• Maitreya Buddha’s Promise to Jin-pyo
  • In Korea, the faith in Maitreya Buddha, the Lord of Tushita Heaven, became prevalent due to the efforts of Monk Jin-pyo.
  • When he was twelve, Jin-pyo received permission from his parents to become a Buddhist monk. At Geum-sahn Temple, he was given the Commandments for Buddhist Acolytes by Dharma Master Soong-jeh.
  • Soong-jeh taught him, “Observe these commandments, pray to Maitreya Buddha with great devotion and repentance, receive the dharma directly from Him, and teach it to the world.”
  • Determined to receive the dharma directly from Maitreya and convey it to the common people, Jin-pyo visited all the great mountains to meditate and pray.
  • In AD 760, at the age of twenty-seven, he entered the Chamber of No Thought and Speech, located on a cliff of Byun Mountain in Bu-ahn County. There, with great determination, he sought the dharma in front of a Maitreya statue.
  • But, after three years of determined meditation, he did not receive any sign that he would be enlightened, so he decided to end his life and hurled himself off the cliff.
  • At that moment, a boy dressed in blue suddenly appeared and gently caught him. He put Jin-pyo softly on a rock and then disappeared.
  • Greatly encouraged by the incident, Jin-pyo gave himself twenty-one more days and vowed to receive the dharma of Maitreya. He continued his meditation with life-or-death determination.
  • Filled with sincere regret for his transgressions, he beat his entire body with a rock. By the third day, his hand and arm had broken and fallen off, and his whole body was soaked in blood.
  • 10 On the night of the seventh day, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva appeared, waving his golden staff. He restored the battered monk’s body.
  • 11 On the last of the twenty-one days, Jin-pyo’s heavenly eye opened and he saw Maitreya Buddha approaching amidst great brightness followed by a multitude of beings from Tushita Heaven.
  • 12 Maitreya Buddha gently stroked the forehead of Jin-pyo and praised him, “You are truly a great man! You have done well, repenting your transgressions and seeking the dharma in earnest without regard for your life.”
  • 13 Maitreya then gave him two volumes entitled Scriptures of Divination and 189 divination sticks.
  • 14 Maitreya Buddha said, “Teach the world the dharma according to these and use them as a raft to save many others. Later, you will abandon this body, and you will be the king of a great nation and be born in Tushita Heaven.” After these words, Maitreya Buddha disappeared into heaven.
  • 15 After he attained perfect enlightenment, Jin-pyo had a vision of the cataclysm that would come at the time of great change called gae-byuk.
  • 16 He prayed fervently that the savior of the universe, the Heavenly Lord Maitreya Buddha, would come to this Eastern land.
  • 17 After Jin-pyo had begun building the foundation for a statue of Maitreya Buddha, he received an order from heaven: “Put down a bottomless rice cake steamer and build the statue on it.” In four years, he completed the Maitreya Shrine at Geum-sahn Temple.
  • 18 Following the principle that people would be saved through three stages of Maitreya Buddha’s teaching, Jin-pyo established three temples. He started with rebuilding Geum-sahn Temple, then he built Bahl-yun Temple of Geum-gahng Mountain, and finally he rebuilt Gil-sahng Temple of Sohng-nee Mountain.
  • 19 He taught that the performance of the ten good deeds would allow birth into the coming world of Maitreya Buddha. Having laid the foundation of Maitreya faith, Jin-pyo went up to Tushita Heaven.

  • (JSD Dojeon 1,6)




    No Records.