VOL.97/2026.08

One-Liner Quotes

 

Why a Pastor Laughed at the Buddha’s Joke

 

 

2026.08

 

 

The Buddha’s Fatal Joke: A Reading of the Diamond Sutra, by Han Hyoung-jo, Munhakdongne, 2011

 

 

If I were asked to pick a Buddhist book on my bookshelf that I, as a pastor, reach for often, I would choose this one without hesitation. The title alone catches the eye, referring to a scripture that teaches enlightenment as "the Buddha’s fatal joke." The author, Han Hyoung-jo, is a scholar who has taught Eastern philosophy for a long time at the Academy of Korean Studies. Unraveling the Diamond Sutra in the language of today, this book is both a commentary on Buddhist scripture and a guide to the "art of living (ars vitae)" that asks how we ought to live.

 

 

 

 

 

A Joke Aimed at the Self

 

The sentences in the Diamond Sutra move in a strange manner. After stating something, it immediately denies it, only to slyly return to it by saying that is precisely why it is called so. Han Hyoung-jo reads this endlessly repeating speech pattern of negation as a joke the Buddha throws at us. While jokes originally bring laughter, there is something firm hidden within this one. This is because it collapses in a single moment the "self" we cling to so tightly, along with the merits, honor, and self-image we have worked so hard to build, revealing them to be illusions. Starting from the analysis of Abhidharma, the author weaves a broad array of Buddhist thoughts into a single thread, spanning the exploration of mind in Yogacara, the logic of Madhyamaka, the worldview of Huayan, and the direct simplicity of Zen. He explains that all of these ultimately point to one single truth. Thus, he states, "Buddhism is many, yet it is one." (Han Hyoung-jo, The Buddha’s Fatal Joke, Paju: Munhakdongne, 2011)

 

Above all, the virtue of this book lies in the fact that it does not push difficult Chinese scriptures off into the distance. It brings the enlightenment of ancient Zen masters who said, "When hungry, eat; when tired, sleep," right into the middle of everyday life for Buddhist novices like myself. Facing the truth that the Way does not reside somewhere deep in the mountains, but right at the table where one fully enjoys a single meal, the high wall known as religion lowers by quite a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

A Mirror of Another Faith

 

Here, I must make a confession. Having lived my entire life within the Christian faith, I often pause before this Buddhist scripture. The reformer Martin Luther describes the human impulse to purchase salvation through one’s own righteousness, the endless desire to prove oneself, as the deepest disease of faith. Yet, the Buddha’s joke targets that very same spot: the more you grasp, the more you lose, and only when you let go do you truly gain. Two traditions with completely different starting points arrive at remarkably similar diagnoses regarding human self-idolatry. This is not to say that the two paths are the same. Even if their diagnoses appear similar, the prescriptions each offers are distinctly different, and erasing that difference hastily is honest to neither side. However, when I earnestly look into the language of another faith, I come to understand more clearly what my own faith has been speaking of all along.

 

Reading a book of another religion is akin to standing in front of an unfamiliar mirror. In a mirror that only reflects oneself, one can never see one's own face anew. The Buddha’s joke offers a smile to me as a Christian, while simultaneously prompting me to ask from a different angle what I have been clinging to so desperately all this time. In an era where religions build high walls against one another, this book quietly shows how the wisdom of someone who has walked a different path can make the language of my own faith deeper and richer. Thus, beyond a commentary on scripture, this book is like a warm and delightful invitation extended from one person to another.

 

 

 

 

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Written by Dr. phil. Choi, Joo-hoon (Pastor)

He earned his doctorate in Lutheran theology in Germany and currently serves as the senior pastor at Jung-ang Lutheran Church. Through preaching and theological writing, as well as broadcasting, lectures, and writings that cross the boundaries of art, philosophy, and literature, he has broadened the language of faith. He is the author of Rediscovering Luther, What is Worship?, and Choi Joo-hoon’s Stories of Famous Paintings.