Chapter 126 Rescue

Yuan Jue quickly answered Wei Yuan's call.

Although somewhat surprised by Wei Yuan's sudden contact, Yuan Jue was clearly in good spirits.

They chatted briefly on the phone, but because the matter was somewhat complicated and difficult to explain over the phone, Wei Yuan suggested that they find a way to meet and talk in person. Yuan Jue readily agreed and even shared a location with Wei Yuan, arranging to meet at seven o'clock in the evening.

At seven o'clock that night, Wei Yuan arrived at the designated place on time, riding a shared bicycle.

However, he had not expected the scene before him to be like this.

An open-air shed, smoke rising from the grilling, tables pieced together, noisy sounds, the clinking of beer bottles—it was a barbecue stall night market. A bald monk in a gray robe, his body full of muscles, was too conspicuous among the crowd of people eating barbecue.

Under the canopy, a bright light illuminated the top of his head.

Yuan Jue opened his eyes, saw Wei Yuan, and called out loudly, "Benefactor Wei, over here, this humble monk is here!"

No, you didn't need to speak; your physique and hairstyle were like a firefly in the crowd, impossible to ignore.

Wei Yuan's mouth twitched, he shook his head and chuckled, then walked over and sat down in front of Yuan Jue, looking around with a strange expression on his face, and said, "I didn't expect that the place you chose, Master Yuan Jue, would be a barbecue stall…"

Yuan Jue laughed heartily and said, "No one stipulates that monks can't come here, right?"

Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Of course not, it's just that everyone around here is drinking and eating meat, and I was worried that you might feel uncomfortable."

Yuan Jue put his hands together and said with a smile, "This humble monk will eat what this humble monk eats, and they will eat what they eat."

"Each enjoys their own, without disturbing each other. That's good."

"Besides, precepts are for restraining oneself; what others do is their own business."

"If you have to impose your own ideas on others, that you can't eat meat and others can't eat it, you can't eat this meat and others can't eat it; that's not a precept. I recently read a book and saw a saying, 'Do not impose on others what you yourself do not desire.' But after thinking about it, it's best not to impose what you desire on others either."

"You are you, and others are others."

"So…"

Yuan Jue smiled and placed the menu in front of Wei Yuan, saying triumphantly, "I got paid today. It's my treat, Benefactor Wei. Order whatever you want to eat."

"I'll just order what I can eat."

Wei Yuan didn't refuse, and ordered a few vegetarian dishes. Yuan Jue raised his hand, skillfully rattling off a string of items, "Boss, another ten skewers of vegetarian chicken, ten skewers of mushrooms, ten skewers of enoki mushrooms—with millet peppers but no garlic—and then twenty skewers of grilled green beans, a foil-wrapped eggplant, and three grilled flatbreads, sprinkled with chili seedlings and cut into small pieces."

"Oh, and two bottles of Xiaomuwu fruit beer."

"Iced, iced."

He lifted the hem of his robe and ran over to grab two bottles of iced fruit beer. Although it was called fruit beer, it only contained hop and no alcohol at all. Yuan Jue casually used his fingers to pry open the bottle cap of the fruit beer, handed a bottle to Wei Yuan, and said apologetically, "This thing has no alcohol content; it doesn't count as alcohol."

Wei Yuan joked, "It has no alcohol content, but it's called fruit beer, so you can drink it?"

"If vegetarian food is made to look like meat, is that breaking the precept, or not?"

Yuan Jue put down the hem of his robe, put his hands together and said, "Does Benefactor want to test this humble monk?"

He thought for a moment and said, "That depends on why the precepts were established in the first place. The prohibition of alcohol is because alcohol can lead to misbehavior and cloud the mind, so one cannot drink alcohol; the prohibition of eating meat, or rather, the original precept was not to eat unclean meat, which means not to kill for one's own desire to eat, rather than prohibiting the appetite."

"In life, there are dangers everywhere, and one can easily fall into delusion and karma. When you see someone about to fall off a mountain, you will definitely pull them back and point them in the right direction, but some people don't listen and can only be forbidden from going there by precepts."

"Not allowing killing for one's own desires avoids falling into the karma of killing;"

"Not drinking alcohol avoids clouding the mind and disrupting one's nature."

"In fact, monks must uphold the precept of money, so the real ascetic monks are not allowed to touch money with their hands, because when they know that money can be obtained so easily, they will develop inner demons; they are not allowed to meet and talk with female benefactors alone, nor can they actively display their supernatural powers."

"In some sects, you can pull a monk and ask him to explain the scriptures, but after he finishes, he will not accept your alms, because he is not doing it for the things you give him."

