Dec 19, 2024 – The Peace Foundation Year-End Workshop Day 1
Hello. Starting today, the two-day Peace Foundation Year-End Workshop begins.
After completing his early morning practice and meditation, Sunim headed to the Peace Foundation. He started the day with a breakfast meeting with North Korea experts at 7 AM.
The current situation of price fluctuations and economic conditions in North Korea was reviewed. There was a discussion about the recent plunge in exchange rates, its causes, and how it affects prices. Following this, the meeting concluded after discussing the end of the Syrian civil war and the issue of post-war reconstruction support for Syria. After the meeting with North Korea experts, Sunim headed to Gyeongju to attend the Peace Foundation Year-End Workshop.
Departing from Seoul at 9:20 AM, Sunim traveled on the highway for four hours, arriving in Gyeongju at 1:20 PM. The Peace Foundation research committee members also arrived in Gyeongju to participate in the year-end workshop. After having lunch together, they moved to Bulguksa Temple.
Although the research committee members have been working with Sunim for a long time, this was their first time hearing an explanation about Bulguksa Temple. Starting from the entrance of Bulguksa, Sunim spent two hours guiding them around the temple grounds, explaining in detail the deep meanings embedded in various places.
Sunim’s explanation began in front of the map erected at the One Pillar Gate. The historical origins, temple layout, and background scriptures were explained in detail.
“It feels like I’m on a school trip with all of you after so long. The place we’re visiting is Bulguksa Temple. According to old records, there was a small temple here first. About 80 years after Silla unified the Three Kingdoms, during the reign of King Gyeongdeok when Silla’s national power was at its strongest, this temple was rebuilt in the year of 751, about 1,300 years ago from now.”
After passing through the One Pillar Gate and the Four Heavenly Kings Gate, the national treasures Cheongungyo and Baegungyo bridges appeared.
In front of Cheongungyo and Baegungyo bridges, Sunim explained that this area was originally a pond and elaborated on the meaning of the Nine-Grade Lotus Pond (Gupum Yeonji).
“Since this is on a hillside with a slope, they built stairs and retaining walls to create a building site, but they incorporated Buddhist philosophy into the construction of these retaining walls and stairs.
Originally, when this temple was built, they made a pond here. They planted lotus flowers in the pond and called it the Nine-Grade Lotus Pond. It symbolizes the nine grades of people being born in the Pure Land. However, now the pond has disappeared and has been filled in to become this courtyard.”
Sunim then explained about the philosophy of Mosaic Buddha that can be learned from the retaining wall.
“If you look ahead, you can see the retaining wall, right? The idea for Jungto Society’s Mosaic Buddha philosophy came from the way this retaining wall was built. Look at the bottom of the retaining wall. It’s well-built, but if you look at the stones, none of them have been trimmed, and the sizes haven’t been properly sorted. They’ve just mixed large stones, small stones, stones of various shapes, but this can be seen as representing the diverse foundation that makes up this world. It means that this world is made up of such diverse elements as its foundation.
The Mosaic Buddha Spirit in the Foundation of Bulguksa Temple
Looking at the stairs above, you can see that neatly carved pillars were erected, and stones were placed and stacked between them. At first glance, they might appear to be carved stones, but upon closer inspection, they are all natural stones. Natural stones were used to fill the spaces, but one side of each stone had to be flat. The foundation was built by placing these stones with their flat sides facing outward.
‘Not all beings in this world can become bodhisattvas like perfectly carved stones. It’s enough if one in a hundred or one in a thousand stands like those pillars as a bodhisattva. The rest can resemble even one aspect of the Buddha, and when such people come together, they fulfill the role of the Buddha.’
This is the meaning behind building the foundation in this way. Even if one cannot resemble the Buddha entirely, embodying even one aspect allows them to play a role in the Buddha’s world. Those with money can practice giving, while those without can keep precepts or engage in volunteer work. Whatever one does, they should embody at least one quality of the Buddha. That’s why one side of each stone must be flat. The Buddha’s world was built upon this foundation.
“In the past, one person with exceptional character could become a Buddha with perfect character. Although we may not reach that level now, if each of us embodies even one aspect of Buddha’s nature, when such people gather, they can collectively fulfill the role of a Buddha. This is called ‘Mosaic Buddha.’ So, if we participate together in righteous paths as part of our lives, the work that Jungto Society does can become like the work of Buddha. With this intention, Jungto Society has adopted Mosaic Buddha as its motto.”
Everyone went up to the front yard of the main hall to view Dabotap and Seokgatap pagodas together.
As we passed through the corridor, Dabotap and Seokgatap pagodas, towering towards the sky, came into view. Sunim continued his explanation in front of Dabotap.
After viewing Dabotap and Seokgatap, we passed through the main hall and Museoljeon, then climbed up steep stairs.
