2002년 8월호 146호
삼보사 30주년 기념 심포지엄
미국내 한국불교의 회고와 성찰 (1)
글/최미자(본지 기획위원)
지난 7월 6일, 삼보사 30주년 기념 심포지엄이 열렸습니다. 이홍영교수(버클리대학 정치학)의 진행으로 오전 열시에 시작되어 오후 여섯시가 넘도록 삼보사 법당에서 점심과 저녁을 먹으며 발표자와 청중이 함께 진지하게 마음을 나누는 심포지엄이였습니다. 일요일까지 절에서 밤을 지내며 십여분의 불자들이 이 계속하여 느낌을 나누던 아쉬운 시간들이였습니다.
처음 연사이신 버클리대학교에서 동아시아 문화를 가르쳤던 루이스 랑카스터교수와의 오십여분의 시간은 정말 감사하고 뜻깊은 시간이였기에 중요한 요점을 번역한 부분과 함께 제가 그 날 느꼈던 감동을 참석하지 못한 여러 사람들과 함께 나누고 싶어 이 글을 씁니다.
집에 돌아와 딸아이와 함께 랑카스터 교수님의 녹을 테입을 종일 영어로 옮겨 써가며 번역을 준비하다가 문득 교수님의 허락을 받아 원문을 실어야겠다고 생각이 들어서 랑카스터교수님께 연락을 드렸더니. 시간이 부족하여 말씀을 모두 하시지 못하셨다며 기뻐하시며 승낙과 함께 글을 저에게 다시 보내 주셨습니다.
먼저 교수님의 발표문 전문을 그대로 소개하고 그 번역과 저의 느낌을 싣겠습니다. 다음 호에서는 다른 여섯분의 토론 주제도 전해드리겠습니다.
Sambo Sa: A Pioneering Center for Korean Buddhism in the U.S.
It is a great pleasure to be here at Sambo Sa after a number of years since my last visit. I appreciate the invitation and the opportunity to share with you some of my memories and experiences with this place.
My own introduction to Korean Buddhism happened after I became a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley in 1967. At that time, I was asked to teach my first course of the History and Development of East Asian Buddhism and that was described as including China, Japan and Korea.
In my graduate training, no one had ever mentioned Korean Buddhism and so I was ill equipped to teach such a course and I am embarrassed when I think how little I knew. In order to prepare for that course, I raced to the library and was pleased to find three books that claimed to describe Korean Buddhism.
There were only three books on this subject in the whole of the Berkeley library system. Two of them were by Christian missionaries who had given lectures in the 1930s and had those talks published.
Another was by a Japanese visitor to Korea who wrote a book about his impressions and to some degree the history of Korean monasteries. From these books, I decided that Korean Buddhism was fading away with almost nothing left of its past. In 1970, I was in Japan on a research trip and I decided to travel to Korea to at least look at art and buildings of what little remained of Buddhism. Remember that this was a time when Buddhism in China was being severely repressed by the Cultural Revolution; Mongols and Tibetans were struggling to have any practice of the tradition at all; in both North and South Vietnam the Buddhists were under great pressure from both communists and the political leadership of the South which was dominately Catholic; Taiwan government officials were mostly Christian, and only small groups of Buddhists could be found in Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Thus, it was not so surprising to think of Korean Buddhism as a shrinking movement.
To my surprise, when I arrived in Korea, I discovered an active and vital monastic tradition. Going from one part of South Korea to another, I could see that young people were becoming monks and nuns and that the tradition of training monastics was unbroken. I returned to Berkeley determined to share this knowledge about the strength of Korean Buddhism. In 1973, the university approved a new Ph.D. degree in Buddhist Studies. One of the first students to apply was Park, Sung bae. He is now a senior professor at State University of New York in Stony Brook. It was Prof. Park who brought a visitor to my office. Mr. Han sang Lee, just arrived from Korea to the U.S. He had been a business man in the 1960s when the infrastructure of Korea was being built roads, airports, dams, bridges. He had played a major role is the construction industry that helped to create the first level of this infrastructure after the destruction of the Korean War. Mr. Lee told me of his plans. He wanted to establish a monastery in California for the practice of meditation and for the introduction of Korean Buddhism to the U.S. I saw the blue prints for the original building. We stayed in touch and he was kind enough to invite me to the opening ceremony of Sambo Sa.
