963 Poisoned (1/2)

Although the sky was dark, there was still light.

Sangsang was holding the big black umbrella. Her feet were in the light, but her body was in the dark. She closed her eyes and was looking solemn and quiet.

She was puzzled. Although Buddha is strong, he is not as strong as the Headmaster of Academy and the human world. How could he make me so weak?

Countless pictures were flashing back at a high speed in her consciousness. They were so clear even though hundreds of years had already passed. The tranquility in the small courtyard. The tea and wine. The chess and the streaky pork. Walking hand in hand. Wandering by the lakeside. Holding umbrellas in the alley. Watching the ancient temples during the rain and the frontier juncture in snow. They all represented attachment.

The quarrel in the small courtyard. The blood in the market. The fading figure. The angry query. The confrontation between life and death. The violent emotions. The low mood. They all represented aversion.

The rest of the pictures all started from attachment and aversion, or led to attachment and aversion, which represented obsession.

According to Buddhism, attachment, aversion, and obsession were the three poisons.

The Mahayana stated, ”People who have attachment indulge in all things they favor and become insatiably avaricious. People who have aversion indulge in all things they hate and become anxious and angry, and people who have obsession indulge in logic due to ignorance.”

The Great Treatise on the Perfection of Wisdom stated, ”People get attached to things that come across their way and become averse to things that disobey them. This is born of confusion instead of wisdom and will lead to obsession. These three poisons are the root of all troubles.”

The Nirvana Sutra stated, ”Attachment, aversion, and obsession are the most poisonous.”

Sangsang was poisoned by attachment, aversion, and obsession. Even she could not avoid powerful poisons like these.

Buddha wanted to destroy her the last time at Lanke Temple. But he could only try to destroy the imprinting that was inside her for she had not woken up back then. Since she had woken up, Buddha wanted to destroy her.

If you wanted to destroy something, you must first make it weak.

How could Haotian be weakened? The Headmaster of Academy and Buddha came up with the same idea, but they performed it differently: to turn a god into a human being.

The Headmaster of Academy wanted to kindly influence her and change her with the goodwill of the human world. Buddha wanted to indulge her with the poisons of the human world.

Ning Que could sense her thoughts since Sangsang and Ning Que were each other's natal item. His face turned even paler and held her hand tightly.

After spending so many years in Buddha's chessboard, she was already deeply poisoned and became so weak that she was unable to leave the chessboard's world. Then what was her fate?

”Don't worry.” Ning Que held her into his arms and whispered, ”Even if the Buddha can kill you, you can still return to the Divine Kingdom. Maybe you will remember me and the Academy...” He couldn't finish the sentence. If Sangsang were to return to the Divine Kingdom at the cost of her own death, then she would never come back to the human world. There would be no Sangsang in the human world, only Haotian.

Buddha couldn't calculate that the Headmaster of Academy had split Haotian into two people, or that the Academy had kept one of them in the human world. So he couldn't calculate that he was unable to kill Haotian even though he could kill Sangsang.

But Sangsang would die anyway.

”I don't want to die.” Sangsang said, ”Sangsang doesn't want to die.” Haotian, who was also Sangsang, didn't want to die.

Ning Que looked at the far east and said, ”Then you won't die.”

Sangsang turned around and walked out of the White Tower Temple.

Ning Que held the black umbrella and walked behind her.

Walking out of the temple, she pointed to a woman who was standing under the eaves and said, ”Do you feel very strange that she has not grown old after so many years?”

Ning Que answered, ”Over the countless past years, people who have believed in Buddhism will come to this chessboard after their death. Here is the real Buddha land. They are all dead, so they won't grow old.”

Sangsang said, ”But you are not getting old either.”

Indeed, I am not getting old and not dead even though hundreds of years have been passed.

Looking at the dark sky, Sangsang observed the light which represented the rules and said, ”If the rules of the world had not collapsed, then why is there no death?”

Ning Que couldn't answer this question.

Sangsang asked, ”Do you know what is Nirvana?”

Ning Que answered, ”The highest state of Buddha Dharma.”

Sangsang said, ”Nirvana is a status.”

”What status?”

”The status of being quiet and tranquil, ignoring life and death, being away from troubles; neither dead nor alive, neither dirty nor clean, neither possessing anything nor losing anything, and never obsessed with bias, fate, eternity and nothingness.” Sangsang said, ”This is Nirvana and achieving Buddhahood.”

Remembering that Sangsang had mentioned Schrodinger's Cat in front of the stone statues of Buddha on Wa Mountain, Ning Que said, ”If Nirvana really means what you said, it's no wonder that even you can't calculate whether Buddha is dead or alive.”

Sangsang said, ”The people here are the same.”

Ning Que frowned and asked, ”You mean that people here are neither dead nor alive?”

Sangsang answered, ”They are both dead and alive.”