There Is No Sejong In My Joseon [EN]: Chapter 69

A few days later, Yi Seong-gye summoned me again.

“So, where are those people you were looking for?”

I glanced around, and Yi Seong-gye lightly flicked my forehead.

“You rascal, you’re too impatient.”

“Ouch.”

Let’s try using words next time, grandpa.

Yi Seong-gye then said to me,

“Prepare to go out. We’re taking an outing to Boje Temple.”

“Suddenly an outing?”

Boje Temple was a large temple in Gaeseong.

As the central temple of the Seon [Zen] sect, it boasted over 1,000 buildings.

It was natural to be curious about this sudden suggestion.

“What about the matter I asked you to look into?”

“It’s related to that.”

With that, I had no choice but to follow Yi Seong-gye. Bringing my subordinates, with their strong Confucian ideals, would have been difficult.

A court eunuch escorting us said excitedly.

“They say many people have gathered because the Royal Preceptor [a high-ranking monk who advises the king] is giving a sermon at Boje Temple.”

“Is that so?”

I tilted my head, noticing far more people than usual.

No matter how much Joseon promoted Confucianism as its national policy, deeply rooted beliefs don’t disappear easily.

I saw scholars pretending not to notice the temple, and people constantly circling the five-story wooden pagoda of Boje Temple, praying for something.

Further inside, where even more people were gathered, I saw a high-ranking monk with a shaved head sitting quietly.

“Look.”

Yi Seong-gye nudged me and pointed towards him.

“That is Great Master Muhak, my mentor.”

Just then, they seemed to have noticed us and offered a bow with their palms together towards us.

I quickly returned the greeting.

But that was it.

Great Master Muhak didn’t come over to talk to us, and Yi Seong-gye didn’t seem to want to approach him either.

“Grandpa, why…”

“Shh.”

Yi Seong-gye put his finger to his lips.

“The Great Master’s sermon comes first. We cannot disturb him.”

Since the King Emeritus [retired king] said so, I couldn’t interfere and had no choice but to wait.

===

The sermon was honestly boring.

Complex Buddhist explanations and terms were rampant, and I wished I could swap places with Hyoryeong and slip away.

However, Yi Seong-gye was listening intently, so I couldn’t escape even if I was fidgeting.

“Do you understand any of this?”

I asked Yi Seong-gye, who was listening diligently.

“No. Actually, I’ve been reading Buddhist scriptures for sixty years, but I still don’t understand them well.”

Yi Seong-gye’s answer was anticlimactic.

“But what does it matter? Listening to the monk’s sermon brings peace to my heart.”

Well, isn’t that the original purpose of religion? Mental and physical stability.

Only after the sermon was over did Great Master Muhak come over and offer a bow with his palms together.

“It’s been a while, Great Master.”

“Have you been well in the meantime?”

Seeing young-looking monks following behind him, it seemed they had come together.

“Thank you for your hard work in coming all the way from Hoiam Temple in Yangju.”

So, these monks were the ones summoned from Yangju.

Muhak seemed like an inviolable saint at first glance.

Perhaps his background of studying under famous high monks like Jigong and Naong made him appear that way.

“If you stayed in Gaeseong, we could see each other often.”

Yi Seong-gye clicked his tongue.

“Your Majesty doesn’t particularly like this humble monk.”

Great Master Muhak said with a bitter smile.

He seemed to have served as Yi Seong-gye’s religious counselor.

– In this country of Confucianism, recklessly holding Buddhist events is absurd!

However, Yi Bang-won would not have needed to treat someone close to the King Emeritus with respect, and everyone with Yi Bang-won was a Confucian scholar, so they strongly rejected Buddhism and did not treat him properly.

The connection between the royal family and the Buddhist community through the high monk Muhak was gradually collapsing.

Yi Seong-gye glanced behind him and asked.

“Are the monks behind you the Great Master’s disciples? They all seem to have high spiritual power, befitting those who follow the Great Master’s teachings.”

“Thank you for seeing my insignificant disciples in a good light.”

“Both the Great Master and I are people who are now fading away. Raising future generations is rewarding.

Tsk, tsk, my grandson here is not yet fully human, so he should meet the Great Master’s disciples often to cultivate himself.”

