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This study examined the influence of Buddhism on, in particular, Korean¡¯s life-and-death view, regarding the influence that the introduction of Buddhism had on Korean society. We call the deep and broad insight into life and death as world view or life-and-death view. Such life-and-death view is attributed to the fact that life is inseparable from death and that the death is also a part of life. Ancient Koreans held the life-and-death views from the angle of simple high god faith, mountain god faith, and Shamanic faith. They adhered to afterlife view rooted in the belief of successive reincarnations in this world, standing firm on the belief that death was not the end but just beginning of other forms of life. Such view stemmed from craving for infinity called immortality soul beyond finiteness of human being. Thus, they thought that the body of the deceased should be buried and preserved eternally so as to ensure that the deceased can rest in eternal peace.
The introduction of Buddhism spurred refinement such life-and-death view rooted in successive reincarnation(in this world) which was subsequently replaced with life-and-death view founded on previous life. This implies a shift in views towards human-oriented Buddhist ideology away from Heavenly King-centered high god faith, mountain god faith, and shamanic faith. As a result, the Buddhist life-and-death view was deeply incorporated into the unique life-and-death view of Koreans, i.e., the afterlife view. Buddhist life-and-death view, namely Samsara(cyclic existence) ideology and nirvana ideology, was blended with and enlightened Korea¡¯s indigenous high god faith, mountain god faith, and shamanic faith passed down from Bronze Age, on which basis the blended and enlightened indigenous view coexisted with life-and-death views of Taoism and Confucianism. Thus, the bedrock of Korean¡¯s life-and-death view is the Buddhist life-and-death view focusing on three worlds, not the life-and-death view of this world-centric Confucianism.
Those who adopted the funeral procedures of Buddhism could further increase understanding of death through cremation. Particularly, nobleman and their wives in Goryeo Dynasty Period had such a deep Buddhist faith and breathed their last breath with Buddhist deathbed ritual. This clearly reflects the far-reaching impact of Buddhist life-and-death view on people at that time. Buddhist cremation brought sea changes to the concept of tomb, a natural postmortem structure, as well as death itself. There was no need to build tombs separately, and the mode of tombs became simplified. The vimutti nirv¨¡?a ideology based on Buddhist afterlife view, that is ecstatic Samsara(cyclic existence repeating the birth, death, and rebirth), considered behavior a premise taking precedence over existence, thereby paving the way for unlimited changeability of existence.
In that way, Buddhist life-and-death view assumed that behavior regulates the existence and therefore emphasized that the world could be changed through the behaving existences. Thus, human beings could be set free from existence through qualitative improvement of self-oriented behavior. Koreans accepted the Buddhist life-and-death view, i.e., the afterlife view deep into their hearts, and put into practice popular Amita faith, Maitreya faith, and Avalokitesvara faith actively.
Therefore, the introduction, acceptance, official recognition, and dissemination of Buddhism had an absolutely far-reaching influence on spiritual viewpoint, other world view, funeral rites, tomb concept, etc., of ancient Koreans.