Sambo Sa represented an important part of history of Korean Buddhism, because it was in many ways a pioneering effort to create an international community. While a few Korean monks had come to the U.S. and started small centers, none of them at that time had the funding to construct a monastery that would reflect the architecture and style of the homeland. These early monks had to be content with small quarters, sometimes in regular houses. When Lee Han-san decided to set up this center in Carmel Valley, he had several objectives and he wanted them to be reflected in the building itself. First, he wanted to preserve the idea of the quiet and beautiful setting for a monastery and so he looked for a site outside of the cities. Second, he wanted to keep the Korean spirit of Buddhism in practice and in the decorations of the structure. In addition, he felt that the building should be modern in design, a creative vision that was not just the copy of the traditional Korean monastic building. Finally, he wanted a building that would appeal to Californians and so he chose to construct it out of redwood. For those who remember the campus of buildings that resulted from his labors, you will know that he succeeded in all of his objectives. There was nothing quite like Sambo Sa in those days. It brought forth many questions. While it was a bit like Zen, it had a different flavor than the Zen centers of San Francisco and environs. People struggled to understand what they saw and experienced at Sambo Sa. It was a new approach to Buddhism for many who came to look and taste the difference.
In many ways, Lee Han Sang’s wife was the spiritual core of the practice at Sambo Sa. Having been the partner of a very successful business man at a time when such was still rare in the shattered aftermath of war, she had lived a privileged life in Seoul. When they left all of that behind, like immigrants before them, they had to rebuild a new life and figure out how to handle the U.S. environment. Both of these extraordinary people handled the change of pace, of fortune, and position in society with grace and humor. They would sometimes speak of what life had been for them in Korea with servants and chauffeurs and a staff to handle all of the details of daily living. She returned to the kitchen to cook and to keep the house and he worked alongside the carpenters in constructing their new home. Buddhism and the practice of meditation and chanting had given them the ability to let the past be the past and they lived in the present, happily, it seemed to me. They were content to be in a secluded spot far from the roar of a rapidly expanding and developing city. Their son told me that she had wanted to become a singer. While she did not get to achieve that goal in life, her her beautiful voice was used here at Sambo Sa to chant the words of the Buddhist Sutras. She preferred to chant above any other practice and dedicated her life to spiritual development. I remember the first time I saw her with the shaven head of a nun. It seemed that all remnants of her life as the matron of the mansion and a business empire had fallen away completely. There were no regrets only the determination to practice the faith and keep it alive in this new and sometimes confusing country to which they had come. Both of them spent more and more time in practice and as thins grew in importance, the drive to succeed which was still with them when they arrived, ebbed away and they seemed to be content to accept whatever developments would occur. As with all of us who age, the body and its health becomes a larger issue. And then came the fire and the devastation of losing even the buildings which had been so lovingly constructed.
For those years in Carmel Valley, Korean Buddhism found a home and it found an audience. The beauty of the setting and the strength of the practice that was to become more dominant in the lives of the founders, helped to give Korean Buddhism an image for people in Northern California. It was not the image of the war or the battles and politics of the peninsula; Sambo Sa reflected the depth of Korean religion and culture. There was a dominance of the beauty and quietness of both the culture and the Buddhist tradition. As such, these founders of Sambo Sa left us with a great gift.
On another visit to the Berkeley campus, Lee Han sang came to talk about a project that had been financed by him for some years. He was concerned that the history of modern Korean Buddhism, particularly the century of the tradition from 1860 to 1960 would be lost. Therefore, he conceived an archive of Buddhist history for the century and recruited professors in Korea to help him.
His idea was to have recorded all the information about Buddhism that could be found in magazines, newspapers, books, articles, monastic records, memoirs, and oral histories. As the scholars proceeded with this project, they did hand written notes from every conceivable source. When Lee Han sang left Korea, the documentation had covered some 9000 pages and he brought the original manuscript with him to Carmel. Having left Korea, he was concerned about the preservation of the documentation and asked if I would help him with the project. He offered to make a copy of the 9000 pages and give it to me for whatever use I wanted to make of it. In order to make the copies, he bought a copier and during any spare time, he slowly reproduced a second copy of the large manuscript. I still have that set of sheets.
It was done on the old fashion chemically treated paper which has begun to deteriorate at a rapid pace.
