The parable about the good and the evil spirit
«Once upon a time a wiseman called Tang Qiao. He lived many years, knew a lot about what is going on the Earth and among the stars. But he was considered to be the wisest among people because he knew a lot about what is going on inside the man. Once his disciples came to him and found him to do something unusual. Tang Qiao finished to dig a tomb for himself in the garden near the tree where he often used to have a rest and reflect. The disciples got frightened and began to ask why he had done it before his death, before the term determined by the heaven. The wiseman answered, ‘In order to remember about the Peace.’ The disciples were surprised and asked Tang Qiao to clarify the meaning of his wise words. And he told them the following story. ‘Today I sat to have a rest near the tree and began to reflect on my life spent on this earth. And I got so deep into reflections that I have seen how a good spirit Shen parted from my Hun soul, and an evil spirit Gui parted from my Po soul. They sat opposite to each other and began to talk.
Gui suggested to Shen temptingly, “It would be nice to live one more time!”
“What for?” the Shen spirit was surprised. “Only the fool after finishing his fatiguing and hard way and coming to the door of his home, returns in order to overcome this way again.”
“Nevertheless, it would be nice to live one more time!” said merrily Gui.
“What for?” again asked tired Shen. “To jump like a marmot out of the cradle in order to hide in a tomb? No, I wish I could finish soon this miserable existence.”
The Gui spirit sighed dolefully and said, “Still it would be nice to live once again!”
“Tell me why? To perceive again what is suffering, diseases and privations? Since life is an eternal thirst and unspeakable suffering!”
The Gui spirit burst into tears, “It would be nice to live one more time!”
Listening to them, I felt for an instant sorry for the Gui spirit since it will die together with the body and will dissolve in the ground irretrievably. And that very moment I thought, “Right, it would be nice to live one more time!” At once I was as if fallen into a dream. The Gui spirit picked me up and merrily carried through the darkness into the new life, whispering to my ear, “Yes, yes, yes! It’s nice to live one more time! I will bring you back your youth, will fill your existence with joy, will give you such knowledge and will teach you such skills, arts that our life with you will run in luxury and pleasures.”
“But which payment will you take for this?” I asked with fear. “Will it be my Hun soul?”
“Oh no!” with triumph exclaimed the Gui spirit. “The Hun spirit is yours! Don’t worry about it. It will follow you and you will pass your life without fear and anxiety. But I have one rule, one condition: I will always go one step in front of you.”
I reflected a while. And not seeing anything bad in it, I agreed, “Alright.”
We immediately happened to be in primeval forest, in the most impassable thicket. The Gui spirit was bravely going ahead, moving apart for me prickly branches, so that I was able to advance freely, without injuring me even one time. And I thought, “How stupid is my Gui spirit. Let him go ahead. It’s even very good for me. Let him do all dirty work for me, and I will just enjoy the life.”
We reached the abode of the powerful dragon. The Gui spirit came close to him first and the last one touched him with his sting and filled up with power. I have seen that nothing bad happened to my spirit and also came close to the dragon. He touched with his sting my body it it became young. The dragon hit with his tail the ground and we found ourselves in the world grown younger with us which was full of heady aroma of wonderful flowers and where marvellous birds were singing their songs. I rejoiced about the feeling of life fullness and went to people.
It happened so as Gui had promised. He shared with me his knowledge. In a flash I raised above among the joy of public emptiness and amazed all by my knowledge, mastership in handy-crafts and arts. Though I became the weak-willed servant of my Gui spirit. Since whatever I thought, the thoughts of the Gui spirit always dominated in my, whatever I said, the words of my Gui spirit flew out first. And whatever I did, the initiator of all my doings was always my evil Gui spirit. So I couldn’t do anything good for my Hun soul, neither with a thought, nor with a word, nor with a doing. I couldn’t even stay alone with it in order to gain myself and my way. And the whole world faded in my eyes. I couldn’t feel the aroma of flowers or listen to birds songs. I understood that the evil Gui spirit cheated me since I let him go one step ahead of me, became his weak-willed servant and enslaved this way in his power my Hun soul. I felt terribly sorry for that and cried. Since that time under the tree I needed to make one more step to gain for my Hun soul Peace and Harmony. That very moment I awakened and saw the light cognizing the essence. I took a shovel and began to dig a tomb for the body and the Gui spirit in order to come here every day and to remember about the Hun soul and its Great Home of Peace till my death.”
The disciples were wondering at his sincere story. And Tang Qiao uttered a wise saying, “Human vanity is fruitless. People rush, torment themselves with fears and anger cast by Po. Meantime the Great Dao remains in divine serenity. He, who has desires and thinks about them, is born in this world again because of his desires. Only he, who is perfect in spirit, who is free from desires and fear, he will learn the secret of the Great Dao and leaves this world for ever. A wise man goes along the way of understanding the Highest in self-immersion and spiritual cleansing one step ahead of himself... For everything is called forth by the laws of the Highest. The Highest guides all things in existence and leads all things in existence to perfection. Perfection in turn implies acquiring the ultimate goal, the Peace. For the Peace is the very source of the innermost spirituality.”’
And Tang Qiao uttered a word of wisdom which remained in the memory for ages, “If you wish to gain Peace of the Great Dao, remember that birth leads to death but only through death you may come to life.».
