The monk's lips moved slightly and he murmured: "You said, should I cross this bridge? Or can't I?"
Po Meng added some spirit tea into his cup and said with a dull smile: "You are already standing on the bridge, is it possible that you can go back? Or are you, monk, not a mortal, but you came here to ask for tea?"
The monk thought about it and said with a smile: "I am still a little stupid in this life. I hope that your cup of spiritual tea can make me clearer after reincarnation."
Po Meng shook her head, looked at a tea leaf falling in the cup, and said softly: "To be honest, I still don't know much about reincarnation."
Although he has experienced three reincarnations in the Reincarnation Tower, he has no memory after leaving.
The only things that remain are the reincarnation swordsmanship and the memory of his mother.
The monk looked at him, shook his head, and said with a smile: "I don't understand either, monk, so I want to go through reincarnation again and try to understand some truth in the next life."
Po Meng sighed and said: "After reincarnation, you will no longer be who you are now. Can you still think about the unfulfilled fate in this life?"
"Then you can't force it. I'm just doing my best and listening to God's will!"
After the monk finished speaking, he raised his head and glanced at the moon in the sky, and said with a smile: "Mother-in-law, you have gone through all the ups and downs on this bridge and seen so many reincarnations of sentient beings. You must have become numb, right?"
Po Meng put down the tea cup in her hand, added water to the pot, looked at the monk and smiled and said, "Monk, if you have a story, I am willing to listen."
When the monk heard this, he immediately became energetic and looked at Po Meng and laughed.
"The monk talks a lot. As long as my mother-in-law doesn't mind it, I will chat with you for a while."
Po Meng looked up at the moon in the sky and said, "There's still a while, so you can listen to the monk tell stories!" After that, she picked up the teapot and filled the monk with hot tea.
The monk was stunned, but he didn't expect that Po Meng, who had a rock-like heart, wanted to hear the story.
It was hard to shirk at the moment, so I lowered my head and thought for a moment, cleared my throat, and sighed softly.
This sigh brings about a long-lasting reincarnation.
It is said that there was a monk who wandered and came to the Waishui River. He saw the beautiful scenery and the Buddha's light shining in the Buddhist temple behind him, and he couldn't help but feel intoxicated.
Self-sufficiency is the practice of monks. While plowing in the field, I accidentally broke an earthworm while waving my shovel in my hand.
The monk hurriedly put his hands together and chanted "Sin, sin."
He lowered his head to pick up the earthworm, wrapped it with silk, and prayed for it while reciting Buddhist scriptures.
In the blink of an eye, the earthworm's injury healed, but a white mark was left on his body forever. The earthworm was grateful to the monk for saving his life, so he often climbed into the Buddhist hall to listen to the monk's sermons.
Time flies, time passes slowly.
The earthworm received the aura of heaven and earth, began to transform into a human form, and was reincarnated into a farmhouse near the temple. However, his Taoism is still shallow. Although he was reincarnated into a human form, he has no human bones and cannot stand and walk.
In his thoughts, Earthworm entrusted his dream to his mother, a peasant woman, and said: Only the monks in the temple can save the child from cartilage disease.
The peasant woman woke up from her dream and came to the temple with her baby in her arms to seek help from the monk.
It just happened that the monk had not returned from his travels that day. Seeing Jiaoer's death, the peasant woman was so grieved that she bumped her head to death under the bell tower of the temple.
The monks and pilgrims in the temple were all frightened and cried and sad.
At this time, the ancient bell that had been ringing for miles suddenly changed its sound, and the sound was miserable, like the sound of a mother calling her child, which made people cry.
The monk was about to return during his wandering, when he suddenly heard the tone of the bell changing. He counted with his fingers and realized that the spirit of the earthworm was still clinging to the giant bell. The monk couldn't help but recite: "Amitabha, sin, sin."
He hurried back to the temple and ordered his disciples to set up the incense table in front of the Bell and Drum Tower, and the monk personally went to the altar to perform the ritual. He also repeatedly told his disciples not to ring the bell until the fifth watch the next day.
Unexpectedly, the disciple was careless and forgot the master's instructions. As soon as the fourth watch came, the disciple rang the huge bell.
The monk sitting quietly in the meditation room sighed, this was God's will, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Originally, the monk calculated that the earthworm and the Buddha
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It is destined, but it has committed many sins in the world, so it must be sent to the East China Sea to cleanse its body, strengthen its bones, eliminate its sins, change its nature, and then allow it to be reincarnated.
