[Buddha-l] Bong-Jeong

[Joy Vriens]

I saw a beautiful documentary produced by KBS Media (2005, realisation by Jae Bok Choi, Chan Moon Hong) today about an ermitage in Korea. The French title was "Le temple de mille ans". The filming (or perhaps the countryside) reminded me a bit of Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... And Spring.

At one point the abbot said (and I believed him to believe that) that everybody who came and visited them was Buddha. This reminded me of a recent discussion on this list about the number of Buddhists in the world or in specific countries and about what makes a Buddhist. I believe the abbot's approach is more simple and efficient: everybody is Buddha (or whatever one wants to call what everybody is). If I may adopt and adapt one of Santideva's ideas: "Whoever sees every being as Buddha, doesn't need to count Buddhists".    

Joy