Buddhist DJ tries to inspire South Koreans toward religion: NPR

SEOUL, South Korea – Buddhism is deeply rooted in Korean tradition, with the Lotus Lantern Pageant having been performed once a year for the Buddha’s birthday for 16 centuries.

It was May, and Koreans and foreigners, people of all religions and those who denied religion, flocked to a major temple in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, to watch musicians dressed in colorful costumes and expressions perform and carry lanterns shaped like Were gathering for. Like gods and plants.

However, the final performance of the night came as an example of how Buddhists in South Korea are committed to addressing issues affecting their religion, such as demographic decline, secularism, and the expansion of Christianity.

A DJ takes the stage in a Buddhist gown and headphones on a shaved head. As soon as the digital dance tune is created, it sends the youth into a frenzy.

Yoon Seong-ho is a 47-year-old Buddhist, comedian, DJ, and rising celebrity.

Their Korean-level title, NewJeansNim, suggests a point of novelty or even progressiveness. It also looks like a typical K-pop female team newjeans.

He works excerpts from Buddhist sutras and sentences on Buddhist phrases into his units. He is sympathetic to the worldly sufferings of his young target audience and tells them to be prepared for the rebirth of generations.

“Do you find Buddhism funny?” he asks the jumping, screaming, cellphone-taking photos of the community.

“My role is to attract people towards me”

“Buddhism is an independent religion. It doesn’t force people to join or leave,” Yoon explains in an NPR interview behind the curtain tent before his performance. “I want people to understand Buddhism. I’m not asking them to become followers.

The transition he wants to tackle, he says, is that many young South Koreans find Buddhism inaccessible and suffocating.

“My role is to attract people. The rest is up to the great learned monks, whose role is to transmit the Buddha’s teachings.”

A Buddhist monk named Namjeon, who belongs to the Jogye order, the largest sect of Korean Buddhism, says Yoon has “helped break down these prejudices about Buddhism and improve its image.”

Namjeon, who is responsible for the Jogye series’ efforts to reveal Buddhism, says that “the courage and fun that breaks the idea that religion should be rigid and serious is not something we monks want.” Can be brought easily.”

Now not everyone is feeling the vibes

He admits that now not all Buddhists are happy with Yoon’s unconventional methods. In Singapore and Malaysia, local Buddhist organizations objected to Yoon’s newly scheduled performances, leading to their cancellation.

However, Namjeon argues that Yun is one of the important origins in a long sequence of reformers and innovators, stretching back 26 centuries from the Buddha himself.

“In the broader flow of history, there is something that Buddhism calls ‘expedient means,'” he explains, “which means adopting measures that are more convenient for the general public in spreading the Buddha’s teachings.”

“Expedient means” refers to teachings that may seem unconventional and even contrary to the foundations of Buddhism, but are appropriate to the learner’s ability to understand and lead him to enlightenment. Is.

For that matter, from a Buddhist perspective, any attempt to explain reality with phrases and logic is at best a substitute for direct experience.

At any rate, Namjeon and other Buddhists believe that something must be done to stop the decline of their dharma.

Buddhism in South Korea faces a variety of difficult situations to keep its devotees safe.

South Korea’s demographic emergency, as the country with the lowest fertility rate, is a factor in maintaining devotees.

Census data shows that a large proportion of South Koreans reject organized faith, and those who practice it.

However the other problem is that many people are turning to Christianity instead.

A few decades ago, Protestantism overtook Buddhism to become the largest religion in South Korea. A Hankook Analysis survey at the end of the year found that 20% of respondents identified themselves as Protestants, compared to 17% of Buddhists.

Yoon Seung-yong, director of the Korea Institute for Faith and Tradition in Seoul, says Protestantism is more appealing to young Koreans because it emphasizes personal spiritual faith.

In contrast, Yoon says, Buddhism distinguishes rituals and monastic communities. He says that such aspects of Buddhism are common which attract people’s attention.

“Buddhism as an organized religion is in decline, but Buddhism is expanding into the everyday lives of individuals in the form of meditation or yoga. There is a need to separate these two.”

And just because the symptoms of the tide seem serious, DJ and comic, Newjinsanim, tells his target audience in his final thoughts on the Lotus Lantern Parade, “Nothing is eternal in this world. Don’t let your success make you arrogant. And don’t let your failure discourage you.”

He willingly concludes: “The world keeps going round and round. Endure, as I did. Then a good day will come.”

NPR’s Se Eun Gong in Seoul contributed to this document.