The Ruin of Buddhist Virtue

Taboo, restraint, self-control, and political intrigue A devout Buddhist monk x the legitimate daughter of a military family The first time he met Huo Chuning, she was trying to kill herself, while he was being hunted. They both fell to the bottom of a cliff, and Huo Chuning slowly walked toward him barefoot. The young girl wore no makeup, her face bare. Her eyes shone startlingly bright. She did not look anguished or despairing. She curved her lashes at him and smiled brightly, looking nothing like someone intent on ending her life. He lowered his eyes and turned the prayer beads in his hand. “All things conditioned are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow.” The second time he saw Huo Chuning, she was sitting quietly before the Buddha. She did not kneel before the statue. A tear glimmered faintly at the corner of her eye, and the young woman left the temple, her steps trailing through the morning dew. It was as if a breeze stirred the prayer beads in his hand. He turned them as he gazed at the solemn Buddha statue before him, saying nothing for a long time. “Monk, do you like me?” He did not answer. He dared not look at her radiant, star-bright eyes. The beads turning in his hand stopped for a moment, and his silence answered everything. He had grasped three thousand Buddhist teachings and examined his mortal heart, wary of tarnishing his sacred vows. From then on, he dared not look at Guanyin. With her in his heart, seeing the Buddha was like seeing her. With her in his heart, she was everywhere. When she risked her life to enter a deadly place in search of medicine for him, she disappeared without a trace. For her, he endured three hundred strokes of the rod, then descended from the lofty pagoda one kneeling step at a time until he reached her side. In the end, for the woman he loved, he took off his monk's robes and entered the mortal world.