An Offering of Bracken

50. 고사리 공양

50. An Offering of Bracken

Like clawed hands, shoots of bracken are the first to poke their heads out between the low, wilted blades of grass in early spring. With my straw hat, my arm warmers, and my boots, I looked every bit the farmer.

Holding my burlap sack, I set out for the sloping field, following the ropes set up along the rows’ intervals as I found my position. Moving upward along the field, I clipped the bracken to roughly the length of a hand’s span, working busily and making sure not to miss a single frond.

I remained crouched down for the entire process, indulging in the occasional stretch to relieve the strain on my stiff and unaccustomed back.

After finishing my morning prayers, I would begin gathering bracken around dawn and continue past breakfast time, often not finishing until the sun was beating down upon my back. Slinging the full sack over my shoulder, I would walk back to the truck cautiously, so as not to trample the tender fronds.

I would park next to a large, bubbling cauldron, unload the day’s harvest, and boil it until it was somewhat squishy when pressed between my thumb and index finger. I would then scoop it out with a net, rinse it in cold water, and move it to a sunlit location, where I would spread it out to dry on pre-laid mesh.

As more and more insects made their homes in the bracken, I would diligently weed out the many plants that had begun to sprout among the ferns. Bracken grows quite profusely, so I finished up the farming that year by laying enough fertilizer that other weeds would not be able to intrude. This was my daily routine, done three or four times a week between late March and early June.

Bracken was easier to grow than other crops, since the elk and wild boars wouldn’t eat it. Not only that, but with the illustrious name of Jirisan Mountain attached, word of mouth had spread, and there was a constant backlog of orders.

This helped the temple’s livelihood, but it was also a process that involved following a sequence and submitting to the changes and conditions of the seasons. The whole business was essentially a form of self-cultivation and exertion in accordance with principle.

Rev. Hyotawon, the director of the training center, handed me a rather thick envelope. She asked me to offer the proceeds from the bracken sales to the Buddha and contribute to a Cheondojae ceremony (a practice spanning seven seven-day periods to ease spirits’ passage toward rebirth) for lives lost on Jirisan Mountain during the Korean War.

I had taken part in this kind of 49-day rite in the past, but this would be my first time presiding over one, so I was very careful in executing it.

Innumerable lives had been lost on the slopes of Jirisan Mountain amid the pain and screaming of people killing and being killed. So great was the unexorcised grief that many souls had been left to wander this world even after their bodies were taken from them.

If even one of those deceased spirits were to come to rest on the words of the Buddha shared through me, releasing the bitterness in their heart and accepting true and ultimate bliss, that would be enough.

I set up a memorial tablet and placed a bowl of water on the altar.

Grabbing the opposite end from where the incense met the flame and burned, I placed the stick in the burner, drawing a circle in the air. The bamboo clapper announced the start of the ceremony.

As a bell rang, I read the dharma instruction for sending spirits in transition on their way, reciting the scriptures of the Buddha to the rhythm of the wooden bell. All I could do was offer my utmost sincerity.

Even today, flowers bloom and fall on the once bloodstained slopes of Jirisan Mountain.

If a single thought is pure and clear, one’s past karma will dissolve on its own. If there is mutual life-giving and mutual harmony, myriad merits will flourish.” He then said, “With one billowing of wind and waves, all the water in the four seas becomes unsettled; as it subsides, all under heaven becomes calm. Our minds are also like this. If a single thought is unsettled, all karma follows suit; if a single thought is calm, all directions in the world will transform into the future world of the buddha so that all sentient beings will rejoice together in that buddha world. Departed spirits! By understanding the true buddha world where there are no resentments or squabbles, may you enjoy the true paradise of Utmost Bliss for ever and ever.

—The Dharma Discourses of Cardinal Master Chŏngsan, Chapter 14:18