Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her ... - Khamkoo

The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain, Part 2 107
A hundred years count only thirty-six thousand days,
And how very short are the good times of one’s youth?
Refusing to marry a husband is a crime against nature,
The motivations you have are evil, disturbing the court.
So we urge you, Your Highness, to return to the palace,
And as before, do your duty as someone born in the palace!’’
The palace women urged her: ‘‘Young women should not practice
cultivation! Wait till you’re seventy or eighty, when your ears are
deaf and your eyes are dim, when your waist is bent and your back
is stooped, when you need a staff to support you while walking and
people to assist you when sitting down, and when you cannot do
any useful work at all, and then venerate the Buddha, keeping to a
vegetarian diet—it still wouldn’t be too late! So we urge you, Your
Highness, to put your sedan chair of earlier days in order once
again, to rest on a dragon couch, put on a chaplet and hairpins,
and dress yourself in brocade and purple. Pretty maids will swarm
around you, and elegant girls will follow behind. That beats being
a nun! Moreover, when you stay in the palace, marrying a husband
and having fun, you also display complete loyalty and filiality. We
wish you a lifetime of harmony, but when you should happen to
die, a few extra masses would be read, and a somewhat larger sacrificial
meal be set out. A fine grave hill would be constructed, and
your own sons and grandsons would of course maintain the sacrifices.
On the first days of spring and fall in the family temple and
on the taboo days into the far future the rites of sacrificing
and sweeping will of course be carried out. But what’s the chance
that you would achieve some buddhahood? That’s all a waste of
effort!’’
Speaking without illumination all burns down to defamation,
But to remain silent when enlightened is also not acceptable.
Namo Guanshiyin pusa
The princess immediately answered in the following way:
‘‘My bright dear friends, please listen to what I have to say.
You say that one should practice the Way only in old age,
That Impermanence doesn’t come and visit younger people.
But gold and silver, pearls and feathers adorn a skeleton,