‘Not fully human.’

I was taken aback, but soon I realized Yi Seong-gye’s intention.

Yi Seong-gye was trying to connect me with the Buddhist community.

The harsh words were just the old man’s mischief.

Muhak also noticed this, and his eyes lit up.

“I have heard stories of the Crown Prince’s intelligence reaching even the remote mountains of Yangju, so how dare I teach him? I only wish to gain enlightenment through questions and answers.”

Then he asked me.

“A large tree has rotted over time. Seeing this scene, many people tried to pull out its roots.”

What is this?

Is this what they call Seon [Zen] dialogue?

I blankly replied.

“Um, that’s unfortunate.”

Then Muhak asked again.

“Does Your Highness really think there is no way to use even the timber?”

“Yes?”

Listening to him, it seemed like the big tree was referring to Buddhism…

‘What do you want me to do?’

My only opinion on Buddhism is that I liked it when the monks gave me Choco Pies in training camp.

Suddenly asked for my opinion on Buddhism, my mind broke down.

If I were a robot, I would have been hissing steam.

“Um… so, how can a woodcutter… carefully… trim it…”

Even though it’s coming out of my mouth, it’s nonsense.

Seeing me spewing words like a broken machine, Muhak and Yi Seong-gye wore unknowable expressions.

‘Oh well, whatever. It’s a Seon dialogue anyway.’

I closed my eyes and said.

“The mountain is a mountain, and the water is water.”

It was the only Buddhist saying I knew.

Was it something Seongcheol said?

The mountain is a mountain, and the water is water, what’s different? But anyway, isn’t it a good-looking saying?

“…Is that so?”

“Yes, the mountain is a mountain, and the water is water.”

I said that shamelessly.

‘Surely you won’t ask what it means, right?’

The key to this kind of Seon dialogue is to answer figuratively and concisely.

If you delve into the meaning, you’re breaking the rules from the start.

As I expected, Muhak didn’t ask in detail what it meant.

He only looked at the sky and sighed like this.

“Is that really Your Highness’s intention!”

“Yes, it is.”

“Is that why you mobilized the monks for the Hanyang construction project?”

What is this?

Is he blaming me?

I didn’t have anything to say, so I nodded.

Then Muhak smiled bitterly and put his palms together.

“I have heard about the general situation through His Majesty the King Emeritus. I will actively cooperate, so please take good care of our Buddhist community.”

“Huh?”

I looked at Yi Seong-gye, and he shrugged.

What on earth is going on?

===

After the King Emeritus and the Crown Prince left, Muhak quietly moved his steps.

The disciples hurriedly followed behind him.

“I heard that a great figure has emerged under His Majesty the King, and it is indeed so. The Crown Prince’s brilliance is like that.”

“Master, what kind of dialogue did you have?”

The disciples asked out of curiosity.

“Didn’t you understand the dialogue just now?”

As disciples of Royal Preceptor Muhak, they were also people who had learned Buddhist scriptures thoroughly.

However, they did not properly understand this Seon dialogue.

“I know it was compared to Cheongwon Haengsa’s words, but…”

Cheongwon Haengsa was a Seon Master of the Tang Dynasty.

He once left these words.

– Before practicing Zen, when I looked at a mountain, the mountain was a mountain, and the water was just water. After that, when I looked at a mountain, the mountain was not a mountain, and the water was no longer water. Only after enlightenment, when I looked at a mountain, the mountain was still a mountain, and the water was still water.

“The eyes and ears know that the mountain is a mountain and the water is water. But when you encounter Buddhism and delve into the principles, you realize that the root of things is one and cannot distinguish between the two.

Finally, only after gaining great enlightenment can you return to the world of the middle way where the mountain becomes a mountain and the water becomes water again.”

Muhak quietly opened his mouth.

“Then does that mean the truth was ultimately always by our side?”

“It may be different in that you saw the Buddha-nature rather than things, but on the other hand, it may seem so.

After searching and wandering a long way, I realized that the truth was at my feet. Why is Mahayana [a major branch of Buddhism] Mahayana, and why is Seon Seon?”

Muhak said.

