earticle

영어

This paper aims to reconstruct the truth about human beings and the world in the intense process of nun Kim, Ilyup’s (1896-1971) search for me in her own voice, and to examine the main ideas she emphasized in her understanding of human beings, the process of meditation, and the concept of a cultural person. She was one of the best intellectuals of her time, with the best learning and social activities, and a religious figure who left a great mark on the history of modern era, and the evaluation of her life and activities varies not only in her time, but also as our society changes. In three-volume collection, an elite nun who experienced the best learning before her renunciation and practiced rigorous asceticism after entering Buddhist Sangha, finally explains Buddhist and Seon Buddhist thought in her own words after 27 years of silence. She defines the self of the underlying spirit, the antithesis of the lost self of reality, as “I, the creator”. The creator, she says, is one who is able to grasp and use “her own creativity”, a state in which she is able to accept the results of her own and others’ mind-body actions. Thus, she says, it is wrong to understand the Buddha and God as creators; they are only maximizing their creativity. The state of maximized creativity is called “heavenly and earthly infantile solitude”, and it is called the “all-pervasive self”, the unity of subject and object. The process of finding oneself expresses the realization that one has nothing to see and nothing to lose, and that one has finally realized the truth in its unencumbered, free form. This is the characteristic of a practitioner who, after leaving the monastery, is completely at peace within himself or herself. It can be seen that she has abandoned her inner self and is now free to be the subject of her own actions in every moment, free from the past when she was attached to external things, her surroundings, and others, and was unable to grasp her true nature in her relationships with people. People who know Buddhism and have realized Buddhist enlightenment are called true cultured people, while ignorant people who do not know the Buddha’s teachings are called uncultured people. As the teacher of cultured people, who are referred to as the ideal of human perfection, the Buddha is called the “Great Cultured Person” and the “Great Master” of Time and Space who has attained the Great Escape. In this light, she refers to the Buddha’s 49 years of preaching as a “great work of art”, a supreme and perfect masterpiece. she also refers to her lifelong teacher, Master Man Gong, as a “multifaceted cultural person who has both reason and matter” and is a great artist. She explains that in his daily life, he cried, laughed, sang, danced, and transmitted the Buddhist teachings in various ways in response to the strength of his subjects. To become a cultivator, she says, one must come directly to the door of the Buddha, the Great Cultivator, and he himself realized this when she entered the monastery. For her, the concept of a cultured person now converges at one point with the Buddha, the source of her absolute faith, teacher Man Gong, and herself, the idealized version of herself who has recovered the “fundamental spirit” she seeks. Her’s three volume books are the result of a harmonious transition between the world of experience, which an intellectual can never express, and the world of language, which only direct experience can express.

한국어

김일엽(金一葉, 1896~1971)은 한국 근현대를 대표하는 신여성이며, 불교계의 대표적인 선사이다. 그의 삶은 문인이며, 교육자이고, 사회 개혁의 운동가이며, 당대를 선도하는 비구니였다. 세속의 삶은 긍정과 부정 어느 측면에서나 언제나 화제의 중심에 있었으며, 출가 이후의 삶은 이상적인 수행자의 모습을 보여준다. 본 논문은 일엽이 ‘나를 찾아가는 과정’의 논리를 그의 목소리로 재구성하여 인간에 대한 이해, 선수행 과정, 문화인이라는 개념을 고찰한다. 그는 상실된 자아의 대척점인 근본정신의 자아를 ‘창조주인 나’로 규정하고, 이는 ‘자신의 창조성’을 파악하여 활용하며, 타인의 행위의 결과물도 자신이 수용할 수 있는 상태를 의미한다. 그래서 그는 부처님과 하느님도 자신의 창조성을 최대한으로 사용한 것이며, 창조성이 최대로 발휘된 상태가 ‘천상천하 유아독존’이며, 이는 ‘만능적 자아’, 주관과 객관이 일체화된 무아(無我)이다. 그는 불교를 알고 불교의 깨달음을 체득한 사람을 참 문화인이며, 부처님의 가르침을 알지 못하는 무지한 인간을 비(非)문화인이라고 한다. 인간 완성의 이상형이며, 스승으로서 붓다는 ‘대(大)문화인’이며, ‘시공을 초월한 대(大)선생’이다. 붓다의 49년간의 설법을 완벽한 작품으로써 ‘대예술품’이라 지칭한다. 스승 만공에 대해서도 ‘다각적 문화인’이며 대예술가라고 한다. 그에게 문화인이라는 개념은 절대적 믿음의 귀의처인 붓다, 스승인 만공, 그리고 자신이 추구하고자 ‘근본 정신’을 회복한 본인 스스로가 한 지점에서 합치되는 개념이다.