The beauty of Bulguksa Temple was captured in one view over the wall.
“This is the best place to see the beauty of traditional Korean architecture. Do you see how multiple eaves meet at once?”
After viewing Gwaneumjeon, passing by Bironjeon, and seeing Nahanjeon, we finally arrived back at Yeonhwagyo and Chilbogyo bridges after seeing Geungnakjeon.
We took a group photo with Bulguksa Temple as the backdrop.
After touring Bulguksa Temple for two hours, we returned to Dubuk Retreat Center. From 5 PM, we held a seminar to review the past year and look ahead to the new year, with the theme “International Situation and Peace on the Korean Peninsula.”
First, Dr. Dong Yong-seung gave a keynote presentation, reflecting on the past year, discussing South Korea’s current position, and how we should address these issues.
“Not knowing what the crisis is, is the real crisis. If we understand the nature of the crisis, we can create countermeasures, so it’s no longer a crisis. The real crisis for South Korea is the absence of a sustainable national strategy (National Treasure) that persists regardless of changes in government.
Due to the aftereffects of rapid democratization and compressed growth, the 1987 constitutional system can no longer accommodate the vastly expanded South Korea. Ultimately, situations like the Yoon Seok-yeol martial law incident stem from these structural issues. We need to pursue constitutional amendments that match South Korea’s level of development. Currently, it’s an opportune time for both ruling and opposition parties to discuss constitutional amendments.
In the globalized market, world capital is concentrating in the United States. Through the 2008 financial crisis and the 2020 COVID crisis, Korea’s quantitative easing scale was twice that of the U.S., but the recovery rate is less than a third of the US. Foreign capital’s interest in Samsung Electronics, a representative company, has plummeted. This situation is reminiscent of Japan’s economic bubble collapse when foreign capital left and has not yet returned.
Before the 15th century was the era of the East, and after the Age of Discovery was the era of the West. Now we face the choice of aligning with the West (U.S.) or the East (China). The statement ‘Korea was originally part of China’ in the dialogue between Trump and Xi Jinping starkly reveals the difference in perspectives between East and West. The core of the national strategy lies in an aggressive approach to secure a stake in the West (U.S.). We need to move beyond the current defensive strategy and consider either leading the global network or confronting the West through cooperation between China, Japan, and Korea.
The Peace Foundation should present a grand discourse of national strategy beyond responding to current issues. In a situation where we can’t rely on political power or corporations, civil society and religious organizations should take the lead in dealing with national crisis situations. We should shift from focusing solely on inter-Korean issues to researching world peace, and establish a mid to long-term research system.”
Dr. Dong Yong-seung emphasized that the real crisis facing South Korea is not the visible political and economic problems, but the absence of a national strategy. He pointed out that the current constitutional system is not suitable for South Korea’s development and mentioned the need to establish a systematic national strategy, including constitutional amendments.
Then, the research committee members shared various opinions.
“We should not limit ourselves to the East-West confrontation framework, but consider various strategies utilizing our geographical advantages. The choice of ‘aligning with the East or the West’ itself is getting trapped in another frame.”
“Samsung Electronics has become too big to be contained within the Korean economy. We need to reconstruct our national strategy within the global network to lead in technological prowess in the world market. Instead of staying only in the KOSPI market like now, we should boldly venture into global markets like NASDAQ.”
“We shouldn’t oversimplify the clash between East and West. For example, China maintains a socialist political system while being deeply integrated into the capitalist market economy. We need to understand the international order within this complex structure and establish a long-term national strategy.”
“South Korea is now in its strongest position in history. However, we are still trapped in the Korean Peninsula frame. We need to establish a global strategy as a major global actor, beyond inter-Korean relations.”
“Germany dispersed the cost of unification through European integration. Similarly, we should use unification as a key asset in forming a Northeast Asian community to become a global leadership nation. This is the strategic approach we need now.”
After two hours of heated discussion, Sunim gave the final summary remarks.
Three Problems Facing Korean Society
“Korean society is now facing many problems that we couldn’t have imagined in the past.
First, not only Korean society but the entire world must consider how to respond to the climate crisis in order to pioneer the future.
Second, as the U.S.-China power competition intensifies, it’s having a strong influence on the world order. In the past, Korea has developed rapidly by relying on ‘the U.S. for security and China for the economy.’ However, due to the competition between the U.S. and China, we now stand at a critical juncture where we must decide whether to align with one of them, maintain neutrality, or forge a new third path. The Yoon Seok-yeol government has chosen to fully align with the U.S. even at the cost of antagonizing China, but we need to examine whether this was the right choice.
