[Opinion] 出家 (Chul Ga) and 家出 (Ga Chul)

The Chinese characters, 出家(Chul Ga) and 家出 (Ga Chul), have totally different meanings, even if only the order is reversed. 出家(Chul Ga) means that a person leaves home to become a monk while 家出 (Ga Chul) means a juvenile delinquent or flirtatious woman who runs away from home. The former is to give up himself to realize his ideals, but the latter throws away him or herself for pleasure or evasion. In the Buddhist world, there is an expression ‘出塵’ (Chul Yeon), which means that a person shakes the dust off the mundane world. Korean Buddhism sets a high value on a person to leave his wife and son and become a monk. However, if he comes back to his family and then goes to the temple again, it is regarded as his flaw. There is an instance where one person becomes a monk and then eventually 40 people, including his family and relatives, become monks also.

I heard carefully that the monk, BubJung, said, “The personality of a monk is different according to the season when he becomes a monk. Spring is the season that one’s mind is apt to wander, so if a person becomes a monk in the spring, it is easy to go back to his home again. However if a person becomes a monk during a calm fall or winter, he hardly ever goes back home”. BubJung wrote a rule in monk’s cell, “I think all the time why and for what reason I became a monk, even the moment when I lose my parents, siblings and relatives”. He was really as strict as he never went back home even when his mother passed away.

Park Hyun-tae, who was a congressman, KBS president and the president of a university, became a monk at age 70 and received the Buddhist commandments in the temple, Sunamsa, located in Suncheon city, Southern Jeonla Province yesterday. He received the monk’s name of ‘志淵’ (Zi Yeon) and said the reason he become a monk was “ not because I had major objectives for my life such as leaving the mundane world or practicing asceticism, but I did so because I would like to free myself from all restraint and live a second life”. Anyway, he made a great decision. It seems that he had karma relations with the Buddhism from the previous life.

What is becoming a monk truly? The great Buddhist priest, Seosan, left this Buddhist writing: “How could one say that it is trial to become a monk? It is not for convenience and leisure. It is also not for eating fully or pursuing honor and property. It is for beyond the troubles of life and death. It is for getting rid of restraints. It is to reach Buddha and to finally save human beings. After Sukyamuni became a Buddha, nobody put an ad to recruit monks. However, today, many people leave home to pursue religious values.

Oh Myung-chul, Editorial Writer, oscar@donga.com