- How the Work Under Heaven Proceeds
- 1 One day, Chey Duk-gyum asked Sahng-jeh-nim, “How will the work under heaven proceed?”
- 2 Sahng-jeh-nim wrote the Twelve Earthly Branches horizontally:
- 子丑寅卯辰巳午未申酉戌亥
ja (rat) chook (ox) in (tiger) myo (rabbit) jin (dragon) sa (snake) oh (horse) mee (sheep) shin (monkey) yu (chicken) sool (dog) hae (pig)
- He then said, “This is how it will be.”
- 3 “It is difficult to understand,” Gim Ja-hyun said. “How can we know by simply reading the Twelve Earthly Branches when the work under heaven will be accomplished?”
- 4 Above the Twelve Earthly Branches, Sahng-jeh-nim wrote the Ten Heavenly Stems:
- 甲乙丙丁戊己庚辛壬癸
gahp eul byung jung mu ghee gyung shin im gyeh
- He then asked Cha Gyung-suk, “Do you understand?”
- “No, I do not.”
- 5 “Only the enlightened whose insides are as empty as bamboo can understand,” Sahng-jeh-nim said.
- 6 “It is like a reed on a loom and a hair comb. Do you understand?”
“No, I do not,” Gyung-suk answered.
- 7 “You cannot understand through study within the mainstream of the Early Heaven. You will understand it through study outside the mainstream.”
- (JSD Dojeon 7,62)