As the computer age came upon us, I realized that having a digital copy of the pages would make them much more usable. By that time, Lee Han sang had passed away and I contacted his wife to ask permission to make a digital record. She responded that she was so pleased to know that the material still existed.
Unfortunately, during the fire, the original manuscript of the 9000 pages had burned and they had no second copy. With her permission, we started to convert that information into the computer copy. Having what was probably the only complete surviving set of the history caused me concern. Working with the East Asian Library at Berkeley, we had the old fashion chemical paper copies transferred to acid free paper and put into permanent storage. In Seoul, I spoke of the need to create a computer version to some of the monks and nuns. Finally Bon Gak Seon nim(본각스님) stepped forward and raised the funds to complete the transfer to the new technology. She issued a CDROM that contains the full text digital version.
At the same period, a part of the collection was published in hard copy in Seoul. Many of the sources used for the manuscript no longer exist and it is the major source of the study of Korean Buddhism from1860. While he had a great vision for the creation of a document that could be used to do a precise and accurate description of a century of Buddhism in Korea, we still do not have a history written in the way. It is a challenge for the next generation to use his 9000 pages to construct this history.
Today is the celebration of the visions of those who help to found Sambo Sa. Much has happened over the last three decades since the inception of this institution. Buddhism in Korea has continued to grow and to reach into the social life of the people.
The advent of the Buddhist media such as radio and television has revolutionized the way in which people hear about the tradition. As a nation, Korea has recovered from the turmoil of war and political struggles and has taken its place as major force within the world, whether it be soccer, economy, movie making, styles. No longer is Korea forced to follow the pressures from outside, it is developing its own strategies and approaches to life. The new generation of Koreans have a sense of self worth which indicates that the damages of the destructive forces of the last century are healing. We can now begin to look toward the future for SamboSa, for Korean Buddhism and for religion throughout the world in the 21st century. When the 20th century began, there were no predictions or voices that described what the next hundred years would be like. People were optimistic, Europe was the center of world cultural influence and colonial powers dominated large parts of the globe. People in 1900 would have been shocked to hear that by the end of the century, most of the colonies would be lost to the European nations, they would have had great trouble understanding that the 20th century would be one of the most war like periods in the history of mankind, with not just local battles but worldwide war and millions of dead. Even in 2000, it would have been hard for us to believe that by September 2001, our world view would shift and we would have a new kind of war against religious terrorism. Religion in the 21st century will play a very important role in society, but we have yet to determine what that role will be. In a recent Atlantic Monthly, an article on religion points out that the average Mormon speaks Spanish, since there are more members in Latin American than in Utah, that Korean Christians send our more missionaries for Christianity than does the U.S., and the author asks the question of whether the center of Catholic power may reside in China before the century is over. Buddhism is seen as a new religion in many places of the world and the success of the new religions may be the dominant development for the 21st century. As we try to look down the corridor of the future, we will most probably fail to imagine what the future world will be like. It is therefore, important for the religious life of people to be adaptable to unforeseen changes. Buddhism must answer many of these type of questions. How can it best serve the world that we are entering? For example, our nation and large parts of the Middle East are deeply involved in debate over cosmology. School boards are urged to allow the teaching of creationism alongside evolution.
This is a cosmological question of the nature of the way in which our earth has been formed and its relationship to the rest of the cosmic realm. Hubble telescope is providing us with a view of the cosmos that takes us beyond our sensory capacity and even our ability to comprehend the vastness of the world.
While the Western Asian religions are fighting hard to keep a view of a world created 4,000 years ago as a unique and central part of the cosmos, the telescopes keep eroding that information by showing that we are just one part of a giant dust cloud from the Big Bang. But it is here that Buddhism can make a contribution. The Buddhists have long held that there are billions of universes that streach out endlessly with life forces mingled in among them. Even with this view of the vastness of the cosmos, Buddhism has been able to build an ethical and moral system.
For those who worry that the new cosmology will undermine the ability of humans to have an ethical system, Buddhism can play an important role of welcoming the new discoveries and assuring the world that you can have these ideas and still live a moral life. This is just an example of how Buddhists have a place to play in the future of this century. At a time when we remember the past and the founders of Sambo Sa, we should also remember that they had a vision about the future of the religious tradition and we can honor their memory by the ways in which we move toward the new times of the 21st century.
Thank you.
2002년 7월 6일 토요일.
