WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 175: The Dao Rises One Foot, the Demon Rises Ten
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Flowers bloom even in winter.
On Wudang Mountain, where all the leaves had fallen, white daffodils bloomed in cheerful clusters.
Hwagokja stood in one corner of the Sect Leader's Residence, quietly watching the daffodils open one by one.
Then their disciple, Hyeonjung, approached and asked a question.
Hyeonjung's eyes were so narrow that they could look either smiling or furrowed.
“Master watches flowers too? Surely, in the eyes of someone who has reached Loss of Self, a roadside stone and a flower are alike, with no distinction between them.”
Hwagokja clicked their tongue.
“No.”
“They are not?”
“That is right.”
“Then what is it?”
Hwagokja looked steadily at Hyeonjung before speaking.
“To view things by the Dao, none are noble or base. To view them as things, each prizes itself and demeans the other.”
Hyeonjung narrowed their already thin eyes even further and tilted their head.
“That is from the Outer Chapters of Zhuangzi. But what does it mean?”
“That is Loss of Self.”
Hyeonjung tilted their head again.
“Then was I not right? From the Dao's perspective, nothing is noble or base. So to you, Master, who has attained Loss of Self, a roadside stone and that beautifully blooming daffodil must be the same.”
“Wrong.”
“Again?”
“Yes. Loss of Self means looking upon things as they are, neither adding nor subtracting. Myself as myself. You as you. All things as themselves. Seeing them as they are, without defining or limiting them.”
“Then does that mean seeing a roadside stone as a stone, and a daffodil as a daffodil?”
“Correct.”
“What does that mean?”
Hwagokja clicked their tongue again.
“I cannot tell whether your eyes are open or shut.”
“Come on. You should not attack a disciple's physical weakness like that...”
“It means that even after attaining Loss of Self, discernment remains as it is. I too find daffodils lovely when I see them. They bring me joy.”
“Even though you have attained Loss of Self?”
“Yes. It simply means that I also see myself, who finds them lovely and feels joy, as I am. Ah, Hwagok is looking at daffodils and finding them lovely. Hwagok is feeling joy. There is a stone beside them. And Hyeonjung stands beside that stone.”
Hyeonjung's narrow eyes squeezed shut once more.
After straining to think, they raised their head and asked Hwagokja again.
“What does that mean...?”
“You fool... It means there is no outside. When I value my own emotions and judgments, defining and limiting other things by them, then there is an outside for me.”
“Then if I do not value my emotions and judgments, there is no outside?”
“When I am the standard, everything that is not me is outside. But if I am not the standard, where would this outside be?”
“Celestial Worthy of Great Yin Transformation...”
They still did not understand.
Hwagokja gave a hollow laugh, but continued teaching.
“Hyeonjung. People are swayed because they make themselves into scales and weigh everything in the world by their own standards. That has value, that has none, so I must have that. Bound by their own judgments, they look only at what is before them.”
“Is that not natural?”
“But what if you could look upon even yourself without discrimination? What if, instead of looking only ahead, you could see the back of the self trying to rush forward?”
“Are you telling me to reflect on myself and broaden my perspective?”
“Similar. Hwagok is trying to acquire that thing now. There is a stone beside Hwagok, and a daffodil before that stone.”
Hwagokja gazed steadily at Hyeonjung.
“It is simply accepting everything as it is. The self that is swayed remains, but one does not remain with that swayed self. It is graduating from oneself. That is why it is called Loss of Self.”
That was why it became Gen, the mountain trigram.
With no outside to move toward, one came to stop exactly where one was.
At that moment, Hyeonjung's eyes flew open.
“Celestial Worthy, Incarnation of the Golden Palace Who Subdues Demons! Master! This disciple thinks I understand now!”
Hwagokja smiled gently at Hyeonjung.
“Hyeonjung.”
“Yes, Master!”
“When Martial Uncle Chungdam teaches me, they do not explain things in such detail.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Yet I always explain everything to you in words. Why do you think that is?”
“Because I can do it! Because I...!”
