Original subtitles

A BAE YONG-KYUN FILM

WHY HAS BODHl-DHARMA LEFT FOR THE EAST?

Photographed by BAE YONG-KYUN

Music by CHIN KYU-YOUNG

Editor, Production designer BAE YONG-KYUN

Produced, Written and Directed by BAE YONG-KYUN

To the disciple who asked him about the Truth

without a word he showed a flower.

Haejin!

Haejin!

Forever and ever,

all is originally empty.

There is no beginning

and no end.

The thing which neither comes into being nor perishes!

Sell your useless stuff.

Sell your bonds.

I buy broken T.V. Sets,

old watches...

When you go down this mountain, there is a big temple.

What is next if you keep going down?

This mundane world...

This mundane world?

You...

You came from the world?

Of course!

You too, Haejin.

And the Master?

Him too.

Why have we all left the world?

It's because in the world

there is no peace nor freedom of mind.

Why?

Because people haven't

enough space in their soul to hold all things in the world.

In fact, they do have it,

but it's full of the idea of self.

Are there in the world

children who don't have their parents like me?

Sure!

Do you remember your mother?

Are you sad to have no mother?

No...

I don't remember...

How can I be sad

since I don't even remember?

Worldly affections lead to ties and passions.

In the end you lose what you love. That's why you experience suffering.

You, Haejin, you don't have any pain because you have no ties?

I should empty my mind to overcome agony...

Give me some thread.

It hurts!

If you don't pull out

the milk teeth at the right time,

you will have the tusks of a boar.

You want that?

You won't feel any pain.

Go on, open your mouth!

It's over.

What is this?

Do you feel better, Haejin?

You have to throw it on the roof, don't you?

What a customary thought!

Yes, that's right!

Is that you?

You should have sheltered from the rain.

I was destined

to burden myself with my family.

Did I commit

an immoral act

by freeing myself of that destiny,

by going my own way?

But I was thirsting to liberate my soul.

First, I should renounce myself to do so.

I couldn't do both things at the same time.

I had to get away from the narrow path,

where suffering was piling up like dust,

to find myself in an unlimited world.

When I decided to become a monk,

besides worldly desires and pleasures,

morality and family love

seemed to be the chains that I had to break.

I will

attain Enlightenment and Buddhahood at any cost

to follow the way of absolute freedom.

A letter came to the temple for you.

To understand that worthlessness is worthless

leads to the Buddha.

Now, be silent.

I'll introduce you to a master armed with the power of the Truth

who will open your soul and show you the way.

If you climb up Mt. Chonan, following the valley,

you'll see a deserted hermitage.

An old monk who practices Zen

keeps the unfrequented place.

His name is Hyegok.

Although he is far away from us in the mountains,

he is like a beacon lamp.

To be effective, mustn't a beacon be

situated high up and far away?

This monk settled there,

unshakable,

and will never come down until he sees

the roots of the Way.

I haven't seen him for five years,

and it was only by chance

that I saw him then.

He was devoting himself

to meditation days and nights.

To stay awake,

he was seated against a wall of ice

which gave him horrendous frostbite in his side.

He had to come down

to take care of his wounds.

I wanted to offer him medical expenses,

but he wouldn't let me.

He told me his wounds were the result

of his lack of ascetic fervor.

For one month

he begged from village to village

to raise money for the hospital expenses.

He laughed, saying it was only a pound of flesh that was cut out.

He returned with a two or three year old child on his back.

When I asked him,

he said the child was an orphan who was abandoned by people,

and he made up his mind to raise him.

An old celibate monk

carrying a small child on his back

must have been an amusing sight

for people of the world to see.

According to the workman

who carries our grain to them every season,

the child is now fully grown,

but the monk still suffers

from his unhealed wounds.

Now that he is old,

he needs someone to look after him.

I'm afraid!

I'm afraid!

When you dig up the moon in your inmost mind

to light up the sky and the earth,

its light will chase away all the shadows of the universe.

If you get that One thing, you will understand everything.

If you achieve this,

the good news will echo through the universe.

If you see that One,

you will become the One.

You will inherit a universe

where days and nights fuse together.

That One is so perfect

it can accomplish everything.

It is free of obstacles

and total freedom prevails eternally.

When the moon in your mind waxes beneath the water,

where does the master of my being go?

Kibong! I give you this Koan (riddle).

You must be ardent and persevering

to perceive it and show me the answer.

If you meditate solely on this Koan days and nights,

if you concentrate on meditation,

you will at last seize it and attain Enlightenment.

The Koan is a tool to expel distracting thoughts and illusion

so as to reach the roots of the true Self.

Please have a rest from your work.

Just let me cultivate the soil.

A body not used soon rusts out.

Who would have the gall to eat without labor?

This old man hasn't got one foot in the grave yet.

But your poor health should be well attended.

I am aware of your health

even though you never mention it.

You must have your affected parts treated, or they will get worse.

A weak body in a weak mind.

It's because I don't have sufficient fervor!

I have a favor to ask of you.

You should grant it.

I wish to descend the mountains to get some medicine.

You will be wasting your time.

It is time to rid myself of this body. It's done me well.

Form does not differ from emptiness, nor emptiness from form.

Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.

So too are feeling, conception, recognition and consciousness.

You're back already, Youngnan?

So soon?

Youngnan!

Not yet...

Is that you, Youngnan?

No! No!

He left the royal palace

and went alone into the forest.

His departure took place

more than 2,500 years ago.

Was his leaving an abandonment of the world?

No, his leaving home was simply a course of eternal returning.

Far from leaving, he has come back to us all.

You know the reason for his leaving

was to come back wholly to all of us?

I became a hermit to free myself

from the dust and the dirt of the world,

looking for perfection on the other shore.

