The Fifty Thousand True Bodies of Odaesan臺山五萬眞身

Looking at the old record handed down in the mountain, the naming of this mountain as the dwelling place of the true sage began with the Dharma master Jajang.

At first the master, wishing to see the true body of Manjusri on Wutaishan in China, went into Tang in the reign of Queen Seondeok, in the tenth year of Zhenguan, the byeongsin year.〔The Tang Biographies of Monks says the twelfth year, but here the Basic History of the Three Kingdoms is followed.〕

He first came to the place of the stone Manjusri by Taihe Pond in China and prayed devoutly for seven days, and suddenly in a dream the great sage gave him a verse of four lines. When he woke he remembered it, but it was all in Sanskrit, and he was at a loss and could not understand it.

The next morning a monk suddenly came to the master's side carrying one robe of red silk with gold dots, one bowl of the Buddha, and one piece of the Buddha's skull bone, and asked, "Why are you so troubled?"

The master answered, "Because the four-line verse I received in a dream is in Sanskrit and I cannot understand it," and the monk explained its meaning. Its sense was that when one clearly knows all dharmas, one knows that in one's own nature there is nothing to be had, and when one awakens to the nature of dharmas in this way, one at once sees Vairocana.

Then he handed over the robe and the other things he had brought and charged him, "These are the implements of the original teacher, the World-Honored Shakyamuni. Keep them well."

He also said, "In the northeast of your home country, in the region of Myeongju, there is Odaesan, where ten thousand Manjusris always dwell. Go there and see them."

When he finished speaking he vanished.

After the master had searched out the divine traces everywhere and was about to return east, the dragon of Taihe Pond appeared in bodily form and asked for a meal service, and he made offerings for seven days. Then the dragon told him, "The old monk who passed on the verse before was the true Manjusri."

There was also a charge to build a temple and raise a pagoda, which is fully recorded in another account.

In the seventeenth year of Zhenguan the master came to this mountain wishing to see the true body, but for three days the weather was dark and overcast, and he could not, and he went back.

He stayed again at Wonnyeongsa (元寧寺), and there he finally saw Manjusri, who said, "Go to the place where the kudzu vines coil." This is the present Jeongamsa (淨岩寺).

Later there was the ascetic Sinui (信義), a disciple of Beomil, who came looking for the place where the master Jajang had rested, built a hermitage, and lived there.

After Sinui died the hermitage too lay long abandoned, until Yuyeon, an elder of Sudasa, rebuilt it and lived there; this is the present Woljeongsa.

After the master Jajang returned to Silla, the two brothers Bocheon (寶川) and Hyomyeong (孝明), crown princes of the great king Jeongsin,〔Looking at the National History, Silla has no clear text about the father and two sons Jeongsin, Bocheon, and Hyomyeong. 'Jeongsin' is probably an error for Jeongmyeong, that is, King Sinmun, and 'Hyomyeong' is probably an error for Hyojo. The one who built the temple in the Shenlong years was King Seongdeok.〕 came to Haseo-bu〔this is the Haseo-gun in present Myeongju. Some write Hagok-hyeon, but that is not present Ulju〕 and stayed one night at the house of the gakgan Seheon.

The next day they crossed Daeryeong, each leading a thousand followers, came to Seongopyeong, and roamed there for several days.

Suddenly one evening the two brothers secretly agreed on their resolve to leave the world, and without letting anyone know they ran away and hid themselves in Odaesan.〔The Old Record says 'the first year of Taihe, the musin year', but this text seems badly mistaken. Reckoning the dates, that would be forty-five years before King Hyojo's accession, in the time of Taejong and King Munmu, so it is known to be wrong, and it is not adopted.〕

Their attendants did not know where they had gone and returned to the capital.

When the two princes came into the mountains, blue lotuses suddenly bloomed on the ground.

The elder prince wove a hermitage and stayed there; this is called Bocheonam (寶川庵). Going some six hundred paces to the northeast, on the southern foot of the North Terrace there was another place where blue lotuses bloomed, and the younger prince Hyomyeong also wove a hermitage and stayed there. Each diligently cultivated the Way.

One day they climbed the five peaks together to look up and pay homage, and there:

On the East Terrace, Manwolsan, the true bodies of ten thousand Avalokitesvaras were present; On the South Terrace, Girinsan, ten thousand Ksitigarbhas with the eight great bodhisattvas at their head; On the West Terrace, Jangnyeongsan, ten thousand Mahasthamapraptas with the Tathagata Amitayus at their head; On the North Terrace, Sangwangsan, five hundred great arhats with the Tathagata Shakyamuni at their head; On the Central Terrace, Pungnosan, ten thousand Manjusris with Vairocana at their head.

