Shentu Jia, whose leg was cut off, was a student of Bohun the Unknown along with Zi-Chan. One day Tzu Chan said to Shentu Jia:
“If you want to leave first, I’ll stay.” And if I want to leave first, you will stay.
The next morning, he met Shentu Jia again in the practice room, sat next to him and said to him:
- If I leave first, you will stay. And if you leave first, I will stay. Today I am going to leave this place. Would you be so kind as to stay? Or maybe you don't want it? And if you do not step aside in front of the sovereign’s first adviser, does this mean that you consider yourself equal to him?
- So, it means that among our teacher’s students there is even a first adviser! - Shentu Jia exclaimed. “Apparently, this is someone who, like you, rejoices at the title of first adviser and despises others.” I have heard the following saying: “If the mirror is light, dust will not sit on it, and if there is dust on the mirror, then it is not light.” Be friends with a worthy husband for a long time, and you will not be able to commit a bad act. Now you consider our teacher the greatest of the mentors on earth and yet you speak to me so impolitely. Where is this good?
Tzu Chan replied:
- You, I see, are such a person that you will argue with Yao himself which of you is better. Think about it, do you have the courage to honestly evaluate yourself?
“Among us,” objected Shentu Jia, “there are many people who will willingly talk about their bad deeds, believing that they do not deserve punishment.” Few people will refuse to talk about their wrongdoings, believing that they do not deserve forgiveness. As for recognizing the Inevitable and calmly accepting Fate, only a truly enlightened husband is capable of this. Walking under the gun of a shooter and not being hit by an arrow is fate. Many people who have intact legs laugh at me because I only have one leg. Their ridicule makes me furious, but as soon as I talk to the teacher, my anger disappears before I get home. I don’t know what is the reason for this: either the teacher cleansed me with his kindness, or I myself am seeing the truth. I lived with the teacher for nineteen years and during this time I never remembered that my leg was cut off. Today, you and I are looking for the truth within ourselves, and you force me to look at myself from the outside. Isn't this a sin?
Tzu-Chan was embarrassed and, assuming a respectful look, said:
“You don’t need to say anything else.”
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru