Buddhism, Digital Technology and New Media in Korea introduces Ŭisang (625–702), a seminal figure in East Asian religion who founded the Korean Hwaŏm school of Buddhism, from various angles by placing his thought in the interdisciplinary and intercultural context of the twenty-first century.
The book analyzes the scope of Ŭisang’s teachings through a study of his Ocean Seal Diagram with reference to digital technology and poetics. It attempts to identify diverse intersections between Ŭisang’s thought and Western ideas, elucidating the diagram’s potential as a meta-theory applicable to various academic fields in view of unprecedented changes in human life brought forth by the digital revolution. Contributors to the book present comprehensive and in-depth analyses of the dynamic applicability as well as persistent traits of the Ocean Seal Diagram in the AI era. Inspired by the creative potential of the diagram, the chapters unravel the points of agreement and disagreement between Hwaŏ Buddhism and contemporary intellectual currents, promising to take a transregional and transhistorical dialogue to the new level suitable to the ever-changing digitalized global environment.
This book will be of interest to researchers in a wide range of disciplines such as Religious Studies, Philosophy, Korean Studies, Media Studies, Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, Anthropology, and Globalization Studies, among others.
Introduction: Ŭisang’s Life and Legacies PART I: The Ocean Seal Diagram in Theory and Praxis Chapter 1: Ŭisang’s Understanding of the Avatamsaka-Sǔtra as Seen Through the Seal-Diagram Symbolizing the Dharma Realm of the One Vehicle; Chapter 2: The Heart-Smile Training: The Compassion-Based Intervention Program of Korean Sŏn in the Al Digital Era; Chapter 3: From Daily Devotions to Ceremonial Paths and Talismans: The Functions of Ŭisang’s Seal Diagram in Contemporary Korean Buddhism PART II: Transcultural Dialogue with Ŭisang Chapter 4: A Whiteheadian Process Critique of Huayan Buddhism: Creative Synthesis and Emergent Novelty; Chapter 5: The One, the Many, and Time in Deleuze and Huayan Buddhism; Chapter 6: Technics and the Ocean Seal PART III: Ŭisang and Digitality Chapter 7: The Internet as a Technological Manifestation of Indra’s Net: Ŭisang’s Ocean Seal as a Unifying Model for Art, Religion, Metaphysics and Technology; Chapter 8: The Mediatization of Buddhism in Digital Media: The Contemporary Reflection of Ŭisang’s Hwaŏm Thought in Video Games; Chapter 9: The Apparition of an Appearance: Artist Notes on the Performance of Wisdom Mark Amerika PART IV: Time and Salvation in the Ocean Seal Chapter 10: The Journey as Mediation: A Buddhist Reading of O Chŏng-hŭi’s “Words of Farewell”; Chapter 11: The Hwaŏm Allegory of Time in Marcel Aymé’s “La Carte”; Postscript; Index
Hyangsoon Yi is a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature at the University of Georgia, USA. Her research interests include Buddhist aesthetics in literature and visual arts, Korean Buddhist film, history of Korean Buddhist Nuns, women’s monastic practice tradition, and Buddhism and Western literature. Dal Yong Jin is a distinguished SFU professor in the School of Communication, Simon Fraser University, Canada. His major research and teaching interests are digital platforms and digital games, globalization and media, transnational cultural studies, and the political economy of media and culture. Jin has published numerous books, journal articles, and book chapters. He is the founding book series editor of Routledge Research in Digital Media and Culture in Asia.