“It is because you cannot understand through words.”
“Pardon?”
“If you were like Hero Yeon, someone who understands ten things from a single phrase, I would never explain anything to you.”
“Uh...?”
“So just keep doing what you have been doing.”
Hyeonjung blinked their narrow eyes and scratched their head.
“I do not really understand what you mean.”
“Yes. Exactly that.”
“Now that you mention it, I hear that fellow Yeon Sowol is currently facing a heart demon.”
“How do you know that?”
“I heard Martial Granduncle has resolved to cut off his head if he cannot overcome it.”
“...”
“Is the heart demon truly that terrible?”
“It is.”
“Still, if he learns Clear Heart, he will defeat it, will he not?”
“He will need to attain Loss of Self.”
Hyeonjung's eyes opened wider than they had yet.
“To that extent?”
“To that extent. When the Dao rises one foot, the demon rises ten.”
The Dao rises one foot, the demon rises ten.
“As much as I understand the Dao, the demon uses that understanding as well. The deeper Hero Yeon's enlightenment, the deeper the demon has taken root.”
A seed of demon born from the twists of the heart grew, devouring everything. At last, it became the person themself.
It accumulated little by little, until it finally transformed.
“If the heart demon has rooted itself that deeply, it cannot be picked out one piece at a time. He will have to reach Loss of Self. Or attain Clear Knowing through the Sword Emperor's method.”
“Then he can overcome it?”
“No. He can only recognize it and drive it back for a while. It will continue to worm its way in more cleverly. To become truly free, he may need to reach Nonaction.”
Hyeonjung stared in astonishment.
“Is that not far too difficult? Even Loss of Self is enlightenment toward the transcendent peak realm. The same is true of Clear Knowing. I hear Yeon Sowol has only just begun knocking at the gates of the peak realm.”
“Yes. That is so.”
“Exactly. It makes no sense. Loss of Self is a realm this disciple has only now begun to grasp...”
“...”
Hwagokja looked quietly at Hyeonjung and sighed.
Then, turning toward the daffodils, they spoke.
“Choose the most beautiful flower here.”
Without a moment's hesitation, Hyeonjung pointed to a flower.
“That one.”
“Why?”
“It simply looks the prettiest.”
“Then does that make it the most beautiful flower?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Wrong.”
“...? Ah, then this one!”
“Why?”
“It bloomed closest to me.”
“Wrong.”
Hyeonjung scratched their head.
“This disciple does not understand.”
Hwagokja gave a faint snort.
“Your Clear Heart is certainly clear.”
“Right? Now only one step remains before I reach Loss of Self.”
“Yes. So it seems.”
Hwagokja turned away from Hyeonjung and once more looked upon the daffodils blooming in the mountains.
Yeon Sowol would be confronting his heart demon now.
He had taken the Cloud-Dream Elixir. The heart demon would be worming its way in more and more cunningly.
‘Fellow Daoist Yeon. I believe you will fail.’
Certain defeat.
That was Hwagokja's judgment.
No matter how great a genius he was, he had only just passed twenty years of age. To attain Loss of Self?
No. His genius would make it even harder.
‘Still, we cannot harm Wudang's benefactor. I understand Martial Uncle's intent to cut away the demon's sprout beforehand, but...’
As the leader of a sect, Hwagokja's judgment differed from Chungdam True Man's.
‘I must protect him. That will be Wudang's way of repaying its debt.’
Hwagokja's gaze deepened.
Seeing their master's silence, Hyeonjung bowed with cupped fists and withdrew.
Hwagokja remained where they were, watching the daffodils for a long while.
* * *
When it fell silent,
the world suddenly grew quiet.
- ...
The enlightenment that had filled his mind finally stopped.
Yeon Sowol sank quietly into thought.
‘So it was a heart demon.’
That thing he had believed was enlightenment had been a heart demon.
It had continued leading him toward enlightenment.
‘Then when did it first enter me?’
Perhaps it had been there since his first closed-door seclusion.
