Milbon Breaks the Evil密本摧邪

Written by Iryeon, National Venerable, Great Seon Master Wongyeong Chungjo, abbot of Ingaksa below Gajisan of the Jogye order.

Milbon breaks the evil.

Queen Seondeok, Deongman, fell ill and for a long time did not recover.

Beopcheok (法惕), a monk of Heungnyunsa, answered the royal summons and tended the illness, but for a long time there was no effect.

At that time the master Milbon was known throughout the country for his virtuous conduct, and those around the queen asked that he take Beopcheok's place, so the queen summoned him by decree into the palace.

Milbon read the Medicine Buddha Sutra outside the royal chamber.

He had barely finished the scroll when the six-ringed staff he carried flew into the bedchamber, stabbed an old fox and Beopcheok, and flung them headlong down into the courtyard.

The queen's illness was healed at once. At that moment a divine light of five colors shone from the top of Milbon's head, and all who saw it were amazed.

Again, when the minister Gim Yangdo (金良圖) was a child, suddenly his mouth locked and his body stiffened, so that he could neither speak nor move.

He kept seeing a great demon leading a crowd of small demons into the house, where they ate and tasted everything on the trays.

When shamans came to perform rites, the demons swarmed together and vied to mock them.

Yangdo wished to order them driven out, but his mouth could not speak.

The elders of the house invited a monk of Beomnyusa, whose name is not known, to come and read the sutras, but the great demon ordered a small demon to strike the monk on the head with an iron club, and he fell to the ground, vomited blood, and died.

Some days later they sent a man to fetch Milbon. The messenger came back and said, "The master Milbon has accepted my request and will come soon."

The demons heard this and all lost their color.

A small demon said, "When the master comes it will go badly for us. What if we get away?"

The great demon, still scornful and unmoved, said, "What harm could there be?"

Soon the mighty gods of the four directions, all in golden armor and bearing long spears, came, seized the demons, bound them, and carried them off.

Next, countless gods of heaven stood around in a circle and waited.

In a moment Milbon arrived, and before he had even opened the sutra, the illness was cured. The boy's speech came back, his body loosened, and he told all these things in full.

Because of this Yangdo believed deeply in the Buddha and was never slack all his life. He molded the Amitabha image, the main Buddha of the Odang (吳堂) at Heungnyunsa, with the bodhisattvas on either side, and filled that hall with paintings in gold.

Milbon once lived at Geumgoksa.

Again, Gim Yusin was once on close terms with an old layman, and the people of the world did not know who he was.

At that time Sucheon (秀天), a kinsman of the lord, had long suffered a foul disease, and the lord sent the layman to examine and care for him.

Just then an old friend of Sucheon, a monk named Inhye (因惠), came to visit from Jungak. He saw the layman and said with contempt:

"Looking at your face and bearing, you are a wicked flatterer. How could you cure anyone's illness?"

The layman said, "I came under Lord Gim's orders, and only because I could not refuse."

Inhye said, "Watch my supernatural power."

Then he raised an incense burner and chanted over the incense, and in a moment clouds of five colors circled above his head and heavenly flowers scattered down.

The layman said, "Your supernatural power, master, is beyond measure. This disciple too has a poor little skill, and I ask leave to try it. Please stand before me for a moment."

Inhye did so.

The layman snapped his fingers once with a sound, and Inhye shot upside down into the air about a jang high.

After a long while he came slowly down head first, and his head stuck in the ground so that he stood upright like a driven stake.

The people around pushed and pulled, but he would not move.

The layman went away, and Inhye stayed there stuck upside down until dawn.

The next day Sucheon sent word to Lord Gim, and the lord sent the layman to go and release him.

Because of this Inhye never again sold his skill.

In praise it is said:

Reds and purples in confusion trouble the true red; how lamentable, that fish eyes deceive foolish men. Had the layman not lightly snapped his fingers, how many boxes would have wrapped up false jade as if it were real.