The sound of the bell is the symbol of his reincarnation, but things are unpredictable and God's will is unpredictable. As soon as the bell rings, the monk already knows that the earthworm has been reincarnated in the human world not far away.
If the bad fate is not over, disaster will happen again in the future...
However, it was said that there was a prefect in Gaohua County, a hundred miles away from the temple, who married the emperor's daughter as his wife. Although he enjoyed the glory and wealth in the world, there was still one thing he didn't like.
That is, the prefect and his wife have passed their forties and still have no children.
The couple is often sad about this, and they always go to the temple to offer incense and pray for blessings on every first and fifteenth day of the lunar month.
The princess was indeed pregnant that year, and gave birth to a daughter ten months later. As soon as the daughter was born, the whole house was filled with light, so she was named Xinu.
Although Xi Nu is the reincarnation of an earthworm, she is very smart. When she was five or six years old, she could read hundreds of history books fluently, and she was proficient in all kinds of music, chess, calligraphy and painting.
I just got a strange disease since I was a child and can't see the sun.
The prefect sought medical advice from various sources, but with little success. Later, he heard that the monks in the temple could cure the disease, so the prefect fasted for three months, bathed for seven days, and went to the temple in person to ask the monks for medicine to save his daughter.
Before her mortal fate was over, the monk felt her sincerity and told the eunuch: "Your daughter must read Buddhist scriptures and understand Buddhist rituals. She must not have evil thoughts in her heart or do evil deeds in her body. A god will save her in the future."
From then on, Xinu kept the monk's words in mind and often studied Zen in her boudoir.
The prefect regards the girl as the apple of his eye, and the princess pities the girl as her darling.
When Xi'nu grew up to eighteen years old, the emperor wanted to depose her and make Xi'nu his concubine. Xi'nu knew that he was cruel and cruel, so she flatly refused.
King Xiao wants to recruit a beautiful girl as his concubine. Xinu refused because of her father's illness.
In the end, he chose the new emperor, who was known as a supernatural power, as his queen. Although there were three thousand beauties in the harem, Emperor Wu loved Empress Xi so much that he would take her with him whenever he traveled.
Moreover, under the influence of Empress Xi, Emperor Wu began to advocate Buddhism.
As time went by, Emperor Wu's neglect of government affairs aroused dissatisfaction between the government and the public, and the concubines in the harem even slandered Empress Xi. Suddenly, there was a sound of despair inside and outside the palace.
When Empress Xi heard that her temperament changed drastically, she relied on Emperor Wu's special favor and began to abuse the concubines in the harem with torture, which was as poisonous as snakes and scorpions. She often killed ministers on trumped-up charges. Everyone dares to be angry but dare not speak out.
It is said that the monk finally achieved enlightenment after practicing hard for several years. For a time, the temple was full of auspiciousness and the sky was filled with glow.
The emperor saw the auspicious light appearing in the sky and learned that the monks in the temple had achieved enlightenment and obtained the Supreme Treasure Sutra. The emperor and his wife went to Yanqing Temple in person to listen to the monks' lectures, and sometimes invited the monks to the palace to give lectures.
Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty was intoxicated every time he listened to the scriptures, so he issued an edict to confer the monk the title of national preceptor.
Xihou realized that he was a different kind of earthworm. Seeing that the emperor valued the monk so highly, he felt anxious and afraid.
What he was afraid of was that the monk would expose his background, and what he was anxious about was that if he couldn't get hold of the Bao Sutra, he wouldn't be able to completely eradicate his disease.
After much deliberation, he came up with a plan and decided to get rid of the monk and get the treasure sutra.
So Queen Xi carefully made a cage of dog meat buns and gave them to the monk.
On this day, Empress Xi made a speech to the emperor: "The imperial master's gold and jade are ruined on the outside, and he kills animals and eats meat. How can he be a Buddha? It is better to leave the treasure scroll and send him away."
The emperor didn't believe what Xihou said, so he sent his guards to find out.
The monk answered truthfully: "The buns were given by the Queen. I dare not accept them, but I absolutely dare not eat them. They have been buried under the temple wall."
Sure enough, the guard dug out the buns from under the wall and went back to report the truth to the emperor.
From then on, the emperor was wary of Empress Xi. It is said that onions, leeks, mustard and garlic later grew in the place where the dog meat buns were buried in the temple.
Two years later, there was a severe drought. The emperor asked monks to chant sutras and pray for rain.
The monk opened the forum to give a sermon. Within an hour, it rained heavily. The emperor was overjoyed, but Empress Xi said: "The rains coming this time are bringing great blessings to the king. How could it be done by the monk?"
