Gwangdeok and Eomjang廣德嚴莊

Gwangdeok and Eomjang.

In the reign of King Munmu there were two monks named Gwangdeok (廣德) and Eomjang (嚴莊).

The two were close friends, and day and night they promised each other, "Whoever returns first to the Land of Bliss must send word to the other."

Gwangdeok lived in seclusion in the village west of Bunhwangsa〔Some say Hwangnyongsa had a Seogeobang, and it is not known which is right.〕, making straw sandals for a living and living with his wife and children.

Eomjang built a hermitage on Namak and lived there, cutting down trees on a large scale and clearing fields.

One day, as the sun's shadow stretched red and the pine shade sank quietly into dusk, a voice outside the window called:

"I have already gone to the west. Stay well, and come quickly after me."

Eomjang pushed open the door, went out, and looked around. Beyond the clouds there was the sound of heavenly music, and a light reached down to the ground.

The next day he went to Gwangdeok's home, and Gwangdeok was indeed dead.

So together with the man's wife he gathered the bones and made a grave.

When it was done he said to the wife, "Your husband is gone. What if you lived with me?"

The wife said, "Very well," and so she stayed.

At night, as they lay down, he tried to have relations with her, but the wife refused him and said:

"For you, master, to seek the Pure Land is like climbing a tree to look for fish."

Eomjang was startled and puzzled and asked, "Gwangdeok already did so. Why should it be any hindrance for me?"

The wife said, "My husband lived with me for more than ten years, and never for a single night did we share a pillow on one bed. How much less anything unclean?

Only, every night he sat upright with his body composed and chanted the name of Amitabha Buddha in one voice, or practiced the sixteen contemplations.

When his contemplation had ripened and the bright moon came in at the door, at times he rose upon its light and sat cross-legged on it.

Such was his devotion. Even had he wished not to go west, where else could he have gone?

One who travels a thousand li can be judged by the first step. Now your contemplation, master, may be called east, but west it cannot be known."

Eomjang blushed with shame and withdrew.

He went straight to the master Wonhyo and earnestly begged for the essentials of the ford. Wonhyo composed the Jaenggwan method (錚觀法) and guided him with it.

Eomjang then purified himself, reproached himself, practiced contemplation with a single mind, and he too rose to the west.

The Jaenggwan method is in Wonhyo's biography and in the Haedong seungjeon.

The wife was a slave girl of Bunhwangsa, and she was one of the nineteen response bodies.

Gwangdeok once composed a song.

⟪Hyangga⟫

月下 伊底亦西方念丁去賜里遣 無量夀佛前乃 惱叱古音多可攴白遣賜立 誓音深史隠尊衣希仰攴 两手集刀花乎白良 願徃生願徃生 慕人有如白遣賜立 阿邪 此身遺也置遣 四十八大願成遣賜去

〔'Noejilgoeum' means 'words of report' in the native tongue.〕