Reaching to the Sky

Chapter 103: Daily life of a monk

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"What do you want me to say? I was sent to farm not long after I entered. I haven't even stepped through the gate of the monastery." The fat man said with a grin.

Nanfeng nodded. Foguang Temple is divided into two areas, one is the monk's residence at the foot of the mountain, and the other is Foguang Zen Temple on the mountainside. This is where the stupa is enshrined, and it is also where the eminent monks in the temple do their meditation. Like Fatty, There is no chance for foreign monks to go there.

"Tell me about the monk's daily routine." Nanfeng said.

The fat man took a sip of wine, put the cork back on, and said, "I'll get up at three quarters after ringing the clock, get dressed and wash up, and then go to the Mahavira Hall for morning prayers..."

Nan Feng interrupted the fat man, "It's too general. Please be more specific. How long does it take to get dressed and wash up? When will you go to the Main Hall?"

The fat man knew that Nanfeng asked these questions to help him obtain the Eightfold Golden Body, so he carefully told the daily life of the monks in Foguang Temple. He got up at three quarters of the clock, dressed and washed, and went to the latrine. A little more than a quarter of an hour later, it was Yinshiwu when we arrived at the Main Hall to gather.

An hour is divided into eight quarters. The fifth and sixth quarters are the time for worshiping Buddha. The seventh and eighth quarters are the time for worship and repentance. To put it bluntly, the so-called worship and repentance is to reflect and repent for the bad things done before.

Morning classes officially begin at 10 o'clock, and eight sutras, including the Heart Sutra, need to be recited and last for half an hour.

After the morning class is the time for martial arts training, which also lasts for half an hour.

Chenshi went to Wuguantang for dinner. Wuguantang is the Zhaitang. The meal time is two quarters of an hour.

The period from breakfast to noon is the time to meditate. For foreign monks like Fatty and the novice monks who have never been ordained, it is the time to work.

If the weather is good, there will be lunch at noon, but now it is a bad year and there is no lunch.

The four quarters from noon to Shen hour are also independent time for monks. They can sleep or meditate. Since they only eat one meal a day, most monks are sleeping in their rooms at this time. Even if they are not sleeping, they lie down or sit still. Moving wastes energy and makes them hungry easily.

The half hour from the fourth quarter of Shenshi to Youshi is the evening class time, and seven scriptures including the Rebirth Mantra need to be recited.

Then there is semi-free time. You can stay in the main hall to worship and repent, or you can go back to your residence to meditate.

According to regulations, monks go to bed at the third watch, but after being hungry for a day, most people go back to their rooms and go to bed without waiting until the third watch.

Influenced by Confucianism, Taoist priests have a relatively high airs and attach great importance to seniority and inferiority. Taoist priests of different levels will enjoy different treatment. Taoist priests are not treated equally.

But Buddhism came from foreign countries and believes that all living beings are equal. Even eminent monks do not receive special treatment. Their daily schedule is the same as that of ordinary monks. They will also go to the Mahavira Hall to perform morning prayers and go to the Zhaitang in person. Have a meal.

They also complete the cleaning in Foguang Zen Monastery themselves and do not send any servants to the novice monks.

There are more than a dozen great monks living in Foguang Zen Monastery. Some of these great monks specialize in Buddhism, and the rest are practicing martial arts and Qi. The few monks who specialize in Buddhism do not practice Qi, but they also have supernatural powers. It's called magical power, and magical power is based on the understanding of Buddhism and has nothing to do with spiritual energy cultivation.

The great monks who practice qi are very similar to Taoist priests. They learn from the Taoist practice of breathing and breathing, and can use their own spiritual energy to use some magical methods recorded in Buddhist scriptures.

Those monks who specialize in Buddhism follow the old pagan path, and there are not many of them. As for those monks who practice qi, they integrate foreign Buddhism and Chinese qi training into one, and learn from their strengths to offset their weaknesses, which is the mainstream at this time.

The fat man was careless and did not count how many great monks there were in the monastery. However, he noticed that every time he ate, the monks who separated their fasts would take out two bowls and put them on the great monk's table. The great monks who came to eat would not touch these two bowls. Bowl of rice, those two bowls of rice should be reserved for whom.

"Who in Foguang Temple knows the eight parts of the golden body?" Nanfeng asked.

What Nanfeng asked was not a secret. The fat man naturally knew, "Abbot Yuankong and the supervisor of the temple are the same, and they are both Yuankong's disciples."

"Are they practicing Qi?" Nanfeng asked again.

"Practice. It seems that the only ones who don't practice Qi are those old monks." The fat man replied.

Nanfeng nodded slowly.

Seeing Nanfeng frowning all the time, the fat man asked, "Is it impossible to steal it?"

Nanfeng waved his hand, "That's not what I'm worried about. The eight-fold golden body is engraved on the eight-fold treasure letter. The eight-layer treasure letter was passed down from foreign countries in the Western Regions together with the relics. Buddhism may not have existed in foreign countries. When it comes to Qi training, we came to China and borrowed Taoist Qi training methods. What I worry about is that the Eight Parts Golden Body does not use Qi training as the basis for its performance, but uses supernatural powers as the prerequisite for its performance."

Nanfeng said something profound, and the fat man was stunned for a moment before he finally understood, "Probably not."

