Mo Hua couldn’t help but open his mouth.
He didn’t expect that the cultivation world was so big and there were so many monks that he would be lucky enough to be the first to try something new.
Mo Hua was confused. He didn’t want to eat crabs. He didn’t have any lessons learned from past mistakes. If he didn’t do it the right way, he would be in trouble.
“Then what should I do?” Mo Hua asked, “One day, my consciousness will be eroded by evil thoughts, I will lose my original intention, and I will really turn into a man-eating kid.”
Mr. Zhuang glanced at Mo Hua and said, “Don’t be unreasonable. You’ve eaten the living kid, so what do you think about the distracting thoughts after death?”
“The most you can do is…” Mr. Zhuang thought for a moment, then came up with a word and said: “Eat it without changing it.”
“Eat without transforming…” Mo Hua thought for a moment and then understood.
“Indigestion?”
Mr. Zhuang nodded, “That’s right.”
Mo Hua was relieved and asked other questions: “Sir, where did the visualization diagram come from? Also, you said that there is danger in the visualization diagram. Is this kid the danger in it? Yes. Do you mean the ‘inhuman’ way? Are there such imps in all the visualization pictures? What should I do if I encounter them again?”
Mo Hua’s voice was clear and he asked a long list of questions in one go.
Mr. Zhuang couldn’t help but rub his forehead.
There is a clever disciple who is also in some trouble. He thinks quickly and has many questions, and it is difficult to answer them.
Mr. Zhuang thought for a while and decided to start from the most basic, then asked Mo Hua:
“All the extraordinary power of monks relies on three things. Do you know what these three things are?”
“Is it spiritual consciousness, spiritual power and physical body?” Mo Hua replied.
Mr. Zhuang nodded, “Yes, any ability of a monk is based on spiritual consciousness, spiritual power and physical body.”
“Martial arts uses spiritual power to stimulate the physical body, magic uses spiritual consciousness to condense spiritual power, formations use spiritual consciousness to communicate with the way of heaven, and formations to transmit spiritual power. The same is true for other monastic disciplines, but the emphasis is different.”
“If you encounter any weird or bizarre things in the cultivation world in the future, if you are unable to grasp them or have no clue, you can consider them from these three categories.”
Mo Hua suddenly realized.
“Then the little ghost in the visualization picture has no body and no spiritual power. Is it pure spiritual thought, or pure power of divine consciousness?”
“That’s right.” Mr. Zhuang said, “In other words, the so-called visualization diagram is just a medium for carrying spiritual consciousness. What the picture carries is the residual spiritual consciousness of some monks due to fate, or some non-human beings. It’s a spiritual thing born by chance.”
“These spiritual consciousnesses are also called spiritual thoughts. Monks often call them evil objects or ghosts.”
Mo Hua asked: “Can these evil things and ghosts be eaten?”
Mr. Zhuang tapped Mo Hua’s little head, “Don’t be greedy and think about eating everything.”
Mo Hua smiled sheepishly.
Mr. Zhuang warned: “These evil creatures and ghosts are also divided into strengths and weaknesses. The green-faced little ghost you encounter happens to be relatively weak, so you can eat it. If you encounter a strong one, you don’t know who will eat whom.”
“How strong can it be?” Mo Hua was a little curious.
Mr. Zhuang’s eyes flashed with deep fear, and he said in a solemn tone: “It’s terrifyingly strong.”
Mo Hua also had a stern look on his face.
Even the enigmatic Mr. Zhuang finds it scary? Mr. Zhuang glanced at Mo Hua, thought for a moment, and thought it would be better to give Mo Hua a heads up first.
Originally, the level of ink painting was low and he was far away from these things, but now he was able to find a visualization picture inexplicably and swallowed the ghosts in the picture. He might not know what he would encounter in the future.
Mr. Zhuang still liked this young disciple very much, and did not want him to fall into a situation of eternal disaster because of his ignorance and fearlessness.
“There are some dangers in this world that you cannot see.” Mr. Zhuang said.
“Ancient temples on barren mountains, dusty caves, and underground tombs are often inhabited by some unspeakable evil things or ghosts. They feed on people’s spiritual consciousness and are good at defiling people’s hearts.”
“A monk with a weak spiritual consciousness cannot see or touch these things. He may not even know how he died when he is about to die. Either his spiritual consciousness is swallowed up, or the sea of consciousness is occupied by evil things. I don’t know. I felt controlled by him and became a puppet like a living dead.”
“There are also some existences that survive longer, with overwhelming spiritual thoughts that are almost immortal. With the spiritual consciousness of monks, they can’t even be seen at all. Some monks are in awe and respect them as ‘ghosts and gods’ or ‘evil gods’. He paid homage.”
“But most of these ghosts and gods have evil natures and weird thoughts. The monks who respect them often don’t end well…”
“Whether it is a weaker ghost or an extremely powerful ghost or evil spirit, if it exists in the world, it must have a shelter. This shelter is the visualization map.”
“That’s why I told you that the visualization diagram contains dangers and inhuman ways…”
Mo Hua was frightened when he heard this, but he also wondered:
“Are they all hidden in the picture?”
Can such a larger picture be accommodated?
