Chapter 9 A Blessing Worth Ten Thousand Merits
It's hard to understand the pain of going from surplus to scarcity unless you live in an era where horse-drawn carriages move slowly.
In the days since Ouyang Rong woke up, he has been living an extremely 'self-disciplined' life:
After dinner in the evening, I sat in the room in a daze, pondering the merit pagoda. Apart from a few Buddhist scriptures that I had borrowed from Xiufa, there was nothing else in the room.
Pushing open the west window, all that could be seen was the pitch-black wind outside, with only a few Buddhist lamps visible on the distant pagoda.
There's only one clear thing I can do: sleep.
He almost couldn't resist calling Banxi over to challenge his weakness again.
In my previous life, this would have been the beginning of a vibrant nightlife, and the postgraduate entrance exam group members of the "Upright Gentlemen" group wouldn't have even started their "driving" (a euphemism for sexual activity) yet.
Of course, life might be even more fulfilling in Luoyang and Chang'an, which are located in the heart of the Great Zhou Empire.
If one can empathize with these feelings, then one percent of the reason why Ouyang Rong misses his home can be understood.
So, in the dead of night, unable to sleep, Ouyang Rong went out...
Ouyang Rong went to the right wing first, found a rope and a tinderbox and took them with him, as well as some pastries and fruits, which he put in a cloth bag.
However, when he returned to the Beitian Nursing Home following his memories and groped his way to the well, he found that the rope was somewhat unnecessary.
Because there were a bunch of rope ladders placed near the well.
Ouyang Rong lowered the rope ladder and entered the underground palace again.
It's the same familiar spot, the same familiar time, and the same familiar moonlight.
The slender mute girl and the old Taoist priest in the crane-cloak were no longer in the underground palace. But that wasn't surprising; the two were probably patients from the Beitian Hospital who had been rescued and taken back, and he hadn't come to reminisce.
The moonlight is rather dim tonight.
*Sizzle*
A spark suddenly appeared out of nowhere, illuminating Ouyang Rong's gaunt face.
Good evening, Master.
The withered monk, who had been dozing in the darkness, suddenly awoke with a start. He uttered a Buddhist chant and earnestly said, "Benefactor, this place is the Pure Land of Lotus, and above it lies the Avici Hell!"
The monk then adopted his familiar compassionate gesture, pointing one finger to the ground and the other to the sky.
Ouyang Rong thought for a moment and nodded, "Master is the one who has always spoken the truth. I misunderstood before."
He went over and placed the pastries and fruits in front of the monk Xiuzhen. Then, holding a tinderbox, he walked around the underground palace and began to carefully examine the place.
This underground palace is a square-shaped space, about half the size of a football field. The circular lotus pedestal in the center of the palace and the well above it may represent the builder's concept of a round heaven and a square earth.
Ouyang Rong walked around the walls of the underground palace and only then could he see the murals that he had previously overlooked.
The four walls were painted with rich and vibrant colors, but due to years of disrepair and the fact that it was often located in a dark underground palace, much of the mural had fallen off. However, Ouyang Rong was still able to recognize the murals.
The four murals correspond to four Jataka tales: "Prince Sattva sacrifices himself to feed a tiger," "King Sibi cuts off his flesh to trade for a dove," "King Kumbhina sacrifices his eye," and "King Candraprabha gives his head."
The so-called Jataka tales are actually stories about the good deeds and merits that Shakyamuni performed in his previous lives before he became a Buddha. The most well-known of these is probably the first one, "Sacrificing Hisself to Feed a Tiger." The other three parables all convey the same message: they all emphasize the Buddha's compassion and how he endured humiliation and sacrifice in his previous lives to save the world and people before finally becoming a Buddha.
Ouyang Rong seemed to be deep in thought, then turned and walked towards the waisted, upturned lotus pedestal in the center of the underground palace.
If Master Shandao wasn't lying to him, then Master Zhongma, who attained Buddhahood in his physical body, was sitting in this very position... ascending to the Pure Land.
"After accumulating merit, can I really ascend to the Pure Land from here? If I cure the flood or do other great deeds, can I also ascend to the Pure Land?"
"Also, where exactly is the Pure Land? Is it really a journey to the Western Paradise, or is it that everyone goes to a different place, and I can return home if I wish?"
Ouyang Rong murmured to himself, then lowered his head and fell into deep thought.
"Besides, since the physical body has become a Buddha and the soul has ascended, I'd like to take a look at the lifelike physical body left behind... um." Halfway through his sentence, the person seemed to remember something and glanced somewhat guiltily at the half-broken lotus golden lamp and the strange oval beads scattered on the ground not far away.
Originally, this lotus-shaped golden lamp was taken out by Ouyang Rong from an eight-layered treasure box, which was originally placed on a lotus pedestal. When he woke up, it was right next to him.
The eight-layered treasure box was very large, like a Russian nesting doll, with eight layers of boxes inside, and the lotus golden lamp was inside the innermost layer.
When he threw it away as a convenient object, he didn't realize that even the lotus lamp was just a storage container containing more precious Buddhist treasures. Later, he was in a hurry to leave and didn't pay attention to the beads on the ground.
