Patents of appointment making Ikjang, Woni, Damnyeong and Daeheol each a Zen Master益莊元伊淡靈大歇各爲禪師官誥
云云。至道居標的之外。眞人非寵辱所驚。譬若純白守眞。不期黼黻之賁其色。大音本寂。勿貴笙簧之鼓其聲。然已自貶者。人必褒焉。況實固充。則名之召也。不有沖虛之奧。曷當懿顯之稱。某職某。崖岸峻高。機關沈邃。早脫名韁之拘束。遂投巖竇之韜藏。廣心地莫若汎觀。故凡諸聖諦無不探源。見自性必由懸解。故獨於禪法。尤若合契。廻靈光於本分。得覺照之常存。如兹僧寶之奇。當與天下而共。鴻冥萬里。雖苦避於網羅。龍襲九淵。無奈吝其雲雨。顧自爲計則尙可。其將澤物也如何。肆予嘗敦諭而徵來。此亦徇衆情之痛仰。果符物望。克荷宗乘。佛日爲之重暉。祖燈於焉更耀。是所謂肉身菩薩者歟。宜峻空門之品級。用增梵德之尊嚴。可特授禪師。嗚戲。國君之迎禮高人也。蓋期霑丐餘膏。法王之出現當世也。固必紹明正眼。勉膺訓命。永福邦家。云云。
And so forth.
The utmost Way lies beyond any target one might aim at, and the true man is not startled by favor or disgrace. It is as though pure whiteness keeps what is real and does not wish embroidered patterns to adorn its brightness, or as though the great sound is silent of itself and does not prize having reed-pipes sound it forth. Yet one who lowers himself is bound to be praised by others; still more, when substance is firmly full, a name comes of itself to call upon him. If a man did not possess the depth of the empty and the hidden, how would he be fit for a fair and manifest appellation?
So-and-so of such-and-such office stands high as a cliff, and his ground is deep and hidden. Early on he escaped being haltered by fame, and at last he hid his body in a cave of rock. For broadening the ground of the mind there is nothing like seeing widely, and so there was not one of the holy truths whose source he failed to search out; and for seeing one's own nature one must do as though untying what is bound, and so in the Zen Dharma alone he matched the tally the more exactly. He turned the numinous light back to its own portion, so that the power of awakened shining was always present in him. Such strangeness of monastic treasure ought by right to be shared with all under heaven.
Though the wild goose hides itself ten thousand li away in the vague distance and takes pains to avoid the net, and the dragon submerges in a pool nine fathoms deep and hoards its clouds and rain, as a plan made with regard to one's own single body it may pass well enough — but what then of the work of moistening all things? And so I some time ago admonished him earnestly and called him in, and this too followed the heartfelt feeling with which the multitude looked up to him. He did indeed answer to men's hopes, and proved able to shoulder the teaching of his school. The sun of the Buddha has shone again by this, and the lamp of the patriarchs has grown bright once more; he may be called a bodhisattva in a living body.
It is right to raise his rank within the Buddhist gate and so add to the dignity of his holy virtue. He may be granted the title Zen Master.
Ah, that the ruler of a state receives an eminent man with ceremony is on the whole in hope of being moistened even by the oil he leaves over; that a Dharma King appears in this age is truly so that the right eye may be handed on and enlightened. Strive to uphold the command that teaches you, and send down blessings forever upon the state. And so forth.