“The Past Mituo Sutra? Is this……. One of the three legendary sutras of the Da Chan Temple? The mysterious, supreme method for spiritual cultivation? The ultimate means to spiritual immortality? Ziyue, one of the eight demonic immortals under heaven, came all the way, thousands of miles to the Jade Capital to find this, and it was in this Martial Scripture all along?”
Hong Yi looked at the sutra on his hand, thin like a cicada’s wings, rectangular, dimly golden, and soft, with a water-like texture. He could not be more surprised with all of the tiny, bright gold characters on the sutra.
Da Chan Temple was a thousand -year-old temple. It had so many rooms that the monks needed to ride a horse just to light up all the rooms on time. Before it was destroyed, all the cultivation sects in the world had admitted that it was the most prestigious temple, a sacred place for cultivation.
And the ultimate secret to its prestige is recorded in the three sutras, past, present and future. The past is called the Mituo Sutra, the present is called the Rulai Sutra, and the future is called the Wusheng Sutra.
The Mituo Sutra is the ultimate cultivation of spiritual immortality; the Rulai sutra is the ultimate guide to martial arts for Corporeal Immortality; the Wusheng Sutra is the most mysterious. Rumor has it that if you understand all three of the sutras, you can reach the other side of the sea of bitterness.
Even the person who was the most hostile toward religions, the previous Primer Li Yan, who stuck to the scholarly doctrines by the book, recorded in his notes that it was a pity for him to not be able to see any of the three sutras in person.
Simply from that, Hong Yi could draw some conclusions about the book. He was very good at figuring out the intentions of the author, being a scholar himself.
That is, the three sutras are indeed the ultimate scripture.
This kind of book is so much better than the Martial Scripture the Dao Scripture, which contain so many traps and mistakes. Pearls and dirt are not enough to describe the difference between the two.
“Probably because when the temple was about to be destroyed, the monks were afraid that the sutra would be taken, so they hid it in the most common Martial Scripture. That makes sense. The Dynasty compiled this book. There is no reason for them to take it.”
Hong Yi held the sutra in his hand. He took a few deep breaths and calmed down.
It is a scholarly doctrine to not lose one’s serenity in front of great beauty and treasure.
Hong Yi knew that he had almost lost it.
The concept of not losing one’s serenity when seeing treasure, is not about “ignoring treasures,” rather it’s about warning people to not be to pleased with themselves. That they should not lose their rationality and manner, to remain calm, otherwise they will very likely make mistakes that bring them trouble, turning a happy incident to a mournful one.
This sutra was soft like silk, but it didn’t burn in fire. It didn’t take a smart man like Hong Yi to notice the great value in this treasure.
“However, despite the rumors about this sutra being the best, none of the many talented monks in the Da Chan Temple reached the last stage of cultivation, Yang God. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been completely destroyed by the government army. I think it might be because the sutra is very hard to understand. I only know some insignificant small tricks, like mortal shedding. That is probably not quite enough to study the book all by myself. I really wish Bai Ziyue were here right now. What a pity.”
After Hong Yi calmed down, he quickly folded the silk-like scripture into the size of a handkerchief and hid it under his shirt, keeping it close to his body. He did not feel that it was the appropriate time to read.
After hiding it carefully and making sure that there were no signs of it showing on the outside, Hong Yi sat tight, lit an incense, and started grinding ink on the ink slab. Then, he started writing the character “serenity” on the paper.
After a dozen “serenity’s”, he was certain that he had completely calmed down.
After all the rituals, he stood up and washed his hands, and then sat down again quietly, till the incense burned down. Feeling very peaceful on the inside, he suddenly opened his eyes, looked around carefully to make sure there was no one observing him, and discreetly took the sutra out and started reading.
Orthodox scholars all have a set of rituals. Before reading, one should calm down, burn incense, wash hands and finish all the other preparations.
These are not useless etiquettes, but ways to sharpen one’s focus, sensitivity and rationality. That is the correct way of reading a truly well-written book.
How could Hong Yi be sloppy? Especially when reading the legendary Mituo Sutra.
He took the sutra out from close to his skin. The silk-like texture felt amazingly soft and smooth.
He spread the sutra on his desk. It was square shaped, about three feet long and wide, like a large painting. The characters on the sutra were tiny like flies, but they were very clear, like they were carved onto the scripture, not the least bit mushy.
And the font has an aura that contains enough power to penetrate deep into one’s bones. When reading it, Hong Yi felt like the tiny characters were going to come out of the paper and fly. It was almost like the characters had lives of their own.
“Remarkable calligraphy!”
Hong Yi couldn’t help but applaud for the great handwriting. He loved his own handwriting, but there was no contest between his and this.
