What kind of Journey to the West is this?

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In the fairyland, you can see flowers in the fog and catch the moon in the water.

Monk Fa Rong was unconcerned. He drew water from the well and went to water the vegetable garden. This lasted another fortnight. Whether he learned anything from the Dharma or not was unknown, but his muscles were gradually developing.

Buddhists cultivate the mind, not the life, focusing solely on enlightenment and ascending to the Western Paradise. Aside from eccentrics like Monk Daoming, few cultivate both the mind and the life. Now, An Yanxia has made up for the lessons Monk Fa Rong missed.

During this half month, he not only worked at Qing'anju, but also worked for his neighbors.

When busy: sweeping the floor, hoeing the garden, looking for firewood to make a fire, carrying water and pulp, tending flowers and pruning trees, there is nothing I don’t do.

Gradually, his originally restless heart calmed down.

I don’t think about the precepts, the six perfections, the four realms of dharma, the eight places to search for the mind, or any other messy things.

——Too tired!

After being busy all day, he just wanted to lie down and take a deep sleep after dinner, and he had no thoughts about those things at all.

He finally had some free time, and instead of doing his usual lectures, discussions, calligraphy, and burning incense, he sat outside the study and listened to An Yanxia holding Nanhua and Xue Shier discussing the way of meditation.

One was an immortal from the Xuanjiao Danzong sect, the other a lion from the two teachings of Fatong. They spoke of Taoism for a while, then of Zen, and before they knew it, flowers fell from the sky, golden lotuses emerged from the ground, and they wonderfully expounded the three teachings and the subtle laws.

He was not familiar with the classics of Taoism and was confused when he heard it, but occasionally Cang Yue would interject a word or two, and immediately the clouds and mist would be cleared to reveal the blue sky.

Monk Fa Rong was fascinated by what he heard. In half a month, he wrote down all the conversations between An Yanxia and Xue Shier. He then studied them carefully and came up with the concept of "Zuowang".

One is sitting, the other is forgetting. He vaguely sensed that this had many similarities with Buddhist practice.

He simply bought a copy of the Nanhua Sutra and studied it carefully, and indeed discovered many principles that were helpful for spiritual practice.

An Yanxia was naturally also paying attention to the movements of Monk Fa Rong. In her study, she painted a picture of "Oxen Ploughing Under the Moon", in which an old cow looked up at the moon, as if intoxicated.

She smiled at Xue Shi'er and said, "I think I'll trick that great monk into converting to Taoism soon."

Xue Shi'er didn't believe it and said, "I'm from Mount Lingshan too. Although I haven't read many scriptures, I know that the Prajna Sutra talks about the emptiness of nature and the illusion of existence. It says that all conditioned phenomena are like dew and lightning. He might believe your heresy and correct his practice, but he won't convert to the Xuanmen sect and practice the method of immortality."

Bai Zhu also said to Yan Xia, "That monk has wisdom, just like Master Daoming of the Iron Lion Temple. It's good that you're confident, but Master Fa Rong is no child. He won't believe everything he says."

Yan Xia said, "He has some wisdom from studying the Prajna Sutra, but he hasn't developed the courage and perseverance to go with it. Sometimes being too clever can backfire."

Bai Zhu smiled and said nothing.

Only Cang Yue didn't comment on anything, but just looked at the Golden Crow Egg in the study and said greedily:

"The chicken is cooked!"

The golden crow egg really moved.

It just moved a few times and then returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

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Two days later, Monk Fazhong carefully studied the "Tao Te Ching" and "Nanhua Sutra" in his spare time. He often read from dusk to late at night, and only went to sleep when his eyes were sore.

After reading most of the Nanhua Sutra and working for more than ten days, although Monk Fazhong himself did not realize it, the seeds of two unorthodox ideas had already been planted in his heart.

One is "being self-reliant" and the other is "meditation, contemplation and forgetfulness".

The former is inconsistent with the mainstream of the Buddhist world today. Although there is a precedent of Zen Master Daoxuan carving a room out of a cliff and farming for food, this idea of living on one's own has obviously not become a consensus among monks.

The latter blatantly introduced the Taoist practice methods, advocating the integration of the two religions and the unity of Buddhism and Taoism.

He himself has been trying to live a normal life by "making a living on his own", practicing Zen meditation to gain enlightenment through the method of sitting and forgetting, and practicing Buddhism according to the way of Dandao practice.

This has the vague shadow of the dual cultivation of sex and life, and it is of the same origin as the Buddhist practice of "emptiness is supreme", but they have two different origins.

The only problem was that he was too hasty, or perhaps he wasn't familiar with the Dao of Life and Death. The first step in Dan Dao practice is to "refine essence into qi." Monk Fa Rong took the opposite approach, aiming for "refining the spirit and returning to emptiness" through meditation and ascension.

As expected, this was a big step and he failed.

The next day, he went to An Yanxia to ask for advice: "Master, I want to enter the Tao."

Yan Xia asked, "Do you believe in Buddhism or Taoism?"

"The mind is the Buddha, the mind is the Tao. All disciples believe this."

Monk Fa Rong bowed to An Yanxia as a disciple.

It's a Good Place to Cultivate in the Mortal World: Chapter 235 [The Chicken is Cooked]

"You want to enter Taoism?"

"I, your disciple, have realized the profoundness of morality and the mysteries of Nanhua, and I wish to take you as my teacher."

"Tell me about your insights in detail."

Monk Fa Rong then told An Yanxia about his method of combining the Taoist method of sitting and forgetting with the Zen method of contemplation.

Although this method is somewhat crude and not very effective as a methodology to guide practice, its combination with Zen and Taoism is quite novel.

An Yanxia was stunned by her beauty. Her face remained unchanged, but her heart was filled with turmoil.

She said that there was only one realm missing between "being humble" and "sitting and forgetting", and now she has finally found it!

The "amazing sight" of Buddhism!

If one practices the alchemy way and reaches the level of returning to the elixir, he will become a human immortal.

Why are they called human immortals? It's because they have the immortal fetus, but are still like infants and have not yet grown. They are people who have just become immortals. However, the cultivation of human immortals is different from that of humans.

Those who eat meat are brave and fierce, while those who eat grain are wise and skillful. Mortals eat meat and grain, but those who eat qi are divine and long-lived. Immortals eat qi. Therefore, the next step after refining essence is to cultivate qi.

Finally, those who do not eat will not die but become gods. In the end, they will not eat anything, so the last step is to refine the spirit. Finally, when all the refinements are completed and they return to emptiness, they are called gods.

The seven volumes of cultivation techniques of the Xuanyuan Dadan School only talk about refining essence and knowing destiny, and partially involve the method of refining qi, but there is very little emphasis on refining spirit, returning to the void and other methods of cultivating the nature - perhaps it is because cultivating the nature does not have a paradigm like cultivating destiny, or perhaps it is simply because the ancestor who passed on the method was a lazy dog and had not figured it out yet.

In short, the method of cultivating one's nature needs to be explored by An Yanxia herself.

Yu Qinghuai's family tradition of meditation and fasting included some aspects of spiritual cultivation, and the Iron Lion Temple's Arhat training methods were the culmination of this. But these were all other people's creations, and one's own skills were their own. An Yanxia had vaguely explored a method of meditation and spiritual cultivation—but like Monk Fa Rong, it was incomplete.

Zuowang is a basket that can hold anything. An Yanxia felt she had to borrow a little more wisdom from the monk Fa Rong.

Three cobblers are better than one Zhuge Liang.

The young girl coughed twice, memorized the entire Guanzhi Zuowang method, and said, "Your method can be called the Guanzhi Zuowang Dao. However, it still has some shortcomings. I will teach you a method called the Xuxin Zuowang Dao. Try combining the two."

Monk Fa Rong was overjoyed to have learned the method of sitting in oblivion with an open mind. He bowed and said, "Thank you, Master."

"Go back and study it carefully! When you have some insights, tell me again."

"Thank you, Master."

"go Go."

The girl pretended to be mysterious and waved her hand to send Fa Rong away.

As soon as Farong left, she started laughing.

"Great achievement! Great achievement! From now on, my sect will be called Zuowang Dao!"

After a while, Xue Shier came in and asked curiously, "What are you grinning at?"

Yan Xia suddenly became serious and shouted, "Hey! Monster, look at who I am?!"

Xue Shier: “….”

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However, it is said that Monk Fa Rong had learned the method of sitting in oblivion with an open mind, but he could not come up with any result after studying it all night.

The next day, he went to Zhao Liu's house on the street to pick up manure. As soon as he went out, he ran into the old monk Fashun.

Fashun said, "I asked you to go and ferry An Yanxia over, but why are you running to the city to pick up manure for others?"

"Master. I need to eat, drink, defecate and urinate too. I have to pay them some money."

"Where is your bowl?"

"Throw it away."

"..."

Monk Fa Rong clasped his hands together, but remained neither humble nor arrogant, and said, "A day without work is a day without food. Ordinary daily life is a Zen path. Deep mountains and bustling cities alike contain Bodhi. Master An said that the ordinary mind is the Tao, and I think there is some truth in that."

The old monk chewed over this sentence and suddenly said, "There is some Zen wisdom in it. But you listen to the words of heretics. It's a pity to waste seven years of studying the Prajna Sutra."

Monk Fa Rong said, "Once upon a time, a heretic went to Mount Lingshan to seek the Buddha's teachings. He praised the Buddha and left. Ananda asked the Buddha, 'What did the heretic attain that made him praise the Buddha and leave?' The Buddha said, 'It is like a good horse in the world that runs when it sees the shadow of a whip.'"

"Old Master, it is clear that the Buddha has never had any other Dharma, and all living beings have their own Dharma as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Bodhisattvas say that all living beings have Buddha nature, so why can't heretics have supreme wisdom?"

The old monk Fashun couldn't help but sigh.

broken!

He, a good man from the Buddhist sect, was still fooled by that idiot...

He knew that Monk Fa Rong was indeed stubborn and stubborn, and he did not try to persuade him to abandon his heresy. He just asked:

"Do you believe in Buddhism or Taoism?"

"I don't believe in Buddhism or Taoism."

"Then what do you believe?"

"The mind is the Buddha, the mind is the Tao. Young people should believe in themselves."

Monk Fashun burst into laughter. "Good! Good! Good!"

After saying this, Monk Fashun turned and left.

Monk Fa Rong did not try to keep him, but picked up the dung bucket and continued to work for others.

When Monk Fashun traveled to the Iron Lion Temple, he saw Monk Daoming practicing martial arts under the pagoda.

Daoming didn't even turn around, punching fiercely and saying, "How is it?"

"Not only did we lose the wife, but we also lost our soldiers!"

"Haha! You, Zhou Yu, are ultimately no match for her Zhuge Liang in Sleeping Dragon!"

Monk Fashun laughed and shook his head.

He said ashamedly, "I also didn't expect that An Yanxia had such ability. Fa Rong originally practiced the Wisdom Prajna Sutra. No matter how much I thought about it, I never thought that he would be bewitched and practice the heterodox methods."

Monk Daoming laughed and said, "There are many things you haven't thought of. An Yanxia, even if she's not in the Buddhist sect, her reputation will spread among Buddhists. She's misleading Buddhist heretics, how interesting! It would be great if he could appoint her as a demon king one day."

Monk Fashun didn't care about Daoming's teasing, but he was quite moved by Monk Farong's last few words.

"I don't know what's going on with An Yanxia. But soon there will be another Bodhisattva cultivating Prajna on Lingshan Mountain."

——The chicken is cooked.

Cang Yue’s words came true.

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"The chicken is cooked!"

In the study, the Golden Crow Egg was shaking.

An Yanxia and Xue Shier were both curious babies, and they all came over to take a look.

"Master Taoist, the Golden Crow has hatched. What if the Great Goddess Xihe sees it? I heard that the Golden Crow only appears on the Sun Star. Why don't we hide it in the house during the day and release it at night?"

"Idiot, who said this belongs to Jinwu?"

"Eh, isn't it?"

"This is a three-legged free-range chicken."

"......"

Tweet!

The eggshell cracked and I could already hear the cries from inside.

An Yanxia and Xue Shier turned their heads excitedly at the same time, bumping into each other's foreheads with a bang. They both covered their foreheads with their hands and tears welled up in their eyes.