In the early morning, as usual, Monk Zhiba, the knowledgeable monk of Yanxing Temple, opened the door of the temple and saw a pale face standing in front of the temple door.
After seeing clearly who the owner of this face was, Monk Zhiba was immediately startled. He hurriedly ran out the door, supported him with both hands, and asked with concern.
"Abbott! What's wrong with you..."
The frustrated monk Jizang did not answer him, but reached out and patted his shoulder gently and said in a low voice.
"You're here just in time, Zhiba! Go and inform Huiyuan, Huijun, Zhikai, Zhiming, Huizhen and others, and ask them to come to the old monk's meditation room to meet me."
After finishing speaking, Monk Jizang tremblingly stepped over the railing of Yanxing Temple and walked towards the inside of the temple. His skinny back looked very helpless under the sunlight.
"correct……"
After taking about ten trembling steps forward, Monk Jizang stopped again, turned around, and added to Monk Zhiba.
"Call Ji Shi here too!"
"yes!"
Monk Zhiba did not dare to neglect, clasped his hands together and agreed.
After seeing Zhiba's agreement, Monk Jizang nodded slightly, with a kind look on his wrinkled face.
"Go ahead, call them, and then come to the old monk's meditation room!"
After finishing speaking, Monk Jizang raised his head again and looked at the front yard of the temple very seriously and carefully, with a complex emotion in his eyes. Then he slowly turned around and walked towards his meditation room.
Looking at the other party's back, Monk Zhiba vaguely felt an ominous premonition welling up in his heart.
He shook his head and put aside this unreasonable mood, then waved and called a young novice next to him.
"Mingjing, you go to Ganquan Temple right now and ask Monk Zhishi to come to Yanxing Temple, and tell Monk Jizang that he has something to do with him."
"yes!"
After seeing the little novice Mingjing trotting away from the temple, Monk Zhiba turned around and walked quickly towards the Zen room where the monk rested.
"What happened to the great monk Jizang?"
Thump thump thump…
More than an hour later, after a burst of hurried footsteps, Monk Zhishi panted and opened the door of Monk Jizang's Zen room, saying with an apologetic expression.
"I'm sorry, master! I'm late..."
Before Monk Zhishi could finish what he said, he saw seven or eight monks sitting in the room turning their heads at the same time, looking at him with warning eyes, and choked back what he had not yet said.
"You don't have to be like this..."
At this time, Monk Jizang, who was sitting on the side of the meditation room, leaning on the desk and writing something seriously, raised his head and smiled at these monks. His gray face seemed to be a little rosy under the smile.
"The matter of life and death is great and unpredictable. Even the Buddha will pass away one day under the two salas, let alone me, the old monk."
"What?"
After Monk Zhishi, who had not yet entered the door, heard what Monk Jizang said, he suddenly felt as if he had been hit hard on the head.
"Master, are you going to die... are you going to pass away?"
"That's right!"
Monk Jizang stopped the brush in his hand, picked up the page he had just written on, blew it with his mouth, then raised his head and smiled at all the monks.
"Today is the day when the old monk will pass away and enter death."
Snapped!
Monk Zhishi, who had just arrived from Ganquan Temple, instantly felt weak and fell to his knees on the ground, with a look of disbelief on his face as he murmured.
"Impossible. Master, your cultivation is so advanced that you have reached the point where you cannot move. How could you die?"
As he spoke, he seemed to have come to his senses. He rushed to Monk Ji Zang while crawling on the ground, and asked with a hint of hope in his eyes while crying.
"Master, you are lying to us, right? You have overcome the sea of suffering and achieved the fruit of Bodhisattva, so you must enter the cave of heaven instead of Nirvana, right?"
"Fool..."
Monk Jizang stopped the brush in his hand, stretched out his hand and touched Monk Zhishi's head.
"Don't you still understand the truth that death comes from birth? If there is no birth, how can there be death? When you see all things in their first birth, you know that they will eventually die. What is so scary and sad about this?
Shouldn’t it be life that you should be more afraid and sad about?”
As he spoke, Monk Jizang placed the brush on the pen holder, shakily arranged the paper in front of him, and pushed it to the side.
"This article "The Theory of No Fear of Death" is something that I only understood today. It can be regarded as the last teaching I can give you... Huiyuan!"
"exist!"
A monk who looked to be in his forties bowed and respectfully agreed.
"What the old monk learned, you have gained my bone marrow. After the old monk passes away today, you should be the leader of the Three Treatises Sect and promote my way."
As he spoke, Monk Jizang reached out and picked up a neatly folded black cassock and a copper-colored alms bowl from the side of the table, and solemnly handed it to Monk Huiyuan.
"This is the mantle that was passed down to me when my master, Monk Farang, gave me a prophecy in the past. The old monk passes it on to you today."
"yes!"