"Why is it called benefactor (shizhu)? Because people are willing to give some food out of kindness, and it should not be asking for money with a bowl. That's not right. One should not use supernatural powers to deceive people for money, let alone exchange Buddhist scriptures and wisdom for money."

Yuan Jue sighed and said, "Buddhist disciples walk on the path of asceticism, like walking on a suspended bridge, with winds coming from eight directions. Only when one is as stable as the earth, unmoved by the eight winds, can one maintain a Buddhist heart. In the end, rules are only external restraints. The predecessors painstakingly pondered and blocked the places that would lead you astray, forcing you to take the right path."

"When one truly understands the core of the precepts, then there is no so-called precept or non-precept. Ultimately, seeing mountains as mountains again. This realm is very high. In Confucianism, it is the legendary state of 'following one's heart without transgressing the bounds.' So…"

The monk bit into a piece of fish tofu that contained absolutely no fish meat, and sincerely thanked in his heart that this thing was so cheap that it couldn't afford to add even a little bit of fish meat, and said vaguely, "So, I increasingly feel that the paths taken by the predecessors of various schools will eventually lead to the same destination."

"That realm is called an Awakened One in Buddhism, a Sage in Confucianism, a Giant in Mohism, and perhaps a Celestial Master in Daoism. The principles are always there, and someone will always discover them and describe them with words, but that doesn't mean that these sages created such realms."

"They describe them with words only to pass them on to ordinary people."

"So those Buddhist enemies fool ordinary people by saying that offering to monks has great merit because it can preserve wisdom and Buddhist teachings. I say, 'Go to hell!'"

"The Dharma is right there. Whether or not there is this offered-to monk, it will not disappear. Besides, you know the Dharma is here, so why don't you take it! Everyone knows that it's a bit stupid to watch money go unspent; but knowing that the Dharma is a good thing, you don't think about it yourself, and instead spend money to have a fat monk watch over it for you. Is that merit?"

"You don't learn, and he doesn't learn. Just tapping a wooden fish and chanting scriptures, will that preserve it?"

Yuan Jue sighed, grabbed the bottle with one hand, took a big gulp, full of the spirit of the contemporary Lu Zhishen, but unfortunately the bottle contained fruit beer, or rather, to be precise, fruit-flavored soda. Wei Yuan and Yuan Jue ate some food, and Yuan Jue patted his belly and said apologetically, "You've been listening to this humble monk talk all this time. Did Benefactor Wei call me out because you need my help?"

Wei Yuan pressed his brow and muttered silently.

Is it that obvious?

He smiled helplessly and said, "Indeed, there is something I want to ask Master Yuan Jue."

He paused and said thoughtfully, "There is such a person who, in order to protect more ordinary people, put himself in the most dangerous place and struggled for a very, very long time, and his soul was shattered, and the people he protected numbered in the thousands, or even millions, or more."

"But his soul is mixed with parts of alien beasts and fierce spirits."

"Do you know of any way to save him? Or at least a possible way to protect his spirituality?"

Yuan Jue was surprised. Their voices were firmly protected by magic, not leaking out and unknown to outsiders. He pondered for a long time and said, "As this humble monk said earlier, the realms that various schools ultimately reach are similar. What Abbot Wei is talking about, what he has done, can almost be called a great vow. In other sects, this would already be called a Great Bodhisattva."

"My Chan sect naturally does not believe in or like what Buddhist enemies do."

"But their cultivation methods are indeed effective, and this cannot be denied."

"A great vow?"

Yuan Jue said frankly, "Yes, in other Buddhist sects, it is said that Bodhisattvas must make great vows to save all sentient beings."

"And the most well-known classic of great vows in Pure Land Buddhism is the *Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra of Fundamental Vows*."

*Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva Sutra of Fundamental Vows*…

Wei Yuan murmured silently in his heart, looked at Yuan Jue, and joked, "You call them Buddhist enemies, but you recommend their cultivation methods to me. Isn't that shooting yourself in the foot?"

Yuan Jue put his hands together and said, "This humble monk is only trying to save people."

"Saving a life is better than building a seven-storied pagoda."

Wei Yuan only felt that the monk before him was solemn and calm, and his actions were open and honest.

Then, Yuan Jue rubbed his palms again and said, "Besides, this cultivation method belongs to those Buddhist enemies and is in their lair."

"How about it, Abbot Wei, shall we do a job on them?!"

Wei Yuan: "…………"

He looked at the eager Yuan Jue, and his mouth twitched.

Master, your character is collapsing.

ps: Second update today… 2,900 words, thank you to the alliance master Canglangzhishui, who appreciates both elegance and vulgarity, thank you~ Going to sleep.