On the first day of the first lunar month of the sixth year of Daxia, it was sunny in Chang'an.
Early this morning, Zhuo and his party arrived at Hongfu Temple by carriage.
This is a royal temple built by Fu Xiaoguan for Chunxiu after Daxia moved its capital to Chang'an. It is of course open to the public unless someone from the royal family comes here to pray.
The abbot of Hongfu Temple is Master Huijue who came from Hanling Temple in Guanyun City. At this moment, he was sitting in the meditation room sorting out Buddhist scriptures, but he heard a monk who was in charge of receiving guests come to say that Zhuo and his group wanted to see him.
Master Huijue was of course familiar with this former prime minister, but the two had not met for many years, so he couldn't help feeling a little surprised.
"Please ask Mr. Zhuo to go to the tea room and light the heater. Mr. Zhuo is old and cannot stand the cold."
"Disciple obeys!"
The monk in charge of reception turned and left. Master Huijue neatly stacked the books in front of him, then stood up while leaning on the desk.
His legs felt numb and his waist felt sore, and he realized that he was getting old.
I stayed in Hanling Temple for an unknown number of years, and later came here at the invitation of Fu Xiaoguan. The climate here is milder than that in Guanyun City, but time is unforgiving after all. It seems that I have to take some time to go back to Hanling Temple to take a look.
Thinking of this, Master Huijue arrived at the tea room, and Zhuo and his party were already sitting in front of the tea table.
Seeing Master Huijue coming in, Zhuo and his party stood up and bowed. Master Huijue quickly returned the greeting: "Master Zhuo, you are too polite!"
Zhuo Yixing gave a bitter laugh and said, "Master, I'm not some Prime Minister Zhuo. I'm just a pilgrim in Chang'an."
"But in my heart, you are still the Prime Minister you once were. Please take a seat!"
"Thank you!"
The two old men sat down. Master Huijue made a pot of tea and looked at Zhuo Yixing. "Are you feeling troubled? I remember when we were at Hanling Temple, you said you didn't believe in Buddhism but only in yourself!"
Zhuo Yixing shook his head and laughed at himself, "I'm old, and as I get older, my beliefs change. I just lit a stick of incense in front of the Buddha, but it wasn't to ask for his blessing."
Master Huijue raised his eyebrows and said, "It seems that Mr. Zhuo is praying for others. Let me guess... Mr. Zhuo is burning incense for the emperor, right?"
"It seems you know something too."
"Well, I've heard a little bit about it. Is this the source of Master Zhuo's troubles?"
"Yes, I don't want him to continue like this. How can I make him understand that it's time to turn back?"
Master Huijue withdrew his gaze and concentrated on making tea without answering Zhuo Yixing's question.
After a moment, he poured a cup of tea for Zhuo Yihang. "The Buddha said that as you sow, so shall you reap. Everything is created by the mind. If that's what he wants... then we must cut off his thoughts!"
"It's certainly not a good thing to make others despair, but it's better for one person to despair than for hundreds of millions of people to despair. Since Master Zhuo has come, I believe he has the same thought in his mind, but I'm not sure yet."
"I wonder if Mr. Zhuo still remembers the literary gathering of the Wu Dynasty, at the Hanling Mountain, where I wrote the first couplet."
"Teachings contain ten thousand dharmas, but their natures are the same. One cannot take the dharma, abandon the dharma, or neither take the dharma nor take the dharma as the law, nor take the dharma as the non-law."
"What Fu Xiaoguan said is... The Buddha's original Buddhahood is One Vehicle, but its roots are different, so there are three different Vehicles: the Lower Vehicle, the Middle Vehicle, the Higher Vehicle, and the Higher Vehicle."
"The teachings contain myriad teachings, and people who encounter them will have myriad understandings. The Buddha's original Buddhahood is One Vehicle. What does One Vehicle refer to? In the past, I sat down with Fu Xiaoguan and discussed this. He said that the One Vehicle refers directly to the human heart, to seeing the nature and becoming a Buddha, and to realizing the cause and effect above the eighth level."
