Tan Zong personally stewed chicken for Du He. In order not to pollute the temple's pot stove, he built an earthen stove in the yard.
Du He was gnawing on a big chicken leg. He waved it in front of Tan Zong and asked, "Abbot Tan Zong, you really don't want to eat it?"
Tan Zong shook his head with disgust on his face.
Du He said while eating: "I know an eminent monk who has attained enlightenment. His level is... how should I put it? It's much higher than you. The eminent monk once said: After wine and meat pass through the intestines, the Buddha will remain in his heart! You see, this thought is higher than yours."
Several levels, right?”
Tan Zong was shocked when he heard this and said: "Food and wine have gone through the intestines, but the Buddha has kept them in his heart! These words of truth and truth are true. However, I am different from the eminent monk. When I was young, I was obsessed with ghosts and went into the mountains to become a bandit. I killed many living beings.
Now that I have converted to Buddhism, I am atoneing for my sins. I just hope that I can go to the Paradise of Paradise in the future and not fall into hell."
Du He sneered and said: "It's not bullshit. Just like you, you still want to enter the Paradise. Just dream!"
Tan Zong showed displeasure and said: "Buddha once said that you should put down your butcher knife and become a Buddha immediately. Everyone has Buddha nature, so why can't they enter the Paradise of Paradise?"
Du He quickly finished chewing a chicken leg, picked up a bowl of chicken soup, and asked with a smile: "Do you really believe that you can put down the butcher knife and become a Buddha immediately?"
Tan Zong nodded with conviction.
Du He asked: "Then why do ordinary people practice cultivation all their lives? Why not everyone become a butcher. When one day they no longer want to be a butcher, they can just put down the butcher knife and become a Buddha immediately?"
Tan Zong was stunned.
This was sophistry...but he couldn't refute it.
Du He asked again: "Abbott, what do you think of a scholar who becomes a prostitute?"
Tan Zong thought for a while and said seriously: "The world is declining and customs are corrupted!"
Du He chuckled and continued to ask: "That prostitute suddenly became a good man and went to study?"
Tan Zongdao: "Of course it is worthy of praise. He was imprisoned but did not fall."
Du He put down the bowl, touched his mouth, and finally asked: "What's the difference between these two women?"
Tan Zong: "..."
The guy was speechless.
Du He stood up, patted Tan Zong on the shoulder, and said: "So, you can't become a Buddha, and you can't go to the Paradise, because the Buddha does not exist, and the Paradise does not exist either!"
boom!
Tan Zong seemed to have been struck by a bolt from the blue.
So, does Buddha really not exist?
And the paradise world does not exist?
Is what he has believed in for many years... really an illusion?
Seeing Tan Zong's foolish look, Du He patted his butt and said, "Look, I've fooled you with just a few words. It seems that your Buddha's heart is not stable. For my sake, you didn't embarrass me.
Come on, I have a gift just for you."
Tan Zong stood up in a hurry, bowed deeply, and said: "Please give me some advice from Mr. Du. I have been practicing for many years, but I didn't expect that I can't speak as few words as Mr. Du. I'm really ashamed!"
"Bring me the pen and ink!"
Tan Zong hurriedly served with pen and ink.
Under the moonlight, Du He wrote the words "Prajna Paramita Heart Sutra" with his pen and ink.
Tan Zong read it and asked curiously: "What Buddhist scripture is this? Why has I never heard of it?"
Du He smiled and said: "Of course you have never heard of it. This Heart Sutra is thousands of miles away in India."
Historically, the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra was taken by the monk Xuanzang from the west and translated into Sanskrit.
But in this era, Du He had never heard of Xuanzang's name, and did not know whether this person existed, so the "Heart Sutra" naturally did not exist.
It took more than twenty minutes for Du He to memorize the 260-word Heart Sutra without missing a word.
It turns out that when Du He was in school, he met a very strange teacher who asked everyone to copy the "Heart Sutra" and made the last question of the final exam a dictation of the Heart Sutra. Du He had a super memory and naturally memorized it.
"Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, walking in the deep Prajnaparamita for a long time, sees that all five aggregates are empty, and can survive all hardships..."
Tan Zong just read a few words and then his eyes widened.
This Heart Sutra, in just over 200 words, actually contains the supreme Buddhist principles!
Especially the sentence "No feelings, thoughts, actions, and consciousness, no eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, or thoughts, no color, sound, fragrance, or touch, no vision or even unconscious world, no ignorance, no end of ignorance, no old age and death, no end of old age, death, and no suffering.
"To gather and destroy the Tao, there is no wisdom and no gain." This immediately solved the problem that Tan Zong had not understood for many years.
Holding the handwritten copy of the Heart Sutra, Tan Zong was so excited that he grabbed Du He's sleeve and asked: "Master Du, is it really you who wrote this Heart Sutra?"
Du He smiled and said: "I didn't write it? You go to Chang'an... No, if you can find the second Heart Sutra in the entire Tang Dynasty, I, Du He, will immediately worship you as my teacher, shave my hair and practice!"
Tan Zong shook his head like a rattle: "No, no, no, you can't worship me as your teacher, I want to worship you as my teacher..."
Tan Zong is not joking. With this Heart Sutra alone, Du He is qualified to be the leader of Buddhism in the world. Even the most prestigious enlightened monk today may not be able to write a sutra that contains such profound Buddhist principles.
.
Du He was startled: "Don't be joking, I have no interest in becoming a monk!"
Tan Zong also knew that it was unrealistic for Du He to become a monk, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Master Du, this Huguo Temple still lacks an honorary leader. I intend to invite Master Du to be the honorary leader. What do you think?"
Du He looked confused: "What is a wrench for? Is it for tightening screws?"
Tan Zong didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "No, no, no, the leader of the class guides the monks in our temple to recite the Buddha's name and practice. The honorary leader of the class just has a name and can answer everyone's questions when he has time."
"Is there any benefit?" Du He couldn't afford to do it early without any benefit, so he would definitely not do anything that would be in vain.
Tan Zong said: "The status of the class leader in the temple is second only to the abbot. You become the honorary class leader of this temple. No matter which Buddhist temple you go to in the future, you will receive the highest standard of reception!"
"That's it, okay, then I agree!" Du He said nonchalantly.
Tan Zong felt happy in his heart.
Without further ado, Tan Zong hurriedly arranged for someone to give Du He a name, and also issued a ancestral certificate, which was equivalent to the monk's ID card. He only needed to file it with the ancestral department of the Central Minister of the DPRK.
Then, Tan Zong summoned more than thirty monks from Huguo Temple to gather in the main hall and announced the news that Du He would serve as the honorary leader of the temple.
Many people strongly opposed it at first, but when Tan Zong took out the Heart Sutra, everyone shut up.
All monks with a certain level of knowledge are aware of the weight of the Heart Sutra, but what they can't understand is that the famous Du He, one of the four evils of Chang'an, is actually gifted with Buddha nature and can write such a powerful classic.
, it’s really incredible.
After meeting everyone, Du He lazily returned to his room. The room he stayed in was no longer a guest room, but lived in the same courtyard as Tan Zong. It was one of the highest-standard rooms in the temple.