The night wind squeezed into the Buddhist hall. Four scholars who stumbled in through the door opened their mouths, swallowing back the words they wanted to shout. They looked at the monks with their backs to the wooden fish being struck in the flickering lights, and quickly retreated to the door, looking at each other.
"An old monk..."
"With such a loud noise of the door opening, there was no reaction. This is weird."
"Could it be..."
"It's a ghost. With the Imperial Master here, why should I be afraid?!"
Lu Liangsheng came in with his old donkey. The four people pushed and shoved each other and quickly made way for them. The scholar who came in raised his hand to tell them not to talk. He looked at the monk's robe carefully for a moment, then smiled and shook his wide sleeves to bow to the old monk.
"Lu Liangsheng from the Great Sui Dynasty in the East, I am honored to meet this eminent monk. I am passing by here, but it is getting late, so I have no choice but to ask for a place to stay in your temple. Please help me."
The old monk's robes were slightly different from those of the foreign monks he had seen on the way. The collar was tight, unlike the monks' robes here, which draped over the right shoulder and exposed the arms. They were more like the Central Plains Buddhism, with simple and solemn clothing.
So when Lu Liangsheng opened his mouth, he spoke directly in Chinese. However, as soon as he finished speaking, the old monk with his back to him just struck a wooden fish, moved his lips rapidly, and chanted Buddhist scriptures.
Dongdong~~Dongdongdong~~~
"The wonderful, pure, immovable, and immovable head of the Vajra King is rare in the world... If a living being has not attained Buddhahood, he will never attain Nirvana here.
Great Hero, Great Power, Great Mercy...
Namo Sakyamuni Buddha, Namo Buddha’s Crown, Namo Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, Namo Vajra-Garbha Bodhisattva…”
The chanting of the scripture stopped at the last syllable after a while. The old monk kneeling on the cushion facing the clay statue slowly opened his eyes, put down the wooden hammer, put his hands together and bowed to the Buddha, then stood up.
"The five donors have been waiting for a long time."
As he spoke, he stood up on his knees and turned around. Lu Liangsheng could see that the old monk had no beard. Although he was thin, his eyes were bright and lively. He smiled and bowed again.
"I won't wait any longer. I am just very happy to meet someone from the Central Plains in a foreign land. May I know what your name is, Master?"
"My Buddhist name is Faxian."
The old monk laughed and invited the scholar in front of him and the four people over there to sit down at the small guest table on the side of the Buddhist hall. He brought a kettle over and poured a few glasses of water.
"This Buddhist temple was built by local villagers. It's a little small, but since the five donors want to stay overnight, please don't object."
Squeak~~
There was a sound of a rat squeaking under the tribute table. The four scholars holding the broken bowls carefully looked under the table and saw the rat sticking its mouth and nose out and dangling around, then quickly crawling up along the table leg. When they thought about staying the night here, they were all frightened, fearing that the rat would crawl over them late at night.
"Oh, by the way, the five donors haven't eaten yet, right? I have some cold rice and leftovers in my kitchen, they are all light food, I will heat them up now."
It seemed that Monk Faxian was practicing alone in this temple and had to do everything by himself. Just as he was about to get up, four scholars stared at the mouse that was wagging its tail and climbing onto the altar. They felt as if there were dense ants crawling on their backs, so they hurriedly got up and pushed the old monk back to sit down.
"Master... we should heat up the food ourselves. Master, please take a seat and talk to my Imperial Master."
Without waiting for the old monk to reply, the four of them pushed each other and ran to the back hall. Faxian watched them disappear behind the Buddhist curtain, smiled and turned back to bow to Lu Liangsheng opposite him: "So the donor is the national teacher, but I don't know why he appeared in India?"
"Because of some things, I accidentally entered this Western world, and now I am preparing to return to China." As a new arrival, Lu Liangsheng naturally would not frankly tell some things to a monk he had just met. After saying this, he looked at the old monk opposite him with some curiosity.
"Master Faxian, why do you live alone in this temple in India?"
