荒墟牧神 - 第38章 古佛大乘渡迷途 - 雲海書庫

The young monk Mingxing, hearing this, flew into a rage and cried out, "Monstrous blasphemy! You dare insult the Buddha!" Shen Mu smiled; his heart settled into complete stillness, and his eyes held an incomparable confidence. Whatever this young monk's actual power, whatever his arts, he had already lost in his state of mind! The old monk across from Old Man Ma was wavering. Shen Mu's words seemed utterly lawless, defying Heaven itself — an insult not merely to the Buddha, but to gods and demons alike — and yet, when they fell upon his ears, they were not impiety but words of supreme truth. Only when the heart holds no Buddha can one become a Buddha; once the heart holds a Buddha, one can never become a Buddha. Only when the heart holds no demon can one become a demon; once the heart holds a demon, one can never become a demon. Mingxing's realm had not yet reached that height, and he could not understand these words. The old monk had understood them deeply. It was only after he entered the Heaven-Man Realm that he had perceived the true meaning of those words; and yet, now that he had cultivated to the Life-Death Realm, the Buddha in his heart still could not be broken. The deeper his cultivation, the more he saw how dreadful gods and demons were, and how vast Tathagata was. Knowing is easy; doing is hard. Uttered by the mouth of a mere child like Shen Mu, the same truth was exceedingly strange. Stranger still, this child actually claimed to have broken the gods and Buddhas in his heart! Shen Mu was far too young; it was utterly impossible that he could have touched the true meaning of those words; and since he could not touch the true meaning, how could he have broken the gods and Buddhas in his heart? To break the gods and Buddhas in one's heart, one must pass through bitter cultivation, must attain a sudden awakening; otherwise, the Buddha in the heart remains a Buddha, and the demon in the heart remains a demon. "Whatever the case, he has not obtained the true supreme arts of my Great Thunderclap Temple. However high his state of mind may be, he will not be a match for Mingxing." The old monk kept his eyes on his nose and his nose on his heart, seeming to sink into meditation, utterly unconcerned with the victory or defeat on the stage. On the stage, a faint golden light bloomed from Mingxing's tall, gaunt body. This young monk actually gave one the sensation of a living Buddha — holy, solemn, vast, pressing on the heart with unmatched spiritual weight! Beneath the stage, men and women, old and young from every village had gathered, drawn there by the commotion. A moment before, the place had been a boiling clamor of voices; now, as the golden light broke over Mingxing's body, all sound suddenly died away together into dead silence. They shut their mouths at almost the same instant, as if struck across the head by a staff! This was the mind-art of the Buddha's school: the Thunderclap Mahayana Sutra. The path of cultivation in this mind-art differed from the mind-arts of other sects, for it goes from the outside to the inside. The outside is the surface of the body; the body is Tathagata. The inside is the heart; the heart is Tathagata. The Buddha's school calls these Body-Thusness and Mind-Thusness. Although Mingxing had only cultivated the outermost layer of Body-Thusness, once the Buddha-form appeared, it could indeed deliver that staff-blow across the head! Granny Zhu and the others could not help growing desperate again. Mingxing had not yet made a move, but this aura alone was enough to overawe Shen Mu at the outset and crush his fighting spirit. Tell me, who would dare strike at a Buddha? But Shen Mu dared! Shen Mu joined body to heart, heart to will, will to fist, fist to vital force, vital force to body; at the same moment, his spirit embryo moved together with his body, body and spirit united, and he unleashed Nine Dragons Riding Wind and Thunder! His footwork was the Lame Old Man's Heaven-Stealing Divine Leg, so