Wenzi didn't expect that he could really pull off this extraordinary and splendid scene. He was so excited that he prepared several versions of the opening speech. But when he saw Sakyamuni's head full of "pimples", he still gave " It made me laugh so much that I had to keep saying in Sanskrit:
"Form is emptiness, emptiness is form..."
Repeat this to soothe your mind.
"Kid, you summed it up well! It's even better than I wanted to explain!"
Unexpectedly, Sakyamuni gave him a big thumbs up, and immediately cured Wenzi's fear and suppressed laughter at the same time. He began to relax and responded seriously:
"Your Highness, we are all your neighbors from the east, and we all have many questions about the long and short years of human beings. Whether you believe it or not, I know that about your life and your doctrine, in the future , will have a huge and long-term impact on our world. Can you come here today to enlighten us on some questions?"
Wenzi mentions it from the title of Gautama Siddhartha when he was still "Gautama Siddhartha". This gave two different countries something in common in their systems, which made it easier for Lao Dan and Confucius to understand.
"Yesterday can't be forgotten. I have long forgotten how innocent I was when I was a 'Prince'. I didn't understand the world and didn't know the sufferings of the world. The confusion at that stage has passed forever. I let it go. You are here again. Why do you pick it up and refuse to put it down?"
Sakyamuni lowered his eyelids and replied slowly.
"Master, do you think it's because there are things in this world that people can catch them but can't let them go?"
Lao Dan Shili asked.
"Of course not. What you call 'things' is the same material in nature as your hands. There is no essential difference between using your hands to grab things or stuffing things into your hands. There is no essential difference between them. If there is a short-term relationship, you call it "grasping"; if the relationship is lost, you define it as "letting go." In fact, in this world, how can there be any of them that will not change in the long term? Your consciousness locates this A state is nothing more than a 'mutual relationship' over a period of time. Therefore, there is no such thing as 'whether you can let it go' or not. There is only whether your thoughts are 'fluctuating'."
"Master, I don't understand. Look, my hands and your hands are clearly right in front of you, stretching and shaking them. How can you say they don't exist? They clearly exist."
Confucius couldn't sit still anymore, stood up and saluted and asked.
"How old were you when you first thought 'you are you'?"
Shakyamuni turned his eyes towards Xiao Kongqiu and asked.
"I think it started when I was 3 years old! I know very well that when I was held by my mother and on the road at night, everything was dark. I could hear the wind and the roar of wild animals. They made my scalp tingle. Numb, the hairs all over my body stood up! At that moment, I could feel that my whole body was a very tight and solid whole 'me'. I felt that there were only two people left in this world, me and my mother."
"Well! That was the first time you 'realized' that there was a difference between yourself and this world. It was not the wind, nor a tree, nor a stone, but a ball that could breathe, think, cry, laugh, and Love scares things...people, right?"
Gautama Buddha continues to inspire.
"yes!"
Confucius nodded in response.
"So, how you viewed yourself back then is the same as how you view yourself today?"
Sakyamuni's words were a bit "convoluted", but it was not difficult for Xinwu... Wenzi, a "simultaneous interpreter" who was proficient in eight languages, to translate to Confucius:
"Your 'self-perception' has stabilized since you were three years old, right?"
"Yeah yeah!"
Confucius nodded in response.
"Then where did your 'self-awareness' come from?"
Gautama Buddha continued to inspire.
"Let's start with my big head! Haha, others say my head is very big. There must be too many problems in it!"
Confucius didn't think it was embarrassing to make fun of himself, but this great Western sage was so worried that he had "small bags" of worry, which piled up like a mountain, and he didn't know how to "practice" it!
"You are right, this is where 'self-awareness' resides. It is indeed here in the brain; but it is not entirely here."
Shakyamuni's answer was so ambiguous that Lao Dan couldn't help but touch his head, pat his heart, and close his eyes to feel.
"Look, this little friend Dan knows how to understand very well. Looking with his eyes will mislead him further, so he closed his eyes and used other senses to understand."
Lao Dan didn't expect that his little move would be so recognized by the master. He couldn't help but feel happy, opened his eyes and smiled:
"Master, this is a great compliment! The student was looking for where the voice of 'self-recognition' came from. He couldn't find it with his eyes open, so he tried to look for it with his eyes closed."
When Confucius heard this, he also closed his eyes tightly. He was so nervous that he even held his breath. After a while, his heart started to beat loudly. He couldn't bear it anymore, so he took a deep breath and breathed. This "static" state is broken and the normal breathing rhythm is restored.
"Haha, little friend Confucius, what did you realize after getting rid of the 'visual' interference just now?"
Sakyamuni continued to ask Confucius, who was studying and understanding seriously.
"I felt like I was out of breath, my mind went blank...I couldn't think of anything."
Confucius replied seriously.
"Well, good! We're almost close!"
Sakyamuni praised.
"Huh? Nothing?"
Confucius touched his big head, looking confused.
"Yes! Nothing."
"No way! I obviously have a lot of thoughts in my mind, such as: How to ask you the next question; For example, when I look at it, it will affect my understanding; For example, I feel that even if I close my eyes, I can clearly understand You know what posture you are in, where your hands and feet are, what kind of movements you are doing... There are so many thoughts, why do you say 'nothing'?"
Lao Dan didn't understand and began to analyze in detail what he was thinking and feeling.
"Although you have so many 'thoughts' floating around, look at us, look around you, and look at yourself. Have you seen any changes?"
Sakyamuni opened his arms and showed his hands to Lao Dan.
"I...? It's obvious that when I closed my eyes just now, I had already traveled across mountains and seas before being called back. How come nothing has been changed by me?"
Lao Dan was a little confused. He had always believed in his control over time, but during the short period of "closed eyes" wandering just now, he didn't even know where he had gone "soul wandering"...
