Today I want to discuss reforming the Jogye Order as an organization. I consistently opposed the order’s reaction to Assembly member Jeong Cheong-rae and its pressure on the Democratic Party. The national monks’ rally was eventually held, and I criticized it severely. When talk then turned to another all-Buddhist rally, I concluded that I could no longer avoid calling for thorough reform.
Why? The wrongdoing now visible cannot be explained as the deviation of one or two monks. The order itself held the event publicly, with leaders and many monks participating. When conduct incompatible with the Buddha’s teaching and compassion is performed proudly in the institution’s name, it is an organizational problem.
Blaming one leader prevents us from seeing the organization
When an organization acts wrongly, it is a mistake to say only that its head is bad. A layer of power supports the leader, while the consciousness and culture of ordinary members support that layer. One leader cannot create a massive collective action alone.
The present Jogye Order therefore cannot be explained solely by the personality of its executive president. We must understand why the institution enabled these actions, how power is produced and preserved, and why dissent disappears.
People with high ideals still encounter power inside organizations
Monks presumably ordained to follow the Buddha, awaken, and liberate beings. Their aspiration is lofty. Because people choose this path despite knowing how difficult Buddhahood is, the Buddhist community possesses the possibility of creating an ideal organization.
Yet not every Jogye monk is already awakened. They are people practicing to awaken. Organizational thought begins here. A group of ten or a hundred may have little money or power. A great order connected with thousands of monks and innumerable believers inevitably handles large financial flows, and positions arise that can direct those flows and exercise political authority.
Can we guarantee that every such position will be occupied by an awakened person practicing complete non-possession and acting without self-interest? Perhaps sometimes, but not always. Progress begins only when this reality is admitted.
A giant modern order lacks oversight and correction
The small sangha following Gautama Siddhartha 2,500 years ago differs in scale and conditions from a vast order in contemporary Korea. The Jogye Order moves enormous money and authority, yet mechanisms to oversee them and correct wrongdoing are nearly absent.
Even the few small media organizations are branded hostile to Buddhism and pressured. Reporting and speech are intimidated and ultimately threatened with destruction. Internally, rigid hierarchy and authoritarianism run deep. A critical sentence brings suppression for challenging a superior. Such an organization must decay.
It should be flexible like a soft-bodied creature and concentrate force when needed
An organization should be soft and flexible. People above and below must exchange views freely; new ideas from the bottom must travel upward; the institution must adapt itself to changes in the world. Ordinarily it should be pliable, yet when concentration is needed it should gather firmly and exercise great strength.
I argue that this is possible precisely because the institution is the Jogye Order. It would be difficult for an ordinary interest group lacking a shared religious ideal. Yet before speaking of possibility, the present must be acknowledged. The order contains offices that require money and grant authority; money circulates in the competition for those offices, and their holders can wield power at will.
Move from sorting good and bad people to building systems
Reality is not divided cleanly into black and white. There are not only wholly bad and wholly good people, but many located in between. Removing one person judged evil and elevating another judged good will not by itself change an organization.
We must look through systems. Even if someone corrupt and unawakened approaches power, the structure must prevent arbitrary conduct and eventually deny that person a foothold. The fate of an order cannot depend on the character and goodwill of its leader.
Nor should reform produce rules that then remain frozen for ten or twenty years. As the world changes and problems appear, laws and institutions should be easy to revise and offices of power easy to rotate. Oversight must function, and wrongdoing must immediately be named as wrongdoing.
Shared Buddhist ideals make an unprecedented institution possible
This is possible because the sangha knows non-possession, not-self, and impermanence and gathers around the ideal of Buddhahood. Other organizations may assemble to make money, obtain political power, or protect members’ material interests. Buddhism aims at compassion for all beings and the awakening of oneself. Few organizations are as radically idealistic as ours.
All members acknowledge in principle that possession and power are not “mine.” If someone says, “This temple is mine, this money is mine, and this authority is mine to use as I please,” everyone knows the claim is wrong. A community studying impermanence and not-self has a foundation for rotating concentrated authority, exposing resources, and frequently revising offices and rules.
Anyone who ordained for money and power should leave
When first shaving their heads, monks did not ordain to make money, seize authority, or enjoy women. If someone truly entered monastic life for those purposes, that person should leave the sangha. The Jogye Order was not formed for such desires.
Even if a person’s mind has changed today, deep within the beginning of ordination there was likely a wish to awaken, practice compassion, liberate beings, and become a Buddha. If even that aspiration was absent and only the costume of monkhood was desired, the person is merely a corrupt monk and should be expelled.
Members of the sangha share the ideal of becoming Buddhas. That common ground allows us to rebuild the present order completely. We can create a community renewed at every moment, flexible and ideal in a way the world has never seen. I say to the monks of the Jogye Order: remember the vow with which you ordained, and let us move together toward such an organization.
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