The Strange Tales of Tokyo Monk

"There is a forum for Buddhist disciples to communicate on the Pudu app. On the forum, there is a Master Liansheng who has the same Dharma name as you."

Seeing Pinggong Qianye's strange expression, Ono Sengzheng said with a smile: "That Master Liansheng is really a great monk with boundless magical powers. He has subdued countless demons and monsters. If that Master Liansheng can come to our temple in person, I believe he can help us solve this hidden danger."

At this point, Ono Shozheng sighed and said, "It's just that I heard that Master Liansheng is stationed in Tokyo and will not leave easily."

Pinggong Qianye chuckled and said, "Is there a possibility that Master Liansheng also likes to travel, but he just can't spare the time to leave Tokyo on weekdays?"

"Hey, you are also from Tokyo, have you ever seen Master Liansheng?"

"I am the Master Liansheng you mentioned."

Pinggong Qianye pointed at himself. Ono Shojo was stunned at first, then his face turned irritated, "Monks don't tell lies."

"Yes, so I am Master Liansheng."

"..."

Ono Shozheng stood up and looked down at Pinggong Qianye in a rather rude manner. After a long silence, he sat down again and shook his head, "Impossible, you can't be the legendary Master Liansheng."

"why?"

Pinggong Qianye himself was curious. He had never posted any photos on the forum, so how did they have such a preconceived impression of Master Liansheng?

"I heard that Master Liansheng is a senior monk who is over 60 years old. He sits in meditation in the ancient temple every day. He will only leave the temple and go out to exorcise demons when demons and monsters appear."

This time it was Pinggong Qianye's turn to remain silent for a while, "Where did Monk Zheng hear this rumor from?"

“Isn’t that what everyone on the forum says?”

"..."

Pinggong Qianye took out his mobile phone from his bag, logged into the Pudu APP, and typed Master Liansheng into the search box of the forum. Soon, a lot of relevant information appeared.

There are many posts speculating about the identity of Guru Liansheng. If you open a few of them at random, you will find that most of them are fabricated. What happened to the saying that monks do not tell lies?

The most outrageous one said that he had one foot in the gate of hell and was in a state of life and death. His body was dead, but his spiritual will to exorcise demons remained, and he would automatically sense ghosts and kill them.

"Sengzheng, you'd better stop reading these messy posts in the future."

Pinggong Qianye put away his phone and gave a serious warning.

Then he handed his backend interface to Ono Shozheng to take a look, to prove that he was indeed the Master Padmasambhava on the forum.

In the past, he did intend to hide his true identity, but Hase Shuichi had already found him on the orders of his master, and Takeda Saburo's circle basically knew his identity, so there was no need to deliberately hide his identity anymore.

"Master Liansheng, you are so young..."

Ono Shomasa stood there in a daze for a long time. After he came to his senses, he hurriedly apologized to Heimiya Chiye and personally went to invite the abbot of the Toshodaiji Temple.

"It is truly an honor for our temple that Master Liansheng has come to visit. No wonder the magpies filled our door this morning. It turned out that they were here to bring us good news."

This abbot was even better at speaking than Ono Shojo. Before he even sat down, he said a lot of nice things with a smile on his face.

He hid the surprise in his eyes very well.

Pinggong Qianye exchanged a few simple greetings with him before beginning to inquire about what had transpired in the Taiji Palace the previous night.

After a brief thought, the head of the civil administration said, "The two ghosts have been sealed in the Taiji Hall since the Nara period, and nothing unusual has happened until 20 years ago, when the heaven and earth became abnormal, demons and monsters were rampant, and they also woke up from their slumber."

"They are becoming more and more powerful, and have begun to gradually affect the people near the Taiji Palace, killing many innocent girls. They are now gradually breaking through the seal."

"Last night, my temple joined hands with Todaiji Temple and Saidaiji Temple to perform the Hundred Lights Alliance Ring to suppress them again."

Hearing this, Pinggong Qianye looked slightly surprised, "Did you cast the Hundred Lights Ring last night?"

"Master Liansheng, have you also heard of this set of demon-suppressing formations?"

“I have heard of it occasionally.”

Pinggong Qianye put away the strange expression in his heart. He couldn't say that he heard it when watching anime in his previous life.

He had taken a look at it from a distance last night and found that there were still some differences between reality and animation.

The power of the Hundred Lamps Ring, which was arranged by a hundred monks holding lotus lamps, is not that strong.

"In this formation, one lamp goes out every day, and every ten days, one lamp goes out. Every time a lamp goes out every ten days, all the lamps go out at the same time."

