The Fire That Makes Bamboo Salt
The fire used to roast bamboo salt must exceed 900°C
from the first firing to the ninth.
When the temperature rises beyond 900°C and approaches 1,000°C,
the salt begins to melt and harden into a dense mass.
From that moment on, the work becomes a continuous ordeal —
one of the most severe hours of discipline.
The suffering contained in this process
cannot be expressed simply by arranging the words that exist in this world.
One must hold the bamboo salt close
and shed countless tears.
From the first firing to the ninth,
the ash on the hardened mass of bamboo salt must be ground away completely,
without leaving even a single speck.
Only then can it move on to the next firing
in a perfectly clean state.
If even a trace of ash remains,
that ash continues to draw impurities into the next stage,
and those impurities become part of the bamboo salt.
Then the bamboo salt becomes like a practitioner
in whom delusions have accumulated —
like growing obstacles on the path of discipline.
In that state, the clear and transparent diamond-like bamboo salt
my father spoke of —
like stars scattered across the Milky Way —
can never be born.
The loss during this process is also enormous.
If the thought of profit enters the mind,
divine bamboo salt cannot emerge.
During the final melting stage,
when the temperature rises beyond 1,000°C
and even beyond 2,000°C,
it pours out clear and flowing like water from a tap.
This is what is called true bamboo salt.
This is the divine medicine
that purifies the blood
and allows the human being to approach the divine.
Such a birth is only possible
when the maker strengthens spiritual power
to the level of a great Zen master.
If spiritual power is not placed into the bamboo salt,
one becomes caught by the obstacle of loss.
Therefore, anyone may attempt to make bamboo salt,
but divine bamboo salt can never be made by just anyone.
That is why my father entrusted the final secret method only to me.
To complete the secret method he transmitted,
one must endure suffering in reality —
the head breaking again and again,
the body breaking again and again,
and pain like blood being shed.
Only through such suffering can it be completed.
That is why he passed it only to me,
because I was the one who could endure that path.
At present, only three people know and practice this method:
myself,
Factory Master Seonghyeon Jeong,
and Warrior Jamin Cha.
Beyond the three of us,
I have not revealed the deepest secret to anyone.
Because I do not believe anyone else could carry it out.
Even though my father’s protection stands behind me
like Mount Sumeru, like the Kunlun Mountains,
this path still requires a discipline
in which one risks one’s life.
Only then, as my father said,
can bamboo salt move forward
into the realm of medicine.
The Fire That Makes Bamboo Salt
The fire used to roast bamboo salt must exceed 900°C
from the first firing to the ninth.
When the temperature rises beyond 900°C and approaches 1,000°C,
the salt begins to melt and harden into a dense mass.
From that moment on, the work becomes a continuous ordeal —
one of the most severe hours of discipline.
The suffering contained in this process
cannot be expressed simply by arranging the words that exist in this world.
One must hold the bamboo salt close
and shed countless tears.
From the first firing to the ninth,
the ash on the hardened mass of bamboo salt must be ground away completely,
without leaving even a single speck.
Only then can it move on to the next firing
in a perfectly clean state.
If even a trace of ash remains,
that ash continues to draw impurities into the next stage,
and those impurities become part of the bamboo salt.
Then the bamboo salt becomes like a practitioner
in whom delusions have accumulated —
like growing obstacles on the path of discipline.
In that state, the clear and transparent diamond-like bamboo salt
my father spoke of —
like stars scattered across the Milky Way —
can never be born.
The loss during this process is also enormous.
If the thought of profit enters the mind,
divine bamboo salt cannot emerge.
During the final melting stage,
when the temperature rises beyond 1,000°C
and even beyond 2,000°C,
it pours out clear and flowing like water from a tap.
This is what is called true bamboo salt.
This is the divine medicine
that purifies the blood
and allows the human being to approach the divine.
Such a birth is only possible
when the maker strengthens spiritual power
to the level of a great Zen master.
If spiritual power is not placed into the bamboo salt,
one becomes caught by the obstacle of loss.
Therefore, anyone may attempt to make bamboo salt,
but divine bamboo salt can never be made by just anyone.
That is why my father entrusted the final secret method only to me.
To complete the secret method he transmitted,
one must endure suffering in reality —
the head breaking again and again,
the body breaking again and again,
and pain like blood being shed.
Only through such suffering can it be completed.
That is why he passed it only to me,
because I was the one who could endure that path.
At present, only three people know and practice this method:
myself,
Factory Master Seonghyeon Jeong,
and Warrior Jamin Cha.
Beyond the three of us,
I have not revealed the deepest secret to anyone.
Because I do not believe anyone else could carry it out.
Even though my father’s protection stands behind me
like Mount Sumeru, like the Kunlun Mountains,
this path still requires a discipline
in which one risks one’s life.
Only then, as my father said,
can bamboo salt move forward
into the realm of medicine.