The Great Wei Music Bureau

Chapter 267 Asking Buddha

Last time we talked about Li Yi wandering around the outer city with several children who had nowhere to go. A boy from the Chu State named Wolfskin said that he could find the Gu tribe of the Di people. So what decision would Li Yi make? Let’s see together.

Li Yi looked at Langpi and said, "I want to send these children to the temple first. Do you know where the nearest temple is?"

Wolfskin exclaimed, "You want to send them all to become monks?"

Li Yi shook his head and smiled, "It's just temporarily placed there, but if someone doesn't want to leave, I won't stop them from becoming a monk there."

Wolf Skin said, "I don't want to be a monk! I won't be one even if you kill me!"

Li Yi smiled and said, "I didn't ask you to be a monk. How about this? You take me to the nearest temple and I can give you some silver as a reward."

Langpi nodded and said, "Okay, I'll take you there. There is a temple ten miles to the east."

When it was getting dark, Li Yi brought the children to a temple located east of the outer city of Dunhuang. The plaque read Kaiyan Temple. It is said that there were many temples in Dunhuang City, but the city lords changed frequently. The Qiang and Di tribes did not believe in Buddhism, so when they became city lords, they would rob the temples. Therefore, there was only one temple in Dunhuang City. But Li Yi did not want to place the children in the city, so he came to this one outside the city.

Li Yi knocked on the temple door, but no one answered. He shouted, "Is anyone there?"

After a while, a young monk came to open the door. Seeing Li Yi with a dozen children, he bowed and said, "Sir, our temple is poor and cannot support so many children. Please think of other ways."

Li Yi bowed and said, "Don't rush to refuse. Just listen to what I have to say, okay?"

The young monk shook his head and was about to close the temple door when Li Yi suddenly heard someone inside shouting, "Who is that person outside? Why is he here to burn incense at this time? Young monk, take a look. If he is a devout pilgrim, let him in."

Li Yi raised his eyebrows. The little monk shook his head at Li Yi and said as he closed the door, "He brought his child here to beg for food."

The voice came again: "Damn it, beggars, I don't even know what to eat! And yet they come here to beg for food, quickly drive them away!" Li Yi put down the child in his hands, pushed open the temple door and rushed in.

It didn't matter that he came in. He saw six Hu people roasting a whole lamb in the Xianglu Square. When they saw Li Yi breaking in, they cursed: "Damn it, who are you? How dare you break into my temple? Are you tired of living?" Then they picked up their machetes and chopped at Li Yi.

Li Yi closed his eyes and chanted a Buddhist name, saying, "Amitabha, Buddhist temples are originally quiet places, and they do not take any advantage of the secular world. However, thieves disturb the quiet place of meditation. Those who do evil will eventually perish."

Then one could hear the sounds of breaking knives and bones, as well as the howling of ghosts and wolves. The children poked their heads out of the gate and watched Li Yi knock the six Hu people to the ground with one punch and one kick. They were all rolling on the ground wailing, each of them covering their arms or hugging their thighs.

Li Yi waved his hand to signal the children to come in, and the children ran into the temple without hesitation. Li Yi said to Langpi, "Close the door!" Langpi immediately closed the door and stood guard at the door.

Li Yi shook his head and smiled, then turned around and said to the six people rolling on the ground: "Are you horse bandits or mountain bandits? Why did you come to the temple?" Li Yi said as he sat beside the fire, took a knife to cut off a piece of mutton and stuffed it into his mouth.

The leader knew at a glance that this person was a ruthless person, and said while enduring the pain: "Hero, we are just passing by here and can't find a place to stay, so we broke into the temple, thinking that at least it can be sheltered from the wind and rain. I don't know how much we neglected your arrival, hero. I apologize for your apology."

Li Yi said while eating the lamb leg: "Oh, is it true?"

The man nodded quickly and said, "It's true, it's true!"

Li Yi pointed at the young monk who had just opened the door and said, "Tell me who these people are from." The man glared at the young monk fiercely, frightening him so much that he dared not speak. Langpi stepped forward and kicked the man in the face and said, "How dare you fight me!"

