Episode 1188 This is the path we will continue to walk. (3)
The court, which was glaring at Baekcheon as if he would attack at any moment, took a deep breath. Then he slowly sat down again.
However, his eyes were emitting a colder light than before he sat down.
“Didn’t I tell you? It was just lip service.”
His voice penetrated Baekcheon like ice.
“You choose what you cannot choose. That may be possible. But the one who has to make that choice is the one who leads. The one who has to make the choice that no one else will make!”
“…”
“That’s why you compare things that can’t be compared and make decisions that shouldn’t be made! Didn’t Manager Jang Moon say it with his own mouth? That he would take responsibility for it. If that’s the case, Manager Jang Moon would sacrifice a thousand times to save one person. “Are you saying it’s right to give up my life?”
Baekcheon does not answer. Then the court frowned as if to look at that.
“Anyone can discuss ideals. But who will compensate for the lives of those who die because of those ideals?”
“Who gave you the right to make that choice?”
The court widened its eyes at Baekcheon’s question.
“Are you able to weigh the lives of others because you are the leader of Shaolin? Or is it because you are none other than a Buddhist priest?”
“Look! Long sentence!”
“You have to choose what you cannot choose. You have to take on that responsibility.”
Baekcheon muttered and shook his head.
“Do not speak as if the head of the house is the only one who has taken on that responsibility. That is a path that many people have already taken and that our predecessors have pondered and pondered over. And they have already passed on their conclusions to future generations.”
“…in later generations?”
A look of puzzlement flashed across the court’s faces. What on earth did their ancestors say to them?
“You know this well. We call it agreement.”
The court’s face distorted.
“What’s so obvious…”
“What’s wrong with the obvious?”
Baekcheon’s face was filled with passion.
“He who considers himself wise uses a standard for everything. But a truly wise person does not evaluate what should not be evaluated! Would it be true that the good men did not know what the master was talking about? Were they not just foolish enough to discuss it? Do you want to?”
“…”
“Not thinking only with one’s head! Following the path of one’s heart without worrying about this or that! Our ancestors called it consensus. And they asked us only to keep that consensus! That’s what they did. “Not because I was stupid, but because it was the only correct answer.”
The faces of the court trembled.
“They already knew. What happens when their future generations rely only on their own brilliance to judge their worth!”
“What the heck…”
“That’s why I emphasized consultation more than anything else when teaching my disciples. In that simple teaching, I captured what we should prioritize. Let me ask you, Bangjang! That great and noble ancestor of Shaolin. What did you tell the room manager?”
The court clenched its fists. His mouth was tightly closed and did not move. But Baekcheon already knew the answer to this question.
Of course it can’t be like that. Shaolin is the place that emphasized consultation and salvation for living beings more than any other school in the world. Isn’t that why Shaolin has been able to become Kangho’s North Star and Kangho’s protector until now?
“What would that previous leader say when he saw the current leader? Would he really feel sorry for that sad self-sacrifice? Would he praise him for making a good choice that he made while shedding bloody tears?”
“Shut up!”
A lion’s roar burst out of the mouth of the court.
This was the sound of his reason being cut off and at the same time the precariously maintained agreement being broken.
“After hearing it, there is nothing I can’t say! Are you saying that Shaolin has reneged on his agreement?”
“So are you following it?”
“what!”
“What on earth does the room manager think an agreement is?”
“So you know about volcanoes?”
“I don’t know. But there’s someone in the volcano who does.”
Baekcheon’s eyes immediately turned to one person.
“Yoonjong!”
Suddenly, a voice calling out to him sounded like a yell, and Yoonjong looked at him in shock.
“Are you saying that?”
“As a disciple of Huashan, answer me. What is consultation?”
“Agreement is…”
Yoonjong quietly closed his eyes. It was an embarrassingly sudden question, but I couldn’t answer it. This answer must be more sincere than ever.
So, Yunjong’s answer started from a somewhat unexpected place.
“The Tao is the Tao, the Tao is the Tao. Just as if you call the Tao the Tao, it no longer is the Tao, the moment you call the narrow-mindedness the narrow-mindedness, the narrow-mindedness is no longer the narrow-mindedness.”
His voice became increasingly calm.
“The more I think about it, the more it seems like a distant cloud, and it is not something as perfect and ideal as the world thinks. Likewise, the truth is not perfect. It is sometimes eccentric, sometimes selfish, and sometimes irrational. That is because the human mind is like that. .”
“also.”
