I searched for it thousands of times in my dreams. The Buddhist scripture that was supposed to be my chance finally took root and sprouted in the divine sea of Murong Lingyu in Tianluo City.
I originally planned to inquire about the Buddhist scriptures when I met the old monk by chance, but accidentally fell into the hands of Wumu from Suiye City.
I guess Wu Mu also believed in Zoroastrianism, and he was going to do business in the Tang Dynasty to earn money to support his family, so he didn't study this magical book.
But in the end, because of Wu Mu's wish that he fulfilled, Wu Mu's wife gave it to him.
In the quiet night, I make tea with my bare hands and drink it alone, watching the stars at night and sighing softly.
He murmured to himself: "Master, I'm afraid you didn't expect this surprise, right?"
Naturally, no voice of the old Taoist priest came from the divine sea, and even Ksitigarbha, who came out to chat with him from time to time, did not appear.
Only Wu Mu’s wife Lisa and son Wu Tan knew that the gentleman in the backyard of the inn had locked himself up for half a month without going out.
Even the innkeeper and waiters found it strange that they could not enter the backyard.
Li Xiuyuan, who is addicted to Buddhist scriptures, doesn't want anyone to enter, so no one can enter.
Until the first summer rainstorm of the year, Li Xiuyuan bought a dozen sheep and came to Wutan's home under the golden light of the afternoon.
He said to the mother and son: "I want to be a shepherd. If you don't know anything about spiritual practice, I will stay in the city for a few more days."
Lisa became anxious when she heard this: "Sir, do you have no money on you? Can you use the gold coins that Ebony gave me first?"
"No, you can keep it for yourself."
Li Xiuyuan handed her a bag of exchanged silver coins and told him to hide the gold coins and use silver coins on weekdays so that no one would miss her.
Utan asked his husband for advice about the troubles he encountered in practice.
Therefore, Li Xiuyuan stayed in Suiye City for another month, until the mother and son broke through another realm and completely understood the division of cultivation realms.
Then he laughed and said: "I want to be a free shepherd, Wu Tan takes good care of your mother..."
Then, on a sunny morning, after walking around the entire Broken Leaf City several times but not finding anyone, he left.
When leaving, Li Xiuyuan did not buy sheep.
He just led a horse out of Suiye City. He was going to find those shepherds in the wilderness and learn how to be a free shepherd.
If he can't catch fish, he can try to be a shepherd first.
The sky is blue and the wilderness is vast.
Watson had never tasted it on the grasslands of southern Xinjiang back then, and he wanted to taste it himself.
According to his calculations with Sanzang, it would take Wuliang and Sanzang two years to take the monks from Gaochang State, if there were no accidents on the way.
He plans to spend two years turning himself into a shepherd.
Find the truth of Buddha's Nirvana from the vast grassland.
Originally, he planned to live in Suiye City for ten years, and even waited for Sanzang to return to Chang'an after his return from Tianzhu.
He changed his mind because of the half-book that Lisa gave him.
…
And just after Li Xiuyuan left Gaochang with Sanzang and others, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty had already begun his campaign against the Eastern Turks.
In the first month of the fourth year of Zhenguan, Li Jing led 3,000 brave cavalry from Mayi, entered Eryang Ridge, and attacked Xiangcheng by night.
Jieli Khan did not expect the sudden arrival of the Tang army, and believed that if Li Jing dared to go deep alone, the main force of the Tang Dynasty would follow.
For a while, he hurriedly withdrew his tooth tent to Qikou.
Li Jing also sent spies to alienate his tribe. Jie Li's confidant General Kang Sumi took Emperor Yang's empress Xiao and her grandson Yang Zhengdao to Dingxiang and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty.
When Jieli saw that Kang Sumi had surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, he did not dare to stay and continued to retreat to Yinshan Mountain with his troops.
They fought with Chai Shao's Jinhe Army on the Hun River, and were intercepted by the Tongmo Army led by Xu Shiji, who was in the clouds, at Baidao, and were defeated in the first battle.
Jieli retreated to Tieshan and gathered tens of thousands of remaining soldiers.
Jie Li realized that he was no longer a match for the Tang army, so he sent Zhi Huan Si Li as a special envoy to Chang'an to apologize to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty and ask for surrender, expressing his willingness to surrender the whole country.
In fact, the plan is to wait until the grass is green and the horses are fertile, and then move to Mobei, waiting for an opportunity to make a comeback.