Li Yi smiled and beckoned Langpi to come over. Langpi spat at the man and then walked to Li Yi. Li Yi handed the knife to Langpi, who took the knife, nodded and walked towards the man.

The man was so frightened that he kowtowed and said, "I'll tell you the truth. I fled here from the north. I couldn't find a way to make a living, so I took a few brothers to occupy this dilapidated temple, hoping to live on the money from incense offerings. I never thought that this dilapidated temple was so poor that it couldn't support my brothers at all. So I used this place as a place to stay and did some murder and robbery business around it."

Wolfskin tried to take credit from Li Yi with a proud look on his face, but Li Yi gave him a chestnut and scolded him, "What are you doing? I asked you to cut the lamb legs and share them with the children. They were so greedy when they saw me eating the lamb legs just now. Did I ask you to ask him a question?" Wolfskin rubbed his head, said "oh", and started to cut the lamb legs.

Li Yi asked the tiger head and wolf skin to share the meat with the children, and then asked the young monk who opened the door: "How many people are left in the temple?"

The young monk sobbed and said, "Originally there were eight monks in the temple. The abbot and the supervisor were killed by them, and two escaped. Now there are only four monks left."

Li Yi nodded and said, "Call them all over. It's okay. These evil people won't bully you anymore."

The young monk nodded and shouted, "Brothers, come out quickly. This donor has subdued the evil people. Everything is fine. Come out quickly." The other three monks who had been hiding came out after hearing the shouting. When they saw the six people lying in the yard, they bowed to Li Yi and thanked him together.

Li Yi waved his hand and said, "Don't thank me, it's time for the evening class. Today I will teach you a lesson: good people are often bullied!"

Li Yi stood up and walked a few steps, pushing open the door of the main hall. As soon as he opened the door, he saw a half-dressed young woman lying on the ground, staring blankly at the Buddha. Li Yi immediately closed the door, walked up to the leader with a look of resentment, and slapped him in the face, causing his mouth to bleed.

Li Yi asked, "What's going on with the woman in the palace?"

The young monk said, "I don't know where they kidnapped the girl from. They locked her up in the main hall and raped her. We were powerless to stop her."

The leading thief kept kowtowing and begging for mercy despite the pain. Li Yi walked up to him and smashed his head with one punch. Blood and brains splattered all over him. The four monks were so scared that they closed their eyes and chanted sutras. The remaining five all knelt on the ground and kowtowed to admit their mistakes. They pointed at their leader and said, "It was him. It was all his idea. There is nothing we can do. Please spare our lives, hero!"

Li Yi said nothing, and punched them one by one. Some people struggled to run, but Li Yi caught up and killed them. The four monks knelt on the ground and cried and chanted. Li Yi scolded: "What's the point of chanting now? Do you still want to help them to be reborn?"

The little monk cried, "Donor, we can do nothing but chant sutras. What else do you want us to do?"

Li Yi looked at the blood flowing on the ground, waved his hand and the door of the main hall opened. Li Yi pointed at Tathagata Buddha and shouted: "As the Buddha, you watched these thieves kill your monks and do evil things, but you did nothing? Let me ask you, what is the point of people believing in you? You said you want to save all living beings, but you can't even protect the people under your nose. What is the point of people believing in you?

If I hadn't come here, in the future they would put on monk robes and become fake monks, using the name of your temple to do dirty things. Would you be like the other temples in Nanliang and not even care about it? You clearly know that there is a catastrophe of the end of the law, but you don't think of a solution, and just sit there high and mighty. What's the point of people believing in you, the Buddha! In peacetime, you attract many believers and take all the incense, but what do you do in times of disaster? What did you do? "

The four monks knelt on the ground and cried, "Donor, hero, please stop talking. If the Buddha gets angry and punishes us, we won't be able to bear the punishment!" Li Yi sighed and waved his hand again, and the door of the main hall closed.

