Chapter 623 — The Supreme Esoteric Truth of the Buddhist Order
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 4
In Licheng, Shen Mu came at first light to the temple the Buddhist order kept in the city, knocked at the gate, and handed in his card. "I have come to see Grandpa Huo," he said.
The monk who received him hurried back to report.
The reason Shen Mu asked for Grandpa Huo and not Ma Rulai was that Ma Rulai was the guide of the Buddhist way, and must sit in residence at Datingming Temple to spread the Dharma, whereas Grandpa Huo was his own kin. One was a matter of station; the other, of blood. To come before Ma Rulai he must present himself as the Human Emperor and the leader of the Heavenly Saint Cult; to come before Grandpa Huo, he came as the child Grandpa Huo had raised.
After a time the attending monk returned.
"Grandpa Huo will see you. " Shen Mu smiled and followed him into the temple.
This temple was a place granted to Datingming Temple by the gods and demons of Taihuang Heaven; the monks of Datingming Temple had built their halls here and practiced their daily cultivation.
Shen Mu looked up, and saw the Twenty Heavens hanging dim and hazy above the temple, and beneath those Twenty Heavens a great many monks ceaselessly chanting sutras, the sound of their chanting colliding in the air and turning into threads of Buddha-light that poured into the Twenty Heavens. The Twenty Heavens were the heavens of the Buddhist order; the Twenty Heavens floating above the temple were only projections of the true heavens, not the heavens themselves. Shen Mu withdrew his gaze — and there he saw a plain old man who had doffed the Tathagata's dharma robe, looking at him with a smile.
Grandpa Huo. Shen Mu's heart surged. Ever since Grandpa Huo became Ma Rulai of Datingming Temple, the hours they had to meet had grown far fewer; that Ma Rulai should strip off the Tathagata's robe and come to him as kin — how could he not be stirred? Yet this was, after all, the dharma-ground of Datingming Temple, monks on every side.
He must hold down the surging kinship in his breast; he must not bring Grandpa Huo trouble, nor disturb his state of mind. "Grandpa Huo, didn't you make contact with the Twenty Heavens long ago?
" Shen Mu steadied himself and asked curiously. "Why must you go on making contact with them even now?
Have the Buddhas of the Buddha realm never passed down higher tiers of cultivation and dharma?
" "They have. But not much. " Grandpa Huo led him over to the monks who were chanting to maintain contact with the Buddha realm.
The temple was spacious within; nearly a thousand monks sat cross-legged, some on the ground, some in the air, some atop the pagodas. "The Buddha realm's meaning is that we should devote ourselves to cultivating the Buddha's way and take no part in the strifes of the mortal dust. They have little wish to concern themselves with worldly matters; there seem to be many taboos among them.
My meaning, though, is to ask them to transmit profound methods.
The Buddha has a heart to save the world — how could he watch the mortals of the world fall into suffering and not save them? " Shen Mu looked about him. Those thousand monks, men and women, humans and demons alike, were all chanting the Buddha's names aloud, giving the Buddhas of the Twenty Heavens no peace.
This way of fighting was more like a method of harassment.