Chapter 191: Disturbing the Buddha Heart

Faneng heard this, his body shook, and he was somewhat lost.

Buddha is in the heart; why seek outside?

This sentence was like a heavy hammer striking his heart.

He had grown up in a temple, and what he heard most was that one must devoutly worship the Buddha, chant scriptures daily, and pay respects at all times.

Yet this Master Liaochen before him said that Buddha is in the heart and one need not seek outside.

He savored this sentence carefully, only feeling that it contained extremely deep Zen principles, and for a moment, he was somewhat mesmerized.

Su Chen ignored his distraction and led him directly to a guest room in the backyard.

"This is the guest room; you can rest here tonight. Dinner will be ready soon, and I will call you later."

"I have troubled you, Master." Faneng recovered and said gratefully.

Settling Faneng in, Su Chen returned to the kitchen, took the prepared vegetarian dishes and rice, and placed them on the stone table in the dining hall.

In the dining hall, there was a simple stone table, two vegetarian dishes, two bowls of rice, and two pairs of bamboo chopsticks.

Su Chen and Faneng sat opposite each other.

Faneng had been hungry all day, and smelling the fragrance of the food, his stomach growled uncontrollably.

He lowered his head somewhat embarrassedly, pressed his palms together, recited a short offering mantra, and then picked up his chopsticks.

He picked up a chopstick of greens, put it in his mouth, and his eyes lit up.

These greens had only been boiled in water with a little salt, yet they were crisp and sweet, more delicious than any vegetarian meal he had ever eaten.

"Master, this vegetarian meal..."

"Vegetables I grew myself, rice I cooked myself; naturally, it will be a bit more delicious." Su Chen said calmly.

While eating, Faneng couldn't help but size up the Master Liaochen before him.

This Master looked to be in his fifties or sixties, looking very ordinary, but there was always an indescribable temperament about him.

Moreover, what he said was always so simple, yet thought-provoking.

The meal was finished in silence.

Faneng took the initiative to clean up the bowls and chopsticks and went to the kitchen to wash them clean.

When he returned, he found that Su Chen had already brewed a pot of clear tea and was sitting on a stone stool in the courtyard, looking at the waning moon in the sky.

"Sit." Su Chen pointed to the stone stool opposite.

"Yes, Master."

Faneng sat down, and Su Chen poured him a cup of tea.

The tea was wild tea, the taste somewhat bitter, but the aftertaste was very lingering.

"You just said you want to go to the Western Heaven to seek true scriptures?" Su Chen sipped his tea and finally opened his mouth to ask about the important matter.

"Yes." Faneng immediately sat up straight, his face showing a sacred and yearning expression. "This humble monk grew up in the Southern Continent, seeing that in my Southern Continent, Buddha Dharma does not flourish, and all living beings are ignorant, sinking into a sea of suffering without knowing it. This humble monk, though untalented, wishes to make a great vow to walk to the Western Heaven's Great Thunder Sound Temple, seek the true scriptures of Buddha Dharma, and bring them back to the Southern Continent to save all living beings!"

He spoke passionately, with light shining in his eyes.

Su Chen listened quietly, and after he finished speaking, he asked unhurriedly: "What do you think 'saving all living beings' means?"

Faneng was stunned. This question, he had long thought through, and he answered immediately: "Saving all living beings means using Buddha Dharma to educate the world, helping them see through the illusions of the red dust, escape the suffering of birth, aging, sickness, and death, and reach the blissful shore of Nirvana and liberation."

Su Chen heard this and shook his head gently.

"Then I ask you again, how do you know that the world is suffering?"

"This..." Faneng was stumped.

All living beings suffer; isn't this the basic doctrine of Buddha Dharma?

Birth, aging, sickness, and death; separation from loved ones; meeting those one hates; not getting what one wants; the five aggregates of clinging—all are suffering.

He opened his mouth, about to cite scriptures to refute him.

But Su Chen didn't give him the chance and continued to ask: "Your so-called 'suffering'—is it that you think they are suffering, or do they really feel they are suffering?"

"Your so-called 'blissful shore'—have you seen it? How do you know that once you get there, there will be no more suffering?"

A series of questions, like a string of firecrackers, smashed into Faneng, making him dizzy and speechless.

He had never thought about these questions.

In his understanding, the red dust is a sea of suffering, life is an illusion, and only by taking refuge in the true Buddha and escaping the sea of suffering can one obtain true liberation.

This is the truth written in all the scriptures.

But now, Master Liaochen was questioning this most fundamental truth.

"You are shaking my Buddha heart!" Faneng looked at Su Chen with a trace of vigilance and resistance.

"I am not shaking your Buddha heart; I am just letting you see your own heart clearly." Su Chen's tone was calm. "You don't even know why all living beings suffer, and you don't even know what the 'blissful shore' you are going to looks like, so how can you 'save' them?"

"You keep saying you want to save all living beings—is it really for the sake of all living beings, or to satisfy your own thought of 'saving all living beings' and achieve your own merit?"

These words were like a thunderbolt, exploding in Faneng's mind.

He sat there blankly, the blood draining from his handsome face.

Yes...

Am I really for the sake of all living beings?

Or for... that great reputation of "seeking true scriptures and saving all living beings"?

This terrifying thought rose in his heart, making him shudder.

The night grew deep, and the night wind, carrying a bit of chill, blew the old tree in the courtyard, making it rustle.

Faneng sat blankly on the stone stool, Su Chen's soul-searching questions echoing in his mind like demonic sounds.

"How do you know that the world is suffering?"

"Your so-called 'blissful shore'—have you seen it?"

"You keep saying you want to save all living beings—is it really for the sake of all living beings, or to satisfy your own thought of 'saving all living beings'?"

Every question was interrogating the Buddha Dharma understanding he had built since childhood.

He had grown up in a temple, and the Buddha Dharma scriptures were long familiar to him.

He had always thought that his understanding of Buddha Dharma far exceeded his peers.

He made the vow to travel west, and was even praised by the elders in the temple as "having great perseverance and great wisdom."

But today, in Pudu Temple, before this unknown old monk, he couldn't even open his mouth to refute.

"No... it's not like that..." Faneng's lips trembled; he tried to refute.

"I see the world suffering from birth, aging, sickness, and death, trapped by the seven emotions and six desires, so I made a vow to save them from the sea of suffering. Is there anything wrong with that?"

He raised his head and looked at Su Chen with a pleading gaze, hoping the other party would give him a positive answer.

Su Chen looked at him like this, thinking to himself: "Jin Chanzi, oh Jin Chanzi, although you have reincarnated, you were born with a Buddha heart. If I don't break your Buddha heart, how can I let you see the true Buddha Dharma?"

He picked up his teacup, took another sip, and said slowly: "Birth, aging, sickness, and death are the laws of nature, like flowers blooming and falling, the changing of the four seasons. Why do you think it is suffering? Without birth, where does death come from? Without gathering, where does separation come from? You only see the sadness of separation, but you don't see the joy of gathering. You only see the desolation of withering, but you don't see the splendor of blooming."

"As for the seven emotions and six desires, that is human nature. Food and sex are human nature. Having joy and anger, having sorrow and happiness—that is what it means to be a living person. You force people to cut off their seven emotions and six desires, making them like withered wood and dead ashes—is that 'saving' them, or 'killing' them?"