Between the Court and the Mountain

Text

The King of Silla sent a royal messenger to Beomil at굴산사 (Gulsan-sa) with an invitation to come to the capital and serve as royal teacher. Beomil received the messenger courteously and replied: 'The king's mind and this mountain mind are not two minds. If the king wishes to study this mountain mind, let him sit quietly in the palace for one hour each day without affairs. The teaching will come of itself. If I were to come to the capital, I would bring the mountain with me, and the palace would become a mountain monastery. Better to leave each where it belongs.' He then offered the messenger tea and sent him back with a handful of mountain soil, saying: 'Give this to the king as my gift. The palace and the mountain are made of the same earth.'

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Pŏmil

Lineage: Seon

By Pŏmil

• Verse on Original Natureverse

Sources

• contentThe Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea — Robert E. Buswell

  Robert E. Buswell Jr.

  After Buswell, 'The Formation of Ch'an Ideology in China and Korea' (1989), on Beomil's connections to the Silla court and the Nine Mountains schools' relationship to royal patronage

  Jodang Daesa Eorok / Sagul-san Records: Between the Court and the Mountain