593, the old abbot of Shaolin

Time is like an arrow, and several days and months have passed in a blink of an eye. The whereabouts of the "One-Armed Wyvern Monk" are still unknown. However, who would have expected that just when both the good and evil realms of martial arts were looking for the mysterious missing "one-armed flying dragon monk" of the White Horse Temple, he had quietly sat in the first ancestor Dharma cave under the five milk peaks of Songshan Mountain.

In the cave, an old abbot sat cross-legged opposite the "one-armed flying dragon monk". I only heard the old abbot's tone calm and powerful, and asked, "Wu Jing!" You are willing to take refuge in Buddhism, enter my Shaolin, and be a true disciple of the Three Treasures under my temple, do you know why I brought you here? ”

"Know! Because this is the first ancestor of Shaolin Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma, meditated and cultivated his mind, facing the wall for nine years and dying in the cave. ”

"Wonderful! You know that if you want to truly convert to Buddhism and become a devout Buddhist, you must be like the ancestors of Zen Buddhism, meditating single-mindedly, and your heart is as firm as a wall. Instead of burning incense and worshipping the Buddha all day long, chanting the Buddha and chanting sutras, you can be counted as a disciple of the Three Jewels. ”

"Thank you for the teachings of the old abbot! Wu Jing always remembers it in his heart. ”

"Wonderful! Everyone has Buddha nature, and everyone has Buddha nature. It only depends on whether you are good or not, and whether you are willing to learn or not. ”

"The disciple is willing to learn! Please ask the old abbot to teach with a clear heart. ”

"Wonderful! Wonderful! I was originally a soil, and I was taught by the Dharma. One flower blooms five leaves, and the fruit is natural. Heaven has the virtue of a good life. Now that I have chosen you to be my successor, it is necessary to teach you the true meaning of the Dharma life. Therefore, if you want to truly cultivate the path and become a Buddha and attain the right results, the only way to do this is to start from the beginning. Let me ask you, why did my Buddha Ancestor allow people? ”

"Back to the old abbot! The Buddha was Shakyamuni, born in 565 B.C. and died in 486 B.C., roughly the same time as Confucius, the most holy teacher of Confucianism. ”

"Amitabha!" The old abbot's face immediately sank, and he said: "I will talk about Buddhism here, and I will not talk about Confucianism!" ”

"Yes! Old abbot! ”

At this time, the old abbot stabilized his mind and continued: "The founder of Buddhism, whose real name is Siddhartha Gautama, was born in the Shakya tribe. Shakyamuni was his later honorific title, which means 'the saint of the Shakya tribe' and 'the hermit of the Shakya clan', and the Han people called him 'Buddha', which means 'the one who is completely enlightened'.

According to legend, he was the son of King Johan, the monarch of the Acropolis of Kapila, and was born on the 8th of April. Seven days after his birth, his mother, Lady Mahāmāyā, passed away by his aunt, Mahāpāp

ajāpoti) was raised and educated in traditional Kshatriyas, becoming the crown prince of both civil and military affairs, marrying the princess Yasodha

a

a) as a wife and gave birth to a son, Rahula. Legend has it that Shakyamuni felt the suffering of the world and the impermanence of the world, so he gave up the future of inheriting the throne. At the age of twenty-nine, he left the palace one night and went to the wilderness, forests, mountains and valleys to seek a way out of the pain of life and a way to save the world. He first practiced asceticism, ate one meal every seven days, wore deer skin and tree bark, and slept on deer dung and cow dung.

Six years later, he was described as emaciated and as dead wood. During this period, although he visited many famous teachers, he did not get the desired results.

One day, he gave up his asceticism and took a place in a line called Nirenzen

a

ya

a) washed the dirt from his body in the river, accepted the milk porridge offered by a shepherdess, and then went to a pippala tree by the river to sit cross-legged, meditate for seven days and seven nights, and finally realized that the source of the suffering in life is the "ignorance" in the understanding and the "troubles" in the mind, and realized that everything in the world is changing, and life is impermanent. As long as we abandon the pursuit of external material things, cut off selfish and evil thoughts, especially the desires for love, survival, money, and power, and do more good deeds, we can achieve positive results. What fame and fortune, wine and wealth, are all ethereal things that are not brought by life and cannot be brought away by death, just like the passing clouds of life. If you ask what life is and what reality is, it is just a dream of life. Since then, Shakyamuni has finally realized the true meaning of the world, attained complete enlightenment, and has the honorific title of 'Buddha'. This is the origin of the Buddha Shakyamuni. ”

After listening to the old abbot's eloquent narration, Wu Jing felt that her ears were clear, and she nodded silently: "Disciple understands!" To attain enlightenment is to suffer. ”

"Wonderful! Do you know what was the first words of the Buddha Shakyamuni when he came to the world? ”

"Disciple doesn't know! Please make it clear to the old abbot. ”

"Tell you what! The first words of the Buddha when he came to earth were: 'Heaven and earth, I am the only one.' Do you know what this really means? ”

"I don't know."

