| MC |
Some
people tend to say that any method can
be justified only if the goal is good.
Furthermore, there are many instances
that the moral value of the goal is
not even checked. It seems that many
social problems are generated from that
tendency. Would you please say something
about it in terms of the Tao? |
| RHEE |
To
make money or to get high social status
itself is not bad. It's good to be able
to spend money for other people thanks
to one's wealth, or to serve many people
thanks to one's status of high social
responsibility. But as Confucius said,
"To become rich or to get a high
status in an unjust way is worthless."
But to do so in a right way―that's good.
Then the question is, "How can we do
it in right ways?" To know what's right
and what's wrong, we must do complete
self-examination first of all. But our
history testifies that Korean people
have lacked serious self-examination.
Most troubles our nation has suffered
are due to her people's negligence of
self-examination. Troubles we have suffered
in foreign relations are good examples.
Our history is full
of the incidents
of foreign invasions, but we've never
done serious reflection on them and
therefore kept on being vulnerable.
For an example, our nation suffered
enormously due to the Japanese invasion
and subsequent seven year war at the
end of sixteenth century. The whole
country was almost devastated, but anyhow
managed to survive. We should have learned
a lesson and got prepared never to repeat
the same experience. But about four
hundred years after that, in 1910, we
were at last annexed by Japan losing
independent sovereignty. The same problem
is found in our attitude in relations
with other foreign countries such as
China, Russia, and so forth.
As is often discussed by mass media
nowadays, the United States military
government, established
in South Korea
right after the end of World War II,
at first tried to employ officers of
the former Japanese colonial regime
again in government positions. And then
came RHEE Seyng-man, the first president
of the Republic of Korea. He and his
men, in order to hold their political
power, employed cooperators of Japanese
colonial regime and disbanded so-called
the Special Committee for Investigation
of Infidels. The other countries, after
World War II at the latest, took much
effort to educate their people of the
Japanese ways and of how to deal with
them. But we've never done it for all
the atrocities we experienced. We don't
even the very basic self-examination
in foreign relations as well as in individuals'
lives. |
| MC |
There
have been many campaigns for realization
of justice in our society... |
| RHEE |
All
are in vain unless complete self-examination
is done first. |
| MC |
Paradoxically,
they seem to reflect the decay of morality,
for there wouldn't be that many campaigns
for recovery of morality if it were
not felt to have decayed.
Next, would you please explain the relationship
between the modern scientific civilization
and the idea of the Tao? |
| RHEE |
To
guide our own academic, political, economic,
and other activities to a right direction
in regard of the reality of our own
nation, we must have, first of all,
a clear understanding of what science
is and the difference between the West
and the East. But so far we have a lot
of confusions regarding those issues.
I should have mentioned this at the
very beginning of this conversation:
There is a fundamental difference between
"Learning" and "the Tao".
Learning is a matter of textual studies,
thoughts, language, theories, etc.,
while the Tao is beyond them. For an
example, Buddhist monks are classified
into two categories: those who specialize
in doctrinal studies on one hand, and
those who are devoted to the practice
of the Tao on the other. But we have
been educated only in the former following
the Western tradition and forgot all
about the latter tradition. |
