Da Xuan Martial Saint

Temple’s backyard.

In the small temple house, waves of chanting resounded.

"Thus said the Buddha, there is no fixed law termed Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, nor is there a fixed law that the Tathagata can proclaim. Why? Because what the Tathagata teaches cannot be grasped, cannot be spoken, is neither a law nor not a law."

As time passed, the abandoned infant left outside the temple, Chen Mu, had grown into a seven or eight-year-old novice monk, wearing a worn-out cassock, kneeling on a meditation cushion, reciting the Buddha Sutra.

"What view should one hold regarding all worldly laws, True Determination?"

Suddenly, an old monk in a cassock walked in from outside the hall, chanting the Buddha’s name, and asked towards Chen Mu.

Chen Mu responded: "All worldly laws arising from conditions are like shadows in bubbles, elusive and ever-changing. Hence, all conditioned dharmas are like a dream, a fantasy, a bubble, a shadow, like dew or lightning, and should be viewed as such."

The old monk, hearing this, smiled slightly and walked away.

The old monk was the superviser of Fatan Temple, the very Jing Nian who had brought Chen Mu back to the temple. Over the seven years of Chen Mu’s growing up, he had become the superviser of Fatan Temple, and for what the former Abbott said, that Chen Mu had ties with the Buddha, he now was deeply convinced, as Chen Mu seemed to have been born with knowledge, and from the moment he could speak, his first words were always the Buddha Sutra.

Afterwards, he never displayed the usual restlessness and mischief of ordinary toddlers, only liking to listen to the chanting in the Buddha hall. As he grew older, he began reading the sutras by himself every day. Despite being only seven or eight years old, his understanding of the sutras surpassed even some monks who had been chanting for years in the temple.