- The Mind, Greater Than Heaven and Earth
- 1 One day in June 1908, Shin Gyung-wun, who lived in Tae-in, sent someone to Sahng-jeh-nim with the urgent message, “Lately, the police have been coming every day to ask of Your whereabouts.”
- 2 “Why did you delay in bringing Me such an urgent message?” Sahng-jeh-nim asked the messenger.
- 3 “Please forgive me. I stopped to watch a fortuneteller who made predictions using I Ching.”
- 4 Sahng-jeh-nim wrote something, then said, “Give this paper to Gyung-wun. Tell him to read it once and immediately burn it.” On the paper was written:
- 天用雨露之薄 則必有萬方之怨
地用水土之薄 則必有萬物之怨
人用德化之薄 則必有萬事之怨
- 5 If heaven does not provide enough rain and dew,
grievances inevitably arise in all directions.
- 6 If earth does not employ water and soil plentifully
in growing everything,
grievances inevitably arise from all things.
- 7 If humans conduct their affairs in a less-than-virtuous manner,
grievances inevitably arise from their affairs.
- 天用地用人用 統在於心
心也者 鬼神之樞機也 門戶也 道路也
- 8 The provision of rain and dew by heaven,
the employment of water and soil by earth,
and the use of virtue by humans
―all depend on the mind.
- 9 The mind is the hinge, the gate, and the pathway of the spirits.
- 開閉樞機 出入門戶 往來道路
神 或有善 或有惡 善者師之 惡者改之
吾心之樞機門戶道路 大於天地
- 10 The spirits open and close the hinge,
enter and leave through the gate,
come and go on the pathway.
- 11 Sometimes they are good, sometimes malicious.
- 12 If you learn from goodness and correct what is wrong,
- 13 your mind―the hinge, the gate, the pathway―
- 14 is greater than heaven and earth.
- 15 Gyung-wun read this paper and then burned it. From then on, there were no more inquiries by the police.
- (JSD Dojeon 4,78)
