The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

Panda Novel

One Ingenious put away the cutlery as Fangzheng took out his cell phone to look at Weibo. Instantly, he was taken aback. His Weibo account already had quite a number of fans after the past few incidents, but now, it had reached more than a million! Furthermore, the comments below were filled with apologies.

If it weren’t for the profile pictures and names being different, Fangzheng would have guessed that someone was spamming him.

Upon seeing all the apologies, Fangzheng pressed his palms together and silently said, “Amitabha, it’s good indeed.”

This action garnered One Ingenious’ attention. He came over and took a look only to exclaim, “Venerable One, you sure are popular. You have so many fans.”

Fangzheng smiled humbly. At this moment, a new message appeared. Fangzheng and One Ingenious took a look, and they frowned simultaneously.

At the same time, in a particular private restaurant room in China, there were more than ten young men and women seated around a huge, round table. A man wearing a colored, checkered shirt would steal a glance at a black-dressed beauty from time to time. His eyes kept darting around, wondering how he could attract her attention.

At that moment, the beauty said, “Sigh, even though we are all young, compared to Fangzheng, we are like kindergarten kids.”

When the man heard that, he pricked up his brows. Fangzheng?

Hence, the man fished out his phone and immediately found Fangzheng’s Weibo. He happened to see the words Fangzheng had previously said, and immediately a saying appeared in his mind. This was something he felt rather incisive about back when he first read it. He thought, “Since she follows Fangzheng, if I can make a name for myself on his page, or maybe even take Fangzheng down a notch, I might make her think differently of me!”

With this in mind, the man said as though it was a curious coincidence, “Fangzheng? He’s indeed impressive. However, I’m not a Buddhist, nor do I like Buddhism which is a foreign creation. As the saying goes, in a chaotic era, Daoist priests come down the mountains to save the world while monks close the doors to evade trouble. In a flourishing era, Daoist priests retreat into the mountains while monks come down the mountains to cheat. Why would I believe in such a crappy religion? Fangzheng might be capable, but what has that got to do with me?”

Naturally, the beauty looked at him when he said that. She said with an unhappy tone, “One cannot force another’s faith, but disparaging others isn’t something admirable.”

Seeing that the beauty had noticed him, the man was overjoyed. He immediately said, “I’m not disparaging him. I’m just dealing with facts. Besides, I’m not spouting random words. I plan on asking Fangzheng on this matter. I sent him a message a while ago, but he didn’t reply to me. I reckon that was his tacit agreement.”

“You left him a message before? What did you say?” the beauty asked.

Realizing that he had garnered the beauty’s interest, he said, “Kneeling before Buddha for three thousand years, yet never have I seen Buddha’s compassion…” As he spoke, he stole a glance at the beauty. Indeed, she was listening to him intently, making him feel even more gleeful. He was originally hesitant, but he immediately felt pumped when he caught her attention. “Sigh, it’s pointless saying this here. I’ll directly post it on Fangzheng’s Weibo and see what he has to say!” With that said, the man ignored the advice of others and wrote the passage about Daoist priests coming down the mountains to save the world while monks closed the doors to evade trouble in a chaotic era. It ended up being noticed by Fangzheng and One Ingenious.

At the same time, there was a series of exclamations. “You really posted it? Are you silly?”

“You’re being provocative!”

“It’s best to be responsible with your words.”

…

Upon hearing this, the man was displeased. He was still hoping to show off in front of the beauty. Yet now they were doing nothing but discrediting him. Hence, he said, “This isn’t being provocative. I’m just saying a hard truth. So what if he’s a monk? A monk doesn’t work and doesn’t contribute to society at all. Can’t I say something about him? I want to see what Fangzheng has to say!”

Everyone fell silent as they took out their cell phones and waited for Fangzheng’s reply.

Before Fangzheng could say a word, One Ingenious was the first to rage. “What nonsense! Has this person not studied history or not been educated? How can he say something this ridiculous!?”

Fangzheng nodded. “Venerable One, calm down. The world is so big that there is nothing to be surprised at. There are all kinds of people out there with different viewpoints. There’s no need to be angry about them.”

One Ingenious said furiously, “How can I not be angry? Do you know what kind of monastery our Shangfeng Temple is?”

Fangzheng obviously knew, but he didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he took out his cell phone to take a recording of One Ingenious. “Venerable One, feel free to speak.”

One Ingenious understood what was on Fangzheng’s mind. He was planning to use him to reply to the nonsensical comment. One Ingenious thought about it and said, “Abbot Fangzheng, do you know the history of Shangfeng Temple?”

Fangzheng nodded without a word.

One Ingenious continued. “Then let This Penniless Monk give you a history lesson! That netizen named FlowersBlossomToDie mentioned that monks close the door to evade trouble in chaotic eras? That they come down the mountains to cheat in flourishing eras? This Penniless Monk doesn’t accept such a saying! In 1938, the Japanese army invaded China. It resulted in the Nanjing massacre, and Wuhan fell. When chaos spread, our Shangfeng Temple’s Abbot Baosheng, Guest Prefect Yanwen, and famous religious teacher Juzan who came from Wei Mountain, founded the Nanyue Buddhist and Daoist Society for Disaster Relief on 7 May. The name of this society was even given by the former prime minister, Zhou Enlai!

“Nanyue Mount Heng’s Buddhists and Daoists are one family to begin with, and we don’t make distinctions between us. We mix well together. When the Buddhists resisted the Japanese, the Daoists naturally weren’t lagging behind. Both of us combined forces and mobilized all Daoist and Buddhist disciples. We went about everywhere, handing out pamphlets, advocating how important it was to save the nation. Some monks even participated in the war. They died on the battlefield and headed for paradise!

“Premier Zhou even wrote this himself: ‘Kill the enemy while on horseback and practice Buddhism after dismounting.’ The enemy in Buddhism represents the enemy of one’s frustrations. Therefore when talking about killing the enemy, it means killing one’s frustrations and not actual people. Killing a living being is ultimately a sin, but at that time, with families destroyed and the country in shambles, even if we were monks who distanced themselves from the mortal world, we had no qualms killing those who invaded our land and slaughtered Chinese blood!

“In 1944, Japan’s invasion army launched a surprise attack on one of our monastery’s counter-Japanese guerrilla forces. Our monastery’s Venerable Junxiu discovered it and disregarding his safety, he immediately fired a warning shot and stood alone behind a boulder at Gaotai Temple to attack the enemy. He sacrificed his life to allow the guerrilla forces to safely escape.

“Back then, Mr. Tian Han even wrote two poems for our society! The first was ‘The courageous strip their monk robes for military uniforms, embroiling themselves in the mortal world once more’ and the second was ‘After comprehending Buddha’s teachings, they return to the mortal world to effect change.’”

“This Penniless Monk wasn’t born in that era; otherwise, even if This Penniless Monk’s saber wouldn’t have killed the enemy, This Penniless Monk would still have used his body to block a few bullets to save my compatriots!

“I would like to ask. Why have those heroes been forgotten when the era has passed? How did they become people who closed the doors to evade trouble? Do the times require us to squash our heroes to pulp and throw them off a cliff?

“I can understand that you lack culture, but who can understand the pain our heroes suffered?

“Each human has one mouth. This Penniless Monk only wishes that everyone speaks with substance and doesn’t tell tales!”