Teaching the Future King

Text

Trần Nhân Tông, before he became king and later a monk, studied with his elder brother Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ. One day he asked: 'Elder brother, you are a man of great position and a lay practitioner. How do you practice without a monastery?' Tuệ Trung said: 'I eat when I am hungry. I sleep when I am tired.' Trần Nhân Tông said: 'But everyone does that.' Tuệ Trung said: 'Not so. When the ordinary person eats, they think of a hundred other things. When they sleep, they plan the next day. When I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep. This is practice.' Trần Nhân Tông bowed. He said: 'I understand.' Tuệ Trung said: 'Don't say you understand. Just eat and sleep correctly. The rest will come.'

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Subject
  Trần Nhân Tông
• Speaker
  Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ

Lineage: Trúc Lâm

By Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ

• Chan and Pure Land Are One Vehicleverse
• Why I Refused Official Positionsaying

From Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục (Recorded Sayings of Lay-Elder Tuệ Trung)

• Chan and Pure Land Are One Vehicle
• Why I Refused Official Position

Sources

• contentCuong Tu Nguyen — medieval Vietnamese Buddhism scholarship

  Cuong Tu Nguyen

  Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục; Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Trần period; after Cuong Tu Nguyen (1997), pp. 124–155, on Tuệ Trung's relationship with Trần Nhân Tông

  Tuệ Trung Thượng Sĩ Ngữ Lục (Recorded Sayings of Lay-Elder Tuệ Trung): Teaching the Future King