The monk, Hyon Gak, is revisiting his country of birth after spending eight years as a Buddhist monk in Korea. Since he was little, Hyun Gak had the dream of becoming a Catholic priest. However, after he studied philosophy and religion at Stanford and received his Masters at Harvard, he still couldn't fulfill his desires. He couldn't, that is, until he met the Buddhist monk, the master, Sung San.
Hyon Gak became fascinated with Eastern philosophy. Through his studies with the master, Seung San, Hyon Gak found his direction. He decided that becoming a Buddhist monk, living and working in Korea, would fulfil his life ambitions.
Back in the United States after eight years, Hyon Gak has returned to speak with his fellow Koreans about the perils of assimilation. His message: Preserve your culture and identity.
I: Thank you for cooperating with this interview. Personally, I don't think Buddhism is a religion; it's more like a philosophy. Monks like you are not ordinary human beings because you have chosen to pursue a different life way of life. Living in a city like New York makes all of us busy and isolated. How do you suggest we practice Buddhism while carrying on our daily lives?
H: That is a good question. I don't practice Buddhism as my job. The way I look at my life and Buddhism is that it doesn't start as a belief. First, you try to fit it into your daily life rather than have it grow out of your daily life. "What am I?" or "What is the nature of suffering?" "Why was I born in this way and the others born that way?" "Why are people suffering and I am not suffering as much as they?" Naturally, we all have these questions while we walk down the street or ride in the subway. That is natural to us. For me, I try to answer these questions. Some traditions say, "Just believe" or "There must be some plan." For me, I couldn't accept that. I can't stop asking questions like "Why is that so?" For anybody, it is so natural that these questions about life appear. In order to answer them, we all have a different road. Practicing Buddhism means just living in the city and looking at the suffering around me and advancing and changing and making things happen. So it is coming out of daily experiences. To specifically answer the question, my job is living at the temple everyday, waking up early in the morning and practicing meditation and teaching the people. Just because I receive food and housing free does not mean I force those who offer it to become Buddhist or coerce them by saying "You can..." or "You should do this or do that."
I: It seems that you don't want to be a propagandist...
H: No, it's not. It's never going to be part of Buddhism. Sometimes, I wish it were, so we would be stronger. (Laughter) But I like the fact that it is not. If people find some truth in how I live, and if they find they are interested in finding their own truth, that would be wonderful. But if they don't, that is also OK. My job is just to live as a human being, and hopefully to be as fully human as possible. That's neither Christian nor Buddhist. That doesn't depend on anything. I can actually freely use anything from any tradition.
I: Last time, you mentioned that the Korean community tends to withdraw from our tradition so easily. Many Koreans would rather turn to Christianity instead of becoming a Buddhist, partly for the purpose of socializing. I think Buddhist leaders should think about that.
H: There's not much we can do about it because America is still a very racist society. Immigrant groups often feel that in order to become American, they must give away specific things; things that separate them from what they perceive as typically American. In order to become typical Americans, negotiations take place naturally. After the Korean War, Koreans who came to the United States wanted to become American, so they gave away whatever separated them from other Americans--such as Christians all do this or do that so we have to do that too. Being an American means having to do that. Yes, assimilation1x Buddhism or whatever cannot change that mentality. It's deeper than religion or culture. So it's natural to this kind of society, which on the surface looks open, but underneath is racist and competitive. Especially, Koreans are much more suspicious about their own tradition, perhaps because of the shock of the Korean war and military dictatorship. So, Korean people keep on with their questioning, like 'Oh, we are so weak; how can we be strong?' They doubt their own tradition, which doesn't help them. They give away everything in order to be accepted in their new environment.
I: Yes, people try to assimilate, to be American rather than to have their own identity. But I thought the reason why many Koreans become Christian is partly Buddhism's fault. Because they tend to isolate themselves and have not gotten much involved with the suffering of the people in the last few decades.
H: Nowadays, Buddhists are getting much more socially involved. They build hospitals, and monks like Bubrun are doing massive amounts of work in giving clothes and food to the North Koreans. It's beginning to happen now. Something that has to be emphasized is that Buddhism teaches the biggest suffering is from our mind. For example, one American asked my teacher: "Zen master, every year, I give the money to the temple, so this year, I want to give my money to hungry people in Africa." At that time, my teacher gave a very interesting answer, "You give your money to whoever you want. No problem1x What you also have to know is the suffering in Africa is 'belly suffering,' and these people are not making so much suffering for this world. But 'mind suffering' people make the biggest problems in this whole world. Power hungry minds make war and cause suffering, so our teaching is about curing this mind suffering so you can help this whole world. So the reason why the Buddhist are not so much involved in the social problem is not that they don't care, but their teaching is much more about the deep and fundamental issues such as focusing more on mind suffering."
I: I read your book, and I think it's so interesting that younger generation people in the West like you have started to be interested with the Eastern culture, while our generation in Asia is trying very hard to be Westernized. I thought there must be something in common for both of them, such as that you want to escape from here and believe there must be a better life somewhere else. People say: "The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence."
H: That is true. Personally, I really want to talk to Korean society as much as possible. I almost feel that it's my obligation. I do feel like I just want to warn them about some of these things that I think are dangerous, such as the younger generation's attitude of not believing in their own tradition. So, I think I'm going to use any opportunity I can, because I know Korean young people like this Western face, and I try to use it to seduce them away from their bad thinking. (Laughter) Because I know young people are more likely to listen to a Westerner from their own country, rather than Easterners, I want to encourage young Koreans to be a little more careful about their own tradition. I want to say them "You just don't know what you have. You got this beautiful jewel, but you can't see it anywhere. But it's there." It's just so cruel that they are willing to throw that away while the Westerner goes to pick it up and use it.
I want to thank Jai Bae, publisher of Koreanday.com, for arranging publication of this exclusive interview.
