Chapter 188 - Three Treasures the Manjusri (2/2)
Hao Ning was stunned and knew that the Monkey Under Boat came to dun.
On the way back, people were sitting in Wang Shi Ming’s car and Wang Shizhe’s car. Because Wang Shi Ming was not taken care of at that time, Zhe and Ye chose to accompany the brother who could only play games, while Liu Shuai, Zhou Yuan, Hao Ning and Xiao Hong were sitting in another car together.
As Liu Shuai drove, Xiao Hong sat quietly in the deputy driver. After a long time, he asked Liu Shuai, “In your opinion, is it right or wrong for I used Jade Goddess of Mercy to help the Pixiu?”
Liu Shuai was not a fool. He knew that Xiao Hong asked right or wrong on the surface, but, in fact, Xiao Hong was asking about his throbbing feelings towards the Pixiu. There was no perfect answer to such a question, so he dared not answer it.
Not only did they not dare, but the two men in the back seat were even more upsetting.
“Hao Ning, you’re too shameless,” Zhou Yuan muttered all the way. “You stuffed my Soul Sun Stick that can turn big or small, long or short into your body and didn’t even return it to me.”
“Hao Ning, what can you use the iron stick for?”
“Hao Ning, my stick that can turn long or short…”
“Hao Ning, in your body, my incomparably hard Soul Sun Stick…”
“Well…well, that’s enough!” Hao Ning hadn’t spoken yet, Liu Shuai took the lead and couldn’t stand it. He shouted, “Hao Ning, don’t you say anything? Let Zhou Yuan make lewd utterances all the way?”
“Make lewd utterances?” Hao Ning hadn’t spoken yet, and Zhou Yuan was stunned, “How can you say that?”
“It is Will-following Golden-banded Staff. That is inside Hao Ning’s body.” Liu Shuai complained as he drove, “But you called it the Soul Sun Stick that can turn long or short, big or small. Soul Sun Stick? What a nickname! Aren’t you making lewd utterances?”
“Uh…” Hao Ning grinned bitterly. “Liu Shuai, do you only understand theology as Zhang Quan taught you? Have you read the whole book of Journey to the West?”
“Well… I’ve read something similar, “Liu Shuai blushed a little, “A Book Finishes 50 Classics, which contains the story of Journey to the West. It’s very long. There are thousands of words. I read them for a long time.”
“Po-” Hao Ning could not help laughing, “Thousands of words of Journey to the West? I’m afraid it didn’t even mention the Hong Hai’er in it, did it? It’s hard for you to recognize that the god on the passenger side is the character in Journey to the West.”
“Speaking of this, what does Journey to the West talk about?” Xiao Hong listened to Hao Ning and turned back curiously and asked, “is there any interesting story?”
“Why don’t you know either?” Hao Ning stared at Xiao Hong with an incredible look. “You came out of it!”
“Because of the low level of education, narrow vision…” Zhou Yuan laughed and said, “He is the mountain king inside the book. He just manages his own land well, and who can see the whole western world once.” Speaking of this, Zhou Yuan looked out of the window. “We always thought that the person who knows the content of the book best is the one who lives in the book. In fact, on the contrary, the person who reads the book outside knows more…”
“The true face of Lushan is lost to my sight, for it is right in this mountain that I reside.” Xiao Hong was not angry at Zhou Yuan’s saying that he was “low educated” and said frankly, “I did know very little at that time, but after all, did the people of the real world know the truth of their world? They can’t even accept the fact that their faith can produce God. Unless our world is also a book, and someone happens to read it, no one will know the whole picture of our world, will they?”
“Make sense,” Zhou Yuan nodded as he looked at Xiao Hong’s back. “This is called – Once upon a time, there was a mountain, with a temple on the mountain and an old monk in the temple telling a story. What story was he telling? Once upon a time, there was a mountain, with a temple on the mountain and an old monk in the temple telling a story. What story was he telling…”
“Well, you stopped making lewd utterances to chatter!” Liu Shuai laughed and held the steering wheel. “Can’t you just be normal?”
“I am being normal. Let me ask you,” Zhou Yuan murmured in his heart why this bald guy was aimed at him, “In the words I just said, if there really is a world of the storytelling old monk, how can the old monk know whether he is an old monk in the real world or just a character in the story?”
“Well…” Liu Shuai was stunned. He never thought about this question. When asked, he was left speechless. He had to look around and say, “You don’t tangle this problem. Tell me. Why do you want to make lewd utterances all the way?”
“Please, would you please read?” Who was Zhou Yuan? He read Journey to the West so many times. He proudly boasted, “Soul Sun Stick is the original name of Will-following Golden-banded Staff and Will-following Golden-banded Staff is just what people often call it. As for why the author named it? Haha, how can I know!?”
“You… Fine, you have knowledge!” Liu Shuai said with a laugh, intending to learn Hao Ning’s dealing with a man as he dealt with you, “Then how could that old monk distinguish?”
