It is said of the so-called Korean God of creation, Miruk or Mireuk, that he will be a reincarnation of Buddha.
Korean creation myth by Mireuk : The Changsega myth (창세 가).
The Changsega myth (with Hangul: 창세 가, and with Hanja: 創世 歌) is a Korean shamanic creation myth from Hamhung, Hamgyong Province, but in present-day North Korea.
The story of Changsega (창세 가), explains how heaven and earth were separated by Mireuk or Miruk (미륵) a giant god, who is supposed to have placed a copper column at each of the corners of the earth in order to hold up the sky.
In the Changsega myth (창세 가), he is also said to have created men from 5 golden insects and women from 5 silver insects.
Humanity was peaceful under the command of the god Mireuk or Miruk, until another god named Seokga appeared, and between the 2 competed to be able to rule the human world.
Seokga won abruptly and maliciously, that is, his victory was unjust and is considered in this myth of Changsega (창세 가), the source of evil and sin of mankind.
Mireuk the 5th Buddha – Myth of Mireuk
It is said of the god Mireuk or Miruk that he is the fifth Buddha of the present world in which we live and that he appears after the last 7 Buddhas, and furthermore Mireuk is the successor of Gasub Buddha and Shakyamuni Buddha.
In Silla province, Hwarang stood as an incarnation of Mireuk. During the reign of King Jinja, a monk at Heungnyunsa Temple prayed before a statue of Mireuk and vowed that if the Bodhisattva appeared in the world as a Buddha, he would personally serve him.
Following the monk’s words in a dream, he went to Suwon Temple in Ungcheon Province to look for Mireuk. There he met a boy who identified himself as Seorabal, and soon realized that he was an incarnation of Mireuk, so he returned and found Mishirang, whom he took to be Mireuk.
Kim Yusin became a hwarang at the age of 15 and called his group the Yonghwa incense group. The name Yonghwa derives from the 3 sermons under the dragon flower tree, where Mireuk is said to be incarnated.
During the Jinping Dynasty, King Shu Zhonggong buried a great man in Jukjireng and placed a stone statue of Mireuk in front of his grave, and the son he bore was Jukjirang.
Jukjirang grew up to become Kim Yusin’s viceroy, contributing to the reunification of Korea, and became a minister and stabilized the country.
Thus, Hwarang continued to appear in Silla as an incarnation of Mireuk. Silla, a Buddhist province with deep ties since the Jeonbul era, promoted the unification project with Hwarang as its ideal.