Mr. Zhuang shook his head, “Although they are called visualization pictures, they may not all be pictures. Some murals, stone statues, weird patterns, etc., may be objects of visualization, but monks are accustomed to collectively refer to them as ‘visualization pictures’.”
Mo Hua nodded and couldn’t help but feel that it was an eye-opener.
Without Mr. Zhuang’s guidance, he would never have known these monastic knowledge. If he really encountered a powerful ghost, he would probably die without knowing how.
Mo Hua asked: “Does this knowledge also belong to the common sense of monasticism?”
Mo Hua nodded frequently, remembering this rare secret of Taoism seriously.
Except Mr. Zhuang, no one can tell him this.
“do you understand?”
“I understand,” Mo Hua said, and then he remembered something, “But…”
Seeing that he was hesitant to speak, Mr. Zhuang said helplessly: “If you want to ask, just ask. Don’t hold it in your heart.”
Mo Hua smiled brilliantly and said: “Thank you, sir!”
Then he began to ask: “When I saw this visualization picture, I saw a Taoist boy at first, and then when I looked at it, the Taoist boy turned into a little ghost. Why is this? Does every visualization picture have two appearances? “
Mr. Zhuang glanced at Mo Hua in surprise.
He had never mentioned such a subtle thing, and he could think of it himself in the ink painting. He was indeed very talented and had a very high level of understanding.
Mr. Zhuang smiled slightly and said with approval: “Everything in the world has both its appearance and its true nature, especially in the visualization picture. The scenes in the picture are their appearance, and underneath the appearance, there are gods. The true nature of thinking.”
Mo Hua followed Mr. Zhuang’s words and thought: “Then the little Taoist boy in the visualization picture is the appearance, and the green-faced little ghost is his true appearance?”
Mr. Zhuang nodded, “Not bad.”
“Are all visualization pictures divided into appearance and true form?”
“Yes, but it cannot be divided so simply.” Mr. Zhuang explained patiently: “In some pictures, the appearance is the true appearance, while in some pictures, the true nature is just a deeper appearance.”
“Appearance is true, true appearance is true…”
Mo Hua thought for a while, felt a little dizzy, and asked, “How can I tell the difference?”
Mr. Zhuang raised his slender fingers and said slowly:
“The first is to rely on your spiritual consciousness. If your spiritual consciousness is strong and stronger than the spiritual thoughts that visualize the ghosts or evil objects in the picture, you can see through their reality.”
“Second, based on experience, if you see more visualization pictures, you can intuitively tell the authenticity of some things and see through some appearances.”
“The third is to rely on the understanding of the way of heaven. The deeper the understanding of the way of heaven, the closer you are to the essence of the great way, and the more you can see the true nature hidden under the appearance.”
“Of these three points, the first point is the most direct, the second point takes time, and the third point is the most difficult.”
“Perception of the Way of Heaven…” Mo Hua pondered for a moment and wondered: “How can we improve our understanding of the Way of Heaven?”
Mr. Zhuang said: “The first thing is to look at the character of the mind, and the second thing is to look at the tempering.”
Mo Hua frowned and thought carefully for a moment, then suddenly his eyes lit up and he said: “Meditation improves the mind, and formations sharpen understanding?”
Mr. Zhuang didn’t expect him to reveal it immediately, so he nodded and said, “Yes.”
Mo Hua thought about it from beginning to end again, and gradually understood:
“My spiritual consciousness is strong, and because I meditate and draw formations every day, I have a deeper understanding of the way of heaven, so I unknowingly saw through the true nature of the green-faced kid. The green-faced kid got into my sea of consciousness, Want to eat my consciousness…”
“But…” Mo Hua looked puzzled, “The Third Master also has strong spiritual consciousness. Why didn’t he see through the true nature of the visualization diagram?”
Mr. Zhuang said calmly: “Although his spiritual consciousness is stronger, his mind is too greedy and greedy, and his understanding of the way of heaven is too poor, so naturally he cannot see through it.”
Mo Hua understood.
It seems that the nature of mind is still very important, otherwise it will be easy to be blinded by lard, blinded by appearances, unable to see the true nature of things, and thus deviate from the way of heaven.
After talking with Mr. Zhuang, Mo Hua understood a lot and said sincerely: “Thank you, sir!”
Mr. Zhuang’s eyes were a little deep and he asked, “Do you know why I’m telling you so much now?”
“Because I asked you…”
Mo Hua said silently in his heart, but he knew that since Mr. Zhuang asked this, it must not be that simple.
He can ask, and Mr. Zhuang can answer or not.
Mr. Zhuang answers more or less, and he can be very particular about what he chooses to answer.
Mo Hua carefully reviewed Mr. Zhuang’s answers in his mind, and felt that Mr. Zhuang’s answers were all related to ‘spiritual consciousness’ and ‘the way of heaven’.
But why he said this, Mo Hua couldn’t figure it out for a while.
Mr. Zhuang was thoughtful when he saw the ink painting, but his little brows were furrowed and he looked a little confused. He stopped being pretentious and asked meaningfully:
“Building the foundation is the foundation for building the great road…”
“Have you thought about what kind of foundation to build?”
(End of chapter)