“You’re wrong to ask me this question. You have to ask this old monk – oh no, we have to ask our Sudhana!” Zhou Yuan patted Zhou Yuan, who was listening to the story. “Xiao Hong, how do you realize that you are the characters in the book, not the people in the real world?”
“What a question Zhou Yuan asked.” Hao Ning did not speak but understood. “After such a big circle, he began to ask Xiao Hong such a deep question!”
“Well…” Xiao Hong was stunned. He didn’t realize that the question had run over to him. He didn’t seem to want to answer this question. “Why do you ask this?”
“Because it has a lot to do with what happened today – don’t you think it’s strange?” Zhou Yuan continued to analyze, “How could the Manjusri, known as the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, be so easily stuffed with private goods, and these private goods is so special that in the end, he didn’t know whether he was in the book or in the world, or whether he was the Manjusri or not. Is this something Doctor Xue could do?”
“Wait!” Hao Ning found a problem and hurried to say, “the Manjusri didn’t know whether he was in the world or in the book? Why do you say that?”
“When I asked him the question of Vimalaki,” laughed Zhou Yuan, “What was his first sentence?”
“The first sentence?” Hao Ning was still thinking, Xiao Hong responded, “He said, this is what I said, how can I not know? What’s wrong with that?”
“It’s a big problem‒because that’s not what he said,” Zhou Yuan laughed. “Or should we say that it’s not what the Manjusri said in the world. If the Manjusri knew he was in the real world, he should never say, ‘this is what I said.’ Let me ask you. Did Mr. Zhang ever say something like ‘I said it before’ when he was lecturing sutra to you in the real world?”
“It seems…” Xiao Hong flushed. He had fallen asleep several times during Zhang Chi Hang’s lectures, so he did not remember much. He recalled for a while and said, “It seems that if he wanted to say what the sutra said, even if he said it himself, he would say that the Bodhisattva said so in sutra.”
“That’s right. When he talked to me about something seriously before, he would make it very clear that what a certain Bodhisattva once said in a certain sutra. Even if it is for Avalokitesvara, he would say that Avalokitesvara once said in a certain sutra, and he would not say anything about what he had said,” Zhou Yuan nodded, “After all, it is a Bodhisattva who knows the debate between the book and the real world, so when he lectures, or when it comes to the keen words, if these foundations are wrong, the karma is enormous – and that’s what he explained to me.”
“What do you mean?” The more Hao Ning listened, the more confused he became. “What is wrong with the debate between the book and the real world? The karma is enormous? Is because of anything right or wrong with what he said?”
“The sutra is for people to read,” Zhou Yuan explained patiently. “So, the Bodhisattvas in the sutra have to say so much. But in the real world, if the Bodhisattvas still do things according to the sutra, it will be cumbersome. When did you see Mr. Zhang going in for pomp? Saying Amitabha first and reading out a large passage of Scripture before crossing people in the real world? It is impossible for the Manjusri to not know this, so his correct answer at that time should be: This is what I, the Manjusri, once said in the XX Sutra, don’t I know?”
“I see,” Hao Ning thought about all kinds of peculiar performances of Zhang Chi Hang before, because he knew that he was Avalokitesvara and felt strange, but in ordinary people’s view, he shouted at the woman who deliberately provoked on the ground in front of the hospital gate, argued with Qili who scolded himself to enter the ward, it seemed that he was losing his attitude, but it was the most acceptable form for normal people. With that in mind Hao Ning couldn’t help laughing. It seemed that Bodhisattva who saved people also paid attention to “dive into the night with the wind, moistening things silently”.
“Maybe the Manjusri said so because he neglected that?” Liu Shuai guessed, “didn’t you just say it was cumbersome? To save a few words, ‘the Manjusri once said in the Vimalaki sutra’. Is that OK?”
“This can’t be saved,” Zhou Yuan said seriously. “It’s a serious matter that Bodhisattvas can’t neglect when hitting the keen words and lecturing. There will be huge karma if the real world and the book are mistaken. And this karma will be too heavy to bear.”
“I don’t think so…” Hao Ning recalled, “I remember that Nezha didn’t seem to care so much when he was telling the details about how he pulled out dragon’s tendon?”
“Different occasions, different opportunities, different purposes,” Zhou Yuan continued. “Of course, the degree of rigor of speaking is different. Let alone other people and other occasions, such things as lecturing and hitting keen words are definitely different from ordinary chat.”
As soon as Zhou Yuan said so, people suddenly realized that no wonder Zhou Yuan dare to be so rude to Manjusri Bodhisattva at that time. According to Liu Shuai’s later admission, that Yunzhongzi hated Manjusri Guangfa Primus for changing his job and he had to ask Liu Shuai three questions and so on was all a story that Zhou Yuan instigated Liu Shuai to make up at that time.
This analysis was Zhou Yuan’s first proud work. When he came across Avalokitesvara, he mentioned it in front of people. Unexpectedly, Avalokitesvara was looking at people with a smile and said, “That’s the story. You could have found it earlier.” When Zhou Yuan continued to ask, Avalokitesvara only smiled, not mentioning it again.