스크랩 From Firm Precepts to Beneficial Social Welfare -Tongdosa Temple

[기도법사]

From Firm Precepts to Beneficial Social Welfare Tongdosa Temple

                                                                                                               Written by Koh Yonhee

Vajra(Diamond) Precepts Platform

Yong-Choock Chongnim*(Comprehensive Monastery), another name for Tongdosa Temple, located in Yangsan city in Kyungnam Province is well known as one of Korea? so-called ?hree Jewels?temples, representing the Buddha Jewel. The name of the mountain where the Tongdosa Temple is located, is Mt. Yong-Choock or Mt. Yong-Chui in Korean named after the Mt. Gridhrakuta (Vulture Peak), located to the east of Rajagriha in Magada Kingdom in Old India, where Shakyamuni Buddha delivered the Lotus Sutra.

The Diamond Precepts Platform is an open alter, comprised of two tiered, square block alters where Buddhist disciples usually formally receive the precepts in ordination ceremony. This Diamond Precepts Platform was made by Great Master Chajang in the Shilla Period in 646 AD, when he brought back some of the Buddha? relics and cloth from Tang China and enshrined them in the bell shaped stone stupa, on the center of this Platform. The Diamond reference signifies the importance of the receiving and keeping precepts with a strong and solid mind.

In Korean, the pronunciation of gyedan in the words of platform and staircase sounds almost the same, though the gye in platform should be pronounced longer than that of staircase. Because the rules of long pronunciation in some vowels have almost disappeared and no one taught it to young people who do not know Chinese letters well, many young people may be confused by the name: is it platform or staircase?

This Diamond Precepts Platform used to be seen easily from anyplace near the Main Buddha Hall. But nowadays the whole Platform is surrounded by walls as high as an adult. Without entering at the center gate, you cannot see it properly. According to the explanation of Jibong Sunim of the temple, the big renovation was conducted to recover the ancient appearance before 1910s, being removed the Japanese colonial vintages, three years ago.

I was so sorry that many visitors stood on tip-toe to try to see the platform over the wall. If the walls were a bit lower than now, they would be happy to see the sitting Buddha images and flying celestial beings carved on the two-tiered stone dais and beautiful stone lanterns in four directions.

  

A temple or a hall having the Buddha? real sarira is called the Jeweled Palace of Tranquil Extinction(寂滅寶宮), and has no Buddha statue inside the hall. Instead, the real relics can be viewed through a large window. This hall has three other different wooden tablets, one for each cardinal direction: they are Mahavaipulya Hall(大方廣殿), Diamond Precepts Platform and Great Hero Hall.

Temple of Stone Lanterns

I think the stone lanterns do not draw much attention these days in temples. Standing in the courtyard, in front of the halls, they were used to light that monks and nuns could see their way to the halls for the chanting ceremony in the wee hours of the morning. But that function has lost with electricity. I am afraid that their symbolic meaning has been forgotten, too; to enlighten the ignorant sentient beings through the Buddha? teaching. Many more stone lanterns are seen in this temple complex than any other temple. Though some of them are condemned by the Japanese style, the oldest is the one in front of the Avalokitesvara Hall, dating back to the Koryo period. Regardless of the historical value of lanterns, I? like to recognize the symbolic meanings of the many stone lanterns in the Buddha Jewel Temple.

Among them, the one I like best is the lantern which stands in front of the Triple-Gate for the temple founder? shrine. I cannot but smile to see this small simple lantern because its appearance is never accord with the big, authoritative gate. A stone lantern is generally composed of six parts: a foundation stone, a lower pedestal stone, a column, an upper pedestal stone, a light chamber and a roof. Sometimes four sitting or standing lions are carved as a column. The rectangular or octagonal light chamber has four openings for diffusion of light to the four directions and Bodhisattvas?images are depicted on the stones between the openings.

Reference on divided three levels, upper, middle and lower, of this temple complex is generally known. However, I? like to focus on space rather than level. This temple was built to describe the one Lotus World of Three Buddhas, and the Great Sea of Avatamsaka to me. The Virocana Buddha is enshrined in the Great Light Hall on the highest part of the center area, to the right, Shakyamuni Buddha is in the Precepts Platform, and Amitabha Buddha is enshrined in Paradise Hall to the left of Virocana. Other halls and shrines are located toward their relevant buddha independently but relatively. It shows the one stanza of ocean-seal chart(海印圖): in one is all and in many is one; one is identical to all and many are identical to one. It shows the complete and perfect mutual inter-penetration of between phenomena and phenomena.

The Beauty of Leading Temple

The beauty of the Tongdosa Temple is not only in the beauty of hardware but also in the beauty of software, that is Jabiwon (House of Compassion), a social welfare center for the elderly. The late Wolha Sunim established a welfare corporation and erected a 4 story building especially for 50 elderly buddhists who do not have any family looking after them, outside of but near the temple, 15 years ago. At that time almost no monks paid much attention to the situation that many buddhists had to meet the end of their lives at other religious facilities because there were no buddhist ones available.

At present, this welfare corporation has developed four more facilities including Nursing Homes for mild and intensive cases respectively and Home-Care Service for the Aged, extending it to the neighboring cities, Yangsan and Masan. The General Secretary of Jabiwon, Oh Ki-won, told me that the dynamic power of Jabiwon comes from the virtual actions on the Bodhisattva way of volunteer supporters that number more than one thousand. After I look around at the happy-looking residents, I told him, ? hope the day would come soon that other temples have interest in this matter, too, and ask you to transfer your accumulated know-how.?Since we began to talk about our aging-society several years ago, our situation has rapidly turned into an aged-society. One of our on-going issues became how to die well rather than how to live well and happy.

Like the days when the lights from stone lanterns illuminated the way, may the fragrance of the Buddha Jewel be filled with this Saha world, and especially be beneficial to the lonely and elderly.

▶ Chongnim : Comprehensive Training Monastery. A monastery can be designated as Chongnim when there are halls for Seon (meditation), Kyo(doctrine), Recitation, and Vinaya(precepts), in order to practice and study meditation and doctrinal understand-ing in one place. We have five Chongnims in the Jogye Order.

Tongdosa Temple

583, Jisan-ri, Habuk-myeon, Yangsan-si, Gyeongsangnam-do

Tel.055-382-7182 Fax.055-382-7196 www.tongdosa.or.kr

[위제희]

영축총림 양산 통도사에대한 자료입니다 좋은자료 올려주신 기도법사님께 감사의말씀 드립니다...()()()