Patent of appointment conferring the posthumous title National Preceptor Wonjin upon the late Great Zen Master, abbot of Bogyeongsa故寶鏡寺住持大禪師贈諡圓眞國師敎書官誥 官誥
門下。朕觀披禪服迹禪門。口談佛祖之源。亹亹然可聽。胸括人天之際。浩浩乎無窮。斯若僧中之傑也。然似是而非。捨眞卽妄。以至將佛覓佛。騎驢見驢者。何哉。蓋心本自淨。客塵斯覆。照之惟難。悟之不易故耳。其能照然獨照。迢爾直悟者。求之當世。唯我禪公一人而已。盍冊鴻名。以孚輿論。故寶鏡寺住持大禪師承迥。慧解疏朗。法器泓深。早業宗乘。欻飛楊於選席。忽懷高想。猒羈絆於名韁。猶恐入山之不深。追嗟避世之不早。拂衣長往。枕石自誤。身唯骨而兀坐於巖巓。名無翼而飛落於人世。越從先代。累降徵書。業已退藏。故雖勿欲反心。義不獨善。故亦難於強項。火煨黃獨。初不領於銀鉤。柸駕蒼流。俄忽廻於金錫。法王鼎至。僧寶益尊。王公皆跪膝而趨風。士女願布髮而籍足。或赴法筵於禁殿。或受檀施於侯門。縻之以僧職而不力辭。處之以名藍而勿固拒。一彼一此。適往適來。是達人應萬物之大權。豈曲士泥一隅之細節。所居成市。請益如林。伏卵傳翼者。咸得翺翔於釋林。霑乳分甘者。莫不飽飫於道味。人不卜景星而見公爲之瑞。朕不保長城而倚公爲之防。隣敵之不復窺窬。國步之幾至帖泰。未必不由於法力也。其或開話則病牛奮迅。說法則旱雨霶𩃱。朕耳尙聞。人言豈飾。頃者託以遊方而騰裝南國。曾不爲朕而暖席上都。脫袴期來。登床坐逝。巖石剨裂。草木焦枯。嗟法棟之云摧。在禪林而安仰。來也如雲。出而澤周天下。去忽若月。側而光掩人間。朕早奉緖餘。久勤翹仰。何以酬於梵德。但追贈於懿稱。是豈私恩。實惟公議。可特授云云。嗚戲。以公之得法眼藏。以師之傳佛心燈。決成萬德之身。已躡一眞之境。幸推餘蔭。永祜丕基。云云。
To the Chancellery.
As I see it, among those who wear the robe of a Zen monk and leave their traces within the Zen gate, when they speak with their mouths of the source of the Buddhas and the patriarchs it flows on grandly and is worth hearing, and when they say they hold within their breast the whole span between men and heaven it is vast and vast without end. This much may be called an eminent man among monks. Yet there are those who seem so and yet are not true, who forsake the real and advance toward the empty, and who come at last to seeking the Buddha by means of the Buddha, to riding a donkey and looking for the donkey — how does this come about? It is because the mind is of itself pure from the beginning, yet guest-dust covers it over, so that it is hard to shine forth and not easy to awaken. If one seeks in this age for a man able to shine alone in bright clarity and to awaken straight through into the far depths, there is only this one man, our Zen master. How then should I not invest him with a great name and so give the many voices of counsel something to trust?
The late Great Zen Master Seunghyeong (承逈), abbot of Bogyeongsa, was clear and bright in his wise understanding, and deep and broad as a vessel of the Dharma. Early on he studied the teaching of his school, and at the monks' examination he at once soared aloft. Then of a sudden he conceived lofty thoughts and grew weary of being haltered by fame; rather he worried that he had not gone deep enough into the mountains, and sighed belatedly that he had not fled the world sooner. He shook out his robe and went far off, pillowed himself on stone and took his own delight; his body was reduced to bone as he sat upright on a crag's summit, yet his name, though it had no wings, flew and fell among men.
From the reigns before mine, letters of summons came down to him more than once. Having already withdrawn into hiding, he was unwilling to turn his heart back; yet since duty forbids a man to be good only for himself, neither could he stiffen his neck and hold out. He had been burying taro in the ashes to roast it, and so at first he did not take up the royal letter; but, as one crosses blue water on a wooden cup, in time he turned his staff about.
The Dharma King arrived in full splendor, and the monastic treasure grew higher still. Princes and nobles all knelt and followed after his bearing; men and women wished to spread out their hair for him to set his feet upon. Now he went forward to a Dharma assembly at the palace, now he received the offerings of noble houses; when bound with monastic office he did not stubbornly decline, and when placed in a famous monastery he did not stubbornly refuse. He went there and he came here, and his going was fitting and his coming was fitting: this is the great skillful means by which a man of thorough attainment answers to all things. How should it be the same as a narrow scholar bound to some small integrity in one corner?
Wherever he stayed a marketplace formed, and those who begged for further teaching were like a thicket. Those he brooded over until they got their wings were all enabled to fly up in the forest of the Buddha; those he moistened with milk and gave a share of its sweetness were none of them unfilled with the savor of the Way. Without divining by the Resplendent Star (景星) men looked to him and took him for an auspicious sign; without relying on a long wall I leaned upon him and took him for a defense. That the neighboring enemy did not spy upon us again, and that the state's condition came nearly to peace, cannot be said not to have come from the power of the Dharma. Sometimes when he opened his mouth it was as though a sick ox shook itself and rose; when he preached the Dharma it was as though rain poured down in a time of drought. It still sounds in my ears — how should men's words of him have been embellished?
Some time ago he made travel his excuse, packed his baggage and went south, and he had never once warmed a seat in the capital for my sake. He promised to shake all off as one slips out of trousers and to return, but he went while seated upon his couch. The rocks split wide open, and grass and trees burned dry. Alas, the ridgepole of the Dharma is broken — to whom shall the Zen forest look up? His coming was like a cloud: when it came forth its bounty reached everywhere under heaven. His going was all at once like the moon: when it set its light was hidden from the world of men.
I once received the teaching he left behind, and have long striven to look up to him. With what shall I repay that holy virtue? I can only offer a fair title after the fact. How should this be a private favor? It is truly the counsel of all. It may be specially conferred. And so forth.
Ah, the master obtained the treasury of the true Dharma eye and transmitted the lamp of the Buddha's mind; he perfected a body of ten thousand virtues and had already trodden the ground of undivided reality. I pray that he extend the shade he has left behind and send down blessings forever upon this great foundation. And so forth.
Interlinear notes 1
The base text reads 枕石自誤. If 誤 is kept as it stands, the sense becomes "erred of himself," which contradicts the passages before and after that praise the master; it has therefore been taken as a mistake for 娛 and read accordingly. — Translator