At the center of the sutra, there was a golden buddha, sitting in the air. Suns, moons and stars revolved around him, casting all of their splendor on this buddha.
This buddha had his eyes lightly closed, legs crossed, hands curved to a form, looking peaceful and serene, nothing like the daunting and sacred figures that other Buddhist temples had. Instead, it emitted kindness, familiarity and sympathy.
For a moment, Hong Yi felt like the buddha was him, his former life, thousands of reincarnations ago, his true origin.
“This is the true buddhist figure. Its demeanor and temperament resonate with people. It’s like the very figure of Buddha is bringing the viewer to become a buddha as well.”
In Buddhist teachings, all beings are equal. Everyone can be the buddha.
The true buddhist art is not about majesty and magnificence, but bringing out the inner buddha in all people, inspiring whoever is looking at it to be a better person.
Unfortunately, artists capable of painting this masterpiece only appear once in five hundred years. Painters of this level deserve to be called saints of painting.
Cultivation method aside, the Mituo Sutra is at least a great painting.
Hong Yi was in awe upon seeing this figure of buddha. He read broadly, and he had expertise in appreciating paintings and calligraphies, as well a lot of Buddhist philosophies and teachings.
“Everything else aside, just the calligraphy, the painting, are priceless on their own.” Hong Yi gasped in awe, and started reading the words.
The sutra started with the four characters, “Like this I’ve heard…”
“Like this I’ve heard? Is this sutra the actual records of the preaching from the Buddha?” Hong Yi thought. In Buddhist customs, if a sutra starts with “Like this I’ve heard”, it means the sutra is a true record of the Buddha’s teachings.
These four characters distinguish the orthodox classics from the deviant ways.
Typically, if the sutra is about cultivation methods, these four characters should not appear at all, because Buddha was not known to pass on his cultivation methods, but rather his philosophical teachings. It was like in the ancient times the saints taught scholars to read and build up wisdom to become a better person. These were the ways of old. As for the methods for attaining an untainted heart, and righteousness, that is on the person himself. All successful cultivators forage ahead and comprehend it by themselves.
Buddhas, or saints, point to a direction. As for how should one get there, it is possible that even the saints themselves had no idea.
The two directions of cultivation from the Da Chan Temple were all thousands of years of essence of the temple’s exploration.
“Who cares. Maybe the author just wanted to make the sutra appear more official. Let’s see the actual techniques.”
Of course Hong Yi would not ignore the details. So he kept reading.
“The Past Mituo Sutra? Is this……. One of the three legendary sutras of the Da Chan Temple? The mysterious, supreme method for spiritual cultivation? The ultimate means to spiritual immortality? Ziyue, one of the eight demonic immortals under heaven, came all the way, thousands of miles to the Jade Capital to find this, and it was in this Martial Scripture all along?”
Hong Yi looked at the sutra on his hand, thin like a cicada’s wings, rectangular, dimly golden, and soft, with a water-like texture. He could not be more surprised with all of the tiny, bright gold characters on the sutra.
Da Chan Temple was a thousand -year-old temple. It had so many rooms that the monks needed to ride a horse just to light up all the rooms on time. Before it was destroyed, all the cultivation sects in the world had admitted that it was the most prestigious temple, a sacred place for cultivation.
And the ultimate secret to its prestige is recorded in the three sutras, past, present and future. The past is called the Mituo Sutra, the present is called the Rulai Sutra, and the future is called the Wusheng Sutra.
The Mituo Sutra is the ultimate cultivation of spiritual immortality; the Rulai sutra is the ultimate guide to martial arts for Corporeal Immortality; the Wusheng Sutra is the most mysterious. Rumor has it that if you understand all three of the sutras, you can reach the other side of the sea of bitterness.
Even the person who was the most hostile toward religions, the previous Primer Li Yan, who stuck to the scholarly doctrines by the book, recorded in his notes that it was a pity for him to not be able to see any of the three sutras in person.
Simply from that, Hong Yi could draw some conclusions about the book. He was very good at figuring out the intentions of the author, being a scholar himself.
That is, the three sutras are indeed the ultimate scripture.
This kind of book is so much better than the Martial Scripture the Dao Scripture, which contain so many traps and mistakes. Pearls and dirt are not enough to describe the difference between the two.
“Probably because when the temple was about to be destroyed, the monks were afraid that the sutra would be taken, so they hid it in the most common Martial Scripture. That makes sense. The Dynasty compiled this book. There is no reason for them to take it.”
Hong Yi held the sutra in his hand. He took a few deep breaths and calmed down.
It is a scholarly doctrine to not lose one’s serenity in front of great beauty and treasure.
Hong Yi knew that he had almost lost it.
The concept of not losing one’s serenity when seeing treasure, is not about “ignoring treasures,” rather it’s about warning people to not be to pleased with themselves. That they should not lose their rationality and manner, to remain calm, otherwise they will very likely make mistakes that bring them trouble, turning a happy incident to a mournful one.