Li Yi stripped off the clothes of a corpse, threw them to Hu Tou and said, "Go and help the sister inside put on her clothes!" Hu Tou nodded and walked into the hall.

Li Yi said to Langpi, "Go and check if they have anything useful."

Langya swallowed the mutton in his mouth and began to search the corpse. He said something to the other children, and they also began to search. In the end, they only found a few flints, two daggers and a wine bag.

Li Yi shook his head and sighed, then piled up the bodies again and burned them with the Red Lotus Fire. He said to the four monks, "You can recite the sutras now. You didn't recite when you should, and you just recited when you shouldn't!"

The four monks didn't understand the second half of the sentence, but they knew from the tone that it was not a good thing, so they didn't dare to say anything. They just sat in meditation and chanted in front of the pile of six corpses. At this time, Hu Tou helped the young woman out of the hall. The woman knelt on the ground and cried while looking at the burning corpses...

After the bodies were burned, Li Yi said to the four monks, "What are you standing there for? Go get some water and clean the ground!"

The four monks set out to fetch water. Li Yi gave Langpi a look, and Langpi immediately understood and took the children to clean up. Li Yi helped the woman who was crying on the ground, pressed her in front of the Buddha statue, and chanted the Great Compassion Mantra while beating the wooden fish.

The woman looked at Li Yi blankly, and Li Yi sang over and over again. Gradually, she began to listen to Li Yi's singing. Although she didn't understand, she still listened. After a while, a glimmer of light appeared in her eyes. Although she still didn't understand, she listened. Every time Li Yi struck the wooden fish, it was like a drop of water falling into her heart, filling the gully left by suffering.

The four monks and the children finally cleaned up the yard. Li Yi waved his hand and let them enter the hall. Everyone sat on the ground facing the Buddha. The four monks knelt in the front row. Li Yi stood with his back to the Buddha. He said, "Now I will give you an evening lesson. Listen carefully!"

"Li Yi!" Li Yi suddenly heard someone calling him from behind. In an instant, he came to an illusory space. Everyone disappeared and he was the only one standing in the empty main hall. The majestic voice came from behind him.

"Li Yi, you are so brave."

Li Yi's back was covered in cold sweat. Behind him was only a statue of Tathagata Buddha. He could tell whose voice it was just by guessing with his toes. Li Yi immediately turned around, knelt down in front of the Buddha statue, and kowtowed, saying, "Disciple Xiuyuan pays homage to Tathagata Buddha!"

The Buddha's words were transmitted directly to Li Yi's heart. He only heard the Buddha say: "Can you tell me what you think? You know that all this is karma and reincarnation, but you questioned me in front of them, saying that I don't care about the suffering in this world, that I don't protect monks, and what else you said about me, saying that I am high and mighty. Li Yi, I want to ask you, as a lay disciple of my Buddhist sect, what crime should you be punished for slandering me, the Buddha, like this?"

Li Yi knocked his head hard on the ground and shouted, "I deserve to die. I was in a hurry and had no place to vent my anger. I spoke too quickly without thinking about the cause and effect. I offended the Buddha. Please punish me!"

Buddha: "Punishment? Stand up. Why don't you answer a few questions for me first, and then we can talk about punishment."

Li Yi: "Disciple, please teach me, Buddha."

Buddha: "Li Yi, let me ask you, why am I called Buddha?"

Li Yi: "The Buddha comprehended the great truth under the Bodhi tree, saw through the birth, aging, sickness and death, joy, anger, sorrow, and all kinds of suffering in the mortal world, and said that all dharmas are empty and the five aggregates are empty; he also saw through the cause and effect, good and evil, and the six realms of reincarnation. In order to save the world from suffering and not suffer the pain of reincarnation, he began to accept disciples and preach, and persuade people to be good. Later generations were moved by this great love, so they respectfully called you Tathagata Buddha."

Buddha: "This is all fabricated by later generations, not my original intention. First, Buddhism was not created by me. I also have a teacher. Buddhism was born before me. I just developed it. People call me Buddha, and now I call myself Buddha. Is it deceiving the world?"