Starting from September 2nd to November 28th, every member of Dongguk University, including students, faculty members and professors, is invited to ‘Aromatic Morning’ hosted by the Jeonggakwon. This program runs every Tuesday to Friday, starting at 8:45 A.M. for about ten minutes. A professor from College of Buddhist Studies, Kim Ho-sung, took his previous experience from Bukkyo University and proposed this program as a part of the activities to celebrate the 108th anniversary of Dongguk University. According to him, there are two important points; the story tellers and their stories. Both of the points stress that there is no limitation in this program because its purpose is to ‘share,’ not just ‘talk and listen.’
     Since any Donggukians can schedule to present, various topics are shared. Song Hwan-gyu, a freshman from the Department of Buddhist Studies, reflects, “I attended this program four times and the most interesting story was about professor Kim Ho-sung’s father. The professor shared the story of his father’s last wish, and it really touched me when he described the feelings of watching his father getting older and older.” However, even with the great purpose and interesting contents, this program suffers from the lack of interest from Donggukians. In particular, there were very few students who have participated in this program, and almost all of them were from the Department of Buddhist Studies. As a reason of such situations, Joo Jin-young, a junior from the Department of Buddhist Studies, and Song Hwan-gyu pointed out the time of the program. They both mentioned that since it is scheduled relatively early in the morning, considering the students’ class time, it would be burdensome for them to attend. Moreover, a junior from the same department, Kim Bo-gwa said, “The lack of advertisement is also another reason. Putting up the banner is not enough. I think advertising every spots where the lines of scriptures and teaching words are located would be much helpful for students to know.”
     Since it is the beginning of the program, it might be natural for them to face the problem of lack of interest. Nevertheless, the purpose, to share the stories of people in a relaxed way every morning before the day starts, does not change. By gathering together and listening to the opinions of the students and the faculty members, it is expected to send forth the aroma of change and process of improvement through the campus.

Lee Seo-yeon  sullylee0516@dongguk.edu

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