On the way back, I kept thinking, what on earth was my mother going to say to me? What on earth did she discover? What kind of surprise will it bring me this time? I was as eager as if I had won a lottery and was going to claim the prize.
But from the first moment I met her, I even had a feeling that all this was nonsense.
How long have I been without this woman who has lost her man for twenty years?
Including the last time I fought against Zhao Dakui, I hurried back to Thousand Buddha Cave and didn’t even have time to come back and see her. Do I have to wait until my son wants to be filial but my relatives are not around before I know how to put down what I am pursuing and spend more time with her? This poor woman?
Is the lost person more important, or the living person standing at the door waiting for my return?
The impatience I felt at first was all gone now, and I didn't even want to mention the purpose of my return. I deceived myself and said that I came back just because I missed my mother, and it had nothing to do with all the so-called nonsense.
I supported her and said: Mom, why are you coming to pick me up at the door? I don’t know the way.
She smiled kindly and said slowly: I just knew you were coming back. I couldn't sit still at home. I thought it would be nice to see you early. I happened to be bored in the house, so I went out for a walk. Who knew you just happened to be there? came back.
One sentence almost made me burst into tears again. Mom, you can only lie to yourself by saying this, right? Who knows how long you waited outside the door before you "just happened to meet me back"
When I got to the house, I never said anything that would ruin the warmth of the moment. I forced my mother onto the table, and then went to fetch a basin of hot water. My mother asked me blankly: What are you doing fetching hot water?
I smiled naively and said: Let my son wash your feet.
After saying that, I couldn't help but take off her shoes and wash her feet carefully, very carefully, more carefully than I did anything before. I touched my head and said with a smile: When did you become so sensible? Already?
I pretended: When did your son become ignorant?
After washing her feet, I walked with her to the park, and then ate the food she cooked by herself while I prepared the meal next to her. I felt calm and peaceful like never before. By the time I finished eating, it was already dark, and I originally wanted her to go to rest early. , she grabbed me and said with a smile: Okay, mistress, mom already knows what you are thinking. I am very happy that you can become so sensible, but you don’t need to have any psychological burden. Remember, you have to do it. It's correct, just keep doing this, mom is still young, isn't she? It's not that pretentious.
Besides, you also want our family of five to reunite as soon as possible.
She pulled me to the table, got up and went to the room to get a stack of paper. Then she sat across from me and pushed the paper over. I picked it up and looked at it. There was a monk on the top, giving a sermon, and countless people kneeling down below. The devout believers are exactly the same as the first mural we saw in Thousand Buddha Cave.
The old lady said: Actually, the first thing you need to figure out at Thousand Buddha Cave is who this monk is. You said in your letter that the last living monk said a lot of incomprehensible words, which seemed to be Buddhist scriptures. , in my opinion, although the other words are difficult to understand, one of them is very crucial.
I am not the Tathagata.
Judging from this sentence, your guess is probably wrong. This monk's words should be taken literally. He is not the Tathagata.
Hearing my mother's shocking words, my heart suddenly lifted up and I asked: Isn't it Tathagata? Is it impossible? You haven't seen the formation on the top floor. He is sitting in the middle, and there are two rows of Bodhisattvas and Arhats around him.
King Kong and other things, Tathagata coming out, who has such a big pomp?
My mother smiled and said: I thought about it, there is a chance that he is not the Tathagata, because Sakyamuni was burned into a relic after his death. This is a sure thing. How many places are this thing enshrined?
There can be no lies. Besides, I have never heard that he came to China to preach. Buddhism was not really spread to China until much later.
After saying that, she took out a piece of paper from a pile of papers, handed it to me, and said: Look at this.
When I looked at it, I saw printed text on it. I don’t know where she found the information. In order to make it easier for me to read, she printed it out. It said:
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva was entrusted by Sakyamuni Buddha to assume the important task of teaching and enlightening sentient beings in the six realms in the Buddhaless world after Sakyamuni's death and before the birth of the future Buddha Maitreya. His status is equivalent to that of "acting Buddha". "Earth"
The Sutra of the Original Vows also says that Sakyamuni Buddha summoned the great master Ksitigarbha and made him the Lord of Youming, so that all people in the world who have relatives can be recommended by the Supreme Being and ascend to the Land of Ultimate Bliss together.
I made a grand vow: "I will set up convenient methods for all sentient beings in the six realms of sin and suffering, so that they can be liberated, and then I can achieve the Buddha's path myself." ("Ksitigarbha Sutra: The No. 1 Supernatural Powers of Trayasa Palace") Therefore, Ksitigarbha is also called
"Great Wish Ksitigarbha" echoes the "great compassion" of Guanyin, the "great wisdom" of Manjusri, and the "great conduct" of Samantabhadra.
