Contemplation on the chapter “Originator of Evil: The Tortoise King of the North Sea”

“Originator of Evil: The Tortoise King of the North Sea” is from Volume 1, ch.15 in The Path of Life.

This chapter seems to mirror the war within our own hearts of righteousness vs. evil. Ultimately goodness will prevail as indicated by the banana leaf pointing downward with indignation. Because this is our humanity’s collective destiny.

In Master Ou’s song “What is Affection”, there is one line in the song that has often confused me: “Affection is destiny”. I understand it more now. Only the displeasure that righteous and noble love has towards evil and hatred, can lead us to such an outcome or destiny, a destiny full of true affection.

The banana leaf motions to the turtle, the evil force, to back down, and then still the small turtles pop up, also wanting to hurt the Jade Emperor. As the Path of Life describes, “At The spot where the monsters head had first emerged, several groupings of small turtles appeared, also wanting to collide with the Jade Emperor, but I did not understand how they could possibly do that, as they were so far away from him and could swim only in small circles ; after doing so a while they sank.” {Path of Life, Volume One, P. 67}

This scene reminds me of my own stubborn unyielding characteristics that demand a place in my life, persistent in tempting me to forget my core beliefs, turning to what is habitual. However, this habitual thinking can often feel scattered and somewhat circular, trying to convince me that this behavior is ok and justified. But once my kind nature throws down it’s sword of righteousness, those small turtles, or habitually negative thoughts and emotions lose strength, sinking to the bottom, slowly but surely losing their ability to survive.

I also wonder why the turtle chose the midsection as the focal point of attack. “It was immediately after I uttered my cry that the turtle launched his attack ramming violently in to Jade Emperor’s mid section, but fortunately that towering, sky-high tree did not fall down.” {Path of Life, Volume One, P.67} It seems there is much illness in the world today connected with our mid-section organ systems like the liver, gall bladder, stomach and intestines, including many new viruses and flu’s like Ebola. The midline of the body reminds me of how the chaos was divided: The upper portion being a light mist, the lower layer condensing to form a pitch black mass, and the space between them becoming increasingly brighter. The midsection of the Jade Emperor may indicate our two sides of 50% good and 50% evil and the choice we must make in any moment between them. As the space between the two sides becomes greater, slowly transforming evil, our souls become brighter and brighter. Evil can be thrown at us, rammed in to us, and sometimes come violently from within us, but does our deep tree of faith and trust fall? Can we broaden our hearts with love like the expansive blue sky, so much that no evil can touch us, no harm can come to us and we can recover quickly? So the essential question is, what choice will you make?