The Buddhist Shamanistic Code

Yang, Sunggu

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-41564-2_5

Sunggu Yang⁴

Part of the book series: Asian Christianity in the Diaspora ((ACID))

138 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter shows how certain religious aspects of Buddhism and Shamanism, as two most influential folk religions for Koreans, have been migrated or integrated into the Korean American Christianity, especially into preaching practice. Depending on how the people perceive and exercise those two folk religions, there are also several different code styles appearing in the actual practice of the Buddhist Shamanistic code in their Christian faith and preaching activity as well. The chapter discusses in detail two major styles among others: the Eco-Rhythmic Community style and the Buddhist Shamanistic Supernatural style.

He personally takes his own education from Confucius; he sends his wife to Buddha to pray for offspring; and in the ills of life, he willingly pays a toll to a Shamanist mootang [sorceress] (G.H. Jones, “The Spirit Worship of the Koreans,” in Transactions, Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. II, Part II [Seoul: Branch, 1901], 39).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Chapter: USD 29.95; Price excludes VAT (USA)

eBook: USD 79.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Softcover Book: USD 99.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Hardcover Book: USD 99.99; Price excludes VAT (USA)

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

1.
Shiv Kumar Sharma, Life Profile & Biography of Buddha (New Delhi: Diamond Pocket Books, 2002), 74–75.
2.
For detailed discussion on the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, see Denise L. Carmody and John T. Carmody, Eastern Ways to the Center: An Introduction to the Religions of Asia (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub. Co., 1992). Also, see Bodhi, “The Noble Eightfold Path: The Way to the End of Suffering,” http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/bodhi/waytoend.html#ch2 (accessed May 5, 2014).
3.
Harvey, An Introduction to Buddhism, 92–94; Hans Küng and Julia Ching, Christianity and Chinese Religions (New York: Doubleday, 1989), 218.
4.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 23. For the ancient teaching on the life of the Bodhisattvas, see Jampa Tegchok, Thubten Chodron, and Rgyal-sras Thogs-med-dpal Bzaṅ-po-dpal, Transforming Adversity into Joy and Courage: An Explanation of The Thirty-Seven Practices of Bodhisattvas (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion Publications, 2005).
5.
Baker, Korean Spirituality, 105–111; Qiang Ning, Art, Religion, and Politics in Medieval China: The Dunhuang Cave of the Zhai Family (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004), 19–20; and Elizabeth Ten Grotenhuis, Japanese Mandalas Representations of Sacred Geography (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999), 109.
6.
Küng and Ching, Chinese Religions, 197–201. According to the census of 815 CE, there were a quarter of a million Buddhist monks and nuns, 4600 temples, and about 40,000 associated shrines in China. Ibid., 216.
7.
Keown, Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction, 80–81.
8.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 24.
9.
Küng and Ching, Chinese Religions, 215–221.
10.
Baker, Korean Spirituality, 40–41; E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 24.
11.
Mario Poceski, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to East and Inner Asian Buddhism (Chichester: Wiley, 2014), 322.
12.
John Bowker, The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 107–109; Yi, The Early Revival, 44.
13.
For instance, during the national IMF crisis in Korea in 1998, the Korean Buddhism Promotion Foundation held an IMF-Recovery retreat in order to educate and reinvigorate the jobless and homeless who lost most of their financial assets immediately following the crisis. A Buddhist newspaper article also urged the Buddhist world to more practically participate in the recovery movement of the IMF-stricken Korean economy. http://www.ibulgyo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=36399; http://www.beopbo.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=26324 (both accessed May 6, 2014).
14.
It might sound a bit strange to western ears and minds, but in Korea Protestantism and Catholicism are regarded as separate religions, mainly because Protestants and Catholics each think that the other Christian branch is very different (and thus very wrong).
15.
Francis and Nakajima, Christians in Japan, 19.
16.
Notto R. Thelle, Buddhism and Christianity in Japan from Conflict to Dialogue, 1854–1899 (Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 1987), 176.
17.
Tamaru Noriyoshi, “Buddhism in Japan,” in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. Mircea Eliade, 2:426.
18.
Jacques H. Kamstra, Encounter or Syncretism: The Initial Growth of Japanese Buddhism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1967), 1–20.
19.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 26.
20.
Merete Demant Jakobsen, Shamanism: Traditional and Contemporary Approaches to the Mastery of Spirits and Healing (New York: Berghahn Books, 1999), 1.
21.
Ibid.
22.
David K. Suh, “Minjung Theology: The Politics and Spirituality of Korean Christianity,” in Perspectives on Christianity in Korea and Japan: The Gospel and Culture in East Asia, ed. Mark R. Mullins and Richard Fox Young (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1995), 91.
23.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 28.
24.
Jakobsen, Shamanism, 1.
25.
Choi, “Worship, the Corporate Response,” 51–52.
26.
Kwang-Chih Chang, Art, Myth, and Ritual: The Path to Political Authority in Ancient China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1983), 44–55; Mengjia Chen, “Shagdai de shenhua yu wushu (Mythology and Shamanic Arts of the Shang Dynasty),” Yanjin xuebao (1936) 19:91–155 quoted in James Miller and ABC-CLIO Information Services, Chinese Religions in Contemporary Societies (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2006), 130; and Julia Ching, Mysticism and Kingship in China: The Heart of Chinese Wisdom (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 54–55.
