Embers Ad Infinitum

Hearing the words of the mechanical monk Jingfa, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong were stunned at the same time.

Jingfa stared at them with flashing red eyes for two seconds, and then said to Long Yuehong:

"You don't know Zhi Sui."

After saying that, he looked at Shang Jianyao and said without any emotion:

"you know."

ah? Long Yuehong looked sideways at Shang Jianyao in confusion and shock:

The two of them received the same education, lived in the same environment, and were often inseparable. How come I had never heard of the term Zhi Sui, but he seemed to understand it very well?

Shang Jianyao moved his eyebrows slightly and answered calmly:

"I've heard a little bit."

On the black face made of pure metal, red light flashed again:

“The end, the beginning, the end of the year, the beginning of the year…

"You know it from the followers of Si Ming."

Shang Jianyao, who felt strange just now, immediately confirmed one thing:

The mechanical monk opposite seems to be able to hear part of his inner voice!

Long Yuehong couldn't bear to think about the title Siming, and also noticed something was wrong.

Jingfa did not continue, but simply explained:

"Zhi Sui is the god who controls the years and the world. There are thirteen gods in total, corresponding to different months."

"Isn't it only twelve months?" Long Yuehong pointed out this obvious problem.

He roughly understood that Zhi Sui was a popular religious belief or myth on the surface.

Jingfa's voice was low and cold, not at all like a human voice:

"There is one who rules over the leap months, or rather over the whole year, the whole years."

Without waiting for Long Yuehong to ask again, Jingfa directly got to the point:

"Our religious sect teaches that the physical body is void and the four elements are empty, because this world itself is the dream of the Tathagata I, the Buddha."

Shang Jianyao suddenly spoke, interrupting the mechanical monk's words:

"The Tathagata of the Self? Isn't it Bodhi?"

Jingfa put his hands together and said:

"The Buddha of the past is the Tathagata of the past and the creator of the world. I, Buddha Bodhi, am the Tathagata of the present world and the beginning of the consciousness of all things.

"Didn't you just want to ask who is in charge of the leap month and represents the entire year?

"The poor monk tells you now that he is the Tathagata of Self-Contained Worlds."

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong looked surprised at the same time, and nodded slightly.

Jingfa lowered his head and recited:

"Namo is the Tathagata of Freedom."

While thinking quietly, he straightened his back made of metal skeleton, kept his hands clasped together, and leaned slightly towards the towering "chimneys".

"Are you asking why the poor monk salutes the iron and steel-making tower?" After Jingfa raised his body, he took the initiative to speak out the thoughts of Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong, "That's because I am at ease in the Buddha's world. The Tathagata is also known as "Buddha", which is another name for the Buddha and also represents a pagoda. Therefore, when we recite the name of Tathagata Tathagata, we should pay respect to the tallest pagoda around us. This can be a pagoda. It can also be a water tower, an iron-making tower, a signal tower, or a high-voltage electricity tower.”

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong originally thought that the mechanical monk's teachings were coherent and logical, but after hearing the second half, they began to feel a little strange.

Jingfa didn't know whether he noticed the two people's thoughts, stopped in time, and said instead:

"Besides the recluse, I, the Tathagata Buddha, have another honorable name."

"What is it?" Long Yuehong blurted out.

Jingfa still sat cross-legged, with no emotion on his face made of pure metal:

"Zhuang Sheng."

"Zhuang Sheng...Zhuang Sheng...Zhuang Sheng is obsessed with butterflies..." Shang Jianyao couldn't help but whisper to himself.

Jingfa’s head moved up and down:

"What Zhuang Sheng dreamed of was our world.

"You should have all had dreams, and you know that everything in dreams is illusory, and all feelings and intersections are just false connections. If you can't understand this, you will always sink here, being reborn and aging over and over again. , illness, death, separation from love, meeting of resentments and hatreds, not being able to get what you want, and the suffering of the five yin beings blazing.”

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong thought about it carefully, and inexplicably felt that what the mechanical monk said made sense.

Of course, the premise is that this world is indeed just a dream of a certain god.

At this moment, Jingfa changed the subject and said:

"Two donors, please wait a moment. The poor monk will protect you."

"..." Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong watched blankly as the mechanical monk opposite, wearing monk's robes and cassocks, opened a metal lid on his waist and took out a plastic bottle from inside.

Then, he unscrewed a small metal cap at the "clavicle" position and poured a little of the rather viscous yellow "grease" in the plastic bottle into it.

"This is..." Shang Jianyao said curiously.

He didn't expect Jingfa to answer, but the other party actually said calmly:

"Special lubricant."

The expressions of Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong paused on their faces for two seconds at the same time, and they instantly had a ridiculous feeling about why I just thought what this guy said made sense.

Jingfa didn't seem to notice. After putting down the bottle of special lubricating oil, he raised his head and looked at the two people opposite him with flashing red eyes:

"Two benefactors, Gui Geng?"

"?" Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong failed to understand what the other party wanted to ask.