From the moment he mistakenly believed Mo Cheong had entered the seclusion chamber and deceived him, then realized it had been a heart demon.
From the moment he trembled and vowed that he had to distinguish truth from falsehood through clear reason.
Perhaps a single demon seed had fallen into his heart then.
And it grew larger every day.
Whenever he overcame a heart demon, the heart demon embedded in the deepest part of him grew larger instead.
It learned Yeon Sowol.
It studied enlightenment alongside him and became ever more cunning.
Until, at some point, it was impossible to distinguish it from Yeon Sowol himself.
‘But then... What do I do?’
What if the voice he had believed was an inner voice was not an inner voice?
What was an inner voice to begin with?
How could he distinguish his own thoughts from another's?
- Who knows. Perhaps they cannot be distinguished.
- There is the term meme, after all. And the film Inception. Most ideas are incepted from outside, then reproduce on their own. Like a MEME that keeps returning to your mind even when you do not want to think about it. That is simply how it is.
‘I don't know.’
Yeon Sowol half-opened his eyes.
‘Has it started again?’
His quiet heart was stirring once more.
Something that felt like a thought born within him was pushing at his heart.
- But does it matter whether it comes from inside or outside?
- If it is wrong, cast it out even if it came from inside. If it is right, accept it even if it came from outside.
Perhaps.
Inside or outside. Without limiting or defining it. Simply see it as it is...
- Yes. Though it was enlightenment stirred up by a heart demon, the enlightenment itself was right. Step down from the seat of the one in charge. Give up the position of privileged observer as well. Look upon everything without discrimination. Even yourself. Ah, that is Loss of Self.
- I call enlightenment a heart demon, but enlightenment itself bears no guilt. The fault may lie with me.
Yes.
Perhaps that was right.
Yeon Sowol did not decide one way or the other.
He merely watched.
The direction his heart was being swept.
The things pushing it.
The stone beside them.
Beside the stone stood bamboo.
- Yes. Metacognition. Looking upon oneself from many perspectives. Escaping self-centered standards and the arrogance of believing one can know everything.
Now Yeon Sowol thought he understood.
All these thoughts...
‘The problem was not that they were wrong.’
The true problem was not whether they were right or wrong, but where his heart stood.
Now Yeon Sowol saw.
His own back.
Where he was being pushed.
What was pushing him.
There was a stone beside him. Bamboo stood before it...
- This is how one overcomes a heart demon. If you accept things as they are, you will not become bound. If you are not bound, you will not become narrow-minded. If you balance what lies before and behind, left and right...
There was a heart seeking to define and limit things in that way.
- Yes. That is Loss of Self. Contemplating the object in its original nature beyond definition and limitation...
There was another heart seeking to define and limit things again.
- Now you must cast out that heart. Do not define or limit anything any longer...
There was an impulse trembling at those words.
- ...
Then a memory suddenly surfaced.
When he had placed every stone there and tilted his head, asking whether this time he had finally gotten it right.
‘That expression is wrong too.’
Those words had not meant whether he had the right answer.
‘They meant that the heart within me that was certain, the heart that kept looking only forward, was wrong.’
The problem was where his heart stood.
When he stepped outside the measuring stick with which he judged the world, he suddenly felt like a fool who knew nothing.
Yet he could instead accept himself, others, everyone, as they were.
And then...
“Ah.”
The world suddenly flattened.
Fine threads rose from every phenomenon in creation.
Among them...
- Wait.
There was a thread rising from within Yeon Sowol as well.
Something deeply mixed into Yeon Sowol's heart.
Though it was mixed with him, it had different roots. Yeon Sowol perceived it clearly, as though looking down at a drawing on a flat sheet of paper.
The conditions for activating Heaven-Killing Star.
First, contact.
Second, clear recognition.
- But this is entwined with my soul, with the root of my heart, so to meddle with it carelessly...
Yeon Sowol raised his hand.
He placed it upon that thread.
- Wai...
Snip.
He severed it.
...
...
...
Yeon Sowol quietly closed his eyes.
As though he had lost himself.
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