We’re publishing the full text of Won-Hyo’s Inspiring Yourself to Practice (Bal shim su haeng jang). Written in the seventh century in Korea, it consists of 706 Chinese characters. (The English version looks much longer!)
According to the anthology Admonitions to Beginners, printed by the Bureau of Education of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism, Inspiring Yourself to Practice is one of three staple texts for all aspiring monastics. “The text stresses the need to eliminated (sic) one’s karmic bond with the world and immediately begin practice.”
Inspiring is found in Admonitions to Beginners. Currently out-of-print, this edition needs editing and revising. The following is my rewording of the original English translation, which was produced by Mark Mueller and Won-Myong Sunim.
If you’d like to see a printing of the entire anthology Admonitions, please let us know. If there’s enough interest, maybe it could be published in the future.
INSPIRING YOURSELF TO PRACTICE by Won-Hyo Seunim
For countless eons all Buddhas residing in Nirvana
have discarded their desires and trained arduously.
For countless eons sentient beings have transmigrated
throughout Samsara, not discarding their greed and desires.
The gate to the Pure Land is not blocked.
Yet few are those who enter;
most make their home among the three poisons.
Although the lower realms lack inherent power to seduce,
many enter therein.
The deluded mind values the five desires and the four elements
comprising the body as if they were jewels.
As this is the case, is there no one longing
to retire to the secluded mountains to practice the Way?
Enmeshed in desire, folks don’t go there.
Although you don’t take refuge in the mountains to cultivate your mind,
strive wholeheartedly to perform wholesome actions.
If you can renounce pleasure,
you will be as trusted and respected as the sages.
If you can undergo that which is difficult,
you will be as respected as the Buddha.
Those who greedily seek after things join the ranks of demons.
Those who give out of compassion are the disciples of the Dharma King.
(This post was also published on purelandway.wordpress.com: a blog specifically about Pure Land Buddhism)
Chong Go Sunim
Joseph
Marcus
josesiem
Carl Atteniese Jr.
Jabu
“Those who greedily seek after things join the ranks of demons.
Those who give out of compassion are the disciples of the Dharma King.”
Great stuff! Thank you for this!
And so good to see you here Joe!
Marcus
_/\_
“Those who greedily seek after things join the ranks of demons.”
I’d like not to join the ranks of demons, so count me in for any future publications along these lines! Thank you!
I like this text alot, and it agrees with me, only going to the mountains, probably, does not have to be always literal, your mind can do that even if you are in the middle of the city and doing whatever you have to do.
Why when Wonhyo says it – it is considered great wisdom, but if someone, just a person, would say something along the lines, then you are kind of an enemy even to someone who should know better.
Good point, Tanya. We like to hear things from people who passed long ago, but if someone living, our friend or cousin, said the same thing, we’d dismiss it.
Reminds me of Steven Harrison writing about enlightenment as a social construct. Imagine: what would being awakened look like if it were a 7-11 clerk? Without the robes, the temple, and all the mystique, it wouldn’t look like anything — just a guy going about his business, stacking shelves and working the cash register.
Could I post a link to a totally relevant topic? Here it is: http://www.palpung.org/english/special/mahamudra/brief.asp
It is so simple in its streightforward message, that I thought it would complement the above post.
there are no demons, poison, or mountain to practice the Way, whether in reality nothing exists outside of our inherent essence, that the end is not ours, where to go … not the Monkey King never came out of the hand of Buddha, and But it was the Buddha ..
Blessings
Alejandro (Wen Hui – Mun Hye)
no existen demonios, veneno, ni montaña a donde practicar la Vía, si en realidad nada existe fuera de nuestra esencia inherente, que al final no es nuestra, donde ir…Ni el Rey Mono salio nunca de la mano del Buddha, y sin embargo el mismo era el Buddha….
¡Bendiciones Hermanos!
Alejandro (Wen Hui – Mun Hye)