Yetgeul › Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) › Former Collection, Book 41

Text asking for an exposition of Seon at a Seon gathering禪會請說禪文

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 · 206 Chinese characters · reading time 2.1 min

Dongguk Isangguk Jip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of the Eastern Country) Former Collection, Book 41 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.

佛印西來。禪乘東轉。雖心心相照。自然絶語離言。若祖祖不宣。誰肯上堂擧話。仰祈宗匠。略啓玄源。恭惟禪師丈下。法器泓深。家風淸淡。道存乎默。未曾皷動於機關。時或有言。無奈震驚於天地。伏念弟子才非輪翮。職揔璣衡。欲維持世季之陵夷。常耗竭愚心而計較。唯梵力是荷。必延松麓之靈基。顧法門雖多。確倚曹溪之正眼。况今上天之變異也。無言喩意。頑敵之往來也。如疾在心。益憑向上之宗。期杜未然之患。盛張香範。大集衲僧。如予微願之必圓。都在洪音之一下。伏望勿惜一槌之伎倆。極談五葉之根源。普潤羣倫。一如祈望。

The Buddha's seal came from the west and the cart of Seon rolled eastward. Though mind reflects mind and words are of themselves cut off and left behind, if the patriarchs did not each unfold it, who would mount the dharma seat and take up the head-phrase? Looking up, I beg the great master: open a little the hidden source.

Respectfully I consider that the venerable Seon master's vessel of the Law is deep and deep, and the manner of his house clear and plain. His Way lies in silence, and he has never struck the mechanism to set it moving; yet when at times he speaks, what can be done about his startling heaven and earth?

Prostrate, I consider that your disciple, whose talent is no great wing, holds the place that has charge of the state's balance beam. To uphold and hold fast against the collapse of a latter age, I am always weighing matters with all my foolish mind. Only by receiving the Buddha's power can the numinous foundation at the foot of Songak surely be carried on for long; and though the gates of the Law are many, I lean firmly upon the true eye of Caoxi (曹溪). Still more, the portents of heaven now awaken us to their meaning without speech, and the coming and going of the stubborn enemy is as though sickness had entered the breast. Leaning the more upon the tenet that points upward, I look to stop the trouble that has not yet arisen.

I have set out in splendor an assembly of incense and gathered in number the monks in patched robes. That my small wish surely be fulfilled rests wholly on your sending down one great sound.

Prostrate, I pray that you not spare the skill of a single stroke of the mallet, but tell out fully the source of the five leaves, and so moisten the whole assembly all around; this I beg with a single mind.

‹ Text asking, as above, for an exposition of Seon Contents Text asking, as above, for an exposition of Seon at a Seon gathering ›Listen to this piece