My scalp went numb because I found that I couldn’t understand the above at all. My mother saw my embarrassment and said with a smile: Can’t you understand? I told you to read more before, but you still didn’t listen. This paragraph
What this means is that after Sakyamuni died, he actually gave up his position as the leader of Buddhism to Ksitigarbha. During that period of time, Ksitigarbha was the leader of Buddhism. So, you are underground
If the numerous Bodhisattvas and Arhats we saw were really Ksitigarbha, it would make sense.
Another point is that Ksitigarbha’s Dharma Ground is in Jiuhua Mountain. This is the only Buddha whose Dharmakaya has manifested in China.
And the most important point is that the Buddhist painting you got at the foot of Yulin Mountain was left by your father. Last time, you found Dunhuang because of a Buddhist painting. Now that I think about it, it’s a strange combination of circumstances.
Well, you are lucky enough.
Think about it, because of the Buddha, I thought of the Mogao Grottoes, but if I talk about Buddhism, wouldn’t there be the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang? Why did you go to Dunhuang instead of the nearer? So, the last time was just a coincidence.
I feel that your father’s real intention of keeping that painting was to ask, is that Buddha’s identity Ksitigarbha?
I nodded. These three pieces of evidence were too strong and absolutely reasonable. First, Ksitigarbha, that is, the Silla monk Jin Qiaojue from Mount Jiuhua did come to China, and when he passed away,
The true form of Ksitigarbha manifested. Regardless of whether this is a rumor or not, in short, it can be determined that he is Ksitigarbha.
Second, Ksitigarbha had been the acting leader of the Buddhist sect and had led the Buddhist sect, so he could fully enjoy the treatment in the Thousand Buddha Cave.
Third, the Buddhist painting my father once left was of Ksitigarbha. Now thinking about it, it was really a fluke last time. If that Buddhist painting simply refers to the Mogao Grottoes, any Buddha can be used, right? Manjusri.
Bodhisattva, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Victorious Buddha, Purifying Altar Messenger, etc. It just happened to be Ksitigarbha, so that meant something else, not to mention, that Buddhist painting looked very coquettish and weird.
I said: Then, you can be sure that the monk in the Thousand Buddha Cave is Ksitigarbha?
My mother shook her head and said: Not necessarily.
When all the evidence pointed to the fact that the seemingly righteous monk who appeared at the Thousand Buddha Cave at the last moment was Ksitigarbha, my mother said it was not certain. I was immediately confused again and asked: If not Ksitigarbha, then who is Ksitigarbha?
who?
My mother smiled and asked me: Mistress, when do you think shaving your head started? In other words, have you always thought that only Buddhist monks can shave their heads?
In front of my mother, I can always hide my ignorance without any scruples. First, I feel that our IQs are not at the same level at all. Pretending to be smart with her is self-destructive. Secondly, isn't this my mother?
? There is no need to pretend. He shook his head and said: Mom, please stop teasing me. You don’t know the virtues of your own son? Tell me quickly. Tell me quickly.
She once again pulled out a piece of paper from the paper pile. On it was a black and white painting printed with ink. The painting was still a monk. She didn't ask me this time, but said: If I asked you to guess, I would definitely think that this monk is
People in Buddhism are actually not like that.
This monk was the ruling class of ancient India before Buddhism - Brahmins. Let's put it this way. In fact, history has clearly stated that there were four classes in ancient India: Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras.
Brahmins are superior to all classes, but Brahmins are priests and monks. Therefore, the earliest gradient bald heads did not originate from Buddhism.
And the most important point is that the Brahmin god is the protector of Buddhism.
The reason why you say this is because you said that you are at the bottom of the Thousand Buddha Cave. Among the murals, the monks in the murals are kneeling and worshiping a woman. The two of them should have a subordinate relationship.
It was this that made the identity of the monk blurry. Buddhism began to flourish in the hands of Sakyamuni. When Sakyamuni was alive, the rule of Brahman had been broken. If that monk was Ksitigarbha,
, then he has no reason to kneel down and worship someone.
At this point, my mother looked suspicious, slapped herself on the forehead, and shouted: Oh, that's it, that monk is indeed Ksitigarbha, and the woman he is kneeling to is probably a Brahmin.
God!
I have always thought that Buddhism during the Ksitigarbha period did not need to be so respectful to any force, but I forgot that before Buddhism completely replaced Brahman, it was subordinate to Brahmin.
That's right, and your other question is easily solved.
Do you still remember that you said in your letter that you didn't understand that the monk wanted to kneel down and worship the woman, but the place where they were buried together was named Thousand Buddha Cave? In this way, the dignity is reversed.
I nodded and said: My dear, I have never understood this. Which boss can tolerate his younger brother being more famous than himself?
