Notice of the Same Kind Issued at Seobotong Temple西普通寺行同前榜
夫道有顯晦。其所以顯且光焉者。蓋亦際乎時契乎人而已矣。所謂時也者。主英臣明。力護佛乘之會也。法於是乎際焉。則其顯之也可必。所謂人也者。法王僧傑。能紹祖統。傳佛心印者也。法於斯而契焉。則其光之也亦爾。觀夫心印之作也。源乎西竺。泒乎中土。波及乎我國久矣。自太祖至後嗣。以聖繼聖。莫不痛信斯法。有以培擁國基。然未有若今之尤赫赫然大煽者。此蓋我聖上陛下銳於崇奉。而我參政相國崔公。隨唱輒和。特立爲宗門外護。皐夔其身。璨忍其心。故縉紳士大夫靡然隨之。咸以不涉心學爲恥。漸漬法味。流潤一國。此所謂法之際乎時者也。於是法雄僧傑。莫不揚鬐奮翮。騰蹂叢林。使祖燈光焰。炳炳與日月爭懸。是亦法之契乎人者也。況今國步稍梗。且復有強隣之覘諜者。勢不可以無備。是以上方未嘗不與公卿宰執。議其所以壓勝之術。而參政相國。乃以爲方祖聖之創國也。其於却戎鎭兵。則以闡揚心法。著爲甲令矣。夫繕甲兵以攘夷狄。不若以金剛寶釰逆折姦萌。築金城以圖守禦。不若借本分鉗槌鍛固邦基矣。轉資糗以餉萬軍。不若養一禪子先省其費。本朝所以閒三載設談禪大會於普濟寺。亦聖祖之貽範也。苟利社稷如此。則雖別開譚席。滋暢眞源。可也。何必待三年。而又何獨普濟寺而已耶。遂以是聞于上。上亦悅而肯之。尋勅有司。畫其經費。敞大會于三大禪宇。曰普濟。曰廣明。此寺預其一焉。凡集衲子。各滿指千。其若高人宿望之匿耀幽巖者。無不禮而致焉。至於居止燕息之所。灌嗽熏浴之具。無不特地潔新。蓋示心敬也。於兹寺則請禪之宗匠某公主之。或極談禪理。或點破正法眼藏。肇自孟炎二十二日。至首秋之下旬。凡八十有八日而罷。甘液所滲。霑洽三韓周矣。噫。禪法之爲岌岌最上宗乘。已不可容言矣。其却兵壓災。莫斯之猛者。何哉。以見性證智揣之也。禪無地位階等。超然直趣。故其路捷。其效速。由此觀之。雖移之於他。其揆一也。以此却兵。何效不速。以此壓災。何功不捷哉。夫然則我國家之祚業。侔天比地。彌萬世長久。於此可卜矣。上堂所擧。禪談祖話。已落衆聽。此不詳之。第悉法會所作之端倪耳。參赴禪流。具載左方云。
Now in the Way there is the manifest and there is the dark. The reason it is manifest and shining lies simply in meeting its time and fitting its man. What is called the time is the meeting in which the sovereign is excellent and the ministers clear-sighted and they labor to guard the Buddha's vehicle. When the Law meets its time in this, its manifesting may be counted upon. What is called the man is the king of the Law, an eminent monk who carries on the line of the Patriarchs and hands down the Buddha's seal of mind. When the Law fits in this, its shining is likewise so.
Looking at the rise of the seal of mind, it had its source in Cheoncheuk (天竺) in the West, branched out in China, and has long since reached our country. From the Great Progenitor down to the kings who followed after, sage succeeded sage, and there was none who did not deeply believe this Law and by it foster and embrace the foundation of the state. Yet never has it risen so greatly and so brilliantly as it does today.
This is because our Holy Sovereign His Majesty is keen in upholding it, and our Chancellor and Assistant Executive, Lord Choe (崔公), answers at once as he is called and stands up to be the outer hedge of the school. He makes Gao Yao (皐陶) and Kui (夔) his body and Sengcan (僧璨) and Hongren (弘忍) his mind. And so the officials and the gentlemen follow as though leaning toward him, and all are ashamed to have set no foot in the learning of the mind. They steep themselves little by little in the flavor of the Law, and that wetting has flowed over the whole country. This is what is meant by the Law meeting its time.
Thereupon the heroes of the Law and the eminent monks shook their fins and shook out their wings and trod and leapt up in the monasteries, so that the light of the Patriarchs' lamp shone out and contended for a place with the sun and the moon. This too is the Law fitting its man.
How much more now, when the state's situation is much obstructed and there is besides the peering of a strong neighbor, so that the case cannot be without preparation. For this reason the king has never failed to take counsel with his ministers and chancellors on the means of pressing down and prevailing. The Chancellor and Assistant Executive then said: "When the sage sovereigns of our ancestral line founded the state, concerning the turning back of barbarians and the quelling of soldiers they made the sounding forth of the Law of the Mind their first ordinance. Now to put armor and weapons in order and so turn back the barbarians is less than to break the sprout of wickedness beforehand with the jeweled sword of the Diamond. To plan a defense by raising walls of iron is less than to borrow the tongs and hammer of our own portion and beat firm the foundation of the state. To haul provisions and feed ten thousand soldiers is less than to raise up one Seon guest and so lessen that expense beforehand. That this dynasty holds a great assembly of Seon discourse at Boje Temple (普濟寺) every third year is likewise a model left us by our holy ancestors. If the benefit to the altars of state is truly such as this, then it is well even to open a separate seat of discourse and swell and spread the true source. Why must one wait three years? And why should it be at Boje Temple alone?"
At last this was reported to the king, and the king too was pleased and held it right. He then charged the office in charge to provide the expense of it, and great assemblies were opened at three great Seon halls. They are called Boje and Gwangmyeong (廣明), and this temple is counted one of them. The monks of the robe who gathered filled out a hundred men at each. Of the eminent and the virtuous, those who had hidden their light in obscure crags, there was none who was not received with courtesy. Down to the places of lodging and rest and the implements for washing and rinsing the mouth and for incense and bathing, there was nothing that was not made especially clean and new; and this was to show the reverence of their hearts.
At this temple a certain lord, a master of the Seon school, was invited to preside. He spoke out the principles of Seon to the end, and at times pointed out and clarified the Treasury of the True Dharma Eye (正法眼藏). It began on the twenty-second day of the first month of summer and went on to the last ten days of the first month of autumn, closing after eighty-eight days in all. The soaking in of the sweet dew wetted the Three Han throughout.
Ah — that the Law of Seon is the loftiest vehicle of the highest school needs no words set to it. But why is it that for turning back soldiers and quelling calamity there is nothing fiercer than this? Reckon it by the seeing into one's nature and the getting of wisdom. In Seon there are no stages and no steps: one leaps over and goes straight on. And so its road is near and its effect swift. Seen by this, though it be shifted to another matter, the reckoning is one. When soldiers are turned back by this, what effect would not be swift? When calamity is quelled by this, what merit would not be swift?
If it be so, then it may be divined from this that the blessed work of our country shall match heaven and stand against earth and be long and lasting for ten thousand generations. The words of Seon spoken in the hall and the tales of the Patriarchs have already fallen upon the ears of the many, and are not set down in detail here. Only the threads of what was done at the assembly of the Law are written out in full. The Seon guests who came forward to the assembly are carried in full at the left.