Chapter 26 Difficult Enlightenment - The Artist and the Real

Due to the special relationship between the painter and Fa, K decided to ask him for help under the persuasion of others.The impoverished painter lived in a very high attic. The attic was small and dilapidated, the air in it was dirty, and the surrounding environment could not be worse.All kinds of descriptions are reminiscent of the real spiritual state of the artist who lives above the crowd.The painter has been waiting for K's arrival for a long time, but his attitude towards K is both arrogant and calm. K first saw a painting in his place, which was a majestic judge with a goddess of justice painted on the back of the judge's chair.The goddess is holding a balance, her eyes are covered with cloth, and she is flying. K was puzzled: How could such a posture of the goddess ensure that the balance made a fair judgment?Isn't this counterintuitive?The painter explained that the judge asked him to paint the goddess in this way, and he did so.Finally, he painted the judge's head with a red halo, and the Lady Justice as the Huntsman.Undoubtedly, this is also the judge's will. K didn't understand that in this special court, justice was never weighed on immobile balances. The goddess of justice was the goddess of the hunt. She didn't look for sin with her eyes, and the prey (sin) would draw her to her.The artist hired by the Dhamma simply painted what people couldn't see.K, who is in the mundane world but has special eyes, was attracted by his paintings, but he couldn't understand them because there were obstacles in front of him.

The painter first asked K if he was innocent, and after getting K's affirmative answer, the painter knew it well.A person who thinks he is innocent must be ignorant of the law, and such a person is doomed to a life of hopeless resistance.The painter told K that his defense would never be successful; nevertheless, the painter was determined to help K (perhaps K was the reappearance of the eternal theme of his creation?), and he planned to use his personal relationship with the judge To exert influence on the judges, so that they make a judgment in line with K's wishes.Regarding K's range of choices, the artist proposes three ways out for him to choose, and then explains each of these three ways out.After the explanation was over, K realized that for him these three ways out were all the same in essence, and none of them were what he wanted.The first way out is useless; the second and third ways put him in the iron net of the law forever, and he always feels the persecution of the imminent punishment, so he has to struggle hard until the end.It turns out that in order to allow K to obtain one of these three judgments, the painter intends to run for him.The painter's analysis of K's future is more straightforward than the lawyer's, which is tantamount to making a fool of K.In the narrow attic, the real is manifested in the form of thin and polluted air, in which the painter is at ease and active.But K. could not face this terrible reality nakedly, which made him unable to breathe. He was eager to get rid of the painter and go outside to breathe fresh air, that is, to return to the world of self-deception to which he was accustomed, and put All this is not happy to forget.However, the painter did not let K go, as if he had to help him, and even threatened him that if he did not come to him, he would go to the bank himself.Here the relationship between the two is reversed, and we are again reminded of sin attracting law, of the huntsman on the back of the chair.Those who could be of help in K's case were those who shattered K's illusory hopes, who showed him the truth through clear analysis, and who embodied the stern and elegant spirit of the law. demeanor.K, who lives in the mundane world, cannot accept them, and the result of every interaction is to stay away from them.

After leaving the painter's house, K realized that the painter's residence was part of the court's office. This discovery made him even more frustrated, and he fled the scene like a thief. K's fear shows that he actually feels the truth, and feeling the truth does not mean that he can live in the truth.It is impossible for anyone to live in a complete vacuum. Even in a painter's airtight and suffocating attic, there will be thin air full of soot smell infiltrating it.The lungs and heart of an ordinary man like K would never be able to adapt to that environment.