The Two Sages of Nambaegwol: Nohil Budeuk and Daldal Bakbak南白月二聖 努肹夫得 怛怛朴朴

The Record of the Two Sages of Baegwolsan Attaining the Way (白月山兩聖成道記) says that Baegwolsan is north of Gusa-gun (仇史郡) in Silla.〔This is the old Gulja-gun, now Uian-gun.〕 Its peaks are strange and fine, and it stretches for several hundred li; truly it is a great guardian mountain.

The old people pass down this account.

Long ago an emperor of Tang dug a pond. Every month before the full moon, when the moonlight was bright, there was a mountain in the middle of it, with rocks like a lion and shadows flickering among flowers, which appeared in the pond.

The emperor commanded a painter to draw its likeness and sent envoys to search the whole world. When they reached Haedong they saw that this mountain had a great lion rock. About two paces southwest of the mountain were three peaks called Hwasan (花山),〔the mountain has one body and three heads, so it is called the Three Mountains〕 and these were close to the picture.

But not knowing whether it was the true one, they hung a single shoe on top of the lion rock and went back to report. The shadow of the shoe also appeared in the pond.

The emperor thought this remarkable and bestowed the name Baegwolsan, the White Moon Mountain.〔Because the shadow appeared in the white moon before the full, it was named so.〕 After that there was no more shadow in the pond.

About three thousand paces southeast of the mountain is Seoncheon village (仙川村), and in the village were two men.

One was Nohil Budeuk (努肹夫得); his father's name was Woljang (月藏) and his mother's Miseung (味勝). The other was Daldal Bakbak (怛怛朴朴); his father's name was Subeom (修梵) and his mother's Beomma (梵摩).〔The local tradition that says Chisan village is wrong. The two men's names are in the native tongue; the two families each named them from the two men's dispositions and conduct, taking the two senses 'soaring' and 'hard integrity', and that is all.〕

Both were of uncommon bearing and build, had thoughts reaching beyond the world, and were close friends.

At the age of twenty they went to Beopjeokbang (法積房), beyond the ridge northeast of the village, shaved their heads, and became monks. Not long after, hearing that there was an old temple fit to live in at Seungdo village in Beopjong valley, Chisan village, to the southwest, they went there together and lived in the two valleys of the Great Buddha Hall and the Small Buddha Hall.

Budeuk lived attached to Hoejinam (懷眞庵), and Bakbak lived at Yurigwangsa (瑠璃光寺). Both kept wives and children, managed their households, and visited each other, but their resolve to calm the mind and turn beyond the world never ceased for a moment.

Seeing that body and world are impermanent, they said to each other:

"Rich fields and good harvests are profitable, but they cannot compare with food and clothing that come at a thought, so that one is full and warm of itself. Wife and house are dear, but they cannot compare with wandering among a thousand sages in the lotus pond of the Flower Treasury world. How much more so, since one who studies the Buddha will become a Buddha, and one who cultivates the true will surely attain the true."

At last they cast off the human world and resolved to hide in a deep valley.

In a dream at night, light from a white tuft came from the west, and from within the light a golden arm reached down and stroked the two men's foreheads. When they woke and told their dreams, they matched. They marveled a long while and at last entered Mudeung valley (無等谷) on Baegwolsan.

Bakbak took the lion rock on the northern ridge, built a plank house of eight cheok, and lived there, so it was called Panbang (板房), the Plank Room. Budeuk took a place with water below a pile of rocks on the eastern ridge and also built a cell and lived there, so it was called Noebang (磊房), the Rock-Pile Room.〔The local tradition writes it the other way round, but examined now, the local tradition is wrong.〕

Each lived in his own hermitage. Budeuk diligently sought Maitreya, and Bakbak paid homage to and meditated on Amitabha.

Before three years were up, on the eighth day of the fourth month of the third year of Jinglong, the giyu year, the eighth year of King Seongdeok's reign.

Toward dusk a young woman of about twenty, of rare and wondrous grace, giving off a scent of orchid and musk, suddenly came to the north hermitage and asked to stay the night. Then she offered a poem. Its sense was that the sun had set on the mountain road and there were no neighbors on any side, so she wished to lodge beneath this hermitage tonight, and the compassionate monk should not be angry.

Bakbak said, "A hermitage is a place devoted to keeping purity. It is not a place for you to come near. Go, and do not linger here."

He shut the door and went in.〔The record says, "My every thought has cooled to ash; do not test me with a bag of blood."〕

The woman went to the south hermitage and asked as before.

Budeuk said, "Where have you come from, braving the night?"

The woman answered, "Being still, I am one body with the great void; how could there be any coming or going? I only heard that the worthy man's resolve is deep and weighty and his virtue high and firm, and I have come to help him."

