noffsinger Chapter 31 Mountain Temple Storytelling
Chapter 31 Mountain Temple Storytelling
After hearing the second story, the man drinking yellow wine suddenly burst into laughter and said:
"It's quite a coincidence. I told a story about Lingnan in the far south, and this fellow told a strange custom from the far north. If the remaining two brothers were to tell stories from the far west and far east, wouldn't that make the whole thing perfect?"
After laughing, the man took a sip of rice wine and waved his hand, saying, "My two gentlemen, don't be nervous. Just pretend I was talking nonsense. As long as the story is told well, that's all that matters. I was just having fun and talking nonsense."
Upon hearing this, the round-faced man with closely spaced teeth grinned, his fine teeth looking quite strange in the firelight.
"Just as you say, my friend. What I'm about to tell you is a story from the far west."
The round-faced man spoke slowly, while the other three sat upright and listened attentively:
"I was born by the sea and spent many years traveling with my father and brothers across the ocean to make a living. One day, our ship encountered a thick fog in the open sea, the compass went out of control, and we completely lost our way."
At this point, one can only let the boat drift and wait for the fog to dissipate before using a astrolabe to determine direction in the darkness.
But time was of the essence. In the thick fog, our boat, drifting with the current, encountered a sea eye swallowing water. By the time we realized it, we had already been captured by the sea eye. The dark, bottomless mouth in the center was surrounded by churning and overflowing seawater, all pouring into that unknown, endless maw.
The ship was sucked into the eye of the sea, tilted sharply, the mast broke under the weight, and a piercing creaking sound came from between the decks.
My father, brothers, and I had given up struggling, for no matter how strong the three of us were, we could not overcome the suction of the sea eye. We closed our eyes and prayed that the Dragon King of the Sea would help us.
Suddenly we felt the ship stop tilting. When we opened our eyes, we saw two large golden fish sandwiching our ship between them, and together we rushed out of the thick fog.
Those two large fish, with long noses, sharp teeth, and golden bodies, were unlike anything we had ever seen at sea in all our years. We assumed they were divine soldiers sent by the Dragon King of the Sea, and knelt at the bow of the ship, kowtowing repeatedly.
Unexpectedly, the two large fish spoke up, saying that they were not the Dragon King's divine soldiers. On the contrary, the sea eye was created by the Dragon King to eat us. They came from the Western Paradise, Mount Ling, and were the disciples of Buddha, Brahman.
They were sent by Buddha to the east to rescue people who were about to fall into the mouth of the Dragon King of the Sea. Now the east is full of sea eyes made by the Dragon King who eats people. We are going to take them to the Western Paradise to take refuge for a while.
We followed those two goldfish westward for countless days and nights until we finally reached the shore.
They said that the Western Paradise was too far away, so they brought us to the Lesser Western Paradise first, and asked us to take refuge here temporarily. They said they had to go back to continue saving people, and asked us to follow the monks on the shore to the temple.
We looked towards the shore and sure enough, there was a monk dressed simply, with a compassionate face and radiating a Buddhist aura. Judging from his appearance, he had a high nose, deep-set eyes, and honey-colored hair, unlike the people of Zhongtian. The passersby behind him had strangely green and blue eyes.
The monk had a small, bright red tuft of hair between his eyebrows. He spoke very politely, saying that he was here to guide those with affinity, as instructed by the Buddha.
Follow him to a place called Xiaoleiyin Temple, which he said was the Little Vulture Peak designated by the Buddha.
Since we were sea dwellers, we didn't have shoes. The monk led us through a grove of swaying trees. The light filtering through the shadows of the trees had a faint golden hue. Walking on the floor in the grove, our feet felt warm and smooth. Looking up at the swaying trees, we realized that the golden light came from the golden leaves covering the trees...
The round-faced, closely-toothed man paused, then continued:
"My father, brothers, and I are from a small town, but we still recognize gold, silver, and things from the sea. The warm, smooth floor is made of two different gemstones, the leaves overhead are gold, and even the branches and trunks of the swaying trees are glass. The red stones casually placed by the roadside are coral, the dense, lush grass is silver, and there are giant clam shell lamps on both sides of the road. I don't know what the golden oil inside is, but it doesn't produce any smoke when lit."
We followed the monk. The exterior was already magnificent, but the interior of the temple was even more breathtaking. I, from a small place, can hardly describe it. I can only say that it was a sea of gold and silver, with incense burning like clouds, and everything was exquisite and priceless. But strangely, there were only three monks inside, including him.
The monk led us on a tour of the entire temple, and then we strolled around the market below. The people on the street were all dressed in fine clothes, with rosy complexions. When they saw us, they put their palms together, smiled, and chanted "Amitabha." He told us that everyone who believes in Buddha can be wealthy, and that everyone is so peaceful and happy under Buddha's rule. The scenery of this Little Western Paradise is not even as beautiful as a grain of sand in the Great Western Paradise.
He said that everyone in the Great Western Paradise is a Buddha, regardless of wealth or poverty, and enjoys endless bliss every day, where anything can be done.
We stayed there for several months, enjoying delicious food every day, and were so happy that we forgot about home, until one day I discovered a strange monk.
The monk was covered in filth and bruises, looking flustered, with food tucked into his arms. I wanted to approach him and ask what was wrong, but upon seeing me, he immediately kowtowed repeatedly, saying only, "I was too hungry; I won't do it again."
I finally managed to calm him down and gave him some food. He led me through a maze of streets until we reached a secluded spot. There were tens of thousands of people there, men, women, and children, but they were all emaciated and lived like piglets.
According to these people, they were local residents and monks who had been living peacefully and contentedly here.
Unexpectedly, three monks came from the west, seized their temples, fields, and wealth, and used them to support their own descendants. The residents at the foot of the Little Thunder Temple were all the offspring of those three monks.
Now they have to go out every day to dig for gold, silver, amber, and agate, and go to the sea to collect coral, glass, and giant clams in exchange for food.
I asked them why they didn't resist, and they said that the three monks were surrounded by a halo of Buddha's light, and they dared not approach them.
But I saw with my own eyes those three monks in the temple, carrying things for just a few steps, and they were sweating profusely, their backs and legs aching. I really couldn't understand how tens of thousands of people could have been enslaved by three monks for so long without knowing why.
I had been out long enough, so I retraced my steps. But to my horror, my father and brother, because I was missing, were skinned alive by the three monks and the people at the foot of the temple. Outnumbered and outmatched, I hid in a drainage ditch, but was still discovered. I ran and ran for my life until I reached a sea cliff, where there was nowhere left to go, nowhere left to retreat.
Thinking that it would be better to die than to suffer humiliation, I made a snap decision and jumped off the sea cliff, falling into the water.
As I lay dying, the Dragon King, whom my family worshipped daily, swam over with his divine soldiers and generals. He sighed, "But we're too late. He's been entangled with the Buddha of the Western Paradise, and his divine soldiers and generals have deceived him, allowing the two monstrous creatures to take advantage of the situation. They created a thick fog and a sea eye, capsized fishing boats, and then hypocritically offered their help."