Emperor Taizong sent Honglu Qing Tang Jian and General An Xiuren to comfort the Turks, and ordered Li Jing to lead his troops to respond.
In February, Li Jing led his troops to Baidao to join Xu Shiji.
Xu Shiji said: "Although Jie Li was defeated, he still had many troops. If he walked through the desert and got the protection of Jiuxing Tiele, the road would be long and dangerous, and it would be difficult to catch up with them."
"Now that Tang Jian is sent there, the Turks will definitely relax their guard. We will then attack, so that the bandits can be put down without a fight."
Li Jing was overjoyed when he heard this, but Zhang Gongjin, the deputy general, was afraid that doing so would put Tang Jian and others in danger.
Li Jing was determined to exterminate the Turks and advised Tang Jian and others not to think about it at all.
So Li Jing led his elite troops to set out overnight, and Xu Shiji's army continued to advance.
Li Jing's army braved the snow to reach Yinshan Mountain, where they encountered more than a thousand Turkic camps and captured all of them to accompany the army. When Jieli saw the Tang envoy coming to comfort him, he thought everything was fine and didn't take any precautions.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, Li Jing sent his general Su Dingfang to lead 200 cavalry as the vanguard. Under the cover of thick fog, they advanced quickly with their weapons in hand. They were not discovered until they were seven miles away from Jieliya's tent.
Su Dingfang marched straight in and captured the tent of Turk Jieli Khan. Jieli fled westward on a thousand-mile horse.
Li Jing led a large army to follow up, and the Turkic army collapsed. More than 10,000 people were wiped out and more than 100,000 men and women were captured. Tang Jian and An Xiuren took advantage of the chaos and escaped from danger and returned.
After Jieli Khan was defeated in Yinshan, he fled westward from the clouds in a hurry.
He intended to defect to King Murong Fuyun of Tuguhun, but if that failed, he would defect to King Qu Wentai of Gaochang.
Halfway through the journey, most of the generals defected, and his son Dieluoshi also became separated from him.
Soon, Jieli Khan, who had only dozens of cavalry left by his side, ran into Li Daozong's Datong army. After a fierce battle, Tang general Zhang Baoxiang captured Jieli Khan.
At this point, the Western troubles that had plagued Emperor Qin since the Great Qin Dynasty were not hesitated to build a thousand-mile Great Wall to resist.
The Han Dynasty Liu Bang was humiliated again and again, and the Turkic army, which even the Sui Dynasty failed to conquer, became a surrender under the sword of Emperor Taizong.
Emperor Taizong did not kill Jieli Khan, but instead named him King Guiyi and General Youwei, allowing him to spend the rest of his life in Chang'an.
Tuli Khan subsequently surrendered and was granted the title of Prince of Beiping.
The Turkic generals Zhi lost Si Li, Ashina Duer, Ashina Simo and Qibi Heli all surrendered, and they were all reused by Emperor Taizong.
…
The tenth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty was a time of crisp autumn.
Sitting in front of the Buddha, his eyelids twitched in the dim light. Before he could react, the old monk who had left behind to practice entered the Buddhist hall.
Behind him was a man with long hair, a long gown that was so dirty that it was difficult to see its original appearance, and a pair of boots with one toe exposed.
A young man with a weathered face and calloused hands...
Even so, Huiming still stood up and saluted, frowned and asked: "How did the senior end up in such a miserable state? Where are Sanzang and the young monk?"
The three of them were none other than Li Xiuyuan, who had returned from shepherding sheep all the way from Suiye City and exiled himself between heaven and earth.
Seeing the surprised expressions of the two people, Li Xiuyuan laughed and said: "I bought a thousand sheep from outside Suiye City and gave them to the herdsmen from Guazhou to Dunhuang..."
After taking the herbal tea handed over by the old monk and drinking a large bowl, Li Xiuyuan wiped his mouth with his shiny black sleeve.
He said quietly: "We separated in Suiye City. They should be practicing in the Buddhist temple in Tianzhu now."
The old monk was filled with emotion when he heard this: "Sir, may I ask what kind of cultivation Xiaobao was when he was separated from you?"
As the young monk's uncle, the old man has always been thinking about Xiaobao who followed Sanzang to the west. When he saw Li Xiuyuan coming back, he naturally couldn't help but inquire about it.