미국 최초의 한국사찰 삼보사가 삼십년의 생일을 맞으며 지난 역사를 돌아보고 앞으로 나아갈 길을 공개토론 하는 잔칫날이었다. 미국서부 최상류 사회의 백인마을-하얀 모래를 밟는 아름다운 바닷가의 골짜기 - 카멜에는 한국의 불교를 지켜오고 사랑하는 최고의 지성인들과 불자들이 모여들었다. 멀리 동부에서, 남쪽 샌디에고와 로 스앤젤러스 지역에서, 또 새크라멘토와 샌프란시스코지역에서 금요일부터 찾아온 손님들로 삼보사에 있는 여러 개의 방들은 꽉 들어 차버렸다.
랑카스터 교수의 강연으로 심포지엄이 시작되었다. 그가 동아시아 문화와 역사를 가르치는 교수가 되던 1961 넌 버클리대학의 도서관에는 한국에 대한 장서는 오직 세 권 뿐이였다고 한다. 한국에서 살다 온 선교사가 쓴 두권 의 책과 일본의 통치시절 한국에 머물렀던 일본각료가 써 놓은 한권의 책을 통해 얻었던 지식과 이론으로만 가르쳤 던 그의 초창기의 엉터리 강의를 생각만 하면 지금도 창피하여 몸둘 바를 모른다며 백발의 랑카스터교수는 고백을 하였다. 공산당의 억압으로 불교가 쇠퇴하고 있는 중국이나 베트남 그리고 인도와 말레이시아처럼 한국의 불교도 차츰 사라지고 있다고 학생들에게 잘못 가르쳤기 때문이었다.
마침내 1970년, 랑카스터교수는 한국의 불교 문화 유산물인 예술품과 건축물들을 돌아보며 연구하기 위해 한국을 방문하였다. 그리고 그때 한국에 남아있는 많은 유적들이 세계에서 동아시아학을 공부하고 있는 학자들에게 얼마나 귀중한 자료가 되고 중요한 역할을 하고 있 는지를 알게 되었다고 한다. 그리고 한국을 방문하는 동안 그가 잘못 알았던 것과 달리 한국의 불교는 많은 스님 들과 학자들이 각 사찰에서 열심히 공부하며 한국불교의 맥을 이어가고 있음을 보고 신선한 충격을 받았었다고 한다. 이렇게 감동적인 한국 방문을 마치고 버클리 대학에 돌아온 랑카스터교수는 드디어 최초로 버클리 대학안에 한국 불교학과 박사과정을 만들게 되었다고(1973 년부 터) 전했다. 그 당시에도 많은 한국 유학생들이 미국에 건너와 공부를 하고 있었지만, 이렇게 한국문화에 깊은 관 심을 가졌던 한사람의 미국 학자가 우리 한국의 역사와 불교를 세계에 알릴 수 있는 값진 통로를 열어주었다는 사실에 난 진실로 랑카스터교수에 감사하고 있다. 그러나 한편 나의 마음 한구석에는 한국인으로서 조금 부끄러운 생각마저 들기도 하였다.
버클리대학을 통해 최초로 미국대학에 진출하여 유명 한 한국 불교학자로 잘 알려진 박성배교수(스토니부룩 뉴욕 주립대학교)는 랑카스터교수의 한국 첫 제자이다. 그 후 계속하여 버클리대학의 한국불교 박사과정을 로버 트 버스웰교수(UCLA), 조은수교수(Michigan대학)와 진월스님 (동국대학)을 비롯 많은 학자들이 공부를 마쳤다. 그리고 많은 동아시아학 학자들을 세계로 배출하는 유명한 대학으로 그는 이끌어 왔다. 그래서인지 그 노교수는 특별한 감회와 긍지를 가지고 있었다. 지금도 버클리대학 에는 한국에서 온 박정환제자가 박사과정을 공부하고 있 다며 은근히 자랑도 하였다.
박성배교수의 소개로 1970 년대에 삼보사 설립자 이 한상(불명 - 덕산)사장님 부부와 알게된 인연은 아주 특 별하다며 오랜 시간동안 많은 이야기들을 들려주었다. 1950-60년대 한국에서 굴지의 건설업자로 성공한 돈 들을 모아 오로지 미래를 이끌어갈 불교 학자들을 발굴해 서 장학금을 주고 불교의 삼보 (불법승)를 위해 일생을 바쳤던 이한상사장과의 추억들을 다시 우리들의 기억속에 남겨주었다. 오랜 세월 일제의 억압으로 부패하고 시들어 버린 한국의 바른 불교를 되찾고 맥을 이어가기 위하여 유명한 선사들과 함께 대한불교신문도 발행하며 그의 모 든 재산과 혼신을 바쳤던 이한상사장.
