According to the book, the fifth realm of practice is called Meng Poting.
In myths and legends, after death, the soul leads to the underworld along the road to the underworld. After crossing the Naihe Bridge and the Wangxiang Terrace, you can see a simple pavilion.
Po Meng is the underworld envoy.
She would set up a cauldron in the pavilion and refine the thoughts that people couldn't let go into Meng Po soup for the ghosts to drink. In this way, the ghost can forget the love and hatred of his life, remove the burden of his life, and enter the next reincarnation.
If the essence of "Wangxiang Terrace" lies in experiencing the mortal world and feeling the "human" side of oneself; then the key point of "Meng Poting" is to escape from the mortal world and gradually transform from a human into a "non-human" and a "sage" ".
Of course, the "Meng Poting" on the path of spiritual practice does not really allow people to completely abandon their emotions and memories.
What it needs is for monks to strengthen their Taoist hearts and cut off irrelevant worldly ties.
This kind of thing "cutting off the bonds" sounds a bit mysterious.
In the wilderness, different sects and monks all have different understandings of it and have different practices.
For example, when the monks of Lingshan Temple break through "Meng Poting", they often choose to practice hard in an isolated place. Not only do they reduce their material life to the simplest level, but they also do long-term fasting, endure severe cold and heat, etc. Things, hoping to overcome the shackles of body desires and gain freedom and transcendence of the soul.
For example, the founder of Jiange, before his ascension, once left these words - "The first is to cut off the troubles of ignorance, the second is to cut off the anger of ignorance, and the third is to cut off the greed of ignorance." evil". He asked his disciples to do more good deeds, help all sentient beings, and restrain their own desires and worries with kindness and love. Therefore, the disciples of Jiange will choose to travel around the world and do chivalrous and righteous deeds when they are in danger.
…
At present, in the Daqi Dynasty, the most widely used method to break the situation is "cutting the seven emotions".
It may not be the best approach.
But it is the simplest and crudest, easiest to implement, and fastest effective method.
Since ancient times, many monks have been stuck at the peak of the fourth realm, at a loss.
They cannot understand what "fetters" are, what "detachment" is, what "the Taoist mind is clear", and naturally they cannot leave "Wangxiang Terrace" and arrive at "Meng Po Pavilion".
But "Zhan Qi Qing" was like a bright light, pointing them to a very clear and definite path and helping them break through the bottleneck.
To give a vivid metaphor - in Gu Xu's previous life, when people wanted to lose weight, if they were told to "eat properly", "increase metabolism", and "scientific exercise", they would find it too complicated and not know where to start. But if you tell them, "As long as you insist on skipping dinner for a period of time, you will see initial results," they will start taking action even if there are hidden dangers in this method.
As we all know, people have seven emotions, namely "joy", "anger", "sadness", "fear", "love", "evil" and "desire".
The method of "cutting the seven emotions" requires them to choose one of the seven emotions and abandon it.
Xu Man, the master of the Jiange Pavilion, and Master Jueming, the abbot of Lingshan Temple, have always scorned the method of "cutting the seven emotions".
They believe that the "seven emotions" are only superficial, not fundamental. "Severing the Seven Emotions" is just an opportunistic method, and cannot truly transcend the mundane world. If you make the wrong choice, it may leave sequelae, and you may go crazy if you are not careful in the future.
In addition, monks who use "Severing Seven Emotions" to break through to the fifth level will encounter greater obstacles when they are promoted to saints in the future, and the probability of failure will be greater.
However, this did not prevent the method of "killing the seven emotions" from becoming very popular within the Daqi Dynasty, especially within the Exorcism Department.
After all, it’s human nature to want to take shortcuts.
Moreover, for most monks with mediocre talents, "cultivating to become a saint" is something they dare not even think about. Instead of worrying about such illusory things, it is better to improve the cultivation realm that is just around the corner in exchange for opportunities for promotion and salary increase, so that the whole family can live more comfortably and comfortably.
As for Chu Fengge, he chose to use "Zhan Qi Qing". On the one hand, he was stimulated by Gu Xu and wanted to break through the realm as soon as possible to avoid being caught up by Gu Xu. On the other hand, it was because he was busy all day long. Thinking "I want to be the best in the world" has no worldly desires in my mind.
He spent time with a beautiful and graceful woman like Shangguan Jin, but he only regarded her as a mortal enemy.
He was once invited by the second prince to enjoy singing and dancing in the Jiaofangsi, but he completely ignored the graceful dancers and sat in the audience with his eyes closed and began to meditate.
Therefore, it is not difficult for Chu Fengge to abandon the emotion of "desire" at all.
He didn't feel sorry at all, and even felt relaxed.
"Women are all fetters," Chu Fengge raised his head and said in a sage-like tone, "Only when you have no desire in your heart can you become a truly strong man."
Hearing this, Shangguan Jin shook his head slightly, obviously he had expected this.
Gu Xuze silently complained in his heart: Is this the spiritual level of "If you want to practice magical skills, draw the sword from the palace"? Chu Fengge, you are such a cruel person!