The civil affairs director said with a worried look on his face, "In two days, it will be the time when the lights go out for the tenth day. On that night, the seal will be at its weakest. The two ghosts are very likely to take this opportunity to break free and wreak havoc on the world."

"I see."

Pinggong Qianye nodded. This additional explanation did not surprise him.

I think this is also the reason why the civil servant is willing to tell me so much. They need external help to be more confident in suppressing the two ghosts.

"Master Liansheng, can you stay in my temple for two days?"

The host Wen Zheng looked expectant and expressed his request.

Pinggong Qianye just smiled and said, "I just don't know if those two ghosts can recognize the Buddhist teachings from Tokyo."

The abbot was stunned for a moment and said, "I think the Buddha's teachings are boundless, and they should be able to listen to Master Liansheng's wonderful teachings."

Chapter 120: The Nine-Seal Mandala and the Sutra of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s Original Vow

There is a Sutra Library and a Treasure House in Toshodaiji Temple, which have never been open to outsiders. Even the monks of the temple rarely set foot in these two areas.

Tonight, the place is deserted, tourists have dispersed, and the gates of Toshodai-ji Temple are closed.

In front of the Sutra Library, Heimiya Chiye came here under the guidance of Ono Somasa.

When Wen Zhengzhi sought help early this morning, Ping Gong Qianye agreed to his request. He originally wanted to talk to the ghosts in Taiji Hall about the wonderful Buddhist scriptures.

To thank him for his help, the abbot agreed to let him enter the Sutra Library to read the scriptures for a whole night.

Those Buddhist scriptures were brought by Master Jianzhen when he crossed the sea to the East in the past. They are of various types and have a long history. They have been preserved to this day and can be regarded as national treasures.

During the day, because there were tourists, Heimiya Chiye could only stay in the monks' room and discuss some Buddhist teachings with monks such as Bunsei-dono and Ono Shojo.

I have to say that the vegetarian food at Toshodai-ji Temple is delicious, which may also be because he eats too many wild fruits.

Late at night, Heimiya Chiye, led by Ono Sojo, quietly arrived outside the Sutra Library.

"Master Liansheng, you only have this one night, and I will accompany you in and hold the lamp for you."

Ono Shojo then talked about some things that needed to be paid attention to when entering the Sutra Library. After Heimiya Chiye agreed one by one, he took out the key to open the door of the Sutra Library, let Heimiya Chiye go in first, and he followed behind.

After entering, he locked the door of the Sutra Library, then walked in front with a lamp to lead the way, while introducing Pinggong Qianye to the scriptures collected in the Sutra Library.

Such as: the golden-lettered Avatamsaka Sutra, the Great Buddha Name Sutra, the Mahasanghika Sutra, the Four-Part Vinaya, the Small Samadhi Sutra, the Six Miraculous Gates, the Southern Version of the Nirvana Sutra...

While listening to Ono Shojo's introduction, Heimiya Chiye was thinking about which scriptures he should read later.

It is definitely unrealistic to read all the scriptures in your collection in one night.

Three books, reading three Buddhist scriptures in one night should be a suitable range.

He must read the Southern version of the Nirvana Sutra, which may be able to verify the Nirvana Sutra he is currently practicing.

"Does your temple have any magical skills?"

Pinggong Qianye asked a somewhat presumptuous question. Other scriptures might be found in other places, but the magical methods are the true teachings of a temple.

Now that he had entered the Sutra Library, he felt that he could expand his goals a little.

Ono Shozheng paused for a moment before saying, "It turns out that Master Liansheng prefers magical methods that are more inclined towards combat training."

"The Hundred Lights Precepts is a secret of our temple that has never been passed on to outsiders. I am afraid that Master Liansheng will be disappointed."

"However, there is a copy of the Nine Seal Mandala in this Sutra Library. It is said that the Buddha's power is boundless, but it is difficult to cultivate."

When Pinggong Qianye heard this, his eyes lit up slightly, "I want to try it."

"I will find this copy of the Nine-Seal Mandala for Master Liansheng later."

As Ono Sōshō was speaking, he led Hiramiya Chiye to a more spacious scripture room on the second floor.

There is a table and a chair inside. This is where the eminent monks of Toshodaiji Temple entered the Sutra Library to copy scriptures.

Ono Sengzheng asked Pinggong Chiye to sit on the chair first. He lit the lotus lamp on the table, then turned around to look for the two scriptures that Pinggong Chiye wanted.

