Nangji Rides the Clouds — The Bohyeon Tree朗智乘雲普賢樹

Nangji rides the clouds — the Bohyeon tree.

On Yeongchwisan in Agok County of Samnyangju〔Samnyang is the present Yangju. Agok is also written Seo, and is also called Gubul or Gulbul. A post station named Gulbul is now set up in Ulju, so the name survives.〕 there was a strange monk who had lived in a hermitage for many years.

Yet no one in the district knew him, and the master too never told his surname or name.

He always lectured on the Lotus Sutra, and he had supernatural power.

At the beginning of Longshuo there was a novice named Jitong (智通), a slave of the house of Lord Iryang.

He was seven when he left home to become a monk. At that time a crow came and cried out, "Go to Yeongchwisan, throw yourself upon Nangji, and become his disciple."

Jitong heard it, sought out this mountain, and rested under a tree in the valley.

Suddenly a strange man came out and said, "I am the great bodhisattva Bohyeon. I have come only to give you the precepts."

He conferred the precepts and, when he had finished, vanished. Jitong's spirit and mind opened wide, and his realization of wisdom was at once complete.

Then he went on and met a monk on the road, and asked where the master Nangji lived.

The monk said, "Why do you ask for Nangji?"

Jitong told him in full about the divine crow.

The monk smiled gently and said, "I am Nangji. Just now a crow came before this hall too and told me that a holy child was about to arrive to throw himself upon his master, and that I should go out and welcome him. So I have come only to welcome you."

Then he took his hand and sighed:

"The divine crow startled you into coming to me, and told me to welcome you. What omen is this? Surely it is the secret help of the mountain spirit."

It is said that the lord of the mountain is the goddess Byeonjae, Sarasvati.

Jitong heard this, wept, gave thanks, and threw himself down in reverence before the master.

Soon the master was about to give him the precepts, but Jitong said, "Under the tree at the mouth of the valley I have already received the true precepts from the great bodhisattva Bohyeon."

Nangji sighed. "How good. You have already received the full precepts from the great bodhisattva himself.

Since I was born I have been anxious every evening and diligent, longing to meet the utmost sage, yet I have still not been able to reach him clearly. Now you have already received them. I fall far short of you."

Instead he bowed to Jitong, and for this reason the tree was named Bohyeon.

Jitong said, "Master, have you lived here long?"

Nangji said, "I first set foot here in the year jeongmi of King Beopheung, and I do not know how long it has been now."

The time Jitong came to the mountain was the first year after King Munmu ascended the throne, the year sinyu, so by reckoning it was already one hundred and thirty-five years.

Jitong later went to Uisang's chamber, climbed the hall, saw the depths, and gave much help to his profound teaching. He is indeed the author of the Chudonggi.

When Wonhyo lived at Bangosa he always went to visit Nangji, and Nangji had him write the Chojang gwanmun and the Ansin sasim non.

When Wonhyo had finished writing he had the recluse scholar Munseon (文善) carry the text and hurry to deliver it.

At the end of the text he wrote a verse, saying:

The novice of the western valley bows his head in reverence and offers this before the high rock of the great virtue of the eastern mountain.〔Bangosa is northwest of Yeongchwisan, so 'the novice of the western valley' is what he called himself.〕 I blow fine dust to add to Vulture Peak, and fling tiny drops into the Dragon Pool.

East of the mountain is the Taehwa River, which was made to plant blessings for the dragon of Taehwa Pond in China, and so it is called the Dragon Pool.

Jitong and Wonhyo were both great sages. That two sages gathered up their robes and served him as master shows how lofty his Way was.

The master once rode the clouds to Qingliangshan in China, listened to a lecture with the assembly, and came back in a moment.

The monks there took him for someone living nearby, but did not know where he stayed.

One day an order was given to the assembly. "Apart from those who live here permanently, let every monk who has come from another hall bring a famous flower or rare tree from the place where he lives and offer it to the altar."

The next day Nangji broke off a branch of a strange tree from his mountain, went back, and offered it.

A monk there saw it and said, "This tree is called dalgejega (怚提伽) in Sanskrit, and here it is called hyeok (赫). It grows only on the two Vulture Peaks, in western India and in Haedong.

Both those mountains are the dwelling of bodhisattvas of the tenth stage, the Cloud of Dharma. This must be a holy man."

At last they studied his manner and learned that he lived on Vulture Peak in Haedong.

From this he was seen in a new light, and his name became known inside and out.

The people of the district then called his hermitage Hyeongmok (赫木). On the northern hill of the present Hyeongmoksa there is an old foundation, which is the trace it left.

The Record of Yeongchwisa says that Nangji once said, "The site of this hermitage is the site of a temple from the time of the Buddha Kasyapa." Digging in the ground, they found two lamp jars.

Later, in the reign of King Wonseong, the great virtuous monk Yeonhoe (緣會) came to live in the mountain and wrote the master's biography, which spread through the world.

Looking at the Flower Garland Sutra, the tenth stage is called the Cloud of Dharma, so the master's driving of the clouds is perhaps of a kind with the Buddha bending three fingers and Wonhyo dividing his body into a hundred.

In praise it is said:

One imagines him hidden in the rocks for a hundred years, his high name never once falling into the world of men. He could not stop the idle chatter of the mountain birds, which let slip for no reason that his cloud chariot came and went.