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

Text for the painting in of the eyes of the Buddha image at Jungheungsa in the same Seogyeong同京重興寺佛像點眼文

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 · 146 Chinese characters · reading time 1.6 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.

等空絶想。一眞體之自如。對境起因。億化身之皆現。敢憑像設。誕發信心。眷我先王。卜玆勝地。開阿蘭若之寬敞。立窣堵波之巍峨。曩經回祿之災。盡爲煨燼。旋命般倕之手。申備奐輪。顧曠日歷年以方興。何卒雷暴電之大震。天機莫測。雖稽慶席之張皇。梵相猶存。宜飾熏科而崇奉。寔傾霞懇。虔點蓮眸。伏願覺蔭遄加。慈泠旁潤。增延曆數。厥基永孚于休。燕及生靈。無物不得其所。

Being like the empty void, where thought is cut off, the one true body is so of itself; and facing the realms of sense it rouses conditions, so that a hundred million transformation-bodies all appear. Daring to lean upon the place where the form has been set up and enshrined, we rouse a great heart of faith.

Our former king chose out this surpassing ground, opened a broad and bright monastery, and raised a towering pagoda. When in the past it suffered the calamity of fire and all was turned to ashes, he at once borrowed the hands of excellent craftsmen and had it furnished again, great and fair.

Looking back, many days and many years were spent, and it had only just risen up — how did it suddenly meet the great shaking of thunderbolt and lightning? The signs of Heaven are beyond reckoning, and so the spreading of a great festive assembly has been put off; but the form of the Buddha remains as it was, and it is fitting that we furnish the rite of burning incense and serve it. So, pouring out our crimson sincerity, we reverently paint in the lotus-like pupils of the eyes.

Prostrate, we pray that you swiftly add the shade of enlightenment and let the coolness of compassion moisten all around. Lengthen the fortune of the state, so that its foundation may be trusted in its long fairness; and let peace reach the people, so that there is not one thing that fails to find its place.

‹ Text for the offering to the Five Buddhas at Jingangsa Contents 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 ›Listen to this piece