Chapter 66: The Vermilion Bird's Shelter

  Ye Xiang's face turned red and he was speechless.

  "Not willing to teach? Then teach me that Great Compassion Mantra that your fellow monks are playing with. A row of monks chanting in unison, it's indeed quite intimidating." Yi Tianxing smiled and said: "When I was in the county town, I wanted to learn Sanskrit, but as soon as I arrived at the provincial city, I got bogged down by these things."

  He actually had many doubts in his heart, but being born with such a lazy temperament, since he knew that seeing Bin Ku would definitely have an explanation, he resumed his carefree attitude.

  The car slowly drove into the Temple of the Return to the Origin on a dark night.

  Yi Tian Xing took a deep breath as soon as he entered the backyard and sighed: "Finally at peace."

  "Unstable." Brin Sutra Master, who had been waiting in the Zen room all along, smiled slightly and said: "Everything has just begun."

  "The Buddha's mind is unmoving, with no beginning or end." Yi Tianxing escaped the suffering of being locked up and received help from Huan Temple, and also had a falling out with Jixiang Tian. He couldn't help but feel some gratitude towards this old monk, bowing deeply to him.

  Bin Ku Da Shi smiled slightly and led him into the Zen room, then said: "You have many things you want to ask me?"

  Yi Tian Xing nodded slightly.

  "A gentleman is someone with good fortune."

  Yi Tian Xing heard a monk call himself "Jushi" for the second time tonight, slightly closing his eyes and keeping calm in his heart: "What kind of fate is this?"

  "The layman had not yet performed the ritual, but he walked into the back garden of the Temple of Return to the Origin as if it were nothing. This was clearly the protection of heaven, and this is one destiny. Due to a misunderstanding, he received the help of the old ancestor who did not ask about worldly affairs, and this is two destinies. The layman carried the sacred object, the Vermilion Bird's outer flame, which threatened his life if he didn't master the Buddhist teachings of the temple, and this is three destinies. And the temple's most precious treasure, the Heavenly Robe, was placed on the Vermilion Bird's forehead to suppress the heavenly fire, from then on never leaving the layman's side, and this is four destinies."

  Yi Tianxing sincerely asked Dao: "After all, what kind of fate do I have with Buddhism?"

  "The old monk was just guessing, after all, in the history of Buddhism, it has been hundreds of years since...". Master Bin Ku's face was stern and solemn: "In the history of Buddhism, there are those who have no father or mother, come from outside, and possess great wisdom without a teacher. If nothing unexpected happens, you should be the one to inherit this true teaching, the transmitter of our Buddhist scriptures."

  "What is a sutra transmitter." Yi Tianxing was tongue-tied.

  "Finish reading these scriptures." Master Bin said: "With your layman's clever mind, you will surely understand."

  Leaving behind these obscure words, Master Bin Ku got up and left, leaving Yi Tian Xing who was deep in thought and couldn't understand the meaning, along with a few books beside Pu Tuan.

  Yi Tian Xing picked up the book and took a look, only to find that it was a miscellaneous collection of books, including "The Journey to the West", "The History of the Southern Mountain Vinaya School", "The Amitabha Sutra", and "The Five Expedient Means of Mahayana".

  Even with such seemingly unrelated books in front of him, Yi Tianxing was at a loss, picking them up only to put them down again. At this moment, for some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of connection and turned his head towards the direction of the small thatched cottage behind Huiyuan Temple.

  At this moment, the voice of his ancestors echoed in his heart, a cold laugh.

  A cold laugh filled with extreme resentment, extreme anger and extreme regret.

  The moonlight shines on the Zen room of the Temple of Return to the Origin, a clear and elegant scene. Yi Tianxing sits cross-legged on the meditation cushion inside, holding an ancient scripture with slightly yellowed pages, slowly turning them over. The ink marks on the pages are like night, bringing peace to one's heart, the scripture is profound, with abstruse thoughts that seem to wander afar, blending reality and emptiness, for a moment, his mind seems to drift away as if it has gone on an external journey.

  These sutras are all essential teachings of Buddhism, but they don't involve profound and mysterious practices.

  Yi Tianxing carefully recited the scriptures, following Tang Sanzang's journey to the west and back east. He savored each word of Kumarajiva's Buddhist teachings, vaguely feeling as if he was following Master Damo in the snow-covered cave entrance on Mount Shaoshi, gazing at a young man named Huike with severed arms...