“The mountain is a mountain, and the water is water, so where else would the Buddha be? You can seek the Dharma in all directions, so why have you been pursuing comfort by chanting scriptures in large temples until now? Isn’t that a rebuke?”

“That, that is.”

It was true that Goryeo’s Buddhism had once been combined with the ruling class and corrupted.

It happens in every religion, but the attacks of Confucian scholars who said, ‘The fall of the previous dynasty was due to the evils of Buddhism’ were bound to be painful.

“Returning to the roots of Mahayana and finding the Dharmakaya [the body of the Buddha] again in the world is the Crown Prince’s sharp point. If we do so, he will revive our Buddhism again.”

“Are you saying that a mere ten-year-old Crown Prince said those words?”

The disciples muttered as if they couldn’t believe it.

But Great Master Muhak nodded with a confident look.

“So, isn’t he truly brilliant?”

After the King Emeritus, who had a lot of interest in Buddhism, stepped down, attacks on the Buddhist community were becoming increasingly severe.

In this situation, the Crown Prince’s words were a lifeline and a guideline for renewing Buddhism.

Muhak admired again.

He had already realized as much as he could, but there was still room for realization.

Muhak looked towards the Crown Prince’s residence in Gaeseong and thought.

‘Perhaps a new protector of Buddhism has appeared.’

===

“What was that dialogue just now?”

“What are you talking about?”

I was so out of it earlier that I didn’t know what he was talking about, so when I asked, Yi Seong-gye shook his head.

“I was a fool to ask.”

Then Yi Seong-gye said.

“So, what do you think is the reason why they obediently accept your orders?”

‘They’.

Would that include the Royal Preceptor Muhak?

Yi Seong-gye’s eyes had changed from those of a pure Buddhist to those of a monarch.

I swallowed hard and said.

“Isn’t it because they also need my help?”

“That’s right.”

Yi Seong-gye readily admitted.

“I, who was friendly to Buddhism, am now an old man waiting for death, and Bang-won is not particularly hostile to Buddhism, but he is not friendly either.

Above all, since his support base is in the Confucian scholars, he will tolerate the suppression of Buddhism.”

“It means there was a glorious past, but there is no future.”

“If you can win their hearts, you can use the foundation of Buddhism and Buddhists.”

It has only been a little over 10 years since Goryeo, which revered Buddhism, fell.

There is still too much time left for its power to wane.

To be exact, it means they are just waiting for the day to fall.

Even if I extend a little help, they will have no choice but to be loyal to me.

“Monks are useful in many ways. They have to study Buddhist scriptures, so they know how to write and have relationships with influential figures in various regions.

They are respected by the people and have the technology to make paper or print.

You also mobilized monks to bake tiles in Hanyang, didn’t you?”

“That’s right.”

Religious people who are skilled in technology and learning.

Yi Seong-gye gave me them this time.

I sincerely expressed my gratitude to Yi Seong-gye.

“Thank you, Grandpa.”

It would not have been easy to get them with my own strength.

Especially high monks like Muhak.

“I didn’t give them to your father, and there was no need to. Make sure to use them properly.”

All Yi Seong-gye can give me is people.

He knows that, so he says that.

“Both your father and I went through purges for the sake of governance. Of course, we used the people we took in, but we were always cutting off.”

Yi Seong-gye said bitterly.

I asked out of curiosity.

“Like Dumundong [a village of loyalists who refused to serve the new dynasty]?”

The people who didn’t take office because Goryeo had fallen and lived together in a village, and when Yi Bang-won set fire to it, they became oven-baked chickens.

But Yi Seong-gye asked with a truly puzzled expression.

“What’s that again?”

Ah, is this also a story that didn’t originally exist?

“Well, there are many guys who seclude themselves to keep their loyalty to Goryeo. As time passes and the superiors all die of old age, their descendants will come out to take the civil service exam.”

Yi Seong-gye said as if he had no interest.

“In any case, the country has lost too many talented people.”

Perhaps what Yi Seong-gye wants from me is not a politics of cutting off, but a politics of embracing.

Those who were excluded or buried without fulfilling their dreams for various reasons in the original history.

End

ⓒ Pitkong