This sutra was soft like silk, but it didn’t burn in fire. It didn’t take a smart man like Hong Yi to notice the great value in this treasure.
“However, despite the rumors about this sutra being the best, none of the many talented monks in the Da Chan Temple reached the last stage of cultivation, Yang God. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been completely destroyed by the government army. I think it might be because the sutra is very hard to understand. I only know some insignificant small tricks, like mortal shedding. That is probably not quite enough to study the book all by myself. I really wish Bai Ziyue were here right now. What a pity.”
After Hong Yi calmed down, he quickly folded the silk-like scripture into the size of a handkerchief and hid it under his shirt, keeping it close to his body. He did not feel that it was the appropriate time to read.
After hiding it carefully and making sure that there were no signs of it showing on the outside, Hong Yi sat tight, lit an incense, and started grinding ink on the ink slab. Then, he started writing the character “serenity” on the paper.
After a dozen “serenity’s”, he was certain that he had completely calmed down.
After all the rituals, he stood up and washed his hands, and then sat down again quietly, till the incense burned down. Feeling very peaceful on the inside, he suddenly opened his eyes, looked around carefully to make sure there was no one observing him, and discreetly took the sutra out and started reading.
Orthodox scholars all have a set of rituals. Before reading, one should calm down, burn incense, wash hands and finish all the other preparations.
These are not useless etiquettes, but ways to sharpen one’s focus, sensitivity and rationality. That is the correct way of reading a truly well-written book.
How could Hong Yi be sloppy? Especially when reading the legendary Mituo Sutra.
He took the sutra out from close to his skin. The silk-like texture felt amazingly soft and smooth.
He spread the sutra on his desk. It was square shaped, about three feet long and wide, like a large painting. The characters on the sutra were tiny like flies, but they were very clear, like they were carved onto the scripture, not the least bit mushy.
And the font has an aura that contains enough power to penetrate deep into one’s bones. When reading it, Hong Yi felt like the tiny characters were going to come out of the paper and fly. It was almost like the characters had lives of their own.
“Remarkable calligraphy!”
Hong Yi couldn’t help but applaud for the great handwriting. He loved his own handwriting, but there was no contest between his and this.
At the center of the sutra, there was a golden buddha, sitting in the air. Suns, moons and stars revolved around him, casting all of their splendor on this buddha.
This buddha had his eyes lightly closed, legs crossed, hands curved to a form, looking peaceful and serene, nothing like the daunting and sacred figures that other Buddhist temples had. Instead, it emitted kindness, familiarity and sympathy.
For a moment, Hong Yi felt like the buddha was him, his former life, thousands of reincarnations ago, his true origin.
“This is the true buddhist figure. Its demeanor and temperament resonate with people. It’s like the very figure of Buddha is bringing the viewer to become a buddha as well.”
In Buddhist teachings, all beings are equal. Everyone can be the buddha.
The true buddhist art is not about majesty and magnificence, but bringing out the inner buddha in all people, inspiring whoever is looking at it to be a better person.
Unfortunately, artists capable of painting this masterpiece only appear once in five hundred years. Painters of this level deserve to be called saints of painting.
Cultivation method aside, the Mituo Sutra is at least a great painting.
Hong Yi was in awe upon seeing this figure of buddha. He read broadly, and he had expertise in appreciating paintings and calligraphies, as well a lot of Buddhist philosophies and teachings.
“Everything else aside, just the calligraphy, the painting, are priceless on their own.” Hong Yi gasped in awe, and started reading the words.
The sutra started with the four characters, “Like this I’ve heard…”
“Like this I’ve heard? Is this sutra the actual records of the preaching from the Buddha?” Hong Yi thought. In Buddhist customs, if a sutra starts with “Like this I’ve heard”, it means the sutra is a true record of the Buddha’s teachings.
These four characters distinguish the orthodox classics from the deviant ways.
Typically, if the sutra is about cultivation methods, these four characters should not appear at all, because Buddha was not known to pass on his cultivation methods, but rather his philosophical teachings. It was like in the ancient times the saints taught scholars to read and build up wisdom to become a better person. These were the ways of old. As for the methods for attaining an untainted heart, and righteousness, that is on the person himself. All successful cultivators forage ahead and comprehend it by themselves.
Buddhas, or saints, point to a direction. As for how should one get there, it is possible that even the saints themselves had no idea.
The two directions of cultivation from the Da Chan Temple were all thousands of years of essence of the temple’s exploration.
“Who cares. Maybe the author just wanted to make the sutra appear more official. Let’s see the actual techniques.”
Of course Hong Yi would not ignore the details. So he kept reading.