Cough cough, could it be the relics of Master Zhongma or some other eminent monk? That would be equivalent to ashes. So, the Lotus Golden Lamp is just their urn... Hey, that's really a bit of a sin. I see you've squandered all your merits like this.
Ouyang Rong sighed, lowered his eyes, and looked again at the relic on the ground:
There were about seventeen of them, the smallest being no bigger than a marble and the largest no bigger than a pigeon egg. They came in all sorts of colors, and there was even one that was perfectly round and translucent, like a white diamond... Isn't it said that relics are actually kidney stones? Why do you call this a kidney stone?
As expected of these eminent monks, they can burn anything out of the furnace, just like opening a blind box... No, stop laughing.
Ouyang Rong displayed the skill of a master of facial expression management, casually bending down to pick up the relics one by one from the ground, but doing so did not increase his merit.
However, Ouyang Rong has now figured out a bit of the rules of the Tower of Merit: one can be a entertainer, but only "think" about it, not "act." A gentleman judges by actions, not intentions.
Listening to hellish jokes and laughing out loud is considered "good," and Buddha will strip you of all your possessions.
However, when he found the perfectly round and translucent relic, he discovered that it could slowly glow under the moonlight, like a luminous pearl. He was immediately struck by its strangeness. After thinking for a moment, he sighed and put it into his sleeve. He couldn't leave it to gather dust in this underground palace, so he kept it safe for the eminent monks.
Perhaps it was someone's sincerity, or perhaps these relics were truly forgotten and ownerless, yet no merit was deducted from his offerings...
Then Ouyang Rong caught a glimpse of a line of text.
It was discovered when a tinderbox was used to illuminate the relics.
Located at the foot of this stone, waisted, inverted lotus pedestal, on the southeast side, obscured by the pedestal's shadow. It is engraved on the floor tiles, which explains why it had gone unnoticed before—it was forever hidden from the sunlight and moonlight at the well's opening.
"Return home?"
Ouyang Rong squatted down to take a look and immediately remembered something.
Isn't this the writing that Master Shandao mentioned, the words left by his great-uncle before he "ascended to the Pure Land"? It turns out it's still here... I thought it was ink or blood writing or something, and that it had been washed away long ago.
The meaning of this four-character idiom is quite simple: Go back!
Ouyang Rong's eyes narrowed slightly. The marble bricks under his feet were cold and solid, but the four regular script characters "归去来兮" were deeply engraved, as if they had been carved with a sharp awl that could cut through iron like mud.
He subconsciously reached out to touch the engraving, and in an instant, he trembled all over. It wasn't that his fingertips were electrocuted, but rather that he faintly heard a resounding bell ringing in his ears.
Before Ouyang Rong's brain could react to this sudden change, his consciousness was abruptly pulled into the Pagoda of Merit, located high in the clouds.
"This is……"
Ouyang Rong staggered and sat down, seeing that the Blessing Bell, which had been silent for ages, was now trembling slightly, with purple energy surging from its body.
Like an old man in a straw hat, fishing alone on a cold river, getting up and shaking off the snowflakes.
It looked as if the car had been started.
At the same time, the cyan-gold characters on the small wooden fish that recorded the merit points shone brightly, eventually transforming into a cluster of light, resembling a living creature, shaped like a "swimming carp" in a pond.
It suddenly rushed towards the Blessing Bell!
Then... it bounced back from the impact, returning to the wooden fish and transforming into a line of cyan-gold characters: [Merit: One Hundred]
The Blessing Bell continued to tremble slightly, remaining unharmed and unchanged, as if the "single carp" from before was too weak to be moved, let alone rung.
Witnessing this scene, Ouyang Rong was stunned, slowly processing the shock, "Isn't the merit enough...?"
The merit points that Ouyang Rong had just accumulated, which had transformed into a "swimming carp," seemed to have some kind of connection with him in the dark. After being knocked back to its original state, a mysterious message also surfaced in his mind and was digested.
"It takes 10,000 merits to ring the bronze bell and receive blessings and enlightenment... and I only have 100 points now, I'm still 9,900 points short, damn it."
Ouyang Rong fell into deep thought.
In reality, because his hand had been removed from the four characters engraved on the bell, the bell had long since returned to silence, and the pagoda of merit had once again disappeared into the clouds.
Without a doubt, this four-character engraving and lotus pedestal conceal a hidden blessing.
Moreover, this blessing is clearly not small, requiring such a huge amount of merit points. This is probably enough for him to watch the jokes of hell for a lifetime.
Ouyang Rong looked down at the four characters engraved in the shadows.
"Pure Land Temple...Buddha's Jataka tales...Monks who attained enlightenment and ascended to heaven...Returning home brings blessings...Are these coincidences or real...The way home."
The light and shadow on his face flickered.
...
Thank you to my good brothers "世事无常_执迷不悟", "寻龙不见影", and "Syfct" for the generous donations! Thank you to all the brothers for the monthly tickets!
(End of this chapter)
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