그리고 삼심년전 이 자리에 한국절을 세우기 위해 갖은 고생을 하며 한국불교를 미국에 알리던 그들 부부의 행적들을 랑카스터교수가 보며 느껴왔던 여러 가지 이야기들을 생생하게 들으며 우린 모두 숙연한 시간을 보내기도 하였다. 동양인으로 정착하기 어려운 이곳 카멜계곡에 그는 한국불교를 서양인들에게 알리겠다는 굽히지 않는 의지로 용감하게 뛰어들었다고 한다. 그리고 고 이한상 사장은 미국인들이 유별나게 좋아하는 Red Wood 를 사용하여 이곳에 아름다운 한국절 삼보사를 세웠다고 랑카수 터교수는 전해 주었다.
그런데 안타깝게도 그가 심장마비로 정원에서 일하다 갑작스레 돌아가신 후(1984년) 대응전마저 까닭을 밝히지 못한 채 모두 불타 버렸다(1988년)고 랑카스터 교수는 그의 연민과 함께 전해 주었다.
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그런데 어느 날 이한상 사장은 선물로 준다며 랑카스터교수에게 두터운 종이뭉치를 내놓은 것이였다. 일일이 손으로 기록하여 만들어 놓은 백년 동안의 불교사(1860- 1960년)였다. 그가 키운 삼보 장학생들에게 연구비를 지불하며 부탁하여 수년동안 수집한 자료들은 9,000 장 이나 되었다고 설명하였다고 한다. 똑같은 구천장의 복사 를 만들어서 랑커스터교수님에게 준 것이였다. 안타깝게도 이 한상사장이 친필로 쓴 원본들은 대웅전과 함께 불타 버렸기에 랑카스터교수는 선물로 받은 복사판 9000 장 을 버클리대학의 도서관에 기증하였다. 또 종이들이 변질하지 않도록 화학처리를 잘하여 영구 보존하게 해 두었다고 한다. 그리고 본각스님을 통해 한국에서도 컴퓨터에 입력하여 보관하도록 부탁하여 자료를 만들어 두었다고 말했다. 이한상사장이 수십년 걸려 이렇게 모은 자료들은 이제 세계에서 한국 불교를 공부하는 학자들에게 중요한 자료로 제공 할 수 있을 것이라고 그는 전했다. 꿈을 모두 이루지 못하고 고인이 되어 세상을 떠났지만, 한국 불교를 알리려는 이한상사장의 특별하 고 투철했던 아름다운 정신은 영원히 우리와 함께 남아 있다고 랑카스터 교수는 강조하였다.
이제 나이가 들어 모든 기억들이 요즈음 하나둘 그의 뇌리에서 희미하게 사라지고 있다는 랑카스터교수는 삼보사의 설립자인 이 한상부부와의 인연들, 또 그들이 생전
에 보여준 뜨거운 열정들만은 아직도 생생하게 그의 기억 속에 남아 있다고 말하였다. 멋진 가수가 되고 싶어하던 소녀시절의 꿈을 접고 남편을 따라 미국에 이민온 후로 많은 고생을 하며 내조한 부인의 아름다운 얼굴과 고운 목소리의 염불소리를 회상하며 부인의 공로도 많이많이 칭찬하였다.
두 해전 그는 버클리 대학을 떠난 후 명예교수로 일하 시며 지금은 모든 불교경전을 컴퓨터에 입력하는 전자대 장경(ECAL) 연구소의 소장으로 분주한 나날을 보내고 있다고 말하셨다. 지난날 대학 강단에서 있었던 노교수의 솔직한 고백들을 들으면서 나는 그가 얼마나 진실한 교육 자이며 학자인가를 다시 한번 느낄 수 있었다
랑카스터교수님은 전생으로부터 얼마나 큰 공덕의 인 연으로 이렇게 인류를 위해 좋은 일을 하실 수가 있는 분 일까...?
그 날 우리 모녀는 티없이 해맑은 소년같은 70세의 미남 노신사 - 랑카스터 교수님을 만나며 그의 외모에도 흠뻑 반해 버렸다.