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

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The Precious Scroll of Incense Mountain, Part 1 85 a prince consort, and enjoy to the full all its good times and pleasures? Then you would not waste your greening spring and everything would be fine. Wouldn’t that be marvelous? We nuns here wear tattered cassocks and eat thin gruel. It’s a lonely and miserable life of grinding poverty. What virtue does it have?’’ The princess replied: ‘‘If one eats gruel, the heart is pure and alert; if one lives in loneliness, one sleeps in peace. I’ve long heard that your convent houses five hundred nuns, all of whom come from official and noble families, and are intelligent and very smart. Because they understood [the law] of cause and its fruit, they left the family when they were beautiful and charming young girls. If you, my teacher, are able to make them all return to the laity and marry a husband, I too will return to the palace.’’ When the abbess heard this, she did not know what to answer. To turn iron into gold is an easy transformation, To suppress her under a mountain was not hard. Namo Guanshiyin pusa The princess immediately answered her as follows: ‘‘My dear abbess, please listen to what I have to say. In entering the convent I hoped to cultivate the Way, But you do not treat me as a relative in the Dharma. While in the palace I had heard such good information, So how is it you too are all like people in a dream? 70 May I ask you why you decided to leave the family? Not everyone who wears a cassock is necessarily a nun. I came to this place because of birth and death, Not loving the imperial palace, I entered the convent.’’ The nun answered her in the following manner: ‘‘It’s not that I was insincere in becoming a nun. But I’ve received a secret edict from the emperor, Ordering me to persuade you return to the palace. If Your Highness returns, we are without blame, If you don’t return, he will annihilate this convent! Your Highness may be happy to suffer tribulations, But for what reason should we all be implicated?’’ When the princess heard this, she broke into a smile: ‘‘Now I understand why you spoke in such a muddled way!
86 ThePreciousScrollofIncenseMountain,Part1 But if one is a true disciple of the Gate of Emptiness, One will sacrifice this illusory body for the Dharma. If the emperor should burn this convent to the ground, It is its preordained fate, and due to a karmic cause. Birth is followed by death, completion by destruction, And rise is followed by fall, whatever you may do. Let the emperor burn it to the ground if he wants, Eventually we all must pass through the gate of death.’’ When the abbess heard this, all the color drained from her face, and she said to the princess: ‘‘Your views do not accord with heavenly principle! You are not going to tell me that for Your Highness’s sake we all will be implicated and have to share your sufferings? I have served as abbess for over thirty years and never has even the slightest speck of disaster entered the gate of this convent! Your Highness and your father the emperor may be angry with each other, but what does that have to do with our convent?’’ When the princess heard this, she said with a smile: ‘‘The monastic community has six harmonies and five virtues. 71 Such is the behavior according to the Way of monks and nuns. But, my dear nun, your wisdom is narrow and your insight is shallow. Your body may have left the family, but your heart is not dyed in the Way. You do not yet know that among the sages of ancient times there were those who donated their body to feed a tiger, that there were those who cut off a slice of their flesh to feed an eagle, that there were those who set flame to their body like a torch, that there were those who donated their head and eyes, their marrow and brains, their arms and legs and hand and feet, and that there were those who donated their body just to obtain half a gātha! All those who donated their body and heart achieved the unsurpassable Way. You cherish your body and nourish your life, so you have not yet done away with your cravings and attachments. If you practice cultivation in this way, it cannot yet be called achieving the Way. It is the original practice of monastics to be able to inflict suffering on oneself in order to benefit others. But to benefit oneself and inflict suffering on others is not the way of the Buddha’s disciples. Now you are already quite flurried and flustered even before he has come here to burn down the convent. Come to think of it, you really don’t have a heart that penetrates the Way!’’ When the abbess heard her say these words, she again and again heaved a heavy sigh: ‘‘Too bad! Disaster strikes without warning—may Heaven have mercy on us!’’ She then as-
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PERSONAL SALVATION and FILIAL PIETY
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CLASSICS IN EAST ASIAN BUDDHISM Per
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Kuroda Institute Classics in East A
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Acknowledgments My interest in the
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2 Introduction twelfth century. As
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4 Introduction Guanzizai (The lord
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6 Introduction of these bodhisattva
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8 Introduction the Lotus Sutra is c
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10 Introduction by remorse, he fall
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12 Introduction huang yinyuan are r
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14 Introduction also omits a detail
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16 Introduction While he does not g
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18 Introduction the shorter version
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20 Introduction the object of the g
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22 Introduction have her killed by
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24 Introduction Sons in Chinese Bud
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26 Introduction may ascend to heave
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28 Introduction cises achieves budd
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30 Introduction despite his formal
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32 Introduction of Shancai and Long
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The Precious Scroll of Good-in-Tale
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192 Notes to Pages 4-5 association
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194 Notes to Pages 8-10 Mountain an
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196 Notes to Pages 12-13 teenth and
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198 Notes to Pages 18-21 66. Ibid.,
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200 Notes to Pages 24-26 88. Cole 1
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202 Notes to Pages 29-33 wishes to
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210 Notes to Pages 92-111 79. The 1
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212 Notes to Pages 126-156 26. Both
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214 Notes to Pages 164-183 8. The S
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Glossary ao 鰲 Baiyi Guanyin 白
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Glossary 219 Yao Shouzhong 姚守
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222 Bibliography ———. 1973. T
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224 Bibliography Karetzky, Patricia
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226 Bibliography Ahern and Hill Gat
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About the Author Wilt L. Idema (Ph.
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Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Bu
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Two Precious Scroll Narratives of Guanyin and Her ... - Khamkoo

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