Chapter 123: There is a kind of pain, called...
Inside the barrier.
Chen Chang'an casually sat on the ground, patted the dust off his sleeves, and said with a smile: "Alright, shall I begin asking questions?"
"Wait!"
"Is there another problem?"
Monk Miaohua put his hands together, nodded and said: "This monk forgot to remind the benefactor that your questions must also follow two rules—"
"First, the question must be something this monk can understand, otherwise it would be like asking a blind person about colors or a deaf person about sounds—meaningless." His tone was calm, yet contained a sharp edge, "The Diamond Sutra says: One who speaks of Dharma has no Dharma to speak of, this is called speaking of Dharma. If the question itself exceeds the other's knowledge, it is not a debate but a deliberate difficulty."
"Second, the benefactor must know the answer yourself, otherwise it would be false speech to deceive others, merely increasing negative karma."
"Alright then..."
Chen Chang'an nodded, thinking that this monk actually had something to him, having set up rules that were watertight.
He regretfully abandoned the ultimate weapons like "NP-complete" and "Riemann Hypothesis" that he had originally intended to throw out. After thinking for a moment, he looked around, his gaze falling on the broken stone fragments on the ground.
He slowly began to pick up stones, one, two, three... Monk Miaohua watched him with confusion but did not rush him, allowing him to manipulate them as he pleased. Soon, Chen Chang'an had several stones of different sizes in his hands.
He squatted down and began to stack them from bottom to top, one by one.
There was no adhesive between the stones, nor did he use any true essence at all. Relying solely on clever balance and angles, he stacked them layer by layer upward.
Finally, these stones formed an extremely delicate floating structure in mid-air, appearing as if it could collapse at any moment, yet as stable as a rock.
Chen Chang'an clapped his hands, looked at his creation with satisfaction, and said with a smile: "Master, please go ahead."
Monk Miaohua stared at the pile of stones, a flash of surprise in his eyes: "Without using any true essence, relying only on mundane methods, you can make the stones stand in such a posture? The benefactor is truly not simple." He looked up and asked, "Does the benefactor want this monk to also build an identical one?"
Chen Chang'an shook his head, his smile bright: "No, please draw the force analysis."
"...Force analysis?" Monk Miaohua frowned slightly, "What is force analysis?"
Chen Chang'an then patiently explained—force decomposition, pivot points, torque, equilibrium conditions... In his previous life, he was a science student. After cultivating in this life, his memories from his previous life had not only not faded but had become even clearer. Mere force analysis, though troublesome, could still be solved if he spent some time on it.
After listening, Monk Miaohua was silent for a moment, then asked: "Can the benefactor solve it yourself?"
"Of course." Chen Chang'an nodded with a smile.
The monk looked around, as if this barrier had its own judgment rules. After a while, his face gradually became somewhat unpleasant, but he still sat down cross-legged and began to draw on the ground according to the method Chen Chang'an had taught him.
Chen Chang'an watched with delight as he scratched his head and ears, exactly like seeing his miserable self from high school in his previous life.
Time passed bit by bit, Monk Miaohua's eyebrows furrowed tighter and tighter, and the lines he drew became increasingly messy.
Finally—
"Rip!"
The monk suddenly grabbed the paper and tore it into shreds, clearly having his defenses broken by this tricky question.
"It's alright, take your time." Chen Chang'an showed understanding: "When doing force analysis, it's normal to have your defenses broken when encountering something complex."
He pointed to the stone structure he had built.
Moreover, to increase the difficulty, he had specifically included non-coplanar force systems, dynamic friction coefficients, and nonlinear elastic deformation...
Even if he were to do it himself, he couldn't possibly draw it clearly without half a day's work.
Monk Miaohua: "..."
Hearing Chen Chang'an's "comfort", Monk Miaohua suddenly quieted down, his eyes becoming deep and strange.
He stared at Chen Chang'an for a few breaths, then suddenly put his hands together and said in a low voice: "Benefactor, you are attached to form."
Chen Chang'an: "?"
The monk said unhurriedly: "The Diamond Sutra says: All phenomena are illusory. The benefactor is attached to how these stones bear force and how they balance, yet does not know that all things in the world inherently have no fixed form. The 'force' you see with your eyes is merely an illusion created by consciousness."
