Which One Do You Prefer Between the Old and the New

20171101

I have travelled many places in korea to look around the temples in this year.
While traveling, I saw that many things were changing.
New temples have been building in many places.
The repairs of the temple have been undergoing in the old temples.
In many cases the new things are better than the old things.

But in some cases, the old things are better than the new ones.

There were the monuments of late monks around the entrance of the temple.
Actually these monuments were kinds of tombs of the monks.

When monk was dead, the body was cremated.
In my guess, the cremation in Buddhism could be originated from Hinduism.

After death, the baby should be burned and ashes must be scattered in the universe to be reincarnated again.
In Buddhism as like Hinduism, this life is only a moment in the continuation of the transmigration.

I had been deeply impressed when I saw the monuments.
In many cases, there were not written the names of it’s own.

If our life was only a moment of endless continuation of the transmigration(samsara), there was no reason to left my name on the epitaph.

In Soo Doek Sa temple where is one of the oldest temple in Korea, I could not find the old monuments around the entrance.

What I saw in Soo Deok Sa was the new monuments, strangely enough these new monuments didn’t make my mind feel something special.

The style of the monuments was very precise and well made , but that was not so touching.
It was something strange why there were no old monuments in this temple.

Let’s look at the old monuments.