Indestructible Body Of Vajra Of The Village Leader

”...Master Jiang, this humble monk possesses limited abilities, my heart power can no longer bear the Supreme Buddha Power of Dharma Ancestor. I can only assist you this far; the remaining journey to save all beings, I can no longer follow and aid. I hope Master Jiang can deliver the Buddha to the West, fulfilling the great mission my Shaolin has yearned to achieve for thousands of years. I thank you in advance, Master Jiang... Namo Amitabha Buddha...”

As a segment of spiritual sensing appeared in Jiang Dali’s mind, Hui En Monk’s eyes had already lost their brilliance, and he sat on the ground, passing into nirvana.

Almost simultaneously, vivid scenes flashed through Jiang Dali’s mind like a lantern show, all depicting the monk’s carefree, Buddha-like smile throughout his life.

In one of the scenes, a seemingly thinner Hui En sat smiling by the river at the foot of Songshan, watching a villager preparing to kill a fish.

The villager evidently recognized the Shaolin Monk, turned back, and lifted a black fish strung together with water grass, saying sincerely, ”Master, I was planning to descale this fish in the river, clean it after opening the belly to reward my stomach. Now that you are here, I wouldn’t dare to kill without thinking, should I release this fish instead?”

Hui En Monk, still with a smiling face, replied, ”Having initiated the thought of killing, then why stop the thought of killing? As they say, ’Wine and delicacies pass through the intestines, but the Buddha remains in the heart.’ This black fish is plump and juicy, if cooked into a soup, it would be a delightful dish; why waste it like this? Why not cook it into a soup and share it with me?”

”Hm?”

The villager was puzzled, ”Master, even I, a rustic man, know that Heaven values the virtue of life. Why do you want to kill to eat fish?”

”Isn’t it often said in Buddhism that saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-story pagoda? Though eating fish may not shake the Buddha’s heart, it means killing life, and killing is ultimately wrong, isn’t it?”

”Amitabha Buddha! This statement is incorrect.”

Hui En Monk happily and extensively spoke, ”As they say, ’Watching the mountain is a mountain, seeing water is water, but then the mountain is not a mountain, water is not water.’

Killing or not, dying or living, living or dying, it all returns to the same place.

Though my Buddha is compassionate, it is known that where there is life, there is death; the cycle of life and death brings inevitable karma, death means life, life means death, killing is saving, saving is killing.

Please understand that when you kill a fish to eat, it seems you have committed a killing sin, but from my Buddha’s perspective, your eating the fish is the fish sacrificing itself to help you fill your belly and nourish your family, a merit-worthy deed that might help the fish transcend its beastly existence. If the fish has a next life, it might reincarnate as a human. Isn’t being human superior to being a fish?

If you too have a next life, perhaps you will fall back into a beastly path, and in the future, you could be the fish, and the fish could be you. You eat fish in the next life, the fish is eaten by you in their next life.

In this way, you kill fish, fish kills you, you eat fish, fish eats you, this is indeed the cycle of all things, the cycle of life and death. What’s inappropriate about it?”

At the last, Hui En noticed the villager was utterly dumbfounded, the fish in his hand dropped on the ground with a ’thud,’ bounced a few times as if it understood and was enlightened.

The villager exclaimed, seemingly unable to accept this endless stream of philosophy, turned around and ran away in distress, crying and shouting:

”Waa! I don’t want to be a fish, I don’t want to be a fish in my next life, I want to be a person, I want to be a person, I don’t want to be eaten by fish, I don’t want to eat fish in this life anymore. Waaah!”

”Alas!”

Hui En watched the villager run off like a madman, shaking his head with a sigh, ”Amitabha Buddha! What a sin, what a sin! This villager was thought to be fated with my Buddhism and could have entered the monastic gate, but alas, he remains unenlightened.

Dullness or enlightenment, are both fine. You are not a fish, how can you know the joy of fish?

Perhaps being a fish is more enjoyable than being human? Perhaps being human is trouble, being a fish has no troubles instead.

I wonder if Buddha has troubles, Buddha must have troubles too? Otherwise, why would my Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva vow to not become a Buddha until hell is empty?

Otherwise, why would Dharma Ancestor command Hui Ke to design Dharma’s Heart?”

The monk rambled, got up, and walked towards the fish still occasionally flopping, picked up the fish by the grass string, patted it on the head with a smile saying, ”You are enlightened, you are happier than that villager, you are fated with my Buddha. In this lifetime, this monk will eat you, which is like eating myself, in the next life you will be human, I will be a fish for you to eat. You eat me, I eat you, what does it matter?

’Wine and delicacies pass through the intestines, but the Buddha remains in the heart.’ When asking who kills, I kill myself, hahaha...”

The monk laughed heartily and left with the fish.

...

”What a wine-and-meat monk, what a phrase of ’I kill myself!’”