"If you need to master magical powers to use the eight-part golden body, even if we steal the eight-fold treasure letter, you will not be able to practice this skill." Nanfeng said, before doing something, the first thing to make sure is that it is worth doing. Do it, and then how to do it.

"What should we do?" The fat man panicked.

Nanfeng raised his hand to signal the fat man to calm down.

Yuan Kong and his apprentice are Qi practitioners, and they can use the Eight-part Golden Body. However, it cannot be concluded that they can develop the Eight-part Golden Body through Qi training, because the two of them may be meditating and practicing Qi at the same time. Dharma.

There is currently no direct evidence to determine what prerequisites are needed for the cultivation of the Eightfold Golden Body. However, there are two circumstantial evidences. First, the Eightfold Golden Body was created by Chinese monks inspired by the graphics on the eight-fold treasure letter. It is not an external evidence. Since it is not a martial art from a foreign country, it must not be based on the intensive practice of Buddhism as a prerequisite for cultivation and performance.

Secondly, although Buddhism is not as powerful as the three sects of Taoism, there are many masters of purple qi. Although they have borrowed qi training methods from Taoism, they do not have the opportunity to come into contact with qi training methods above Jushan. Since they cannot come into contact with high-level qi training Method, where did their purple energy come from? There is only one answer, and that is that they used the six Taoist scriptures written under the mountain as the body, and the Buddhist supernatural powers as the leader, replacing the three esoteric scriptures of Jushan Dongyuan Taixuan. Since it can be transplanted, it means that foreign magical powers can be integrated with Chinese Qi training. In other words, it is possible to use Chinese Qi training methods to display foreign magical powers.

"It's not a big problem. As long as you can steal it, you can practice it. At worst, you can use Taoist Qi training methods to activate it. Go on." Nanfeng said to the fat man.

"You've finished talking, what else are you talking about? By the way, what do you mean, why are you still related to Taoism?" The fat man looked confused.

"The Eightfold Golden Body is a Kung Fu created by a monk from the Middle Earth who was inspired by the Eightfold Treasure Letter. We can't steal the technique, we can only steal the Eightfold Treasure Letter. What we steal is not yellow rice, but millet. Do you understand?" Nan? Feng asked.

"Why am I so stupid in your eyes?" The fat man curled his lips, "You mean we can't steal ready-made meat, so we can only steal pigs and kill them ourselves."

"Yes." Nanfeng nodded, "There are advantages and disadvantages to this matter. The disadvantage is that we have to think about it ourselves, which will be very troublesome. The advantage is that the exercises we come up with will be different from the Eight-part Golden Body. Even if you use it in the future If you come out, Foguang Temple will not be able to hold you accountable."

"Then we can't steal it openly." The fat man nodded.

"Is there anyone who steals openly?" Nan Feng glanced at the fat man.

"What I mean is that we can't let them find out when we steal." Fatty said.

"Nonsense, if you are caught, how will you meet people in the future?" Nanfeng said. Stealing art has been a taboo since ancient times, and it is even more embarrassing than stealing people.

The fat man chuckled, got up and went to the ground, put on his shoes and went to the latrine.

When the fat man came back, Nanfeng asked again, "Has Foguang Temple invited relics out for more than a year?"

"Please, I moved out on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month last year and held a Dharma ceremony. It was just wrapped in yellow cloth, so I couldn't see what was inside." The fat man said.

"How big is the box?" Nanfeng asked. The fat man's words indirectly confirmed his previous guess. The eight golden bodies were derived from the eight-fold treasure letter. The reason why the treasure letter was wrapped in cloth was to worry that outsiders would see the patterns on it.

"It's so big." The fat man gestured.

"That's not very big." Nanfeng said. Judging from the size of the fat man's gestures, the height and width of the eight-layered treasure letter were only one foot.

"It's not big, but it's very heavy. It was carried by two people." After the fat man finished speaking, Nan Feng looked puzzled and explained immediately, "I heard that those boxes are made of real gold and silver, so they must be heavy. "

Nanfeng frowned again. Even if he took it and left easily, it would still be very difficult to steal the eight-layered treasure letter. If the treasure letter was very heavy, the difficulty would be even higher.

"Go to sleep and think about it tomorrow." The fat man yawned.

Nanfeng nodded, "You go to bed first."

"I blew out the lamp." The fat man pointed at the oil lamp.

Nanfeng nodded again.

The fat man fell asleep, and Nanfeng closed his eyes and thought. At present, he has no specific solution, only some scattered ideas. The relic is the most precious treasure of Buddhism and is always under the strict protection of Foguang Temple. Even when eating, he will leave someone to guard him to lure the tiger away from the mountain. It won't work. This thing is too important. Riding the tiger away from the mountain will make those monks more alert.

It is not possible to attack when there are few people. The fewer people there are, the more energetic the caregivers will be, so they have to attack when there are many people.

Don't reveal your identity when you do it, otherwise there will be consequences.

To steal the treasure letter, you have to steal the relics together, which is too difficult. However, if you are close to the treasure letter, it will take longer to rub the patterns or words on it. Whether to steal the treasure letter or make rubbings needs to be carefully considered.

Talking on paper always fails, and it is not practical to work behind closed doors. At the third watch, Nanfeng got up and went out. He wanted to go to Foguang Temple in person to observe the situation and find loopholes...