어둠이 곧 빛이다: 존 던의 「신성한 소네트」, 불교의 공(空)사상으로 읽기 (Darkness is Light: Reading John Donne’s “The Holy Sonnets” in Terms of śūnyatā of Buddhism)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국고전중세르네상스영문학회
· 수록지 정보 : 중세르네상스영문학 / 18권 / 1호 / 161 ~ 194페이지
· 저자명 : 이상엽

초록

The speakers in some sonnets of John Donne’s “The Holy Sonnets” recognize that they are very sinful, so they desperately ask God for grace because they don’t fear death itself but fear a death which will separate them from God forever. They have a strong desire for God’s intervention, but, like the mistresses in Donne’s love poems, Donne’s God is silent. As a result, the sense of estrangement leads them to despair. The experience of God’s silence/absence is an experience frequently dealt with in Christian literature. The believer can experience God through the painful awareness of his absence. However, although God is thought to be not absent in a time of spiritual darkness, he exists as a helper in order that the enlightened person may understand the limits of human mind and language. In this point, this paper tries to explain the relationship between darkness and enlightenment in terms of śūnyata (空思想) of Buddhism.
In Madhyamika there is the denial of all categories and doctrines because all dogmatic systems are regarded as Dṛṣṭi (thought and judgment), while Prajñā (wisdom) is regarded as the essential entity to get rid of all concepts and differences. The heart of Buddhist teaching is the doctrine of śūnya— interdependence of things. Such rejection of substance in all things provides the foundation for the dialectic of Nāgārjuna. This (緣起, pratītya-samutpāda) means, in other words, that since there is no thing whatever originating independently, there is no thing that exists which is not empty. “Emptiness” too is empty of any inherent being. Nāgārjuna declares that there is not the least difference between the Absolute and the world. The Universe, viewed as a whole, is the Absolute; it, viewed as a process, is the phenomenal. He says that the absolute is the only real; it is identical with phenomena. The two aspects are closely connected, and, may, indeed, be regarded as different aspects of a single entity.
The enlightened and wise person who is freed of ignorance (無明, avidyā) may see the world as Nirvāņa, while the distracted mind with ignorance may see the world as a world of differences and degrees, Saṃsāra. In this respect, light can be said to be darkness, while darkness can be said to be light. When we as the readers see, as in dramatic irony, “The Holy Sonnets” in the context of śūnyatā of Buddhism, we can understand that the absence of God need not be read as evidence that God does not exist, or that he is unconcerned, even though owing to his heated arguments and self-assertions (分別) the speaker doesn’t recognize that darkness or spiritual agony can be actually the mysterious link that will unite him to God’s grace. His deep longing for God is possible only through God’s own hidden presence. The silence of God in Donne’s works may be seen as a sign that God is actually at work reordering the life of the speaker as in “dark night” experience. The readers can see evidence in the speaker’s words and attitudes of the presence of God as a silent presence beyond human words and human reasoning.

영어초록

The speakers in some sonnets of John Donne’s “The Holy Sonnets” recognize that they are very sinful, so they desperately ask God for grace because they don’t fear death itself but fear a death which will separate them from God forever. They have a strong desire for God’s intervention, but, like the mistresses in Donne’s love poems, Donne’s God is silent. As a result, the sense of estrangement leads them to despair. The experience of God’s silence/absence is an experience frequently dealt with in Christian literature. The believer can experience God through the painful awareness of his absence. However, although God is thought to be not absent in a time of spiritual darkness, he exists as a helper in order that the enlightened person may understand the limits of human mind and language. In this point, this paper tries to explain the relationship between darkness and enlightenment in terms of śūnyata (空思想) of Buddhism.
In Madhyamika there is the denial of all categories and doctrines because all dogmatic systems are regarded as Dṛṣṭi (thought and judgment), while Prajñā (wisdom) is regarded as the essential entity to get rid of all concepts and differences. The heart of Buddhist teaching is the doctrine of śūnya— interdependence of things. Such rejection of substance in all things provides the foundation for the dialectic of Nāgārjuna. This (緣起, pratītya-samutpāda) means, in other words, that since there is no thing whatever originating independently, there is no thing that exists which is not empty. “Emptiness” too is empty of any inherent being. Nāgārjuna declares that there is not the least difference between the Absolute and the world. The Universe, viewed as a whole, is the Absolute; it, viewed as a process, is the phenomenal. He says that the absolute is the only real; it is identical with phenomena. The two aspects are closely connected, and, may, indeed, be regarded as different aspects of a single entity.
The enlightened and wise person who is freed of ignorance (無明, avidyā) may see the world as Nirvāņa, while the distracted mind with ignorance may see the world as a world of differences and degrees, Saṃsāra. In this respect, light can be said to be darkness, while darkness can be said to be light. When we as the readers see, as in dramatic irony, “The Holy Sonnets” in the context of śūnyatā of Buddhism, we can understand that the absence of God need not be read as evidence that God does not exist, or that he is unconcerned, even though owing to his heated arguments and self-assertions (分別) the speaker doesn’t recognize that darkness or spiritual agony can be actually the mysterious link that will unite him to God’s grace. His deep longing for God is possible only through God’s own hidden presence. The silence of God in Donne’s works may be seen as a sign that God is actually at work reordering the life of the speaker as in “dark night” experience. The readers can see evidence in the speaker’s words and attitudes of the presence of God as a silent presence beyond human words and human reasoning.

참고자료

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