The teaching materials within "Pangu Biology" focus more on poetry and idioms than on ancient prose.

Jingfa didn't care, so he asked a more popular question:

"How old are the two donors?"

"21." Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong answered at the same time.

Jingfa pulled up the red cassock and covered it on his knees:

"You two are still young, so you may not have too deep feelings about what the poor monk just said. But wait another thirty, forty, or fifty years. When you get older and your bodies become weaker and weaker, As diseases become more and more common and we see many tragedies, we can understand the meaning that all living beings suffer."

Shang Jianyao opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but closed it tightly again.

After a few seconds, he said seriously:

"However, we have all been genetically modified. Fifty years from now, our bodies should still be very healthy."

Jingfa was speechless, but quickly recovered:

"But it will eventually pass away. In the long years, there is no essential difference between fifty years and a hundred years."

Long Yuehong wanted to retort, but after looking at the grenade launcher on the left arm of the mechanical monk Jingfa, she rationally gave up the plan.

"You're right." Shang Jianyao looked away from the same place.

Jingfa's eyes flashed red:

"What do you think is real in dreams? Judging from your usual dreaming experience."

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong thought for a while and shook their heads one after another.

Jingfa’s cold and emotionless voice sounded again:

"Actually, there is. In dreams, only one thing is real, and that is the awareness of self. When everyone dreams, they understand that I am who I am.

"You two, don't you understand? Everything is illusory, but consciousness is real. When you get rid of the shackles of the physical body and truly control your own consciousness, you can escape from this dream, enter the Pure Land, and gain eternal life and bliss."

"So, how can we truly control our self-awareness?" Shang Jianyao replied habitually.

Jingfa pointed at himself:

"Using a device to upload consciousness into the robot's body, this allows you to easily and directly get rid of the constraints of the body."

"But shouldn't normal religion emphasize self-cultivation?" Long Yuehong said some words mentioned sporadically in the "Pangu Biology" textbook.

Jingfa said in a monotonous voice with no fluctuation:

"There are three thousand true Dharmas and forty thousand side paths. Each path is different, but they all lead to the Pure Land.

"What our monastic order has chosen is the scientific and technological enlightenment among the three thousand dharma."

Shang Jianyao and Long Yue's red lips twitched, their thoughts were confused and they had no way of responding.

Mechanical Monk Jingfa continued:

"When you put down your physical body and upload your consciousness to the robot's bionic chip, you will be able to see the Pure Land of Paradise, which is the so-called 'New World' on the dust.

"This will allow you to understand Buddhism and gain certain supernatural powers.

"The poor monk was able to hear the voices in your hearts just now because of the compassion of Buddha Bodhi, which allowed the poor monk to realize his mind. Of course, the poor monk is not at the highest level and cannot hear too much in-depth content."

...Why did he expose his shortcomings so naturally? Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong both had this thought.

Jingfa put his hands together, chanted the Buddha's name in a low voice and said:

"Monks don't lie."

"...What is fruit position?" Shang Jianyao asked another question.

Jingfa replied without any fluctuation in his voice:

“Consciousness uploading is not the end, but the beginning.

“Technology for technological enlightenment is not the core, but an auxiliary one. Their role is to provide better conditions for us to understand Buddhism.

"When the physical body is abandoned, we can see the world from another angle, thereby better understanding the Buddha's teachings and understanding that the four elements are empty.

"This is a process, and the key nodes in the process are called fruition status. When you achieve the fruition status of 'Great Arahant', you can truly enter the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and transcend the world."

After explaining this, Jingfa glanced at Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong:

“For you two, this is rather profound, so let’s stop here for today.

"The poor monk can see that you will be walking on ashes. I hope you can go through the world and realize that all living beings are suffering and that the body is void.

"When the time comes, if we meet again by fate, the poor monk will ferry you to the Pure Land of Glazed Glass."

Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong were overjoyed when they saw that the mechanical monk had taken the initiative to end his mission. How could they dare to ask questions?

They quickly stood up, walked to the side, and got out of the way.

"If you don't want to address the poor monk by his name, then call him Zen Master." Jingfa said with his hands clasped together.

He then flicked his cassock, returned the same way, and disappeared around the corner.

After watching him leave, Shang Jianyao and Long Yuehong looked at each other and walked out of this rusty steel "forest" along the same road they came from.

When she arrived at the gate, Long Yuehong looked around, calculated the distance, quickly picked up the walkie-talkie, and pressed the button:

"Team leader, we met the monks of the Monk Order!"

This is what Shang Jianyao wanted to do, so he didn't stop him.

"What? What's its name?" Jiang Baimian's voice rang out along with the crackling sound of electricity.

Near the towering "chimneys", the mechanical monk Jingfa, who was walking step by step deeper into the ruins of the steel plant, suddenly stopped.

His eyes suddenly brightened red, his neck turned stiffly, and words that came out of his mouth were extremely cold and emotionless:

"A woman's voice..."

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