The Master Jinjeong's Filial Piety and Goodness Are Both Admirable眞定師孝善雙美

The master Jinjeong's filial piety and goodness are both admirable.

The master Jinjeong (眞定) was a man of Silla.

While he was still a layman his name was on the roll of soldiers, and his house was so poor that he could not marry.

In the time left over from his service he hired himself out for grain to support his widowed mother.

Counting up the household goods, there was nothing but a single pot with a broken leg.

One day a monk came to the door asking for gifts of metal to build a temple, and his mother gave him the pot.

Soon Jinjeong came home from outside. His mother told him why, and worried what her son would think.

Jinjeong showed gladness on his face and said, "You gave to the Buddha's work. What could be more fortunate? Even without the pot, what is there to worry about?"

So he used an earthenware bowl as a pot, cooked food, and supported her.

Once, while he was in the ranks, he heard people say that the master Uisang was preaching the law on Taebaeksan and benefiting people, and at once he felt a longing for him.

He said to his mother, "When I have finished my filial duty, I will go to the master Uisang, shave my head, and learn the Way."

His mother said:

"The Buddha's law is hard to meet, and a man's life is too swift. To say 'after I have finished my filial duty' is that not too late?

How could that compare with letting me hear that you have learned the Way while I am still alive?

Do not linger. Go quickly. That is best."

Jinjeong said, "In your old age I alone am at your side. How could I bear to abandon you and leave home?"

His mother said:

"Alas. If you hold back from leaving home for my sake, you push me straight into hell.

Even if you support me while I live with the three sacrificial animals and the seven cauldrons, how could that be called filial piety?

I can beg my food at other people's gates and still live out my natural span. If you truly wish to be filial to me, do not say such things."

Jinjeong thought deeply for a long time.

His mother rose at once and emptied out her sack, and there were seven doe of rice.

That same day she cooked all of it. Then she said:

"I fear that if you stop to cook and eat on the way, your journey will be slow. Eat one doe here before my eyes, pack the other six, and go quickly."

Jinjeong wept and firmly refused. "To abandon my mother and leave home is already something a son can hardly bear. How much more if I take even the food and drink for a few days and go? What would heaven and earth say of me?"

Three times he refused, and three times she urged him.

Jinjeong found it hard to go against her will again, so he set out on the road and traveled through the night.

In three days he reached Taebaeksan, threw himself upon Uisang, shaved his head and put on the robe, and became his disciple, taking the name Jinjeong.

When he had lived there three years, news came of his mother's death.

Jinjeong sat cross-legged, entered meditation, and rose only after seven days.

Some say, "His grief and the harm to his body were so extreme that he could hardly bear it, so he simply washed it away with the water of meditation."

Others say, "He used meditation to see where his mother had been reborn."

Others say, "This was praying for her blessing in the world beyond according to the truth as it is."

After he came out of meditation he told Uisang what had happened.

Uisang led his disciples to Chudong on Sobaeksan, built a hut of woven grass, gathered three thousand followers, and lectured on the Flower Garland Sutra for a set term of ninety days.

His disciple Jitong followed the lectures, gathered their essentials, and made two fascicles, called the Chudonggi, which spread through the world.

When the lectures ended, his mother appeared in a dream and said, "I have already been born in heaven."