen poetry, which began with the traditional poetic form of Si Jo in the history of Korean literature, can be explained properly with the ideas of modern western thinkers, whose works are explicated here as one of the practical programs to elucidate the achievement of Jo Oh-Hyun’s zen poetry as well as to solve the communication problem of Buddhism. This paper also shows that Korean zen poetry has been adequately updated along with Jo Oh-Hyun’s zen poetry.