I previously argued that reform of the Jogye Order must mean reforming the organization itself, not merely replacing a few people. The order has the potential to become a flexible, equal, unprecedented institution structured through interdependence. Its members entered monastic life with related aspirations and share ideals of non-possession and community.
Several realities must be accepted, however. First, such an institution cannot be made by ordained members alone. According to dependent origination, everything is connected. If the sangha is to move with a changing world, it must remain continuously related to the outside.
We need a Jogye ecosystem, not an isolated interior
Lay believers, educational institutions such as Dongguk University, scholars, professors and students, journalists, and civic organizations must participate in making a new Jogye Order. In short, a Jogye ecosystem must be built.
The attitude that “the order’s affairs are internal, so do not interfere” cannot produce change. An institution able to receive new information and move flexibly needs an ecosystem connected to the outside. Journalism is one of its most important pillars.
The press says what power will not say about itself
Journalism represents speech. Whose speech? Those with power do not announce their own wrongdoing. People with money and authority prefer to use resources as they please and will not voluntarily publicize the harm. Other voices must therefore emerge to identify it.
Those who try to stop such voices also possess power and money. Korean history shows authority controlling the press, turning outlets into speakers for its own message, and suppressing those that dissent. When an institution is suspected of wrongdoing, attention should be paid to the journalists it persecutes. They may be attacked precisely because they have spoken correctly.
The order sought to discipline monks who opposed the national rally
I repeatedly argued that the Jogye Order’s national monks’ rally should not be held. It looked as though no internal opposition existed, but a voice was trying to emerge. On January 17, monks Heojeong, Dojeong, and Munyeom joined lay believers in planning a press conference near Jogyesa Temple.
The Jogye administration then pursued disciplinary action, claiming violation of monastic regulations. Diverse opinions should be possible, yet the order tried to prevent speech from leaving the mouth. Stagnant water decays. An institution avoids decay only when members can speak individually and exchange freely with the outside.
What regulation did these monks violate? If opposing a rally becomes grounds for punishment, I will resist vigorously. Their voices must be heard. The Jogye Order was closing precisely that exit.
An organization was pressured merely for asking monks’ opinions
The Buddhist Solidarity for Justice and Peace surveyed monks by text about the national rally. When only a handful had responded, an instruction reportedly came down telling monks not to answer. Analysis of roughly one thousand names showed about thirty percent in favor and more than sixty percent opposed.
The order pressured the organization under personal-information law. History has shown this method often: when someone gathers dissenting opinion, authorities invoke defamation, privacy, or another law to suppress it. Is asking monks whether they support a national rally truly such a grave offense? Why must even that be stopped?
The speech of monks is blocked, the survey is blocked, and the press that might carry dissent is blocked. The Jogye Order appears unwilling to allow criticism to exist at all.
The livelihoods of Buddhist.com and Buddhist Focus were targeted
For about five years, the Jogye Order branded Buddhist.com and Buddhist Focus as media hostile to Buddhism. It prevented them from reporting and entering order events or affiliated institutions, including Dongguk University. Advertising was blocked. When the largest Buddhist order does this to a news outlet, large or small, the intention is to sever its livelihood.
Those outlets raised questions about former President Jaseung and problems within the order. If corruption or illicit financial exchange was detected, the institution should have responded with self-examination. It should have debated oversight, audit mechanisms, and the distribution of concentrated power so that the wrongdoing could not recur.
Instead, the order attacked the journalists and people who identified the problem. Park Jeong-gyu, public-relations officer of the democratic union of administrative employees, was reportedly dismissed, restored, and dismissed again. Even his use of “figurehead President” and “figurehead Patriarch” was cited. In a society where the president of the country can be criticized, why should religious office be a sanctuary destroyed by one phrase?
Respect cannot be created by prohibitions
Declaring oneself sacred and ordering others not to criticize does not create a saint. When conduct and speech are right and accord with awakening, people voluntarily offer respect. Threatening people with “Do not speak about me” or “Do not touch our monk” creates no holiness.
If Buddhism’s capacity is so small that a critical sentence can ruin it, that is itself the greater problem. People should not be fired or disciplined in this way. Remaining quiet while it happens allows one critical outlet and person after another to disappear.
I support an ecosystem in which critical media remain alive
The New Mahayana Network also criticized the order’s use of privacy law and called for the dismissed union officer’s reinstatement. It issued a statement opposing the national rally because of its social consequences. Among the few places where criticism of the current order still appears are the New Mahayana Network, Buddhist Focus, and Buddhist.com.
Buddhist.com has been blacklisted, and Buddhist Focus remains under pressure. If these outlets are silenced, even the small remaining voice of self-examination will close. We must support them.
A new Jogye Order must not treat journalism as an enemy. It must coexist with a living external press and permit persistent criticism. Gambling, financial flows, and abuses of power that insiders wish to conceal must be exposed from outside if the organization is to become healthy.
Reform requires exits through which criticism can emerge
When critics are dismissed as outsiders and internal dissenters are disciplined, many may oppose a decision but no voice appears. There is no exit. Reform requires channels through which opinions and statements can emerge from many places.
The present Jogye Order is rigid: commands move from top to bottom, while speech cannot rise from below. It lacks the system and tradition for upward communication. This is exactly why it must change.
I support Buddhist Focus, Buddhist.com, the New Mahayana Network, the Buddhist Solidarity for Justice and Peace, and monks Heojeong, Dojeong, and Munyeom. I also support Park Jeong-gyu, unjustly dismissed from his union position. A rotten institution suppresses the press. A reformed community keeps criticism alive and corrects itself through it.
This article was edited by AI solely from the supplied video captions and description. No external sources were used.