“But that’s why a consensus is a convention. Tao means letting everything go naturally. Then, it flows naturally like water flowing downward. Sometimes it curves and then stays, and sometimes it scatters, but in the end, it goes where it needs to go. The human heart. The same is true. Sometimes the mind is foolish, sometimes evil, and sometimes selfish, but in the end, like flowing water, it moves toward a vast place.”
A profound light appeared in Yunjong’s eyes that opened again.
“So in the end, consultation means trusting people and answering the call of your heart. If you can do that, you will eventually move to the right place.”
Baekcheon nodded deeply and looked at the court.
“Did you hear?”
But the court still reacted with anger.
“What have you heard? It’s just an obvious idealism! That’s why the people who are about to die for such great idealism…” “
Oh, I really can’t listen to that.”
The court’s heads turned to one side at the sarcastic remark that came out of nowhere. Lim So-byeong, who was sitting by the door, quietly turned away from his gaze but continued to speak steadfastly.
“If you have such a great heart for all people in the world and want to help even one more person, I don’t know why you are stuck in a temple and swinging your fists. It would have been much more helpful if you had run for government office.”
“What on earth are you saying now…”
The court looked at Lim So-byeong with a shocked expression. Although he is called the Green Forest King, he is still the leader of Sapa. How could someone like that say something like that in front of a court?
“That’s not wrong.”
The person who embarrassed the court even more was Namgung Do-wi. Sogaju of the Namgung family, the head of the five major families, came forward to support the words of King Nokrim, and no one else.
“If we say that doing bigger things and achieving bigger goals is necessarily the right thing to do, isn’t it a contradiction in itself? The reason we can exist is because the power of the country reaches all corners of the world and cannot look down on everyone. Really. If you want to discuss a great cause, wouldn’t it be better to make the country rich and make the powerful disappear rather than discuss the world in small Shaolin?”
“Sogaju!”
The eyes of the courtroom were bloodshot.
“Are you saying everyone is going to come out like this? You’re really making the situation worse with that useless sophistry…”
“Stop it, boss.”
At that moment, a calm voice interrupted the courtroom.
The court was momentarily speechless. It was because I heard a very familiar voice. It was Hyeyeon.
“The manager was wrong.”
“…What did you say?”
“The manager said you were wrong.”
“You…”
A look of bewilderment appears on the court’s face.
Others may. But Hyeyeon shouldn’t do that. No matter how much the court said about the excommunication, Hyeyeon was raised and taught by him personally.
How could Hyeyeon say something like this?
“Now, the manager is trying to deny what they said and is saying things he shouldn’t have said.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“What did the Buddha do after Shakya attained enlightenment after long penance?”
Instead of answering the sudden question, the court stared at Hyeyeon. Hyeyeon elaborated.
“After attaining enlightenment, after suffering for seven days and seven days, the Buddha gave the answer that he would spread his teachings throughout the world and save all living beings. What was the first thing the Buddha did?”
There was no answer this time either. Hyeyeon gave an answer as if she wasn’t expecting an answer.
“It was to preach to those within reach and accept as disciples those within reach.”
“Hye-yeon. This guy…”
“Amitabha Buddha.”
Hyeyeon spoke as class president.
“Although the Buddha wanted to save the world, he did not create Buddhist sutras on his own that would reach all corners of the world, nor did he try to use his past status to spread his meaning further. What the Buddha did for the suffering beings in the world was to bring his noble meaning closer. “What I convey and teach to those who are. Yes, that’s it.”
Hyeyeon’s clear and transparent eyes turned to the court.
“Those words became sutras and those teachings became Buddhist laws. Isn’t that how they were spread and spread and reached the master?”
The eyes of the court wavered.
As the head of Shaolin, he cannot deny this.
“According to Bangjang’s logic, what the Buddha did is nothing more than a small thing. It is nothing more than the actions of a foolish person who did not see the bigger picture. The Buddha who realized the great way of Buddhism did not do anything for all the people of the world. But Bangjang. Were the teachings really in vain?”
“…”
“That is why those who think of themselves as Buddhists should not criticize the will of Master Jangmun. Isn’t Buddhism an infinitely selfish path that begins with saving oneself? But how can one try to save those within his reach? “Can you criticize this as foolish and selfish?”
“You bastard…”
“If you were a Buddhist who tried to follow the teachings of Buddha before being the head of Shaolin…”
Hyeyeon’s loud voice swept through the court and shook it.
“You should have thought about which is truly Buddhism before just saying that you will end up in hell.”
Hyeyeon expressed her regret but declared with utmost determination.
“The room manager… was wrong.”
Those words pierced the court’s heart like a sharp dagger.
(Lord*Lord*I-Si*Yeo)
