Chapter 623 — The Supreme Esoteric Truth of the Buddhist Order

Behind him the several great Buddhas hurried to save him, and at last brought him back. One Buddha praised him: "The Buddha-son Puzhao meant this time to debate what 'illumination' is.

Little did he expect this young Buddha-son to break his thesis outright. Truly his eloquence is unimpeded!

Admirable, admirable! " Shen Mu was struck dumb. He wrenched his gaze away from the demon ape with difficulty and looked at Grandpa Huo with misgiving. This kind of debate he could no longer understand at all.

Grandpa Huo explained, "Puzhao opened his thesis with 'illumination,' and light blazed from his whole body, Buddha-light shining everywhere. But Zhankong raised a hand to block it, and what lay beneath that hand was darkness — telling him that where there is light there is darkness, that the two depend upon each other. And so Puzhao's debate was cut off at the root; the words he had stored up could not come out, and he choked upon them until he spat blood. From this you may see Zhankong's root of wisdom.

" Shen Mu was speechless too. He could tell that the Buddha-son Puzhao's cultivation had been exceedingly high, most likely a master of the dharma at the Heaven-Human realm; even if Shen Mu himself had crossed words with him, he might not have won.

And yet the demon ape had merely shaded the light a little, and Puzhao had vomited blood and nearly died!

The demon ape had now debated his way up to the Heaven of Great Merit among the Twenty Heavens; the next heaven was the Heaven of Great Eloquence. From the Heaven of Great Eloquence came the Buddhas and a young Buddha-son, who took his place facing the demon ape. The young Buddha-son seated himself slowly and said little; he formed a mudra with his fingers, holding a lotus, and said: "Nothingness. " The demon ape said: "Existence. " The young Buddha-son frowned, laid down the lotus, and said: "Existence.

" The demon ape said: "Nothingness.

" The young Buddha-son rose. "Are you a common mortal? " he demanded.

The demon ape shook his head. "I am a sage.

" The young Buddha-son put a deafening question: "Are you a holy Buddha? " The demon ape shook his head again.

"I am a mortal. " The young Buddha-son's face flushed red with rage. "When there is something in my hand you say nothingness; when there is nothing in my hand you say existence.

I ask whether you are a mortal, and you say you are a holy Buddha; I ask whether you are a holy Buddha, and you say you are a mortal!

What exactly are you trying to say?

" The Buddhas behind him frowned, summoned several vajra warriors, and had him hauled away.

One Buddha apologized to the demon ape: "Forgive him, junior brother; he has lost his original mind.

Nothingness he calls existence, yet existence is nothingness; when the mind would be sage, the sage is yet mortal.

Your attainments in the dharma, junior brother, we all admire.

" (Note 1) The demon ape returned the salute, but said nothing.

Shen Mu was horror-struck, his head swimming. He pressed his forehead. "Grandpa Huo, I no longer understand any of it. I have no such root of wisdom; I had best stop coming to these lectures.

" 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.