"There's an anecdote in this. I've searched through all the Buddhist scriptures over the years but haven't come across it. This anecdote was told by him. Donor Zhuo might as well listen to it."
"He said that when the Buddha was born, he wanted to directly teach his disciples the Lotus Sutra, the One Vehicle of Buddhism. However, because everyone's wisdom varied, some did not believe it, and some did not understand it. Therefore, the Buddha could only first teach the Three Vehicles of Buddhism, the Hinayana, the Middle Vehicle, and the Mahayana, to help everyone gradually improve their wisdom."
"I'm thinking that the current emperor only spent a little over a year with Fu Xiaoguan... If Fu Xiaoguan were to be compared to the Buddha, he might have directly explained the Lotus Sutra to Wu Tianci during that year, but Wu Tianci certainly wouldn't have understood. After Fu Xiaoguan left and Wu Tianci succeeded him, he couldn't understand Fu Xiaoguan's philosophy of governing the country. He still believed that the millennium-old method of imperial supremacy was the correct one."
"So it's become like this now. The emperor thinks one thing, and the ministers think another. The emperor and the ministers don't think the same way at all! So, naturally, there are conflicts!"
"How can we reconcile such a contradiction? Unless Fu Xiaoguan comes back and teaches Wu Tianci the Three Vehicles of Buddhism again... In other words, in my opinion, this is not Wu Tianci's fault, but Fu Xiaoguan's fault!"
"He overestimated Wu Tianci's wisdom. He forgot that he is a Buddha-like figure, while Wu Tianci... is just an ordinary person!"
Zhuo and his party were stunned. Master Huijue started with the couplet, and by this point he had made his point clear:
There are many ways to teach. Fu Xiaoguan did not realize that he had abandoned the basics and adopted the most foolish method of forcing things to grow faster to teach his successor.
Perhaps he thought that everyone in the world could look at the world's problems from his perspective, and he ignored the fact that no one in the world could truly compare with him, especially Wu Tianci!
Wu Tianci received education from Master Wen Xingzhou, whose views were completely different from those of Fu Xiaoguan.
So Wu Tianci was still thinking about the problem at the lower level, but the three prime ministers and hundreds of officials in the court had followed Fu Xiaoguan for a long time, and they were already at the middle level or even the upper level!
"So, either Fu Xiaoguan comes back and re-explains the Three Vehicles of Buddhism to Wu Tianci, or... if he truly lacks wisdom, then... he should leave Buddhism."
Zhuo Yixing stood up and bowed: "Thank you, Master, for your guidance!"
Master Huijue also stood up, clasped his hands together, and said "Amitabha": "For the benefit of all living beings, I hope that Donor Zhuo will realize his true nature and become a Buddha!"
Master Huijue watched Zhuo and his party leave Hongfu Temple.
There was finally a glimmer of light in his old eyes at this moment - Zhuo Yixing's hunched back gradually straightened up as he moved forward.
He didn't walk fast, but each step became more and more stable.
When he reached the carriage, his back was already straight!
Zhuo and his party boarded the carriage. There was another person in the carriage, Nangong Yiyu.
"You believe in praying to gods and Buddhas?"
Zhuo Yixing smiled and said, "I didn't believe it before, but now I believe it."
"How do you say that?"
"Go to Yan Xiwen's residence... For the benefit of all living beings, you should realize your true nature and become a Buddha!"
Last night, Zhuo Donglai visited Ji Yungui. Ji Yungui did not hide anything and told Zhuo Donglai in detail the information he had obtained from Tianji Pavilion.
When Zhuo Donglai returned home, he told Zhuo Yixing exactly what he had said. Only then did Zhuo Yixing realize that Wu Tianci was already standing on the edge of the cliff.
Meeting Yan Xiwen means preparing for impeachment after the court opens!
This is the best way, only in this way can Wu Tianci be saved!
"Have you figured it out?"
"After listening to Master Huijue's words, I understand."
"That's good to know. After this is done, I will retire and return to Guanyun City to live out my days."
"Okay, I'll accompany you. Let's play chess while gazing at the sea of clouds on the Guanyun Terrace!"
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