He spoke more and more mysteriously, his tone gradually rising: "The Avatamsaka Sutra says: All is created by mind alone. The 'force analysis' that the benefactor asks about is nothing but delusional discrimination. If one is attached to this, one falls into 'attachment to dharma', moving further from Buddha-nature."
Chen Chang'an listened with twitching corners of his mouth—This bald donkey can't solve the problem, so he starts reciting scriptures?
Monk Miaohua saw that he was silent, thinking he had been persuaded, and continued: "Why don't the benefactor give this poor monk another chance and ask a new question. This time, it should focus on 'formlessness', and do not cling to these illusory forms again."
Chen Chang'an stared at him for a moment, then suddenly laughed: "So after all that talking, you just want me to give you another chance?"
Monk Miaohua was silent for a moment: "If the benefactor understands it this way... it's not impossible..."
Chen Chang'an's eyes widened in shock, his mouth twitching: "Good, good, good! I've seen shameless people, but I've never seen someone as shameless as you!"
He abruptly stood up, pointing at Monk Miaohua's nose: "Fine! As long as you admit you're shameless, I'll give you another chance!"
Monk Miaohua's expression remained unchanged, his hands together, he calmly said: "I am shameless."
Chen Chang'an: "..."
This straightforward answer left him speechless for a moment, all his prepared ridicule stuck in his throat.
Seeing that he was silent, Monk Miaohua continued with that compassionate expression and explained: "The Vimalakirti Sutra says: 'When the mind is pure, the Buddha land is pure.' This poor monk saying 'I am shameless' is precisely the manifestation of letting go of ego-attachment and breaking through name and form."
He paused, his tone becoming increasingly solemn: "Worldly people cling to face, not realizing that 'face' itself is illusory. The Buddha said 'no self-form, no person-form', since even 'I' does not exist, where can 'face' come from?"
Chen Chang'an listened dumbfounded.
Damn, this monk would have been quite a talent in his previous life, the kind that customer service departments would desperately want.
Words spoken are like water poured out.
Since he had already promised this monk another chance, Chen Chang'an thought for a moment and then threw out a physics problem about fluid mechanics.
The monk's brows furrowed tightly, staring at the imaginary water flow in the void, his fingers unconsciously gesturing.
Three minutes later—
"Amitabha, the Avatamsaka Sutra says: 'One is all, all is one', this water flow..."
"Stop, stop, stop!" Chen Chang'an waved his hand to interrupt, "Reciting scriptures again? Fine, I'll give you another one."
This time he asked a question about pi.
The monk fingered his Buddhist beads, his lips moving as if silently calculating.
One minute later—
"The Diamond Sutra says: 'When the Tathagata speaks of the world, it is not the world, yet it is called the world', this circumference..."
"Here we go again." Chen Chang'an rolled his eyes, "Forget it, here's the last one, and the simplest—There are some chickens and rabbits in a cage, with a total of 35 heads and 94 feet. Question: How many chickens and rabbits are there?!"
This time, the monk did not recite scriptures.
He sat cross-legged, his expression serious, and began counting on his fingers and toes earnestly.
After one hour, he raised his head, his face ashen: "This poor monk... doesn't know..."
"Hahahaha!" Chen Chang'an slapped his thigh and laughed loudly, "You're such trash! When I first asked you to do force analysis, I was wary that you might be able to calculate and predict, but it turns out I overestimated you, and damn it, you can't even solve the chicken and rabbit in the same cage problem? What face do you have to compare knowledge with me?"
The monk's mouth opened and closed, at a loss for words.
He came from the Pure Heavens of the upper realm, having traveled this world for hundreds of years, knowledgeable in both ancient and modern matters, and had even held his own in debates with the National Preceptor of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Buddhist studies, Daoist scriptures, medicine... even music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, he considered himself not inferior to others in any of these.
But... how had he never heard of these questions before?
He stood there dumbfounded, not understanding that he was currently experiencing a kind of pain—
Called a liberal arts student encountering a science student.
And letting the science student go first.
...
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