¹Faith in Maitreya Buddha, the Lord of Tushita Heaven, became the faith of the populace in the Eastern land, Joseon, due to the efforts of Precept Master Jin-pyo.

²When he was twelve, Jin-pyo received permission from his parents to become a Buddhist monk. While studying at Geumsansa Temple in Gimje County, he was given the Precepts for Buddhist Acolytes by Dharma Master Sung-je. ³Sung-je instructed Jin-pyo, “Observe these precepts that I now give you, then go before Maitreya Buddha and seek his dharma with sincere devotion and repentance. Receive Maitreya’s precepts directly from him, and teach them to the world.”

⁴Henceforth, determined to receive Maitreya’s dharma directly from Maitreya himself and spread his supreme dao, Jin-pyo visited all the renowned mountains of Joseon in a quest to attain dao.

⁵In the nineteenth year of the reign of King Gyeong-deok of Silla (760 CE), at the age of twenty-seven, Jin-pyo journeyed to Buan County and secluded himself in the Chamber of No Thought and Speech, located on one of Byeonsan Mountain’s cliffs. There, he sat before a Maitreya statue and, filled with single-minded determination, sought Maitreya’s precepts.

⁶Three years of resolute meditation passed, yet Jin-pyo received not a single sign that he would be enlightened, so he decided to end his life and hurled himself from the cliff. ⁷At that moment, a boy clad in blue suddenly appeared, and this boy gently caught Jin-pyo, softly set him on a rock, and disappeared.

⁸Profoundly encouraged, Jin-pyo reaffirmed his vow to attain the dharma of Maitreya and gave himself twenty-one more days, intensifying his meditation with life-and-death determination. ⁹Dedicating himself to the meditation method of ‘tormenting the body in repentance,’ Jin-pyo began to beat his entire body with a stone in deep repentance. By the third day, his hand and arm had broken off, and his whole body had become soaked in blood. ¹⁰On the night of the seventh day, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva appeared before Jin-pyo, waving his golden staff, and tended to the monk, whose battered body soon became restored.

¹¹On the last of Jin-pyo’s twenty-one days of renewed meditation, his heavenly eye opened and he beheld Maitreya Buddha amidst divine resplendence, leading a procession of myriad beings of Tushita Heaven. ¹²Maitreya Buddha gently stroked Jin-pyo’s forehead and praised him, “Intrepid man, you have done well! Oh how you have sought my precepts! You have sincerely repented all your sins without regard for your own life. I can topple Sumisan Mountain with a flick of my finger, but your mind is of an indomitable resolve that never reverts!” ¹³Maitreya then conferred upon Jin-pyo two volumes entitled Sutra of Divination for Examining the Karmic Consequences of Good and Evil Actions and 189 bamboo strips for understanding one’s karmic state, ¹⁴bidding him, “Use these to teach my dharma to the world—use them as a raft of deliverance to save multitudes. You will eventually abandon this body and be reborn in Tushita Heaven as the king of the Great Nation.” After issuing this proclamation, Maitreya Buddha disappeared into heaven.

¹⁵After he attained perfect enlightenment, Sacred Venerable Jin-pyo had a vision of the arrival of the epochal cataclysm of heaven and earth’s gaebyeok. ¹⁶He prayed with fervent devotion that the Buddha of Salvation for all of the universe, the Heavenly Lord Maitreya Buddha, would incarnate into the Eastern land, Joseon.

¹⁷Eventually, Jin-pyo received a commandment from heaven: “Erect a Maitreya statue atop a siru.” Over the ensuing four years, he completed construction of the Maitreya Shrine at Geumsansa Temple.

¹⁸In accordance with the principle that humanity would be delivered through the three stages of transmitting Maitreya Buddha’s dharma, Jin-pyo established three temples. He started by rebuilding Geumsansa Temple of Moaksan Mountain, then he constructed Baryeonsa Temple of Geumgangsan Mountain, and finally he rebuilt Gilsangsa Temple of Songnisan Mountain.

¹⁹Having laid the foundation of Maitreya faith—that one must adhere to the ten benevolent deeds for rebirth into the Dragon Flower Paradise of Holy Maitreya Buddha—Jin-pyo ascended to Tushita Heaven.