행복마을 동사섭 - 동사섭이란?

What` s Dongsasub
Seeking Our Greatest Happiness....

From cradle to grave, everybody looks for happiness, the higher level than before. [Happiness for Everybody]¹is the goal for human being across the cultures and throughout the civilization. Practically <All of Us> could mean <A Community>, and hence, human being is looking for <Ideal Community> in the end.

Happiness is [The State of Feeling Good]. They are good feeling, good mood, good emotional state, and good sentiment. Buddhistic emancipation, religious deliverance, could all mean at the end, the status of feeling ultima te freedom with no-bound and no-attachment. Sometimes, depends on the usage, happiness could include the conditions of the happiness. However, the bottom of it is still the feeling. So, our ultimate goal is pure feeling of good.

If we accept that the essence of the happiness is the feeling, we need to define the belief about the feeling, more properly and more clearly. Two examples of the belief on feeling are,

① It is desirable to aware (sense, feel, and be blessed) the moments of the feelings, minor or major, to the level of fact as achieved (the level of emotional state, level of the happiness). ② We should do something (works to improve conditions for happiness) to heighten the level of happiness.

The word Dongsasub(同事攝) refers to one of the Four Virtues practiced by Bodhisattva to save the laity. Bodhisattva may perform, depending on circumstance, unselfish service(布施攝), use loving and caring speech (愛語攝), undertake benefit-giving actions (利行攝), and even share joy, anger, love, and happiness (同事攝) with them. Dongsasub takes the last practice as its foundation and the other three as harmoniously supporting conce pts. It regards the Universe as a unitary, living organism that is only sustained by interdependent and mutually complementing actions of its members including sentient and inanimate beings all playing their rightful roles.

Dongsasub in my View

· The 1st special Dongasub meeting was held in 1980 winter, at Muwee temple for 4 nights and 5 days with 1 7 attendees and one facilitator Sir. JaeHwa Lee.
· Up to 10th retreat, it was called T group workshop (Training Group Workshop).
· In 1982, Venerable JungCho, a senior member of Chogye Order(major Buddhist organization in Korea), advised to name it 　Dongsasub Dharma Service.
· From 1986, the retreat was held once a month in BackJang Hermitage Temple.
· 1992, the place was moved to SamdongWon near Daejeon City in the middle of south Korea.
· March 2001, Dongsasub Web Site was launched.
· January 2003, Non-profit organization Dongsasub was launched officially.
· As of March 2003, Dongsasub has conducted 185 retreats for beginners, 19 for intermediate, 9 for advanced retreatants, 7 professional workshops for training, and many other mini retreats.
· Total attendees reached 6000, and there are 15 fully trained facilitators helping during the course.

The word Dongsasub(同事攝) refers to one of the Four Virtues practiced by Bodhisattva to save the laity. Bodhisattva may perform, depending on circumstance, unselfish service(布施攝), use loving and caring speech(愛語攝), undertake benefit-giving actions (利行攝), and even share joy, anger, love, and happiness (同事攝) with them.Dongsasub takes the last practice as its foundation and the other three as harmoniously supporting concepts.It regards the Universe as a unitary, living organism that is only sustained by interdependent and mutually complementing actions of its members including sentient and inanimate beings all playing their rightful roles.

The original idea of Dongsasub retreat came from Carl Rogers. There was a program in KwangJu (south Korea) named 　T group workshop　 which originally was derived from Carl Rogers Encounter Group. The group meeting was held every winter during school vacations. Venerable YongTah who is the Founder and Chair of Dongsasub attended the workshop three times and discovered the spiritual value in the workshop that motivated him.

The history of T Group Workshop that served as a model of Dongsasub is summarized here as related by the work group members. An American psychologist Carl Rogers who was a faithful Christian, has started to travel to China during his college days as a student. He encountered the Chinese philosophy and became enchanted especially by Taoism and Zen Buddhism and this opened new horizon in his mind. Attracted by oriental spiritual experience, he developed Enco

사람은 탄생에서부터 죽음에 이를 때까지 보다 높은 행복을 지향해 간다.
행복이란 「좋은 느낌 상태」를 의미한다.
좋은 느낌, 좋은 기분, 좋은 감정, 좋은 정서이다.

해탈이니 구원이니 하는 것도 그 본질은 결국 지극히 좋은 기분 상태를 말할 것이다. 쓰이기에 따라 행복의 조건까지를 포함해서 행복이라 말하기도 하겠 지만 끝내 그 본질은 느낌이다. 따라서 우리의 이상(理想)은 우리 모두의 지극한 호감정(好感情, 느낌)이다.

행복의 본질이 느낌이라는 것을 인정한다면 느낌에 대한 바람직한 신념이 선명하게 정립될 필요가 있다.이는

1. 감지하지 못할 수는 있겠지만 느낌 없는 순간이란 없고, 순간순간 ~ 만큼의 느낌이 흐르고 있을 것이니, 바로 그 느낌을 아는 것(느끼는 것, 감지하는 것, 누리는 것)이 바람직하다.
2. 행복 수위를 높이기 위해 어떤 작업(행복의 조건을 구비하는 작업)을 해야 한다.

그 느낌과 조건이라 함은 삼라만상 세상 모든 것들에 따라 다양하고 무수하다.

44여 년 동안 업그레이드되어온 동사섭수련회에서는 ‘삶의 오대원리(五大原理)’ 혹은 ‘이상공동체(理想共同體) 오요(五要)’ 라는 이름으로 극히 중요한 행복 조건 다섯 가지를 제시한다.