Chapter 623 — The Supreme Esoteric Truth of the Buddhist Order
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 4 of 4
" Grandpa Huo laughed. "When I was Zhankong's age I could never have had such attainments. Since you are muddled by it, let us walk out of the temple a while. " Shen Mu felt as if a great weight had lifted from him.
The two walked out of the temple, and Grandpa Huo breathed out and smiled.
"Shen'er, I am a Buddha now, and I drift further and further from you. Put on the kasaya, sit upon the Buddha's seat, and I am no longer the Grandpa Huo of old; in my eyes you are all living beings. But when I step down from the Buddha's seat and take off those robes, I am the Grandpa Huo of our Yincan Village, Constable Ma — and you are the child I watched grow up.
" Shen Mu suddenly embraced him tightly. Grandpa Huo was stunned for a moment, then smiled and patted his back.
"Zhankong learns very fast.
Chenghuai is a good boy too. In days to come it is those two who will inherit the mantle of Datingming Temple. When that time comes I will no longer be the Tathagata; I will return to Yincan Village, and I will laugh and talk with you all again, and eat meat and drink wine. " Shen Mu asked, "Why will the Buddhas of the Twenty Heavens neither transmit the dharma nor come down to help? Has Grandpa Huo asked them the reason? " "I have.
One Buddha told me that the reason Datingming Temple has been preserved through all the calamities of the ages is precisely that we do not ask; if we asked, we could not be preserved.
They told me not to ask either. " Grandpa Huo sighed. "This time I used the low trick the Silent Craftsman taught me. The Silent Craftsman told me to have the monks chant the Buddhas' names, to disturb their purity, to plague them past enduring — only then would they speak with you.
If we win this debate, the Buddhas of the Twenty Heavens have promised three places, three quotas, to enter the Buddha realm and study. But they still will not let anyone of the Buddha realm come down to help.
I have thought it over: three places are better than none. " At that very moment an uproar suddenly rose from the temple, and the cheers of the monks came surging out. Shen Mu and Grandpa Huo exchanged a glance and hurried back, dashing into the temple, where they saw the monks tossing the demon ape high into the air, catching him, tossing him up again!
"We've won, we've won! " the monks shouted, leaping for joy.