They looked up and paid homage to the fifty thousand true bodies one by one.

The two of them drew water from the valley every day, brewed tea, and made offerings, and when night came each cultivated the Way in his own hermitage.

The younger brother of King Jeongsin contended with the king for the throne, and the people of the country deposed him and sent four generals to the mountain to receive the princes.

They first came before Hyomyeong's hermitage and shouted 'Long live the king', and at that moment five-colored clouds hung down and covered the place for seven days.

The people of the country followed the clouds and all arrived, set out the royal regalia, and prepared to receive the two princes and return.

Bocheon wept and declined. So they honored Hyomyeong, returned, and had him ascend the throne.

After he had ruled the country for some years,〔the record says he reigned for over twenty years, but this is probably an error for his age of twenty-six at death. He was on the throne only ten years. Also, the contention for the throne by King Sinmun's younger brother has no text in the National History and is not known in detail〕 in the first year of Shenlong,〔this is the year Emperor Zhongzong of Tang was restored, and the fourth year of King Seongdeok's reign〕 the eulsa year, on the fourth day of the third month, Jinyeowon was first rebuilt.

The great king personally led the hundred officials to the mountain, built and laid out the halls, and also had a clay image of the great sage Manjusri molded and enshrined in the middle of the hall.

He had five men, the jisik (知識) Yeongbyeon (靈卞) and others, read the Avatamsaka Sutra in rotation for a long term, and thereupon formed the Hwaeom Society (華嚴社).

For the yearly cost of offerings it was made a fixed rule that in spring and autumn each, one hundred seok of grain and one seok of pure oil were to be given from the storehouses of the provinces and counties near the mountain.

Bocheon always drew and drank the water of that divine valley, so in his old age his living body flew through the air and came to rest at Jangcheon Cave in the country of Uljin beyond the Yusa River.

He made it his daily practice to recite the Mahapratisara dharani day and night, and the spirit of the cave appeared in bodily form and said, "I have been the spirit of this cave for two thousand years already, and only today have I first heard the true teaching of the Mahapratisara. I ask to receive the bodhisattva precepts."

After it received the precepts, the next day the cave too lost its form.

Bocheon, startled and thinking it strange, stayed twenty days and then returned to the Sinseong Cave on Odaesan. He cultivated the true for fifty years more.

On the day Bocheon was about to pass away, he left a written record of the things to be done in the mountain in later days to aid the state. It says:

This mountain is the great vein of Baekdusan, and each terrace is a land where true bodies always dwell.

On the East Terrace place a Hall of Avalokitesvara, paint an image of Avalokitesvara and ten thousand Avalokitesvaras, read the sutras by day and meditate on Avalokitesvara by night, and call it the Wontong Society (圓通社). On the South Terrace place a Hall of Ksitigarbha, paint an image of Ksitigarbha and ten thousand Ksitigarbhas, perform the divination repentance rite by night, and call it the Geumgang Society (金剛社). On the West Terrace place a Hall of Amitabha, paint an image of Amitayus and ten thousand Mahasthamapraptas, meditate on Amitabha by night, and call it the Sujeong Society (水精社). On the North Terrace place an Arhat Hall, paint an image of Shakyamuni and five hundred arhats, meditate on the Nirvana Sutra by night, and call it the Baengnyeon Society (白蓮社). At Jinyeowon on the Central Terrace enshrine an image of Manjusri unmoving, paint thirty-six transformation forms with Vairocana at their head on the rear wall, perform the Manjusri repentance rite by night, and call it the Hwaeom Society (華嚴社).

Rebuild Bocheonam as the Hwajang Society (華藏社), enshrine the Vairocana triad and the Great Canon, hold the Hwaeom assembly for a hundred days every year, and call it the Beomnyun Society (法輪社).

Make this Hwajangsa the head temple of the Odae Society (五臺社), guard it firmly, and command those of pure conduct to keep up the incense for a long time; then the king will enjoy a thousand autumns, the people will be at peace, the civil and the military will be in harmony, and all the grains will ripen well.

Also, add the lower hall Munsugapsa as the central meeting place of the society, and have seven men perform the repentance rite to the Hwaeom guardian host constantly, day and night.

Let the cost of the offerings and clothing for the thirty-seven men above be met from the taxes of the eight districts within Haseo-bu, as the basis for the four necessities.

If the kings of every generation do not forget this and follow it, it will be a blessing.