[KS] Again, Haneunim (and the Trinity)

[Timsanglee at aol.com]

Professor Baker's claim that Ch'oe Cheu originally "encountered a God who was 
separate and distinct from (‘transcended’) human beings" is contradicted by 
claims made in Benjamin Weem's Reform, Rebellion, and the Heavenly Way 
(Tucson: University of Arizona, 1964), rather old, but still solid and—so far as I 
know—the best Western-language work on Tonghak/Chŏdokyo.  Permit me to quite a 
few lines from it:
 
“The theoretical and ritualistic basis of Ch’ŏndogyo doctrine is embodied in 
the twenty-one character of Sacred Formula which Ch’oe Che-u created, 
allegedly under divine inspiration.  This Formula reads:
 
‘Infinite Energy being now within me, I yearn that it may pour into all 
living beings and created things.  Since this Infinite Energy abides in me, I am 
identified with God, and of one nature with all existence.  Should I ever forget 
these things, all existing things will know of it. [fn.9]’
 
“From the Sacred Formula, Ch’oe derived the principle of in nae ch’ŏn (man 
and God are one), which is the foundation of the entire religious dogma and 
political philosophy of Ch’ŏndokyo.  This principle means, in brief, that, 
potentially, man is God, but that this oneness is actually realized only as the 
individual exercises sincere faith in the oneness of his own spirit and body and 
in the universality of God.”
 
Fn.9: “[Charles Allen] Clark, op. cit., pp. 155-156.  This translation has 
been checked against the original, which appears in Tonggyŏng Taejŏn, pp. 4-5, 
and Ch’ang Kŏn Sa, Pt. 1, pp. 23-26.”
 
The Clark that Weems cites is Religions of Old Korea (New York: Revel, 1932).
 
Yours, 
 
Timothy S. Lee
Brite Divinity School (TCU)
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