Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 39

Text for the preaching of the Golden Light Sutra at Heungguksa in the same Seogyeong, praying that the many souls may go to a good place同京興國寺諸魂利往說金經文

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 · 127 Chinese characters · reading time 1.4 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 39 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.

六道群生。着若輪於業幻。三身大覺。沖義駕於經王。眷慈留鑰之都。自昔尋戈之地。想多覆沒。猶有冤銜。莫非土莫非臣。斯未忘於一日。自歸佛自歸法。庶追賁於九原。爰遣朝紳。往投寶刹。集三千儀之淨侶。講破靈編。仰八十種之慈客。虔陳妙供。伏願諸魂等永除封執。高蹈眞常。速拋熱惱之區。有如脫屣。徑躡淸涼之境。其若還家。

The many living beings of the six paths cling like wheels to the emptiness of karma, while the great enlightenment of the three bodies loads its hidden meaning into the king of scriptures.

Looking back, Seogyeong, where a Resident Commissioner (留守) was stationed, has from of old been a land where men reached for spears; and when I think how many must have been overturned and drowned there, surely there are grudges still held. There is no soil that is not mine and no subject who is not mine, and so not for a single day have I forgotten them; turning myself to the Buddha and turning myself to the Law, I would follow them down below the grave and give them light.

And so I send a minister of the court to go to the jeweled monastery, gather pure monks furnished with the three thousand deportments to expound the divine book to its end, and, looking up to the Compassionate One of the eighty fine marks, set out with all sincerity a marvelous offering.

Prostrate, I pray that the many souls may forever be rid of their clinging and grasping and rise high into the true and ever-abiding. Let them escape the place of burning torment as swiftly as one takes off a shoe, and let them tread straight into the cool and clear realm as though returning home.

‹ Text for the painting in of the eyes of the Buddha image at Jungheungsa in the same Seogyeong Contents Text for the preaching of the Golden Light Sutra at Jungheungsa in the same Seogyeong ›Listen to this piece