Putting the bowl in his hand, Li Xiuyuan replied: "I named Xiaobao 'Jin Wuliang'. When he separated from me, he was about to enter the realm of Nascent Soul."
"Excellent, Amitabha. I didn't expect Xiaobao to be so diligent in cultivation. The master also gave him a Dharma name. The poor monk is grateful to the abbot..."
The old monk clasped his hands together and said, "Thank you, sir, for healing my arm and showing me that I can expect a great road."
Huiming was more concerned about Li Xiuyuan's current situation. He held his hand and looked at the palms cut open by the grass, which were as shocking as ravines.
I couldn't help but sigh again and again, and asked, "Senior has endured hardship these years."
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan replied calmly: "I have forgotten my name in these years. The sky is my room, the earth is my bed, and I live with the sheep..."
Looking at Huiming's confused eyes, Li Xiuyuan shook his head: "Buddha is also the Tao. Only when one day you want to understand the Tao of heaven and earth, and then practice Buddhism, will you become more diligent."
Huiming was silent for a moment when he heard the words.
In his opinion, when he gave up the throne and followed Li Xiuyuan to the desert, he had given up and was willing to give up.
Unexpectedly, compared with the young man in front of me who had a sour smell all over his body, he knew what it meant to truly let go.
Thinking of this, Huiming couldn't help but ask: "Senior, what does letting go mean?"
At this time, the old monk had lowered his eyebrows and lowered his head, listening quietly to the side.
Thinking about the young man who was spotless in the snowy mountains and whose arrogance reached the sky, he could transform into the most ordinary shepherd in the desert.
He was happy for the little monk's experience along the way, and regretted that he did not go with him in the first place.
Li Xiuyuan took a piece of hard and yellow cake from his arms, took a hard bite, poured another bowl of herbal tea and started eating the cake.
After eating half of it, when he felt it was almost done, he looked at the two of them and smiled: "I'm hungry."
After that, he said seriously: "In your opinion, giving up the throne and coming to the desert was a sign of letting go and letting go. When one day you break through the void and ascend to the Buddha's kingdom, you will find that you were practicing in the past..."
"You are the biggest Buddha in the grotto. If you were to become a sweeper in another world, would that be giving up? Can you give up the life you are living now..."
As soon as these words came out, not to mention being dim, even the old monk beside him frowned slightly.
In the monastery under the snow-capped mountains, and even in the grottoes in the desert, it seemed that he had never really let go.
Occasionally sweeping the floor in the Buddhist temple is just a temporary practice.
As Li Xiuyuan said, one day he will have to start from scratch like the sweeping monk in the temple. Can he let go, and is he willing to let go of his current life?
Seeing the dull expressions on their faces, Li Xiuyuan had no choice but to take another strong dose.
He said quietly: "When the Buddha gave his body to feed a tiger, did he let it go? Was he willing to let it go?"
Just the simplest words, like a wake-up call, struck the two monks so hard that they were left speechless for a long time.
If the same words were said by a monk in the temple, they would not be frightened by what they heard.
Only the two monks who witnessed Li Xiuyuan's practice with their own eyes could be so shocked and eclipsed by it.
Looking at the expressions of the two people, Li Xiuyuan sighed silently, stood up and left.
When he returned to the Buddha, he had to wash himself, change into clean clothes, and then think about the principles in the half-book of scriptures.
Until the old monk returned to his house to rest, until the lamp was lit in the dark Buddhist hall.
Li Xiuyuan, who had changed his appearance, walked in carrying a basket of pears.
Huiming picked up a pear, took a bite of it, and asked, "Senior, do you want to wait here for Sanzang to return from Tianzhu? Or do you want to return to Chang'an Imperial City?"
Shaking his head, Li Xiuyuan looked at him and replied: "I want to practice here and understand some truths. It may be a month, a year, or longer..."
Huiming nodded and replied: "That's very good. If I don't understand something, I can always ask my seniors for advice."
Li Xiuyuan smiled bitterly and said, "I'm afraid I won't be able to answer any of your questions until I understand some of the truth."
In this way, the two of them sat with a lamp and a pot of tea until the moon was at the top.
Li Xiuyuan came to the grotto where he practiced, lit a lamp, and looked at the shadows of the Buddhas and himself on the stone wall. The corners of his mouth moved, but he said nothing.
He just took out the half-volume Buddhist scripture that Lisa had given him back then and opened it carefully.
I saw three large characters with a simple meaning written on it: "Nirvana Sutra".