Sitting on a wooden chair, Pinggong Qianye looked at the tightly closed window in front of him. A sense of quietness quietly came over him, carrying with it the unique smell of paper scriptures.

The entire Sutra Library is clearly protected by a formation that prevents moisture and the breeding of ants and insects, so that the books stored here will not be damaged over time.

After the scripture hall of your own temple is built, you can also set up some formations to prevent moisture, ants and other factors that may affect the preservation of scriptures.

There was only one thing that made Chiye Pinggong a little disappointed. Although there was the "Nine-Seal Mandala", there was no "Twelve Gods Guardian".

After all, the Toshodaiji Temple even has the Hundred Lantern Rings, so it would be reasonable to have another "Twelve Gods Guardian", right?

Unfortunately, reality is not anime after all.

Ono Shojo came back quickly, placed the two scriptures, the Southern version of "Nirvana Sutra" and "Nine Seal Mandala" in front of Pinggong Chiye, and then stood quietly by the side, holding the lamp silently.

Pinggong Qianye first opened the Southern version of the "Nirvana Sutra" and started reading it. After about two hours, he memorized all the contents and would start to practice in depth after returning.

Then he opened the book "Nine Seal Mandala", which was very interesting.

Among the nine levels of Buddhism, there is a level above the Homa level, called the Dharani level.

The purpose of this "Nine Seal Mandala" is to enable Buddhist practitioners to display their great power to subdue demons and monsters before they reach the Mandala level.

One seal is one mandala, and when nine seals are combined into one, the real mandala world can be unfolded.

Although Heimiya Chiye has practiced the Vajra Realm Mandala and the Garbha Realm Mandala, he has not yet fully mastered them.

This "Nine Seals Mandala" can help him make up for his shortcomings in the practice of Vajra Realm Mandala and Garbha Realm Mandala.

It took Pinggong Qianye 6 hours to memorize the "Nine Seal Mandala", and he verified it with the methods he practiced one by one during the reading process.

It is of great benefit.

Pinggong Qianye entered the Sutra Library at around 9 o'clock in the evening. Now 8 hours have passed and there is still 6 hour left before the agreed time of 1 o'clock in the morning to leave the Sutra Library.

At this moment, a faint light came in through the gaps in the window.

Heimiya Chiye stood up, stretched his body, returned the two scriptures on the table to Ono Sojo, left the temple, and began to wander around freely.

Perhaps, there will be different gains.

He opened his Vajra Eyes, looked around, then went downstairs towards the main door of the Sutra Library and stopped at the first row of bookshelves near the door.

There is a certain kind of fate between people, and the same is true between people and scriptures.

In the scene that the Vajra Eye had just scanned, there was a scripture here that made his mind slightly moved.

This is a very thin Buddhist scripture with a light brown cover, "The Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva".

Pinggong Qianye opened the "The Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva" and only turned two pages. His consciousness seemed to have come to a lotus pond with no boundaries and no end.

Lotus flowers bloomed one after another and spread across the distant sky.

The lotus flowers are like lights.

It seemed as if a strong wind was blowing, and the lotus flowers in the pond were blown up by the wind, like lights suspended in the air, reflected in the water.

Is it the true teaching of "A Hundred Lamps' Joint Precepts"?

No.

Pinggong Qianye quickly denied this guess. The lotus flowers floated in the air like lights, illuminating the universe.

There seems to be an invisible road leading from the lotus pond to the distance.

Pinggong Qianye walked through the lotus pond. With every step he took, a lotus flower fell like a lamp, laying on the road ahead of him.

The lotus paved the way and fell back into the lotus pond.

Walking from the starting point to the unknown distance in the sky, as far as the eye can see, there is only a huge blooming lotus enveloping this world.

At this moment, Pinggong Qianye's consciousness instantly left this place that seemed like an illusion, and when he looked at the "The Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva" in his hand again, he no longer felt any strange feelings.

"Master Liansheng, the time has come. We should leave the Sutra Library."

Although Ono Shojo didn't understand why Master Padmasambhava was so engrossed in reading the "The Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva", the time had come and he could only remind him.

"Let's go."

Pinggong Chiye put the "The Sutra of the Past Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva" back to its original place and followed Ono Sengzheng out of the gate of the Sutra Library.

After leaving the Sutra Library, Ono Sengzheng locked the door and said goodbye and left. He was not good at staying up late.

Pinggong Chiye returned to the monk's room prepared for him in Toshodaiji Temple and sat quietly on the edge of the bed for a moment, thinking about what he had just gained from the illusion.