"Haha..." The old monk laughed, "The Buddha once said that Buddhism would flourish in the Central Plains. Three thousand Buddhist monks traveled eastward, carrying Buddhist scriptures on white horses. It's a pity that the place where Buddhism flourished has now begun to change its sects and cut off Buddhism. I came to the West not to seek scriptures, but to spread the prosperity of Buddhism in our Central Plains and save people from suffering here."
Lu Liangsheng nodded, "I see. Then I wonder which temple in the Central Plains did the master practice in? The one with the word 'Fa' in his generation that I have seen is Master Fajing from Wanfo Temple, and later there was a young monk named Fahai."
A few squeaking sounds were heard from the other side. A white mouse with golden fur climbed onto the oil lamp and licked the oil in the lotus dish. The old monk picked up the kettle and added clean water to the scholar.
"Haha, we practice the same Zen in different temples. I originally practiced in the Temple of All Beings, and later left the temple and traveled west to practice Zen and attain enlightenment. After more than ten years, I finally arrived here."
"Master, you have great perseverance." Lu Liangsheng couldn't help but compliment him. His eyes were attracted by the sound of the rat. The old monk on the other side looked over and smiled, "Don't worry, benefactor. This rat is also a living being. If it has the chance to steal the lamp oil and gain enlightenment today, it is its good fortune, and it can also be regarded as the Buddha saving all living beings."
Lu Liangsheng's eyes seemed to have some emotion flashing across them, but he still kept a smile on his face and said in a gentle tone, "Master, what you said is very true, but this rat only wants a meal and doesn't know about Buddha at all. What's in front of it is just something to fill its stomach, so how can we talk about fate?"
"That's why it's called crossing." The old monk smiled and stared straight at the young man opposite him.
"I still think that if we ferry it across, it may not feel comfortable. On the contrary, it is not bad to keep its original appearance. It comes out to look for food when hungry, licks dew when thirsty, and sleeps in the cave when tired. Why should we force it to do something it does not understand and does not want?"
"It seems that the donor is also a person of great wisdom."
"I dare not. Taoism says that it is best to return to nature and let everything take its natural course. Just like ordinary people in this world, they go through life and death, sorrow and joy, separation and reunion. That is called the cycle of life and death. When they have nothing to do, they go to the temple to worship the gods and Bodhisattvas and pray for peace of mind. Suddenly one day, the gods they worship suddenly come alive and walk down from the altar. That person will be terrified like the mouse and unable to cope with it."
Squeak~~
The white rat suddenly screamed in fear and licked the lamp oil. A tuft of white hair on its forehead was burnt black. It jumped off the lamppost in fear, ran back under the table along the legs of the table, and got into the gap under the altar.
The old and the young just watched quietly, and then four people went to the back hall and came back with hot meals. Soon after dinner, the old monk took them to the temple's wing to settle them down, spread out the bedding, and let Lu Liangsheng and others have a good rest, then he bowed and left.
As soon as the old monk left, Toad Taoist jumped out from the bookshelf, stood on the simple table, and rubbed his flat chin, "Liangsheng, this old bald donkey is a bit weird."
"There must be something strange. I still don't know the depth of his cultivation."
Lu Liangsheng shook out the bedding, which smelled musty. It seemed that no one had used it on weekdays and it had been kept at the bottom of the box for too long. He put down the quilt, frowned slightly, and followed his master's gaze to look at the closed door.
"… The journey was smooth and smooth, and I met a monk from the Central Plains when I arrived here. It was such a coincidence. The conversation in the temple just now seemed to be a warning... To put it bluntly, it was a warning."
Um?!
Hearing his disciple's words, the Toad Taoist suddenly turned around with his flippers on his back and met Lu Liangsheng's gaze. "This is a Buddhist place. Could this old monk be a Bodhisattva or Arhat of Buddhism?"
At this moment, a golden hair suddenly appeared in the scholar's sleeve, arched and reached the edge, raised one end, and the sound of a monkey gritting its teeth was heard.
"Lu Liangsheng, leave here immediately!"