Korea Journal of Buddhist Studies ISSN:1598-0642(Print) 불교학연구

This paper examines Korean Buddhism’s social engagement issues today, age of social conflicts, and deduces Korean Buddhism’s practical implications in such social engagements. In order to achieve this objective, this paper has adopted the Engaged Buddhist perspective. There are two primary reasons for choosing Engaged Buddhism. First, Asian Engaged Buddhism can provide an appropriate model to follow or criteria in overcoming Korean Buddhism’s tradition of “seclusion.” Second, Asian Engaged Buddhism offers a guide to Buddhism’s social participation to respond to social conflicts. To put it more directly, Asian Engaged Buddhism has led a Buddhist cultural movement, as well as a successful Buddhist social movement, as a means to achieving social reformation or alternative society.What’s in question, however, is Korean Buddhism. Have objective conditions in Korean society today matured enough for Korean Buddhism to mobilize a social participation movement? Also, how capable is today’s Korean Buddhism of leading a social movement? Above all, today’s Korean society is witnessing a severe chasm (religious chasm in Korean society), due to multi-religious social characteristics and secularism. This means the conditions to organize a Buddhist-led social movement exist to a certain degree. However, the principal capabilities(consciousness of actors or organizations) to lead an assembled social movement are seriously lacking. Albeit, the monks, Korean Buddhism’ s core agents, are seen to have more social participatory consciousness lately, as they experience conflicts. What, then, is the effective method of a social participation for Korean Buddhism? It is desirable for Korean Buddhism to take on an NGO-kind of a role and participate in a wide variety of civil societal matters by paying more attention to political issues and public affairs.