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

Petition for the Daily Offering at the Seon Discourse Assembly of the Gabo Year甲午年談禪日齋踈

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 · 199 Chinese characters · reading time 2 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.

昔達磨得師子比丘之默傳。耀佛燈於中土。我藝祖因如哲大士之密諗。輥禪軌於三韓。有國綿遠而式克至今。以予忖度則靡不由此。洪延後代。益暢眞風。某乘國家版蕩之時。據宰相論思之地。隣敵之偵諜不絶。乾文之變異滋彰。顧無廟算之堪施。唯倚宗乘而爲固。在平日願爲弟子。尙欲扶祖月之重輪。况官家敞此譚筵。得不措功山之一簣。肆傾私帑。寔蕆熏科。彼九山濟濟之衲流。皆五葉承承之的嗣。交騰槌棒。互辨風幡。熏然四事之儀。格彼多天之鑒。伏願皇圖鞏固。國步寧康。內無動草之驚。外蔑飛塵之警。

In ancient times Bodhidharma (達磨), having received the silent transmission of the bhikṣu Siṃha (師子比丘), made the Buddha's lamp shine in the land of China, and our Taejo (太祖), aided by the secret counsel of the great master Yeocheol (如哲), set the wheel of Seon rolling through the Three Han. When I reckon how the state has held together and come down even to this day, there is nothing in it that did not arise from this. It should be greatly extended to the generations after us, and the true spirit spread the further.

So-and-so, taking a time when the state is shaken, holds as chancellor the place of assisting the sovereign in deliberation. The spying of the enemy next door does not cease, and portents in the heavens grow ever plainer. Looking about me, I have no plan of the court that is fit to be put in hand, and so I rely only on the teaching of the Seon lineage to make us firm.

Even in ordinary days I wished to become a disciple, and sought rather to hold up the moon of the patriarchs in its repeated roundness. How much more now, when the state has opened this seat of discourse — could I fail to add one basketful to the mountain of merit? Therefore I have emptied my private storehouse and prepared a Dharma assembly of burning incense.

Those monks of the Nine Mountains, many and many, are all true heirs of the Dharma who have inherited the five branches of the Seon gate. They lift mallet and staff to one another and discern wind and banner with one another. May the fragrant rite of the four offerings reach the discerning gaze of the many heavens.

Prostrate, I pray that the design of the realm be firm and the footing of the state at peace; that within there be no alarm of grass stirring, and without no warning of dust rising.

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