When Chengliu woke up from the still low and gentle Sanskrit sound, it was already the early morning of the next day. He opened the door and saw a small novice waiting in front of the door. When Xiao Shami saw that Cheng was staying, he saluted and said, "Cheng is the donor, my uncle and ancestor are invited." ”

Cheng Liu's return salute and went out with the little novice to the eight-fingered Buddha meditation room. It turns out that this eight-fingered Buddha is already the ancestor of this temple.

The eight-fingered Buddha held a brush in his hand and pondered in front of the drawing table, but Cheng stayed in and did not break his thoughts. I saw that he sometimes stroked in the air with a paintbrush, sometimes walked with his fingers on rice paper, sometimes closed his eyes, sometimes nodded, as if he was the only one in this meditation room. Chengliu didn't make a sound to disturb, just watched quietly.

After a while, the eight-fingered Buddha finally started writing. He picked up a medium-sized brush soaked in a bowl of water, scraped off a little water from the edge of the bowl with the tip of the pen that had been soaked very soft, dipped the tip in ink, and gently brushed it in a porcelain plate used for color mixing. When the ink color was even, he placed the pen vertically on the rice paper. The tip of the pen touches the paper, the pen body is pressed and lifted, and a winding arc jumps onto the paper, and the ink color instantly changes from thick to light. He sped up the speed of moving the pen, and a little hook was just right; One stain and one dye, all of them are vivid. Between the lines and strokes, it shows calm and spicy; In one virtual and one real, there is unique ingenuity. After a while, a red plum blossom has jumped on the paper. Its momentum is like a cloud branch falling from the nine heavens, and the atmosphere is magnificent; Its color is like a starlight flying in the warm night, bright and vulgar.

The eight-fingered Buddha put down the pen with satisfaction, and then found that he had been waiting for a long time, so he said: "Little donor, I've been waiting for a long time." ”

Cheng Liudao: "It is my honor to be able to appreciate the master's masterpiece. ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "It's over." As he spoke, he glanced at his undried painting, picked up the pen again, dipped it in a drop of ink, patched up a moss spot on a twig, put down the pen and said, "Are you used to sleeping?" ”

Chengliu nodded and said, "Sleep peacefully in the mountains." ”

The Eight-Fingered Buddha said: "For the sake of safety, please stay for a while." ”

Cheng Liudao: "It's obviously not my fault, but I want to avoid them, but I don't know when it will end." ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "Everything has a cause and effect." ”

Cheng Liudao: "But my family has been kind for six generations, but there is no good result." ”

The Eight-Fingered Buddha glanced at Chengliu, his gaze returned to the painting, and said, "Amitabha, perhaps, what the donor says is good is not good, and what is said is not evil. ”

Cheng Liudao: "Grandma said that we have been poor for five generations, and I may be six generations." ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "Money is not a good cause, let alone a good effect." Some people have a lot of money, but their wives are separated, and some people have a clean breeze on their sleeves, but their families are happy. Some people have gained money but are notorious, and some people have lost money but have been passed on through the ages. It can be seen that having money is not necessarily a good result. ”

Cheng Liudao: "If you don't have money, you have a hard life, and others look down on you." ”

The Eight-Fingered Buddha said, "What do you think others think of me?" ”

Cheng Liudao: "You are a master admired by everyone in Nanyue. ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "But I have nothing but a few paintbrushes and a few sets of monk's robes." Admired, but not because of my wealth. ”

Cheng Liudao: "But not everyone can be like you, they often praise what they can never do, or rather, they won't do, so they achieve psychological comfort by praising you." ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "Being good is like a stream, which is originally a kind of performance." The people of the Three Realms have their own standards for judging goodness, or happiness. If pleasure is the result, then the pursuit of wealth and power is the cause. If artistic achievement is taken as an effect, then the search for artistic progress becomes the cause. My Buddha is compassionate and takes the purification of sentient beings as the result, so practicing and accumulating goodness is the cause. ”

Cheng Liu nodded: "The master nodded yes." But I still don't know what I need. pleasure, I don't seem to be so fascinated; Art, there is no pursuit; Pudu sentient beings are even more distant. Dare to ask Master, how did you achieve such cultivation? ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "The donor can try to start with the end in mind." It's the day you die, how do you want others to judge you? ”

Chengliu never thought about this problem, died, thought about it himself, and even almost died, but when he died, he had nothing, and what did he want to do so much? So Cheng Liu shook his head and said, "What can I accomplish that I can let others evaluate after I die?" I'm dead, and I'm sure no one will remember me. ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "In a few years, what about a few decades from now?" We turn life and death upside down, and we see that we are still alive after death. We live for only a few decades, but after we die, we have thousands of years, or even forever. If we continue to live for tens of thousands of years after death, even until civilization disappears, there is only one thing we can do during this long time, and that is to evaluate our life before we die. In this way, we can spend years, decades, or hundreds of years evaluating a small thing of ourselves. And the good and evil of this little thing is directly related to your honor and disgrace in the past few decades or hundreds of years. If so, in the face of good and evil, will you not think twice about a small matter related to your honor and disgrace in the next few decades? ”

Cheng Liudao: "How can anyone be evaluated by future generations for every little thing? ”

Eight-fingered Buddha said: "Confucius, Lao Tzu, Su Shi, Li Bai, these celebrities, aren't the trivial things of their lives often judged by future generations?" ”

Cheng Liudao: "They are big shots, not everyone can be big shots." ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "If you don't try, how do you know?" But what I'm talking about here is self-evaluation after death, self-evaluation, and it doesn't matter if I'm a big man or not. ”

Cheng Liudao: "That is to say, as long as you do everything well in your life, you will be worthy of your heart, and you can be worthy of death." ”

The Eight-Fingered Buddha nodded and said, "The donor really has deep roots. After death, there is reincarnation, and the causes of the previous life will become the blessing of your next life, and you can only become a Buddha by practicing in the reincarnation life after birth. Every life and death of Buddhism is a practice, so my Buddhist disciples are not afraid of life and death, do not admire immortality, if they have immortality, their practice will stop, and there will be no Buddha fate. ”

Cheng Liudao: "The master is a true cultivator. ”

The eight-fingered Buddha said: "If you don't seek fame and fortune, the fame and fortune of your life are only fleeting in the long river of history." Not afraid of people's words, but seek to have no fault in your heart, so that you are worthy of eternity after death. ”

Chengliu felt that the person in front of him had become extremely tall, like a Buddha in the Daxiong Treasure Hall, which could be admired by the world. And he is like a speck of dust in front of the Buddha, a speck of dust covered with worldly rotten bacteria, although he understands how to escape from the cage, but he can't escape, more because he doesn't want to escape. But from now on, he understands one thing, and it is also the only resonance between him and the Eight-Fingered Buddha - not afraid of people's words, but seeking no fault in his heart.