The next day, after the emperor and the monk finished discussing Buddhism, he asked the monk if there had been any disagreement between him and the queen.
monk
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He did not dare to lie and told the truth about Empress Xi's bizarre life experience. The emperor was greatly surprised after hearing this. In the evening, he saw a white line on Xi's waist. The monk Xindao did not lie to him.
After that, Xihou fell out of favor. When he found out that the monk had done it, he became angry and wanted to kill the monk to relieve his hatred.
One night, Xihou came out of the palace and came to the temple with a sharp sword in hand. But in the Buddhist hall, I saw a monk sitting cross-legged and chanting sutras with his eyes closed.
Queen Xi was overjoyed and stabbed the monk who fell to the ground with a knife. There was a click, and the sharp blade in his hand broke into two pieces.
Seeing that the monk was unscathed, he opened his eyes and looked at Xihou, chanting the Buddha's name: "Amitabha, the sea of suffering is boundless, but when you turn around, you will reach the shore."
Queen Xi was frightened and fled back to the palace in panic.
Since the emperor learned about Xihou's evil deeds, he has been restless day and night. However, the emperor believed deeply in Buddhism and could not bear to kill, so he asked the monks to set up an altar to practice Buddhism.
So the monk sat on the high tower altar in the palace and recited the incantation.
For a moment, Xihou kept moaning, and then transformed into a large earthworm that was more than ten feet long and came to the altar, staring at the monk with hatred in her eyes.
The monk looked at her and sighed softly, then said slowly: "I saved your life and brought you to adulthood. I wanted you to promote Buddhism, but unexpectedly you seduced the Lord, ran rampant in the harem, and killed innocent people."
"My Majesty is wise and cannot bear to take your life. You should return to your own kind and have a good life."
The big earthworm lowered its head and shed tears, then huffed and its body changed from big to small until it returned to its original shape.
The monk used a Zen staff to pick up the earthworm and returned it to the temple. He threw the earthworm into the soil and let it survive so that it could return to its natural state.
The emperor ordered all the temples across the country to dig life-release ponds, firstly to express gratitude for the love between Xi and his wife, and secondly to show piety to the Buddha.
...
After telling this story, the monk looked at Po Meng and said with a smile: "After the story is finished, I have to cross the bridge and go back again."
Po Meng laughed when she heard this and said, "Monk, is this your experience or someone else's story?"
When the monk heard this, he laughed and said: "If the monk had some magic power, he would not be in a hurry to reincarnate and cultivate again. The monk in this story may have achieved the true state long ago and went to the nine heavens."
Po Meng looked at him and sighed, and said quietly: "After listening to the monk's story, I don't have anything to give you, so I'd better treat you to a bowl of soup... After you drink it, cross the bridge and start your journey." reincarnation."
After saying that, he stood up and took a bowl of hot soup from the pot and handed it to the monk.
The monk took the hot soup from the wooden bowl and drank it one mouthful at a time. He leaned a little, looked at Po Meng and asked, "Unknown senior, can you finish the soup you cook every day?"
Po Meng looked at him and shook her head: "How is it possible? The number of people crossing the bridge varies every day. How can they finish drinking it every day?"
"What about the soup that's not nearly finished? You can't throw it away. I see that you make soup every day. You are working very hard, right?"
The monk looked at the small half pot of soup left in the pot and frowned slightly, because he tasted the taste of spiritual grass in the soup and knew that it was not easy for Po Meng to cook the soup.
Po Meng laughed and poured the remaining soup in the pot into the Wangchuan River in front of him.
While pouring, he said: "In the past, I asked you to drink soup and then cross the bridge... It's fine now. Come and drink soup when you are hungry!"
I saw ripples in the calm Wangchuan River, and after a while the soup that was poured disappeared.
The monk looked at the sight in front of him and was speechless. He thought to himself, are all the sentient beings in the river those who refuse to drink the soup and are thrown into the river forever?
After putting away the pots and pans, Po Meng looked at the monk who was about to cross the bridge and asked: "Monk, what is the name of the bridge you saw today?"
The monk was startled, and then looked towards the railing beside the bridge.
"What I saw was Naihe. Haha, the monk really didn't practice enough. He has to practice hard for another life." After saying goodbye, he said goodbye to Po Meng and walked to the other side.
"Naihe Bridge? Naihe Monk Naihe Tian?"
Po Meng looked at the place where the monk disappeared and muttered, the way of reincarnation in the heart is indeed not something she can figure out.
...
(End of chapter)