Monk Huiyuan knelt forward and walked in front of Monk Jizang. He bowed again, stretched out his hands and respectfully took the cassock and alms bowl from Monk Jizang, and answered solemnly.
"The poor monk must live up to the great monk's trust."
After seeing Monk Huiyuan take over the mantle, Monk Jizang nodded slightly, as if he had something on his mind, and then he looked at the other monks present.
"You should also work hard and help Huiyuan to make our San Lun Sect prosperous!"
"yes!"
Except for the whimpering monk Zhishi who was lying on the lap of Monk Jizang, the other monks present bowed to Monk Jizang at the same time and answered respectfully.
"I accept your order!"
"besides……"
Monk Jizang stroked Monk Zhishi's back with his hand and spoke gently to these monks.
"Our Three Commentaries Sect has just been established. Don't be too competitive, especially now that Taoism has become a foregone conclusion in the Buddha. You must be careful and don't make enemies with the Taishi Bureau over some insignificant things."
"yes!"
The monks present bowed again and respectfully agreed.
"besides……"
Monk Jizang stretched out his hand and pointed to the bookshelf behind him.
"In recent years, the old monk has re-edited the "Zhonglunshu" and "Bailunshu". If you don't understand anything about the essence of my three essays, you can check it out by yourself."
"yes!"
These monks agreed respectfully.
"Ahem..."
After passing down his mantle and his works, Monk Jizang seemed to have settled all his worries. He coughed twice and waved his hands feebly.
"You go down and come back here tomorrow morning to greet the old monk's body."
"Yes!" After hearing the words of Monk Jizang, the eyes of the monks present instantly turned red. They bowed silently to Monk Jizang one by one, and then quietly withdrew, crying loudly by the way.
Monk Zhishi also took him out.
After these monks left, with a soft "swish" sound, a woman in black appeared in the Zen room.
Her face was covered with tears, she was crying bitterly, and her eyes were swollen like peaches.
"Master..."
"well……"
Monk Jizang sighed and waved to the woman in black. Then he saw the woman in black kneeling down immediately, walked over on her knees, and knelt down in front of Monk Jizang.
Monk Jizang raised his hand and wiped the tears from the face of the woman in black.
"Although the old monk is not afraid of death, he still can't let you go..."
Saying that, Monk Jizang rubbed the head of the woman in black with his hand with a calm expression.
"Actually, the old monk has never liked you doing this kind of life-and-death behavior, and he doesn't want you to avenge the old monk..."
"No!"
The woman in black suddenly took two steps back, stood up, her almond-shaped eyes widened, and her face was ferocious.
"I, Pei Xinru, must avenge the Master, whether it is Kong Kong Jingjing or Fu Yi, or Yuancong Imperial Guard and Taishi Bureau, or even Hu'er Li Yuan and his son Li Shimin... in short, everyone related to today's events
, don’t even think about having a good time.”
"Alas! Xinru, you are no match for these people, give up..."
Monk Jizang looked at the woman in black and shook his head slightly.
"Don't talk about powerful people like Hu Er Li Yuan and his son Li Shimin, Taishi Bureau Su Yuanlang and Kong Kong Jingjing. Fu Yi, the weakest among these people you mentioned, is a real person from the Taoist sect, and his strength is far superior to yours.
If Jing Jing'er hadn't been so proud today, you would have been dead if I had let you go. Listen to the old monk, don't take revenge, and live a good life!"
"impossible!"
Pei Xinru suddenly took a step back, her face firm.
"The fact that he won't kill me just means that God wants to spare my life to avenge you, Master..."
"Oh! You..."
Monk Jizang sighed slightly, picked up a letter he had just written from the side of the case, raised it tremblingly, and handed it to the woman in black.
"In the past, your master Yinniang owed the old monk a favor. Now the old monk has transferred this favor to you. I hope I can help you once!"
"Master..."
Pei Xinru looked at the trembling body of Monk Jizang, who used to be vigorous and fierce, and took the letter with both hands. Big tears fell from her eyes, streaking across her handsome face.
She closed her eyes suddenly and fell to the ground.
"Xinru bids farewell to the master. After the slave family avenges you, I will come to Huangquan to see you again!"
"Actually, you really don't need to report..."
Before Monk Jizang finished speaking, Pei Xinru's figure had disappeared.
"well!"
Monk Jizang sighed, lowered his eyelids, put his fingers on his wrist and grabbed it twice out of habit, and then he remembered that his string of rosary beads was no longer in his hand.
He smiled bitterly, then turned around and picked off a new string of rosary beads from the wall behind him, and slowly started to turn them in his hands.
"Neither birth nor death, neither permanent nor continuous, neither one nor different, neither coming nor coming out..."
The chanting voice became deeper and deeper, lighter and lighter, and finally the voice was completely cut off, and the head of the monk Jizang also lowered slightly and became motionless.