But I realized that

it was impossible to achieve it without loving even the garbage,

the dust of the world, and life's anguish.

Perfection can be achieved through embracing all things.

While it is easy to fight against reality and fate,

it is difficult to love them.

What a beautiful world

when you know how to love it!

The universe is by no means imperfect.

I think imperfection is in our language,

our knowledge, our thought, and our consciousness.

Isn't Enlightenment merely a dream?

Believing in attaining Buddhahood, I laid down the world entirely.

But when I look at the things I sacrificed,

I seem to be surrounded by their rancor

and I am afraid of falling into a hell of remorse.

"Saving living beings"?

What on earth does it mean to those

who abandoned father, mother, wife and children

only for becoming a Buddha?

Who is Buddha? Who is not Buddha?

Isn't it said that there is originally

no Buddha and no creature?

I am going back to the world,

to the turbulence of life.

Why do you stay in the mountains?

You, swallow from the south,

what is the way to your homeland?

Have the golden narcissuses opened their petals

from a grain of rice you were carrying?

Far away the stars balance the sky.

Idiot!

I must be here for fools like you

who are looking for me in the mountains!

You must keep the Koan between your teeth

even if you fall into a furnace.

A man who once has decided to solve the Koan

must go on to the end.

When you reach Enlightenment, you will find

freedom like the fresh wind on the mountain top

and peace as unshakable as a rock in a storm.

The place where you stood today

can be the Land of Perfect Bliss itself, then.

So what are you going to do?

Seen through bloodshot eyes troubled by the world,

are Hell and Heaven different?

Answer! Answer me!

When the moon in your mind waxes beneath the water,

where does the master of my being go?

Master?

In his room...

He is very sick.

He tried to save you...

Let me sit up.

What wretched shape

I am in before your eyes!

Look at this evanescent body.

Please take your medicine.

I am so sorry.

I could never expect such a mishap...

You must be suffering very much from your wounds?

All is due to my lack of prudence.

Take it easy.

It's not your fault.

My body's ties with this world are ending.

When the time comes,

the fleeting body goes naturally its own way.

Well, how is your Koan?

You must stay longer with us.

Don't say such things.

I am not making any progress in my studies.

Are you going to leave us

without showing me the way?

Who else will be able

to teach me the way to follow?

Mountains, rivers, plants, universe.

Here and there everything is in the same enclosure.

To leave...

is to arrive.

To arrive is to leave

Doesn't the wind blow

as it wants in all directions?

As my body returns to its original condition,

blood and pus from my wounds

will fall as dew from the night sky.

After all, I exist nowhere in the universe.

But in the universe,

there is nothing which is not me.

Listen to me carefully, Kibong!

You must follow what I am going to tell you for sure.

When I pass away someday,

you will be entrusted with my remains.

Kibong, you must put it back

to its original place.

Master!

Hear me out!

Don't warn the temple monks. It will only disturb them.

You should do everything yourself with your own hands.

All rituals should be ignored.

Leave me dressed as I am.

You know the chest in the back?

It will serve as a coffin.

Be careful not to cause a fire in the mountains.

Kibong!

It must be done

in a day and a half.

You must anyhow

observe that strictly.

Consider this work

as another Koan I give you!

You will be obliged

to pursue it practically.

Carry out your task

as soon as I am dead.

When the ties which hold 6,000 joints

of the body together decay,

when the body gets scattered to be earth, water, fire and wind,

where does the master of my being go?

The sound of a bell

overcomes agony.

It increases wisdom

and gives birth to Enlightenment.

It will release from Hell and Three Realms of illusion

those who make the vows

to seek for Enlightenment and save living beings.

The secret formula

which destroys Hell is:

Om Karajya

Svaha.

Om karajya

Svaha.

Om karajya

Svaha.

Kibong! Can you do me a favor?

You see my hair?

It is not so long,

but since you are a bit better...

Let's go to the stream.

This evening, there will be a ceremony

in the temple down in the valley.

What? Will they dance to the sound of cymbals?

Did the wind bring you the news from the foot of mountains?

How do you know!

I found it out the other day when I went down.

I thought Haejin would be delighted to go there.

Very good idea!

And very good excuse!

In the court of the harmony

of sounds and colors,

a body that will be called back to nothing dances like bubbles.

Is it dream or reality?

Originally

nothing has existed in this empty court.

Attaining Enlightenment is nothing but waking up from the dream.

It is a full moon and it will be bright enough.

Be careful not to get lost, though.

I worry about your medicine.

Never mind. I can decoct and take it by myself.

Well, I am going to put the pot on the coals.

Bring me enough kerosene.

Don't forget!

There will be a full moon tonight.

Why do we have to wait so long

till the moon rises over the dark mountains?

As the universe is deep in the shadows now,

kindle the wick in your mind

to light the way yourself.

Come quickly!

I can smell the medicine burning!

Brother!

The medicine is completely boiled down.

Having no experience,

I do not know how to do...

I have never seen this work before.

You ordered me not to exceed one and a half days,

but almost an entire day has already passed

and it is gloomy and drizzling

all day long.

What do you want to teach me from those signs?

The Master has gone. I stay.

Winter advances through the dense forest

and summer approaches

the naked branches.

In the eternal cycle, without beginning or end,

they say to live is to die

and to die is to live,

but life is for those who stay.

In the everlasting stream,

there is no birth, no death,

but for those who stay, death is an insoluble problem.

These are the Master's relics.

I am entrusting them to you.

I will send someone from the temple to replace me.

Brother!

Where are you going?

Hyegok: LEE PAN-YONG

Kibong: SHIN WON-SUP

Haejin: HWANG HAE-JIN

Superior: KO SOU-MYOUNG