Then she offered a verse. Its sense was that on the darkened mountain road the neighbors were cut off, the shade of bamboo and pine was deep and the sound of the stream fresh; that she asked to lodge not because she had lost her way, but because she hoped the master would point out the way; and that he should not ask who she was.

The master heard it and said in alarm, "This is not a place for a woman to defile. But going along with living beings is also one of the bodhisattva practices. And in a deep valley on a dark night, how could I be careless?"

So he welcomed her in and let her stay inside the hermitage.

When night came he cleared his mind and steadied his resolve, and with a dim lamp half lighting the wall he quietly recited the Buddha's name.

As the night grew late the woman called out, "Unhappily I feel the birth coming. Monk, I beg you to lay out a straw mat."

Budeuk pitied her and could not refuse, and he kindly lit a candle. The woman gave birth and then asked to bathe.

Shame and fear crossed in Nohil's heart. But his feeling of pity only grew and did not stop, so he prepared a tub as well, seated the woman in it, heated water, and bathed her.

Soon the water in the tub gave off a rich fragrance and turned to golden liquid. Nohil was greatly startled.

The woman said, "Master, you too should bathe in this."

Nohil reluctantly did as she said, and suddenly his spirit was refreshed and his skin turned golden. Looking beside him, he saw that a lotus throne had suddenly appeared.

The woman urged him to sit on it and said, "I am the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara. I came to help the great master attain great enlightenment."

When she finished speaking she vanished.

Bakbak thought Nohil must surely have broken his precepts that night, and went to mock him. When he arrived he saw Nohil seated on the lotus throne, become an image of Maitreya, radiating light, his body the color of sandal gold (檀金).

Without thinking he bowed his head to the ground and said, "How did you come to this?"

Nohil told him the whole story.

Bakbak sighed, "My hindrances are heavy. By good fortune I met the great sage, and yet it was as if I had not met her. With great virtue and utmost kindness you took up the whip before me. I pray you, do not forget our old pact, and let us do this together."

Nohil said, "There is water left in the tub. You can bathe in it."

Bakbak bathed too, and as before he became Amitayus (無量壽), and the two images faced each other in solemn majesty.

The people of the village below the mountain heard of it and came racing to look up at them, marveling, "A rare thing, a rare thing indeed."

The two sages preached the essentials of the Dharma and, in their whole bodies, trod on the clouds and departed.

In the fourteenth year of Tianbao, the eulmi year, King Gyeongdeok of Silla ascended the throne,〔the Old Record says King Beopheung ascended the throne in the twenty-fourth year of Tianjian, the eulmi year; how could the order be so badly reversed as this?〕 heard of this matter, and in the jeongyu year sent an envoy to build a great temple, named the South Temple (南寺) of Baegwolsan.

In the second year of Guangde,〔the Old Record says the first year of Dali, which is also wrong〕 the gapjin year, on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the temple was completed.

An image of Maitreya was made anew and enshrined in the golden hall, with the plaque 'Hall of Maitreya Who Attained the Way in Bodily Form' (現身成道彌勒之殿).

An image of Amitabha was also made and enshrined in the lecture hall, but the leftover water had not been enough to anoint and wash it all over, so the Amitabha image has mottled marks. Its plaque read 'Hall of Amitayus Who Attained the Way in Bodily Form' (現身成道無量壽殿).

In comment it is said:

The young woman may be called one who responded in a woman's body and brought about transformation. The Avatamsaka Sutra says that Lady Maya, as a good teacher, attached to the eleventh stage, gives birth to buddhas as a gate of liberation like an illusion; the deep meaning of the woman giving birth here lies in this.

Looking at the poem she offered, it is plaintive, graceful, and lovely, with the very air of a heavenly immortal.

Ah, if the woman had not understood the dharani of speech that goes along with living beings, how could she have done this?

Its last line ought to read 'A clear wind on one couch; do not be angry with me,' but that she did not say so was probably because she did not wish to be the same as common speech, and that is all.

In praise it is said:

Before the rock where green drops fall, a sound of knocking, Who knocks on the cloud-bolted door at close of day? The south hermitage is near, go seek it there, Do not tread the green moss and soil my yard.

— The north hermitage

The valley is dark, where would you go, already the evening mist, There is a mat by the south window, stay a while. Deep into the night the hundred and eight beads turn and turn, I only fear the noise will trouble the guest's sleep.

— The south hermitage

Ten li of pine shade, one path lost, She came seeking the monk to test the night temple. Three tubs of bathing done, the sky about to dawn, She bore two children, set them down, and cast herself westward.

— The holy maiden