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Yuhyuh Temple spreads teachings of Buddha in the center of Gimhae City

기사승인 2024.12.23  11:15:23

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Yuhyuh Temple Chief Monk Domeong practices the teachings of the Buddha himself and holds bodhisattvas for local people. Those who visit the temple, located in Samgyedong, Gimhae, are all the same children of the Buddha, he says, with no difference between high and low. 

 

▲ Yuhyuh Temple / Chief Monk Domeong, Chairman of Gaya Cultural Promotion Foundation

We are all children of Buddha

When you step through the gate, you enter the world of the Buddha. The thoughts of sentient beings disappear when you cross the threshold. The gate has a unique structure of two pillars topped by a roof, and the surrounding scenery is projected through the pillars, which look like they are about to collapse, making it appear to float in the air, evoking a fantastic sense of wonder. “When I think of this door as the first door to see the Buddha, it makes us feel reverent.” says Domeong. This is the door to the world of absolute equality, where one abandons the discriminating and dichotomous thoughts of sentient beings and enters the world of truth, where one single-mindedly abandons desire and transfers body and mind to the world of truth.

 

Do good things

Do good things is one of Buddha’s teachings. He says that when he found a hermitage in the mountains during his high school wanderings, he was fascinated by the idea of knowing one’s mind and oneself, and decided to become a monk. He asked himself the question, “What is a safe and comfortable life for me?” He read books and realized that Buddhism was the answer. “Preaching the Buddha’s teachings to many sentient beings is the reason and purpose of a monk’s life. The Buddha’s teachings, which free us from the bondage of gods and humans, make us feel at ease, and they also allow us to know and live with all people as our teachers, because each person is a Buddha, which means that we can look at all people without prejudice.” For the average person, he says, the desire to share with their neighbors means no ownership. 

 

Spreading teachings of Buddha

Yuhyuh Temple, which belongs to the Jogye sect, is the largest urban temple in the Gimhae area and is dedicated to teaching doctrine, scripture, and etiquette to produce proper Buddhists, as well as to spreading teachings of Buddha to the locals. He translated all the difficult sutras into easy-to-understand Korean, making the Buddha’s teachings accessible to all. Over all the teachings, he says, controling one’s mind is the core and this is training and realization. He also emphasizes lowering one’s mind as happiness comes from being humble and what we think is petty. The temple opened a Buddhist college in 2009 and has since graduated more than 1,000 students, with classes divided into three 10-month courses. The programs include Buddhism in Gaya back in the days. 

 

Gaya Cultural Promotion Foundation

Gimhae City began compiling the Gimhae City History in 2016. The manuscript was reviewed and proofread, and a draft of a total of 15 volumes was completed in December 2022, consisting of 6 volumes of the history of the times, 6 volumes of the history of fields, and 3 volumes of the data collection. After a 5-year writing and compilation process, it was released to the public in December 2022, and the parts of the colonial history that mythologized and degraded King Suro and Queen Heo were revised. “Gaya, which made its mark in the Three Kingdoms period, was a country with a long history of 42 to 562 years until the fall of Daegaya. Launched in 2017 to restore Gaya culture and Gaya Buddhism, which have a history of two thousand years, the Gaya Cultural Promotion Foundation is an academic institution that researches, explores, and excavates the Buddhist history, culture, people, and literature of the Gaya period.” says Domeong. The Foundation is working to establish the correct ancient and Buddhist history by reviewing the Chinese-driven or Japanese colonial histories. He has just finished writing a book on the study of the stone of King Gwanggaeto the Great, which will be published next month. “Shin Chae-ho once said, ‘A people that forgets its history has no future.’ This is because a people’s deep-rooted historical traditions give it a sense of identity and are remembered with great pride by its descendants. In this way, we will correct the wrong history in order to pass on the right history to our descendants.” says Domeong. 

김태인 기자 red3955@hanmail.net

<저작권자 © 월간파워코리아 무단전재 및 재배포금지>
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