Yoo/Korean Religious Texts, 2. Possession and Repetition: How Korean Lay Buddhists Appropriate Scriptures

Chapter 2 demonstrates the need to give more attention to the iconic status and the sacred power of Buddhist scripture by describing how lay Korean Buddhists try to appropriate the power of sutras. The oral and aural aspects of scripture, explained by Wilfred Cantwell Smith, provide only a limited understanding of the characteristics of scripture. It should be noted that most lay people before modern times, not only in Buddhist cultures but also in Christian and other traditions, neither had the chance to recite scriptures nor to listen to their recitations regularly. Several clear examples show contemporary Korean Buddhists’ acceptance of the iconic status of sutras and their attempt to appropriate the power and status of those sacred texts. In contemporary Korea, this is done by lay Buddhists in daily life by repeating the texts and possessing physical copies of them. Twenty-first-century lay believers who cannot read or recite in the traditional style have found new methods of repetition, such as internet programs for copying sacred texts and for playing recordings of their recitations. In addition, many Korean Buddhists consider the act of having sutras in one’s possession to be an effective way of accessing the sacred status and power of these texts. Hence various ways of possessing them have been developed in a wide range of commercial products, from fancy gilded sutras to sneakers embroidered with mantras.