Even someone as cold-hearted as Jiang Dali was quite shaken, suddenly looked at Hui En, who had passed into nirvana, seeing tear stains on his face, achieving great enlightenment, without a shred of attachment. In a daze, his Qi Mechanism seemed to sense the extinguished Primordial Spirit of the other, turning into a fish’s mist, dissipating into this world.

A trace of pre-death agony seemed to, at the moment of turning into a fish, transform into joy, become liberation.

”Brother!”

At this time, the previously stagnant air around returned to normal, Hui Qi cried out, resisting the urge to rush forward, bowed his head with a sigh, began to clasp his prayer beads, quietly reciting the Rebirth Sutra to the Pure Land, then slowly stepped forward, deeply bowed, and solemnly put away the wooden fish Hui En held onto till death.

”He... just died like this?”

Wan Wan gazed in wonder at Hui En Monk, who had just entered nirvana, lifeless and breathless, inexplicably feeling a void within her heart.

Jiang Dali shook his head, then nodded, with hands behind his back, looking into the distance where the sun was hidden among the clouds, appearing like a golden-red lampshade, much gentler now, and remarked with emotion, ”Master Hui En is both gone and has come alive again. He has become the fish he always wanted to be, and he has found the fish’s joy!”

”Found... the fish’s joy?”

Wan Wan, Wang Yuyan, Murong Qingqing, and even Hui Qi had expressions of bewilderment, as if understanding yet not understanding.

Jiang Dali offered no further explanation.

Just as Hui En once said, you either understand it or you don’t, everything is beyond words.

He suddenly turned around, his cloak whipped up in a whirlwind, and somehow had pulled out the broken Dharma’s Heart with the ’X’ mark exposed, his eyes twinkling with a deep voice, ”I have roughly located the Land of Catastrophe, time is pressing, now is the moment to depart.”

Wan Wan immediately spoke, ”We also have to...”

”No!”

Even before Wan Wan could finish her sentence, Jiang Dali had already firmly refused, his tone brooked no contradiction.

”I!”

Wang Yuyan, always a beat slower in reacting, managed to say only one word, which hung at her lips, the rest of her speech unable to come forth.

For she knew when Jiang Dali said no, it meant no, even if the Heavenly King himself came, he could not make it a yes. Frustrated, she played with her garment’s edge, as if venting her anger on the hem.

Murong Qingqing opened her mouth, sighed inwardly, but did not utter a single word, her fingers touching the body of the zither behind her, as though seeking support.

Wan Wan, brave of heaven and earth, was nonetheless quite afraid of Jiang Dali, perhaps due to an episode from her past.

Yet thinking of the anxious days just to finally see Jiang Dali now, only to part again so swiftly, filled her heart with resentment. She steeled herself, confronting Jiang Dali’s sharp, dazzling gaze, unwaveringly saying:

”Fine! You are a Great Village Chief whose word is law, I dare not oppose or refute you alone, but now, since the three of us sisters have come to seek you out, we shouldn’t just part after meeting you once. You said you won’t take us to that perilous place, we all agreed, but when you go there, you must ride the dragon to fly over, right?

We’ll serve you on the dragon along the way, pour tea and offer water, shoulder burdens and massage legs...”

Realizing Jiang Dali frowned, Wan Wan immediately corrected with raised hands, ”No, halfway.”

”Hmph!”

Jiang Dali was noncommittal, turning to Hui Qi and saying, ”You take care of Hui En’s funeral arrangements, I’m leaving at once.”

Hui Qi snapped back from her sorrow and replied at once, ”Master Jiang, though my senior brother has entered nirvana, I still wish to accompany you, in case any further incident arises, I can use the Buddha Artifact left by Dharma Ancestor to offer you some assistance. As for my brother’s body, I will cremate it here.”

”If that’s the case, then alright!”

Jiang Dali pondered briefly, nodded in agreement, and then let out a long whistle, whereupon the Demon Dragon in the distant heavens let out a dragon’s roar, diving swiftly toward them.

The three women looked on, eager-eyed at Jiang Dali’s back as he prepared to ride the dragon away, then turned their gaze to Demon Hawk, equally eager-eyed and forlorn, in the nearby grass.

Suddenly, they felt that the three women and one hawk, at this moment, were unexpectedly similar, all eager-eyed and sharing the same sentiment.

A new generation surpasses the old; they and the Demon Hawk painstakingly labored in vain, unable to move this iron man’s iron heart.

”What are you three doing, still standing around? Aren’t you getting ready to serve Laozi on the dragon?”

Suddenly, Jiang Dali’s rough voice rang out, reaching the three women’s ears.

All three were taken aback, then overwhelmingly delighted, except for Wang Yuyan and Wan Wan who were visibly thrilled, while the typically cool Murong Qingqing kept her joy hidden deep within...

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(Pleading for monthly tickets, old irons!)