불교의 언어 비판과 그 극복

• 영문명: The Buddhist Critique of Language and Attempts to Overcome the Limits of Language
• 발행기관: 불교학연구회
• 저자명: 명법(Myeong-beop) 주성옥(Chu Song-ok)
• 간행물 정보: 『불교학연구』제9호, 55~85쪽, 전체 31쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 불교학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 2004.12.01

영문 초록

  Language from religious perspective is problematic in two ways, that is, language cannot capture the truth nor can it bring about religious practice. Especially Zen Buddhism whose motto is "Nondependence on language(不立文字)" criticizes all the kinds of linguistic activities because it considers them a hindrance in ascetic practices.
  According to the Buddhist view of language, language has no essence in itself, and the meaning of words and sentences is a borrowed objectivity and a sign of belief. Semantic theory assumes that a word corresponds to a reality in the external objective world; so this theory establishes a skewed metaphysics. Buddhism considers that the cognitive process through language is most difficult to control; it brings about the great confusion about the nature of objects.
  Since Buddhist Scriptures(Sutra) are made of words, they also share the limits of language. So the difficulty of Buddhist Scriptures is that they must describe the real aspects of the world and bring about practical changes of being. If the language of Sutra did not adequately describe cognitive truth, it would not function to deliver sentient beings from their sufferings. Above all to function sorteologically it is necessary to describe the cognitive truth. To overcome the limits of ordinary language, Buddhism developed many kinds of expressions like metaphors, negative expressions in Praj??p?ramit?-s?tra and M?dhyamaka, Koan(公案) in Patriarch Zen.
  Metaphors are the way through which the concepts, that are difficult to apprend directly or are otherwise complicated and abstract, are likened to familar concrete figures. Metaphors transform a concept into an object of intuition and make it understood as a concrete thing presented in front of our eyes. But with metaphors the rational thinking processes, that is, the analysis and inference are involved when they likens properties of a certain metaphor with an abstract concept. Thus as Dign?ga classified, metaphors are a type of indirect cognition which cannot overcome the limit of language.
  Praj??p?ramit?-h?daya-s?tra and M?dhyamaka use negative expressions to criticize Abidharma that defines and classifies dharmas which compose the elements of existence. C?tu?ko?ika used by Nagarjuna eliminates everything defined by words to escape from realistic tendency of human thinking and to express the structure of interdependent-arising. Emptiness(??nyat?) is just an instrument and a borrowed name that announces the fact that there is no entity in itself. Emptiness denies not only all the things but also itself. In other words, Nagarjuna"s concept of Emptiness denies itself as an ultimate principle. Through this double negation, Nagarjuna affirmed language as a borrowed-name(praj?apti) in relative realm.
  The critique of language made by Nagarjuna is dialectic not because it negates language entirely but because it uses language to criticize language. But Nagarjuna"s negative dialectic does not aim at logical thinking. It seeks to extend our ability to understand ways of thinking. If we realize through analysis and destruction of the process of thinking that there is nothing, we can correct the fiction that we by ourselves make and exclude a delusion. So realizing Emptiness plays a definitive role in ultimate liberation. It is the answer to every question, not because the answer is found but because the question is not a question any more.
  The role of Koan in Patriarch Zen is to reveal mind itself through self-negation. To escape from "vikapa" of ordinary language, Koan gives an answer which contradicts the question. So in the dialogue between the master and his disciple, Koan is presented as a self-negation, in other word, a paradox. Koan makes the activities of discriminative consciousness cease. It negates a disciple"s question and destroys the semantic structure

목차

Ⅰ. 들어가는 말
Ⅱ. 불교 언어관의 이중성
Ⅲ. 경전의 언어 사용의 특징
Ⅳ. 선종의 언어
Ⅴ. 맺는 말
영문초록

키워드

언어(language) 이론적 인식(여어)(theoretitical cognition) 종교적 실천(religious practices(실어)) 비유(metaphors) 부정의 논리(negative dialectic) 공안(화두)(Koan) 직관(intuition) 깨달음(enlightenment) 선교일치(the correspondence between the doctrinal studies and zen practices)