Calls for reform of the Jogye Order have continued for years. There were revelations in 2015 and 2016, and in 2018 MBC’s investigative program PD Notebook broadcast the two-part “Questions for Great Monks.” The program shocked Korean society.
People who suffered injustice and spoke rightly were punished, disabled, and expelled. In contrast, those accused of gambling, wielding institutional power, committing violence, or sexual misconduct continued shamelessly under the name of monks, enjoying money, authority, and politics. They were not properly punished.
This is not a few rotten individuals but a cauldron of corruption
Why did the Buddhist community fail to reform even after the broadcast and the voices of many citizens? Because the Jogye Order had become a cauldron of corruption. As I have repeatedly said, if only a few monks were corrupt, the other monks would have become angry and removed them long ago. The misconduct would have been handled.
Instead, much of the leadership obeys those with power or lacks even the judgment to distinguish right from wrong. Worse, some actively support wrongdoing. People are beaten and injured; those trying to reveal the truth are assaulted until their mental health collapses; yet the institution tolerates it. How is a structure that silences people through violence and fear different from a mafia?
We cannot wait for those in power to step down voluntarily
The Jogye Order requires thorough reform. It cannot happen by waiting for leaders to lower their own power through procedures they control. Those who benefit from a corrupt structure cannot be expected to dismantle it with their own hands.
Buddhist believers must understand together how deeply the order has decayed and must lead reform. A candlelight movement for the Jogye Order is needed. Left as it is, the order will remain an agent of power and money, an organization overrun by violence and financial influence that can scarcely deserve the name Buddhism.
Believers alone are not enough. Scholars and professors, students and young people, civic organizations, and the press must all speak. As these forces gather, the robes and offices of those holding present power must be removed. Only after they leave can an entirely new organization be born.
Direct election of the president is not sufficient
If reform means only introducing direct election for the executive president, it is hardly worth beginning. One institutional change cannot complete reform. Systems of oversight must be established, authority distributed, and the allocation of the order’s resources redesigned.
In a sangha that claims non-possession, shared resources cannot belong to one person. Every monk should have fair access to communal support. Yet some monks struggle to eat and worry about old age and where they will die, while others spend corporate-card money at entertainment establishments. Can this reality be called a Buddhist community?
The system persists because corruption is shared
Why has nothing changed? Because corruption is not isolated; it is shared. People know one another’s misconduct and vulnerabilities, so they close ranks and conceal them. They want to control the Jogye Order’s authority and resources until the end.
Their office and robes must therefore be taken away. Every institutional card and flow of money should be disclosed. Cash transactions will be harder to trace, but testimony from surrounding people and those who received the money must also be examined. There is not only someone who spent corruptly; someone else received the payment.
The structure in which participants assume their wrongs will never be exposed—or that no individual can be punished because everyone participated—must end. People who continue serious wrongdoing while holding their heads high and expecting the treatment of great monks or nomination to office can no longer be indulged.
A new organization that supports every monk through life
Those who used the order’s power and money as though it were personal property must step down. The Jogye Order must be born again as a wholly new organization. Every monk should receive basic security from ordination until death, and every member should be able at any time to see how institutional funds are used and express an opinion.
This requires the strength of believers, scholars, professors, students, young people, civic groups, and journalism. Their voices must unite in the demand for reform. I will continue speaking until the aspiration of ten million Buddhists drives corrupt monks from power and the order is transformed. I hope this video will be shared so that many more people add their voices.
This article was edited by AI solely from the supplied video captions and description. No external sources were used.