A Life Lived

Chapter 7 aims to identify the nature of women’s Buddhist philosophy. Iryŏp’s approach to Buddhism also directs us to different dimensions in which women encounter Buddhist philosophy, which is identified as narrative philosophy, philosophy of life, based on lived experience. By examining Kim Iryŏp’s life and philosophy as a paradigmatic example of women’s philosophy in connection with Buddhism, this chapter brings attention to the way women engage with Buddhism and philosophy and offers a way of philosophizing that challenges the male dominated and Western philosophy based mode of philosophizing.

At the End of the Journey

Chapter 6 is a response to Iryŏp’s critics and a consideration of the relationship between Buddhism and society. The chapter claims that by relating her life stories in her books, Iryŏp made a woman’s life visible. It is a statement that a woman’s life is not a disposable and forgettable component in a patriarchal society. Her books are the witnesses to her life and the lives of other women; it was Iryŏp’s way of getting engaged with women’s issues. Iryŏp’s writing is her testimony about what it means to live as an independent being. Her last book In Between Happiness and Misfortune efficiently demonstrates how women’s lives, their struggles, and Buddhist teaching interact.

Sense and Nonsense of Revolt (1924–1927)

Chapter 3 discusses the philosophical foundation of the New Women’s theory of chastity by exploring Swedish feminist Ellen Key (1849–1926). Key was one of the major sources of influence for the New Women in the United States, Japan, and Korea, during the 1880s, 1910s and 1920s. Relying on Key’s writings, the New Women formulated their visions of women’s liberation and women’s rights in terms of marriage, sexuality, and love, as well as maternity and child-rearing. The chapter also discusses the transition in Iryŏp’s thought from a feminist activist to an existential thinker to better understand her existential reality by exercising what Iryŏp calls new individualism.

Between Light and Darkness (1896–1920)

Chapter 1 deals with Kim Iryŏp’s childhood and young adult life. Iryŏp was a daughter of a Christian pastor and his wife. She was raised as a faithful Christian, envisioning her future as a Christian missionary. During her teenage years, questions on Christian doctrines eventually led her to lose faith in Christianity. In the 1920s, she actively engaged with women’s movements in Korea, at the forefront of the group known as the New Women. She found society’s control of feminine sexuality in the name of virginity and chastity a visible form of gender discrimination in Korean society and demanded sexual freedom, as well as free love and free divorce. Behind this glitzy life as a public figure, her private life was marked by a series of death in her family that made Iryŏp felt the existential loneliness as the condition of her existence.

Introduction

HOW AND WHY DO women engage with Buddhism? This is the fundamental question that Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp proposes to answer through discussions of Kim Iryŏp’s (金一葉‎ 1896–1971) life and philosophy. With her Christian background and feminist activist perspective, Kim Iryŏp offers a creative interpretation of how Buddhism as a philosophy and a religion can engage with lived experience. Her awareness of gender discrimination, suffering, and discontent in the secular world led Iryŏp to explore the Buddhist teaching of absolute equality, which conceives of individuals as free beings with infinite capability. She also employs Buddhism to answer existential questions regarding the scope of an individual’s identity, the meaning of being human, and the ultimate value of existence. Moving beyond current Buddhist scholarship on gender, ...

I Who Have Lost Me (1927–1935)

Chapter 4 discusses Iryŏp’s encounter with Buddhism, which took place around 1927, and Iryŏp’s journey from activism to a leading Buddhist thinker. During this period, Iryŏp met two people in particular who either motivated her to become interested in Buddhism or who helped her to study Buddhism. The first person was Paek Sŏnguk (1897–1981), the president of the Buddhist Newspaper Company; the other was Ha Yunsil, a non-celibate monk who was also involved with the journal Buddhism. She became romantically involved with Paek and married Ha Yunsil. The chapter also includes a brief discussion of hwadu mediation that Iryŏp practice as a Zen Buddhist nun.

Time for Reconciliation

Chapter 5 engages with Iryŏp’s Buddhist philosophy, by exploring her interpretations of Buddhism in the book Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun (1960). The chapter discusses the major Buddhist doctrines of the identity and Buddhist worldview, and connects Iryŏp’s Buddhism with the traditional Buddhist philosophy. The chapter also demonstrates the uniqueness of Iryŏp’s Buddhist philosophy and her interpretation of Christianity. The chapter locates Iryŏp’s Buddhism in the context of East Asian form of philosophy of religion, comparing her with Tanabe Hajime and Inoue Enryō of Japan.

To See and Be Seen (1918–1927)

Chapter 2 presents Kim Iryŏp’s activities as a new woman in comparison with two other new women, Na Hyesŏk and Kim Myŏngsun. The chapter also places the Korean New Women with the Japanese New Women and American New Women. One of the important themes for Iryŏp at this stage was her New Theory of Chastity.