The HK+ Research Group of Dongguk University’s Buddhist Culture Institute held an academic conference to celebrate Buddha’s Birthday in 2567 on May 12th and 13th. The academic conference was scheduled to be held in May 2020, but it was held three years after it was postponed due to COVID-19. It was an academic conference co-hosted by Dongguk University, Renmin University of China, Minzu University of China, and Ryukoku University in Japan under the theme of “In Search of the Origin of Modern Korea Hwaeom-Colonel and East Asian Buddhism.”
On the first day of the conference, Kim Ji-young, a research professor at Dongguk University, presented “Theory of the Divine Spirit” and revealed that the importance of “Theory of the Divine Spirit” increased when the Zinggwan wrote “Hwaeom Kyeongso.” Professor Zhang Wui-shin of Inner Mongolia University in China discussed the position of Sungbulnon in the thought of Hwaeom in China, along with the process of theoretical innovation from Hyewon, a disciple of Beopjang, to Zinggwan.
In “Part 2, Acceptance of Korean and Japanese Buddhism,” former lecturer Shizuka Tanaka of Ryukoku University in Japan demonstrated that the concept of “one mind” of the Zinggwan, which has been emphasized since the Kamakura period, has become the mainstream and continues within the sect. Atsushi Sato, a professor at Toyo University, discussed the acceptance of conscripts by Gyunyeo and Uicheon during the Goryeo period. To Gyunyeo, Zinggwan was a great Hwaeom thinker, but he valued the Uishang world, and Uicheon criticized him from an international standpoint and evaluated him as respecting Zinggwan who succeeded to the view of the Beopgyegwan.
In “Understanding the Commandments in Modern Buddhism in Part 3,” Zen Buddhism, where Buddhist monk Sobeom, a member of the Jogye Order, is located in Enryun, North and South, and Yeondam and In-ak, the authors of “Hwaeom History,” inherit the commandments. In addition, Zinggwan and Damyeon’s Bulsungnon (Monk Mingzeon of Hangzhou Buddhist Academy in China), the acceptance of Zinggwan of Ming Buddhism (Professor Zhang Yuan-liang of Renmin University of China), the relationship between Zingwan and Cheontae in Japanese doctrine question and answer (Professor Norosei of Ryukoku University in Japan), and reveal the relationship between Zinggwan and Lee Tong-hyun mediated between Jinul during the Goryeo Dynasty and Tanheo in the modern era (Professor Monk Mungwang of HK research at Dongguk University). Kim Ja-hyun, a HK research professor at Dongguk University, then presented Hwaeomrelated art formed amid the flourishing of Hwaeomology, which emerged due to the influx of “Cool Small Plants” in the late Joseon Dynasty.