As for the other officials in the yamen of the Exorcism Department headquarters, they have long been accustomed to Chu Fengge's various shocking remarks.
Perhaps in the past, many young girls would have had some unrealistic fantasies about Chu Fengge because of his extremely beautiful face and his talent for cultivation far beyond ordinary people.
But now, they all generally recognize the reality.
They all realized deeply that Master Chu's brain circuit was completely different from that of ordinary people - they could not regard him as a normal human being at all.
…………
"Let's go," Shangguan Jin pondered for a moment and then said, "The time is coming, we should go to the 'Review Pot'.
"The Chief of Staff told me that this actual combat trial will be more difficult than before. If we can successfully pass it within one day, he will give us some additional rewards."
"Reward? What reward?" Chu Fengge asked curiously.
"The Chief of Staff didn't say it clearly," Shangguan Jin replied, "but he said that this reward must be what we are very eager to get at this stage."
After hearing this, Chu Fengge thought to himself: My biggest wish now is to win the first place in the "Luoshui Conference", trample this guy Gu Xu under his feet, and let the whole country see how powerful I, Chu, am - —Perhaps, the Chief Secretary will give me a powerful magic weapon? Or teach me a powerful new spell?
A joking thought came to Gu Xu's mind: Lord Chief, if I successfully pass today's trial, can you help me pay off the debt I owe for buying a house?
…………
A few minutes later, the three of them walked along the corridor and arrived at a small attic at the corner of the Yamen. It has two floors with double eaves, and the corners of the eaves are raised. The blue-green glazed tiles on the roof glow in the sun.
In the center of the second floor of the loft, there is a small wooden table.
There are several straw mats spread beside the table.
There is a small and exquisite white jade pot placed on the table. The pot wall is translucent and looks crystal clear.
Gu Xu recognized at a glance that this white jade pot was the precious magic weapon of the Exorcist Department - the "Wen Gu Pot".
It is not large in size, but it records hundreds of ghost cases in history in the form of illusions.
A few months ago, Gu Xu had entered the fantasy world of "Taoyuan Town" in the pot, killed the ghost "Dream-Eating Tapir", and passed the promotion assessment.
Shangguan Jin took out three jade charms from his pocket, handed one to Gu Xu, one to Chu Fengge, and held the other in his hand.
Then she said to Gu Xu: "Fellow Daoist Gu, the formula for entering the 'Wen Gu Pot' has been engraved on the jade talisman. You only need to recite it to enter the illusion of this trial; if you want to give up halfway, just pinch Broken jade talisman, so that you can leave the 'Warming Pot' early - Chu Fengge should have told you these essentials when you took the promotion test last time."
"I remember." Gu Xu responded.
At the same time, he lowered his head and glanced at the jade talisman in his hand, and saw a line of golden seal characters engraved on it, which read as follows:
"There is only an inch in the heart, and there are storms day and night."
Gu Xu narrowed his eyes slightly.
In his mind, the words on the jade talisman were not nonsense, but important reminders about the case in the "Review Pot".
For example, the last sentence "All appearances are false" implies that "Taoyuan Town" is not a real place, but a dream world created by the "Dream Eater Tapir".
This time, what they need to solve is a ghost case, but the reminder words on the jade talisman emphasize that people's hearts are unpredictable.
What is going on?
Gu Xu felt a little strange.
"Are you ready?" Shangguan Jin asked again.
Gu Xu nodded.
Chu Fengge said impatiently: "I've been ready for a long time! Start quickly! You guys are really dragging your feet!"
He had long been eager to break through the illusion with his own strength and let Gu Xu and Shangguan Jin experience the terrifying power of the fifth realm monks.
Immediately, they sat down cross-legged on the straw mat and softly chanted the mantras in the jade talisman together.
The surface of the "Wen Gu Pot" glows with a bright milky white light.
Beautiful music sounded faintly in the ears of the three of them.
Gu Xu closed his eyes.
His consciousness gradually became faint, as if he was sinking into the dark sea.
…………
At the same time, on the observatory.
Luo Chuan waved his hand and summoned the bronze mirror.
The surface of the bronze mirror had a hazy luster, and a clear picture soon emerged.
The sky is like a bloody setting sun.
On the ground are rolling mountains and magnificent city walls.
Gu Xu and the other three were wearing Qiyao clothes and standing outside the city gate, like tiny ants.
This is exactly the scene in the fantasy world of "Reviewing the Past Pot".
PS: There is another chapter during the day. Asking for a monthly ticket!
…………
Note:
(1) "The world says that my flying sword takes a human head, and I chop it very hard. There are actually three swords, one to cut off the troubles of ignorance, the second to cut off the anger of ignorance, and the third to cut off the greed of ignorance." - Song Wu Zeng's "Can Change" Zhai Man Lu·Volume 18》
(2) "There is only an inch in the human heart, and there are storms day and night." - Chai Yuanbiao of the Song Dynasty, "The Song of the Human Heart"
