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Hymn on the Lotus Sutra and Encomium on Cessation and Contemplation (止觀) — with a preface法華經頌。止觀贊。幷序

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) 東國李相國集 · Yi Gyubo · Compiled 1241 (Goryeo, 28th year of King Gojong); revised and enlarged 1251 · 1 passages · 187 Chinese characters · reading time 1.7 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 19 The collected writings of Yi Gyubo of Goryeo, gathered and cut in woodblock by his son Yi Ham in 1241 and revised and enlarged by his grandson Yi Ikbae in 1251. It holds poems and rhapsodies, memorials and reports sent up to the king, records written for temples and pagodas, stele and tomb inscriptions, letters and prefaces, and the state letters that passed to and from the Mongols during the invasions. The Lay of King Dongmyeong, which sings the founder of Goguryeo, stands in volume 3 of the first collection, and the daily life of a man who called himself the White Cloud Layman — with his wine, his zither and his verse — fills the later collection. The book closes with the last poem he wrote as his eyes failed and he laid down the brush, and with the dirge and tomb inscription others made for him after his death.

1Preface

予爲天壽寺大禪師諱智覺所賞遇。每造丈室。輒使酒佯狂。略不讀內典。師曰。子之狂。年少使然。行必自省。但古之士大夫。多讀法華經。爲修心之要。子亦爾耶。予感泣諦聽。自是常讀不輟。凡讀八萬七千五百五言。則實衆生入一乘之弘門也。又約於師曰。三日內能頌二卷乎。師未之信焉。凡閱三日。詣方丈。背經頌之。未及首品之終。師焚香危坐而聽曰。老僧自少業是經。猶未頌一卷一品。而子之捷若是。豈宿劫所習耶。因復以止觀大義。略指遵之。予頗窺一斑。退作法華經頌奉呈云。

I was taken into the regard of the Great Zen Master of Cheonsu Temple (天壽寺), by name Jigak (智覺). Whenever I went to his abbot's room I would use wine to feign madness and would not read the Buddhist scriptures in the least. The master said: 「Your madness comes of your being young in years; as you go on you will surely come to look into yourself. Only, the gentlemen of old read the Lotus Sutra much and made it the essential of cultivating the mind — is it so with you also?」 I wept in gratitude and listened closely, and from then on I read it constantly and did not leave off. In all I read eighty-seven thousand five hundred and five characters, and it was truly the wide gate by which living beings enter the One Vehicle (一乘). I also made a promise to the master: 「Could I recite two scrolls within three days?」 The master did not believe it. When three days in all had passed I went to the abbot's room and recited it with my back to the text. Before I had even reached the end of the first chapter the master burned incense and sat upright to listen, and said: 「This old monk has made this sutra his work since his youth and still cannot recite a single scroll or a single chapter, yet your quickness is such as this — how should it not be something practised in a former life?」 Then he went on to point out in outline the great meaning of cessation and contemplation, for me to follow. Having caught sight of but one spot of the whole, I withdrew and made the 「Hymn on the Lotus Sutra」, and offer it up to him.

‹ Hymn on the Lotus Sutra and Encomium on Cessation and Contemplation — Hymn on the LotusContentsHymn in Praise of Yun Wi (威), Director of Studies (司業), for Pacifying Namwon — with a preface ›Listen to this piece