Exploring the Educational System for Korean Buddhism

ABSTRACT

This article explores the future direction of Korean Buddhist education, believing that there is a fundamental crisis in Korean Seon Buddhism, which is a kernel of the larger Korean Buddhist community. This article attempts to answer such questions as the possible changes that might benefit Korean Buddhism and education reform of Buddhist practitioners and followers. It tries to find an answer to the question regarding what kind of character and abilities the education system might foster in Korean monks and nuns. This article explores one possible answer to the question regarding the kind of nuns and monks to be fostered and the reasons why this is important. It is part of the effort to strengthen the weakest area in the current system of Korean Buddhism. In regard to the kind of character and abilities Buddhist education might best foster, along with an approach which might prove to be the most fruitful in this areas, this article will introduce the perspective developed by William Braud (2006), who adopts a transpersonal approach to the whole person. The transpersonal education program that William Braud introduces in his article is the educational system of Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (ITP) located in the state of California in the United States. The educational system of ITP looks at the religious and spiritual aspects of human nature through the study of the objective, rational, and scientific literature in these areas in masters and doctoral level courses. This article examines the commonalities found in the path to enlightenment elaborated by Korean Buddhism and the spirituality emphasized by transpersonal psychology. Through the examination of the characteristics, fundamental principles and their applications, and assessment of educational effects of transpersonal approach, this article explores an alternative direction for Korean Buddhism as it struggles to establish its popularization and internationalization.