Climate Crisis and Artificial Intelligence: Tasks That Will Determine the Nation’s Future
Third, the emergence of artificial intelligence. It’s currently difficult to gauge how much impact AI technology will have on the world. In the past, the criteria for a great power were how much land it had, how large its population was, or how much capital it possessed. However, now, in national development, securing AI technology is becoming more crucial than population size, amount of capital, or general technology acquisition. Whether this change will be a storm in a teacup or a massive tempest is unknown, but what’s certain is that this aspect must be included in national development plans.
The development of AI leads to demand for big data, which in turn leads to energy procurement issues. Tremendous energy is needed for AI development, which is another major problem in the era of climate crisis. Without energy security, neither AI development nor advanced facility installation can be achieved. The reason why large-scale advanced industry installation projects in Yongin and Hwaseong areas of Gyeonggi-do are stagnating is because they haven’t found a way to supply massive amounts of energy. Discussions range from nuclear energy, which has been postponed due to its risks, to natural energy like solar and wind power, and even hydrogen power generation or nuclear fusion, in search of ways to secure large-scale energy supply sources. National development strategies will differ depending on how national policies are set in this area. We’ve always focused on political issues, centering our national strategies on inter-Korean relations, Korea-Japan relations, and relations with the U.S., but now it’s time to establish broader and more comprehensive national development strategies, including energy issues.
Korea’s Survival Strategy Amid U.S.-China Power Competition
Looking more deeply into the U.S.-China power competition among various issues, when this competition began in earnest, if the two Koreas remained divided, we would inevitably have to side with the U.S. and North Korea with China, risking the Koreas becoming subordinate variables to the U.S. and China. In this scenario, unification would be impossible under a new Cold War system, and even maintaining peace would be difficult. Therefore, before the U.S.-China power competition began, we aimed to at least establish a permanent peace system between the two Koreas and form a confederation that could be the foundation for unification. In other words, after ending the war, we envisioned normalizing inter-Korean relations, North Korea-U.S. relations, and North Korea-Japan relations to establish a peace system. Although the two Koreas would remain as two separate countries, if they formed a confederation acting as a single entity, we believed they would be less affected by the U.S.-China power competition. We established the Peace Foundation with this dream to promote peace and unification, but the era of U.S.-China power competition arrived faster than we anticipated. Our predictions were accurate, but we lacked the ability or speed to properly implement them.
A New Approach to Division: South and North Korea as a Bridge to Ease US-China Tensions
Recently, I’ve been contemplating our response to the US-China power competition. Even if we were a unified Korea in the current reality of US-China rivalry, we would be too small to maintain neutrality and independence between these powers. On the other hand, choosing one side under pressure from both would be an extremely risky decision. Therefore, I’ve been researching a new strategy to deal with US-China hegemony by utilizing our divided state. Like a link connecting two carriages, North Korea could cooperate closely with China while maintaining communication with the US, and South Korea could align closely with the US while not antagonizing China and maintaining some level of cooperation. If we maintain our original positions to some extent while communicating with the opposing country, instead of facing each other on hostile fronts as subordinate variables of the US and China, the two Koreas could potentially serve as a communication channel between the US and China, helping to somewhat ease tensions between them. In China-South Korea relations, North Korea, aligned with China, could advocate for South Korea, while in US-North Korea relations, South Korea, closely tied to the US, could advocate for North Korea. I’m currently researching whether this approach could preserve and develop our national capabilities even under US-China power competition.
Pan-East Sea Economic Zone Concept: An Economic Breakthrough for Northeast Asia
Another new strategy is the Pan-East Sea Economic Zone. I believe that if we more actively encourage Japan to establish diplomatic relations with North Korea, and form an economic community in Northeast Asia by combining South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Mongolia, China’s three northeastern provinces, and the Russian Far East, we might be able to create a new breakthrough in the era of US-China hegemony. When I met with Japanese elders recently, I discussed that even though Korea and Japan have been adversaries in the past, we should cooperate and pursue independent strategies in the era of US-China hegemony. I pointed out that for the sake of future benefits, Japan needs to more actively resolve the historical issues that hinder cooperation. While we need such new ideas now, our country still faces issues where conservatives are excessively anti-North Korean, and progressives are excessively anti-Japanese. These attitudes from both sides are somewhat hindering the development of our country’s future strategy. Anyway, I think we should consider establishing a national strategy that includes these new ideas.”
The seminar concluded at 7 PM with a round of applause.
Afterwards, the group moved to a different location where they continued with a deeper discussion over tea in the evening. They exchanged many ideas about the need for constitutional reform and establishing national strategies, as well as expanding the role of the Peace Foundation.
After conversing late into the night, the first day of the Peace Foundation’s year-end workshop came to an end.
Tomorrow is the second day of the Peace Foundation’s year-end workshop. The plan is to tour Namsan in Gyeongju, have lunch together, then move to Seoul in the afternoon. In the evening, there will be an offline Dharma Q&A session at the Jungto Social and Cultural Center.