  "What is a sutra transmitter?"

  He asked himself this in his heart, and also asked the old monk with a face full of wrinkles in front of him.

  Bin Ku and Shang shook his head and said nothing, but instead asked: "Sir, what do you think is the commonality among these several Buddhist scriptures?"

  Yi Tianxing replied: "They were either written by a great virtuous person of this generation or translated from the Western Regions."

  "What similarities do these virtues have?"

  Yitian furrowed his brow, and after a while, he replied: "Master Sanzang was born in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Master Damo crossed the Yangtze River during the Southern Dynasty, Kumarajiva came to China from Kucha during the Later Qin Dynasty, and Master Shenxiu was 80 years old when An Lushan entered Chang'an. What do these people have in common?" He had been reading books since he was a child, and although his understanding of these Buddhist monks was not deep, he still remembered some general things clearly.

  Bin Ku and Shang smiled slightly and said: "Actually... they are all scripture carriers."

  "Who is the transmitter?" Yi Tian Xing's heart skipped a beat, thinking of Ben Ku and Shang saying that he was also a transmitter, his mind was a bit confused. "What transmitter? I don't understand."

  "Whenever the Buddha's teachings decline and the world falls into chaos, the Buddha's compassion will descend with great virtue and walk among humans to teach and transform them through Buddhist scriptures. This great virtue is what we call a scripture transmitter."

  Yi Tianxing was no ordinary person, and after a brief moment of stunned silence, he had already regained his composure. Smiling, he asked: "Transmitting scriptures and taking scriptures, it's not like Journey to the West, what's the point of saying so many idle words?"

  Bin Ku and the monk smiled and replied: "The layman still loves to joke, do you know that Bodhidharma faced the wall for ten years before passing on the spark of Zen; during the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong was in power, the people's hearts were just settled, but the world was not at peace, Master Xuanzang went west to India and returned after more than a decade; during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sixth Patriarch Huineng emerged from Mount Mei, but almost disappeared without being heard of, relying on the Seventh Patriarch Shenxiu to proclaim the Dharma in Chang'an and competing with the Northern School for decades before establishing the orthodox tradition..."

  Yi Tianxing hastily waved his hand to stop his nonsense, he naturally understood that the last thing Bin Ku said was the biggest case in the history of Zen Buddhism, in short, it was just a few monks arguing over who was the true heir of the Buddha. He didn't dare say this out loud in front of Bin Ku, after all, no matter what, he had been helped by the old monk since coming to the provincial city and had received a lot of assistance from him, so he still had to show some respect on the surface.

  "Alright, so these are the revered scripture transmitters in Buddhism. Whenever the Buddhist teachings decline, they should emerge and rise to the occasion...". Yi Tianxing suddenly felt that this idiom was not quite suitable, as if he had treated these legendary Buddhist figures like Chen Sheng and Wu Guang. He didn't have time to correct himself, so he just chuckled and continued: "Spreading Buddhism all over the world, ferrying people across the sea of suffering to the other shore... But..."

  "But..." A faint, inexplicable expression flashed across his face as he raised an eyebrow and gazed at the old monk opposite him, "What does this have to do with me?"

  "I said it last night. You are the transmitter of scriptures in this world."

  The three words "传经者" were deeply embedded in Yitian Xing's mind, and no matter how hard he tried to shake them off, they seemed to have a life of their own. He shook his head, trying to appear nonchalant, and smiled slowly as he asked: "Master, are you saying that I am the world's greatest monk?"

  "It can also be said that way." Master Bin Ku smiled slightly, "This is a natural affinity, the three-life karma between the layman and my Buddhist door."

  Yitianxing asked directly: "Tell me some convincing reasons."

  "Could you have a kind mother who raised you?" Bin's head slightly lowered.

  Yi Tian Xing was taken aback again, and then he heard this increasingly displeasing old monk continue to ask.

  "May I ask if you have a stern father who taught you how to behave?"

  "Do you know where you come from?"

  "Can a gentleman know why he has such great divine powers in his body since birth?"

  "Why did the layman not enter the temple but was able to understand the profound teachings of Zen through his practice of Buddhist scriptures?"

  "Why can the layman obtain the sacred object of the Vermilion Bird's protection?"