My mother smiled and said: Now let’s sort it out from the beginning, starting from the murals, step by step.
The monk belongs to women, and he is introducing a method to rejuvenate women. According to the mural, we can understand that the monk said to the woman, look at this Taoist priest, he can change from an old man to a child. Why can he change his age?
What? Because this Taoist priest waded through a coffin on a mountain.
This mountain is the mountain with the two mysterious ancient characters in the mural.
After witnessing the Taoist priest's rejuvenation process, the woman was so moved that she led her soldiers to attack the mountain and obtained the iron coffin.
After getting the iron coffin, the woman built the so-called Thousand Buddha Cave underground, with the goal of burying herself in the iron coffin and rejuvenating her youth.
Here is an important point. When a woman was building this underground tomb, the tomb might not be called Thousand Buddha Cave.
After the woman buried herself, she did not actually rejuvenate, and something huge happened - she was deceived by the monk and the Taoist priest. Therefore, the woman possessed your friend and always wanted to take revenge on the monk.
After the woman buried herself, Buddhism rose and took the opportunity to replace Brahman's position.
Therefore, the so-called iron coffin that can rejuvenate youth is just a conspiracy of the monk to kill this woman.
You said in your letter that the monk, at the last moment, said to the "ghost" with the slender face who possessed your friend: He was floating in the world of mortals just to save you today.
This sentence is very interesting. It shows that the monk has always expected that one day a woman will come to seek revenge on her. In other words, the monk knows what will happen if a woman is buried in an iron coffin, so he has a backup plan.
The monk came to Thousand Buddha Cave after the woman buried herself in the iron coffin, occupied the magpie's nest, and changed the name of the tomb that originally belonged to the woman.
That's why there was a change in hierarchy. In your words, the eldest brother and his younger brother were buried together, but they were named after the younger brother. Just because the name was given by the younger brother after the eldest brother was sealed.
This can better explain the structure of the entire Thousand Buddha Cave, why there is an empty sarcophagus on the second floor, and why there is a bodhi tree on the second floor.
This is an arrangement for women. According to the concept of dignity, the second floor is the position of the monk.
But later, he went to the fourth floor and made arrangements.
If your father went to the Thousand Buddha Cave because of eternal life, then what attracted them should also be the Taoist priest's rejuvenation. Like that woman, they were deceived by the Taoist priest.
Therefore, the girl named Bai will tell you: everything is fake and everyone is wrong.
Yes, from the very beginning, the so-called rejuvenation was a trap set up by monks and Taoist priests, which deceived everyone. Wasn’t it just what the little girl said, “Everything is fake and everyone is wrong?”
"
But one thing that needs to be said in particular is that even if the iron coffin cannot rejuvenate itself and will mutate, it will not be too bad, because if it is too obviously fake, it will not be able to deceive the woman. After all, the most powerful person can
The god-like existence of Brahmanism is definitely not that easy to deceive.
I interjected: Mom, you mean like the Sunflower Book, you can practice magic skills that are invincible in the world, but you have to stay in the palace? That iron coffin must have the effect of immortality or rejuvenation, but the side effects are even greater?
My mother nodded and said: That's how you can deceive people. Just like a sentence, if it's all lies, you won't be able to deceive people. Only if it's 30% true and 70% false can it be easily believed.
Your father may have learned some secret from that iron coffin, so he continues to pursue it. Maybe they want to perfect the iron coffin and eliminate the side effects.
At this point, I was extremely shocked, because in the end, all of my mother's speculations coincided with Zheng Bishan's words.
The purpose of my father and others is to perfect the longevity method, to accumulate the experience of previous generations step by step, and to learn from each other's strengths.
From Zheng Bishan's mouth, I learned about the so-called method of obtaining immortality from the tombs of outstanding figures of all generations, and then my father and others perfected it step by step. I was skeptical at first, because anyway, Zheng Bishan was just an old man I met for the first time.
.
If I believe whatever a person says when I meet him, then I am a bit too naive.
But now that my mother has said such words, I have to believe it, not only because she is my mother and there is no need to lie to me, but all her speculations are one after another, and her conclusions are...
It can withstand scrutiny.
Four words, the evidence is conclusive.
Speaking of which, my mother and I no longer know what to say. We can understand that people pursue immortality, but those who pursue immortality throughout the ages are not emperors or generals, but at the very least they are high-level people from some mountain top.
. Or the bastard spirit controls the past and present, Genghis Khan, Li Shimin, Liu Bowen, Zhang Sanfeng, Zhuge Liang, and even the headless Li Zhongzhi we met in the Yulin Mountain Tomb, who were also high officials in the imperial court.
But what about my dad?
