This place was supposed to be a beautiful resort in the south of the Yangtze River, but at a glance, he saw a lot of corpses lying on the ground. Their clothes were very shabby, and many of them didn't even have clothes, let alone armor.
It has not rained for many days. This year, the entire Tang Dynasty is experiencing drought. However, this battlefield is full of mud. The reason is very simple. The blood and body fluids of the dead bodies have stained the land with moisture, so that the mud and blood are mixed together.
In one piece, when you step on it, you can hear the sound of "pah, pah, pah, pah" footsteps.
The local garrison down there was cleaning up the battlefield. They said they were cleaning up the battlefield. In fact, they had no intention of burying the corpses. They were just looking for any oil or water on these miserable corpses. If there were any, they were still breathing.
When the wounded were injured, they would stab them to death.
Lu Yan stood high up, his eyes blank, as if he couldn't see what was happening below.
The sound of footsteps was heard, but Lu Yan did not turn around. He also knew that Feng Seng Shou was coming.
This person was a Buddhist disciple he met when he came to Jiangnan to quell civil unrest. He claimed to be a monk from Songshan Shaolin. Both of them came to quell the unrest at the invitation of Lou Guan Taoism, so they became friends without knowing it.
, and together they killed many rebel generals.
Feng Sengshou's hands were now covered with blood and flesh foam. He picked up a rag taken from an unknown corpse, wiped it casually, and then said: "We deliberately avoided civilians and only killed
The leader of the thieves and the generals, but when these officers and soldiers saw an opportunity, they ran up to chase them and killed them all."
"The poor monk went down to argue with the officers and soldiers, but he was treated as a soft persimmon by them. It's really unreasonable! It's also strange that the poor monk didn't keep the precepts strictly, and he actually got angry and sent them to the West on the spot. Namo Amitabha
,sin,sin,sin!”
"Yeah." Lu Yan just snorted lightly and responded.
Feng Sengshou wiped his hands clean, but he could still see that the red color on them seemed to be stained with some kind of paint. He made Buddhist rituals with his hands, and then looked at Lu Yan: "Chun Yangzi, you have a lot on your mind?"
Lu Yan chuckled softly: "Is it obvious?"
Feng Sengshou laughed: "It's quite obvious. Are you soft-hearted?"
Lu Yan was silent for a while and then asked: "You are a very hard-hearted monk. You also drink alcohol and eat meat. Killing people is commonplace. You are not careful or serious. You are not clean in the six roots and do not uphold the eight precepts. You don't know how to do it?"
Do you doubt whether what you are doing is right?”
"Killing, stealing, lewdness, lying, drinking, incense, luxury goods, and eating indiscriminately are all appearances. What really matters is your heart." Feng Sengshou recited the Buddha's name, and then said, "Thoughts.
Consciousness, form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from color, Chunyangzi, you are in a state of confusion."
Lu Yan no longer looked at the corpse-strewn battlefield below, but looked up at the sunset and sunset in the distance, and said, "Am I in a state of confusion? I don't know, I have a junior brother who said that this world shouldn't be like this.
Yeah, it shouldn't be this painful."
Feng Sengshou laughed loudly: "Amitabha, all living beings are suffering, but the important thing is whether you can break through the appearance of this sea of suffering, understand the mysteries of the universe, and look at problems from the essence of things."
Lu Yan said: "You gave me a grape to eat. It was rotten and moldy on the outside, but you told me not to care about the appearance. Those are all fake. The important thing is that it is still good on the inside. I used to
I believe it all, but I don’t believe it anymore.”
Feng Sengshou replied: "Grapes that are rotten on the inside may not be rotten on the outside. Grapes that are rotten on the outside may be just ripe on the inside. Whether a grape is delicious or not depends not on how good it looks, but how sweet it tastes when you eat it."
Not sweet. Sweet, they are good grapes, it’s just that your junior brother can’t see how good they are.”
Lu Yan shook his head: "I have seen the rotten appearance of the grapes. When I eat them, I don't know whether they are sweet or not. I can't swallow them."
Feng Sengshou frowned and asked: "No one knows how many grapes are rotting in the ground in this world. You have protected the grapes in the Central Plains, but what about the ones in the Western Regions? You have protected the grapes, but where are the oranges? Where are the orchids? Where are the weeds? You
Can you protect us? The most common thing in the world is weeds. Wildfires can’t burn them all, and spring breezes blow them again. They are of no use, but they are everywhere in the world!”
"If you don't want to eat rotten grapes, that's easy. When you and I become immortals and colleagues in heaven, we will receive the salary of immortal fruits and wine, and we will no longer have to eat rotten grapes in the world."
Lu Yan glanced at Feng Sengshou and asked with a smile: "Don't you Shaolin people pay attention to saving all sentient beings?"
Feng Seng Shou said: "Then I'm afraid you don't understand. The origin of our Shaolin is not Mahayana Buddhism. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Patriarch Bhadra practiced Hinayana Zen Buddhism in India. Because of the guidance of experts, he and the Sinian Shenzhou
Due to fate, he traveled around the country, passed through the countries in the Western Regions, and came to the Northern Wei Dynasty to preach the Hinayana Buddhism."
"Patriarch Bhadra taught the "Ten Grounds" Buddhist Dharma to Emperor Xiaowen, and won the respect and trust of Emperor Xiaowen, so he built the Shaolin Temple for him in Shaoshi Mountain, Songshan Mountain, to spread Hinayana Buddhism widely."
"Later, Zen Master Damo crossed the river with a reed and came to Shaolin Temple to teach Mahayana Zen. The two schools of Buddhism merged and developed year by year. This is how Shaolin Zen is today. Therefore, the monks in Shaolin have the Mahayana that is determined to help the world.
"Sangha, there are also self-indulgent people like me who only seek to attain the Tao through ten abodes of practice."
Lu Yan looked at Feng Sengshou: "But you haven't achieved fruition yet, haven't you? In the eyes of the gods, you are not a grape, at most you are just a fruit."
"You still don't understand." Feng Sengshou shook his head and told Lu Yan a story in "The Sutra of Allegories and Examples of the Buddha".
"Then the World-Honored One, in the midst of the crowd, addressed the King of Victory Light and said: Great King, I am going to give you a brief illustration of how life and death bring about troubles. Your Majesty, please listen carefully and meditate on it."
"Going back in time, for immeasurable kalpas, there was a man who was wandering in the wilderness and was chased by an evil elephant. He was afraid and had no way to go. He saw an empty well with tree roots nearby. He looked under the roots and hid in the well. There were two rats, black and white, interacting with each other.
There are four venomous snakes on the four sides of the well that want to sting the person. They are afraid of dragons and snakes, and they are afraid that the roots of the tree will break. Five drops of honey from the roots of the tree fall into the mouth, and the tree shakes and the bees scatter, stinging the person.
Wildfires come again and burn this tree."
This parable mentioned in the sutra can be described in vernacular like this:
In the vast wilderness, a traveler was on his way. Suddenly, a ferocious elephant galloped towards him. Just when he was frightened, panicked and desperate, he saw a well in front of him, and there happened to be a well hanging next to it.
A long and thick tree root reached into the well, so he grabbed the root and climbed down without hesitation.
When he relaxed and looked around, he saw two mice, one white and one black, gnawing at the roots of the tree desperately. The roots would break at any time. And there were four venomous snakes beside the well, sticking out their tongues and trying to bite him.
The bottom is even more terrifying, a terrifying poisonous dragon is waiting for him to fall.