"The Buddha said, 'Heaven and the world, I am the only one,' but the 'I' in this is not the Buddha's self-title, but refers to the first person in the world. The true meaning of this sentence is that man is the supreme and boundless power of the universe, and that each person is his own master, deciding his own destiny, and does not have to obey the orders of man or any superhuman god, demon, ghost, or monster. Shakyamuni attributed his enlightenment, achievements, and attainments entirely to man's own efforts and talents. He believes that a person's good fortune and misfortune, success or failure, honor and disgrace, determine whether his behavior is good or bad and whether he works hard or not; No one can lift me up to heaven, and no one can push me to hell. 'There is a way in heaven that you don't take, and there is no way to break into hell'; Praise and eulogy cannot be separated from suffering and happiness, only by cultivating one's mind in a down-to-earth manner can one's personality be purified and sublimated, so that oneself can enjoy the happiness of peace of mind. The only way to become a Buddha is to create a complete wisdom and personality with perseverance and perseverance. ”

"Disciple understands! The Buddha is me, I am the Buddha, and everyone has the nature of my Buddha. I am a Buddha with compassion and purity for all sentient beings. Persuade people to do good deeds, and their hearts will be free from troubles, and they will ascend to the Western Elysium. ”

"Wonderful! I am a Buddha who respects himself and persuades others to do good deeds and create a beautiful and complete world together. Do you know what is the purpose of Buddhism and the basic teachings propagated by Shakyamuni? ”

"Old abbot, please speak! The disciple is good at remembering it. ”

"The purpose of Buddhism is to liberate life and death, and birth and death are the worldly laws, and non-birth and death are the worldly laws. There is life and death in the Dharma of the world, so there is more suffering and less happiness, and there is no change in change, and there is not enough greed. This is how the world is, short-term happiness, long-term pain. Therefore, Buddhism is tired of detaching itself from this world of suffering and happiness, and demands liberation from birth and death. However, the ultimate goal of Buddhism's misanthropy is to 'be born', and the so-called 'birth' is not to break away from or escape from the world, but to transform and rebuild the world. Buddhist scripture cloud: The Dharma is in the world, and it does not leave the world. Leaving the world to seek Bodhi is just like looking for a rabbit's horns. ”

"The disciple understands. The purpose of Buddhism is to liberate oneself from birth and death. However, this liberation from life and death is not a detachment from reality. The so-called 'Dharma is in the world, and it is not separated from the world.' That is to say, cultivation must be in the human world, and enlightenment must also be in the human world. It is impossible for everyone who has a heart for the Buddha to abandon this world, to escape from the human world in this world, and to attain positive results by 'being good to himself'. If a person wants to truly attain enlightenment and become a Buddha, in addition to possessing wisdom, wisdom and noble virtues, he must also have a vast amount of compassion and vow to purify sentient beings, and he must use this kind of 'compassion' and 'wisdom' interchange, complement each other, and achieve a state of complete perfection in order to attain Buddhahood. ”

"Wonderful! Wonderful! Wu Jing thoroughly understood this, and the old man was very pleased. But now that you've only half of it, you don't know what the basic teachings of the Buddha are. ”

"Back to the old abbot! Although Wu Jing cannot yet speak of the basic teachings propagated by Shakyamuni, his disciples know that Buddhism is important in reminding people that there are sufferings such as birth, old age, sickness, and death, as well as 'the impermanence of life', believing that everything in the world is illusory, and that fame, fortune, wealth, and lust are just fleeting things, and that we should not love these illusory things. It also advises people to be content with less desires, because 'too much desire for suffering' is often the root of suffering and trouble. ”

"Wonderful! You have spoken the most fundamental teachings of Buddhism. But I have to tell you clearly that the basic doctrine propagated by Shakyamuni is the 'Four Noble Truths,' which means the 'Four Truths.' First, he said that everything in life is suffering, birth, old age, sickness, death, and so on. Second, he said that the root of suffering lies in having desires, and if you want to live forever, you can't achieve it, and if you want to die, you will always die, so you will inevitably have suffering, and if you have desires, you will have words and deeds, and as a result, you will create 'karma', and you will continue to be reincarnated, and you will continue to experience all kinds of suffering, such as birth, old age, sickness, and death. Thirdly, he said that in order to eliminate suffering, it is necessary to eliminate the desires that cause suffering, and to eliminate desires one can attain the highest state of 'immortality,' which Buddhism calls 'nirvana'. Fourth, he said that in order to attain the highest state of immortality, one must cultivate the Tao, and the path of cultivation mainly includes the study of teachings, observance of precepts, meditation, and so on. ”

"The disciple understands. Buddhism always teaches people to recite sutras, preach Buddha, meditate and meditate, which is indeed detached from reality, making people give up the pursuit of a better life in reality, and fantasize about the 'immortality and immortality' of nothingness. In order to escape the suffering of human affection in reality, the disciple abandoned his home and joined the Buddha to anesthetize himself. ”

"Amitabha! Wu Jing can't talk like that! The old abbot said unhappily: "Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are the three major religions, and Buddhism is one of the three religions, which can be called the first of the three religions." Its truth and morality are to require people to attain the highest state of 'immortality', not the anesthetic decoction of 'pessimism and negativity'. Although Buddhist scriptures often talk about the Pure Land such as 'Western Elysium' and 'Eastern Glass World', they persuade the world to recite the Buddha and reincarnate in another country. But this is just an expedient measure by the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to transform sentient beings, and the purpose of Buddhism is to 'turn the world into a majestic pure land and hell into a world of bliss.' This is the true purpose of Buddhism, not for everyone to escape from this world and to seek refuge in the Pure Land of the West to enjoy happiness. ”