Zhao Jianguo, Zhao Kuangren? A grumpy tomb robber with a reputation in several villages, and at most a name in the industry? I never belittled myself and despised my father for saying that he was not worthy of exploring this, because in my impression,
Dad was always a tough guy.
After such a long period of pursuit, I learned about his step-by-step approach, setting up countless mysteries step by step. Even Zhang Tianyi sincerely admired: Fortunately, Zhao Jianguo has no intention of pursuing an official career. Otherwise, it would be really hard to see how far he could go with his skills.
Is it difficult to say, a Central Committee member in his fifties? Is it difficult for Zhengguo?
Therefore, Zhao Jianguo, my father, cannot be said to be unqualified to get involved in something that no one in China has succeeded in for five thousand years.
However, so many outstanding people have not succeeded, can he?
Is it worth abandoning your wife for an illusory thing?
This is an era that laughs at the poor but not at prostitution. If Zhao Jianguo succeeds, OK, he will be promoted in a day. What an awesome person. But what if he fails? Outsiders will laugh at him 2b, and it is inevitable that he is mentally disturbed.
But because of this, I feel that he can do it.
Because he is not a hasty person, let alone an idealist. Since he has done this, he must have his own ideas. According to his character, at least he must be 70% sure to realize it, otherwise he will not
Will take risks.
Thinking of this, I stared at my mother and asked slowly: Mom, if, as I said before, one day my father came back and brought back the method of immortality, what would you do?
A question was thrown to her, which made her, who was always wise and indifferent, change her face slightly. She smiled bitterly and said: You child, you are immortal. I really have never thought about this question, but now that I think about it, I have been living like a monster.
What do you mean? You might as well live happily for the rest of your life.
I nodded and said with a smile: Actually, that’s what I thought too. How can you live so long without being exhausted? Oh, Mom, this is the most incredible thing. Why did we go down to Thousand Buddha Cave for the second time?
In the tomb passage at the beginning, will the scenery be exactly the same? It's like traveling through time, it's weird as hell.
My mother shook her head and said: I have searched a lot about this thing, but there are no clues at all. It is just my personal guess. Didn’t you say that you saw the stele with the cave of Thousand Buddhas inscribed on it, and the direction of the woman carrying the stele was completely reversed?
But this is an institution.
In other words, it is possible that the memory here was memorized for a certain period of time, and then when the woman carrying the monument changed direction, she returned to that memory period.
Of course, my guess is quite absurd in itself, but I feel that there should be something wrong with this stele. The woman with a straight face on the hunchback stele and the stele with the words Thousand Buddha Cave engraved on it are not a whole.
If you think about it, if it were a whole, it would be impossible for the direction of the stone monument to not be rotated, but the direction of the woman has changed.
Now let's go back to the previous question. The Thousand Buddha Cave itself is not called the Thousand Buddha Cave. It is a tomb that the woman built for herself.
So, if the guess is correct, there should be only one woman at the door of this tomb at the beginning. Because no matter what, she would not be able to let herself go to the stele. There should be no stone stele at this time.
That is this stone tablet. When Ksitigarbha took over the Thousand Buddha Cave, he deliberately erected it on this woman.
First, it is for eternal suppression. This is very common in history. If a person rebels against the old master, the tomb of the old master will be suppressed.
Second, it may be Ksitigarbha who himself knows the secret of how the stone sculpture of a woman with a straight face can rotate. Of course, this possibility is very high, because the person who knows him best is his enemy. What's more, Ksitigarbha is here
In the past, I was under the control of this woman, so it was normal for me to understand a lot.
Perhaps, a huge stone tablet was placed on top of this stone sculpture to suppress it by weight and prevent it from rotating? But because your second brother and the others touched some mechanism, it re-rotated? And you were recorded again.
Second brother’s memory of the last time they came?
I stared at my mother with wide eyes, making her feel embarrassed, and said angrily: You child, why are you looking at me like this?
I cupped my hands and said, "Don't say anything. Older people are still smarter. Mom, I really admire your brain. In the past, I just felt that you and my father were more harmonious. Now I realize that you two are a perfect match."
In terms of IQ, only my dad can match you, and only you can be a perfect match for my dad.
Hearing my somewhat flattering words, my mother's complexion suddenly changed, and then she let out a long sigh and said: People, they are all forced out, just like your father, he used to be able to use his fists
To solve the problem, you must use your brain. What now? Even Zhang Fei can use thirty-six strategies. Isn't this something he was forced to do? Look at you, you were not a boss who only knew how to eat, drink and have fun before?
Haven’t you learned to use your brain now?
After speaking, she continued: The reason why I mentioned this issue last is because it is too important. I also tried to sort it out, but found it difficult.
Why did Liu Bowen and Li Zhongzhi appear in front of Ksitigarbha?