27.
Miller, Chinese Religions, 130.
28.
Ibid., 131.
29.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 29.
30.
Jordan Piper, The Spirits Are Drunk, 118.
31.
Kim In Hoe, “Korean Shamanism: A Bibliographical Introduction,” trans. Young-skin Yoo, in Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea, ed. Chaishin Yu and Richard W. Guisoo (Seoul: Asian Humanities Press, 1988), 12.
32.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 29.
33.
Chang Chu Kun, “An Introduction to Korean Shamanism,” in Shamanism: The Spirit World of Korea, ed. Chaishin Yu and Guisso (Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1988), 43.
34.
Alan Carter Covell, Ecstasy: Shamanism in Korea (Elizabeth, NJ: Hollym International, 1983), 19; Sang-Hun Choe, “Shamanism Enjoys Revival in Techno-Savvy South Korea,” New York Times, July 7, 2007, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/world/asia/07korea.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 (accessed May 12, 2014).
35.
Suh, “Minjung Theology,” 96.
36.
For a more detailed discussion on this subject, see Choi, Korean Women and God, 18–22.
37.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 30. J. Lee also shares a similar idea in his article, “The Trend of Shamanistic Studies in America” (text in Korean), Christian Thought (Society for Korean Christian Literature) (December 1975), 88–93.
38.
Ibid.
39.
Ichiro Hori, Folk Religion in Japan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 181–251. Also see Carmen Blacker, The Catalpa Bow (London: Allen & Unwin, 1975); Joseph M. Kitagawa, “Japanese Religion: An Overview,” The Encyclopedia of Religion, 7: 520–538; Alan L. Miller, “Japanese Religion: Popular Religion,” ibid., 538–545; and Matusmate Takeski, “Japanese Religion: Mythic Themes,” ibid., 545–552.
40.
Carmody and Carmody, Eastern Ways, 148.
41.
Ibid.
42.
Francis and Nakajima, Christians in Japan, 16.
43.
Ibid.
44.
David Chung and Kang-nam Oh, Syncretism: The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2001), 91–103; James Huntley Grayson, Early Buddhism and Christianity in Korea: A Study in the Implantation of Religion (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1985), 17; Hyun-key Kim Hogarth, Syncretism of Buddhism and Shamanism in Korea (Edison, NJ: Jimoondang International, 2002); and Lewis R. Lancaster and Chai-Shin Yu, Introduction of Buddhism to Korea: New Cultural Patterns (Berkeley, CA: Asian Humanities Press, 1989), 61–71.
45.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 22–33; Choi, Korean Women and God, 26–27.
46.
Sebastian C. H. Kim, “The Word and the Spirit: Overcoming Poverty, Injustice and Division in Korea,” in Christian Theology in Asia, ed. Sebastian C.H. Kim (Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 142–146.
47.
J. Lee, Korean Preaching, 34.
48.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 26–27.
49.
J. Lee, Korean Preaching, 32–33.
50.
Ibid., 31–32.
51.
John A. Grim, “Ecology and Shamanism,” in Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture, eds. Mariko Namba Walter and Eva Jane Neumann Fridman (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2004), 107–111.
52.
J. Lee, Korean Preaching, 33.
53.
Ibid., 34.
54.
This social transformation aspect of the pilgrim life is discussed in detail later in the Pentecostal Liberation code.
55.
David E. Cooper and Simon P. James, Buddhism, Virtue and Environment (Aldershot, UK; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2005), 97–105; Halifax, “Shamanism,” 213–216.
56.
Rev. Goh, “Let Your Blessings Flow” (my translation).
57.
Kim and Kim, “Revival and Renewal,” 291–312.
58.
E. Kim, Preaching the Presence, 32.
59.
Ibid.
60.
The sermon entitled, “The Lesson from Abraham,” was delivered on Genesis 12:1–5 by Rev. David Yonggi Choi at Yoido Full Gospel Church on March 9, 2014. http://davidcho.fgtv.com/c2/c2_1.asp (accessed May 13, 2014, my translation). I specifically chose the Korean Pentecostal preacher Rev. Choi’s sermon, because his Shamanistic and Pentecostal ministry has broadly and significantly influenced the most Asian/Asian American churches for the past decades, beyond all denominational boundaries. Allan Anderson, “The Contribution of David Yonggi Cho to a Contextual Theology in Korea,” Journal of Pentecostal Theology 12, no. 1 (October 2003): 85–105; Yong-hun Yi, The Holy Spirit Movement in Korea: Its Historical and Theological Development (Oxford: Regnum, 2009), 91–93.
61.
“Sea of suffering” is a particular Buddhist term that describes the fundamental nature of human life. Life itself is entangled in the continued suffering of the world through the endless chain of birth and rebirth. By awakening to the ultimate truth, or so-called enlightenment, a person will escape the suffering of this world. Chun-sik Choe, Buddhism: Religion in Korea (Seoul, Korea: Ewha Womans University Press, 2007), 47. Obviously, Asian Christians have some knowledge and realize certain implications of this Buddhist term (and at times use it in the description of the hardship of their Christian life), but have a different Shamanistic Christian resolution and end result for it. For Asian Christians, “escape” alone is not the ultimate end, but blessedness or happiness in this world and beyond.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA
Sunggu Yang

Authors

Sunggu Yang
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Yang, S. (2016). The Buddhist Shamanistic Code. In: Evangelical Pilgrims from the East. Asian Christianity in the Diaspora. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41564-2_5

Download citation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41564-2_5
Published: 19 November 2016
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41563-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41564-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics