America: A Prodigy of Stereotypes

Do you know what the Five Aggregates are?

"These are the aggregates of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness."

"What you just obtained was 'Consciousness Awareness'."

"Humans have six senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch, and mind."

"Consciousness is the fundamental awareness and understanding of the external world."

Li Qun felt a little dizzy.

This time, the dizziness was different from the last time he encountered something unclean. It was because his senses were bombarded with too much information in a short period of time, and his brain was unable to process the feedback.

The attainment of "consciousness" greatly enhances Liqun's sensory abilities.

"How did you faint?"

The black bear spirit laughed, watching Li Qun and the Ruyi Jingu Bang fade and disappear before his eyes.

……

……

Li Qun closed his eyes tightly, covered his ears with his hands, and buried his head, not wanting to smell too much.

The old man held the teacup and forcefully poured a mouthful of calming tea into Liqun's mouth.

"hey-hey!"

The old man pried Li Qun's hands off and slapped Li Qun's cheeks from side to side, trying to rouse Li Qun's mind.

“Dad…” Li Qun squinted.

"Are you okay?"

"How did he die this time?" the old man asked with concern.

"Dad, I won!"

"You won?"

"So fast?"

"But it's better not to win..."

Li Qun grimaced in pain, reached down to take off his glasses and put them aside.

"Dad, I don't need to wear glasses anymore."

"This is good news."

"Dad, do you know what the Five Aggregates are?"

"The Black Bear Spirit gave me the 'Consciousness Essence' he obtained from the Great Sage."

"The theory of the Five Aggregates... that's a bit difficult. It's the foundation of Buddhist practice and the starting point of the Buddha's teachings." The old man frowned.

"I need to go to the library and see if they have the Heart Sutra."

"Liqun, relax your mind, clear your head, and imagine yourself as a stone, insensitive to changes in the outside world."

“Consciousness is like a mirror that reflects all things in the world, but you cannot reflect everything right now.”

"Take a deep breath..."

The old man helped Liqun up, tripped him with his foot, and made him assume a horse stance. While Liqun was trying to clear his mind, the old man controlled him to practice Tai Chi.

Li Qun imagines himself as flowing water, like water.

Like water, it bends and stretches, adapting to change.

It's like flushing a toilet, flushing away all the external information that's been overwhelming your brain.

Chapter 83 Second Sensory Integration Training

When Clark Kent's senses awaken on Krypton, his vision can see through people and his ears can hear sounds from several kilometers away.

For Liqun, who obtained the Great Sage's "Consciousness Essence," it didn't mean that his senses became like those of a Kryptonian, possessing X-ray vision and super hearing. Rather, it meant that he unlocked the "basic function" of being able to identify, distinguish, and understand all things.

Inside the pawn shop, the old man buried himself in a pile of books, searching for Buddhist scriptures to explain the concept of "consciousness" (识蕴). Liqun sat beside him wearing a motorcycle helmet, shutting down his senses as much as possible except for touch.

“The root, the dust, and the consciousness combine to produce contact.”

"The root refers to a person's six senses..."

"The root of the eye, the root of the ear, the root of the nose, the root of the tongue, the root of the body, and the root of the mind."

"Dust refers to external things. These include color dust, sound dust, smell dust, taste dust, touch dust, and mental phenomena dust."

"The ability to recognize colors and shapes by relying on the eyes is visual perception, which is simply 'seeing'."

"The ability to recognize sounds by relying on the ears is merely 'hearing'."

"Relying on the nose to perceive smells..."

The old man flipped through the dictionary, translating the contents of the scriptures and their interpretations. Li Qun, wearing a helmet, could hear every word the old man said.

"Consciousness cannot exist independently; it must depend on the 'roots' and 'objects' to arise. It is dependently arising and impermanent."

The old man pushed up his reading glasses and turned to look at Liqun.

"Did you hear what the book said?"

“I heard you, Dad.”

"Do you understand what it means?" the old man asked.

Li Qun shook his head. He felt he understood a little, but not completely.

“Just like each frame of a movie, the movie only moves when the frames are played in succession. Buddhist scriptures say that human cognition is also an illusion formed by countless moments of arising and ceasing of ‘consciousness’. Each consciousness disappears the moment it arises, and what causes you pain is the echo left behind by that consciousness,” the old man said.

"The translation may not be entirely accurate, but that's roughly the meaning."

“Everyone has the five aggregates, but now your consciousness aggregate has been strengthened, and the balance of the other four aggregates has been broken. You need to find the balance again.”

"Father, does Buddhist practice teach people to balance the five aggregates?" Li Qun asked.

“The Heart Sutra teaches people how to attain Nirvana,” the old man replied.

"However, Dad has an idea."

“When a person is born into this world, they have a vague understanding of it, but Liqun, you need to go through it all again,” the old man said.

"To rediscover the world?"

"Like a little baby," the old man laughed.

"Come on, come upstairs with your father."

Li Qun was helped upstairs by his father and carefully moved up to the second floor.

With his sensory system in disarray, Liqun might trip over himself with every step he takes.

"First learn to crawl, then learn to stand up, and finally practice walking, just like a baby."

The old man spread a blanket on the floor to prevent Liqun from falling and getting bruised and battered, and watched with great interest as Liqun crawled all over the place.

“Is this right, Dad? Something doesn’t feel right to me,” Li Qun shouted.

"But Dad can't think of any other way."

Finding balance is not just about finding balance in the five aggregates of the human body, but also about finding balance in the body in a literal sense.

Liqun lay on the ground, his eyes reassessing the distance of things, his hands once again sensing their temperature and texture.

The blankets are soft, but the floor is hard.

Li Qun squatted down, then slowly straightened his legs and stood up, looking down.

The enhanced consciousness led Li Qun to misjudge his own level, making him feel like a giant.

By repeatedly squatting and standing up, he no longer felt afraid of heights when looking down at the blanket under his feet. He gradually rebuilt his ability to judge distances.

Dad turned on the TV in the living room, and the TV played pictures and sounds, bombarding Liqun's senses with television programs.

"Dad, turn the volume down a bit..."

"Still too young? If you're any younger, your father won't be able to hear you."

"This sound is good..."

Li Qun glanced at the TV and rubbed his eyes.

It feels great not to wear glasses, but having too good eyesight is also terrible; he can see the tiny three-color dots that make up the picture.

The television sound relied on two external speakers, and Liqun diligently trained his auditory senses using the television. He focused on the sounds he didn't want to hear, and concentrated on the sounds he wanted to hear clearly. Gradually, he was able to determine the location of the sound from the chaotic sounds and construct the space of the sound source in the television program in his mind.

"watch out."

The old man picked up a ping-pong ball and threw it at Liqun, who ducked to avoid it.

"It still doesn't work." The old man shook his head.

Li Qun picked up the ping-pong ball, threw it at the wall, and let it bounce back towards him.

The purpose of throwing the ping-pong ball was to confirm whether Li Qun's sensory perception of space had returned to normal.

“It doesn’t seem right, Dad. You should just do it yourself,” Li Qun said.

"Make a move?"

“Just beat me up with all your might. Under such intense external stimulation, I should be able to quickly adjust my sensory system back to normal,” Li Qun said.

"You said it yourself, so your father won't hold back."

The old man punched Li Qun in the nose, and Li Qun fell to the ground on the spot.

"Is this the smell of my blood?!" Li Qun covered his nose, and his father quickly gave him two tissues to plug his nostrils.

"Shall we continue?" the old man asked, putting his hands down.

"Of course I want it!"

The old man started by pouring wine with a cup, showing no mercy, and the Drunken Eight Immortals smacked his apprentice hard.

The old man reached into Li Qun's waistband, took the gourd of wine from his waist, uncorked it, and took a sip. The spilled wine landed on his clothes, and the smell of alcohol filled the air.