A Veritable Treasure Trove!
Report
In this collection of Zen dialogues published by the Jogye Order we have one of the rare glimpses into Korean Zen that is available in an English translation. The materials collected are all from the Yuan dynasty and cover four Korean Masters.
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Jin-Gak
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Baeg-Un
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Taego
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Naong
For each of these Zen Masters we have a fair bit of dialogues, sermons, letters, and commentating on lineage texts.
An noteworthy aspect of this collection is that given the colossal amount of referencing to contemporary Zen Masters it opens up lots of leads into Yuan Dynasty Masters generally and Korean Zen Masters specifically.
Questions to Consider
Are there other, translated or untranslated, records of the contemporary Zen Masters they mention and quote?
How much more untranslated Korean stuff is there? A little? A lot? A mountain?
Excerpts
He ascended the hall, and after a pause he said, "I came here and even though I have no Dharma to preach, do not say this is a true preaching of the Dharma." He descended from the seat.
Jin-Gak
He ascended the hall and said, "It is completely provided in every person; it is perfected in every item, [so] how can you be amazed at me? Today I have nothing to do, so I will present you, my brethren, the proclamation of a turning word. Would you like that? Brethren, the crane's legs are long, the duck's legs are short, licorice is sweet, and pistachio is bitter. Do such words satisfy you?" He descended from the seat.
Baeg-Un
He ascended the hall, pointed at the Triple Gate, and said "The Great Way has no gate, so where will you try to enter? Hey! The universal gate of perfect passing through is open wide."
Taego
"Seon[Zen] is unobtainable, the Way is unobtainable. The ordinary also is unobtainable and the saintly likewise is unobtainable. The mind also is unobtainable as is the nature unobtainable. The profound also is unobtainable and the maverlous also is unobtainable. The different is also unobtainable and the not different is also unobtainable. Just h is unobtainable is likewise unobtainable. Since all is unobtainable, finally what is it? Do you understand?"
Naong
Closing Remarks
There's a lot in this collection and a lot more texts just waiting to be translated in Korea if scholars decided to focus their efforts on it. At present it's a lack of scholarly interest, public interest, and the mass-market that I reckon keeps Korean stuff untranslated.
I've added this to my growing list of lineage texts and will investigate Jogye Order's "Seon Poems" collection at some point in the near future.
If anyone has any more suggestions re: translations of Korean Zen Masters, please share with the forum.
Submitted February 06, 2020 at 10:33PM by ThatKir https://ift.tt/2SmNVWV
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