13 The Guanyin Temple on Fire

I watch Huian sitting on the ground. He holds his besom as if this besom is another distressed being. He is making a worried face and waits for my words.

He is acting like this because he saw that Sun Wukong got better treatment after he flounced about on the ground. How can a disciple taught by myself be such a disgrace? *Sigh*. This is such a fault!

I ask: 'Is it hard to cultivate in Western Paradise?'

Huian hears me talking and he is afraid of me unconsciously. He boosts his courage and shamelessly says: 'Hard!'

I cannot beat this kid in front of the public because it will make me look uneducated. I can only act like as if nothing has happened and smile to the Tang monk: 'What a coincidence it is. Monk, my disciple can also carry some baggage for you and guard you to Western Paradise for the scriptures as well.'

Huian sits on the ground with his besom in his arms. He pauses and then stands up immediately. Then he makes himself look like a deity disciple who follows after Nanhai Guanyin bodhisattva. He peacefully says: 'I the student have thought about it and I'd better come back to Nanhai with shifu.'

I grin: 'Oh? You don't dislike the hard cultivation in Western Paradise now?'

Huian looks righteous: 'Not hard, not hard. Doing things for the mercy Guanyin bodhisattva can compensate all sufferings.'

I ask again: 'Oh? You aren't jealous about that Sun Wukong who can go through eighty-one difficulties and beat eighty-one yokais now?'

Huian looks determined: 'Student is willing to follow shifu. I will never go back to a secular life in my life.'

...

Then, I pull his collar and drag him to the cloud and we come back to that Nanhai.

As we have come back to Nanhai, I was thinking how I should teach this dude, but I didn't expect him to look up at me sitting at the bottom of my lotus seat. He makes a "Okay shifu now we are back, and we don't need to talk, and we can use eye contact to communicate" and looks at me.

I always want to clarify this issue of one-direction misunderstanding of mutual affinity. Yet, I have to find a proper time to explain this to him just like I wanted to find a proper time to explain my gender to him. Also, I am not prepared for talking about this, so I cannot chew him out.

One day, Huian and me will have the privity which I have with Buddha. For example, if anything problematic has happened, even if no one reveals the details, I will know it must be done by Buddha. I know if he is going to yawn or talk when he opens his mouth. I know what's in his mind when he sits there silently. Sometimes, I even know what his golden statues are thinking about when I see them in the mortal world.

I believe that one day in the future when my disciple grows up, he will understand my pains.

After a few peaceful days in Nanhai, trouble comes to me again.

Then again, the Tang emperor is the true dragon of the mortal world. He is the owner of a kingdom and the emperor of all. Since he is the emperor, he can meet which deity he wants in his dream as long as he dreams in the right way. He can even meet Jade Emperor, Tathagata, or me. The problem is that he hasn't seen the real image of the others, but me. In the recent nights, he always comes to seek me in his dream and it really bothers me.

'Guanyin goddess, my imperial brother is weak. How is he on the way to Western Paradise?'

Good good good, he is good from head to toe. He rides a dragon and Qitian Dasheng Sun Wukong follows him.

'Guanyin goddess, what can I do if my imperial brother cannot eat well, dress well, or meet yokais on the way?'

...Why do you have so many mere trifles!? The way to the scriptures is never going to be plain sailing!

'Guanyin goddess, I burned many incenses yesterday to you. Please don't forget to bless him!'

...

'Guanyin goddess...'

Okay please stop. I am feeling a headache already!

'Guanyin goddess, I built another temple in Tang for you. Come visit Tang when you have time. Our Tang has good food and fun things to play. We also have all kinds of treasures. You can take whatever you want away...'

...

I thought this Tang emperor was a stingy man. Now he seems to be not.

Then, he may stop bothering me now because he has said what he could say. It will be wrong if he keeps looking for me. Deities aren't his vassals. If the emperor still has not reached his end of life or throne, he can seek help from deities, but if he bothers deities everyday, he is not mature.

As expected, I enjoy two days of quiet after that. Then, the soul of that Tang Taizong comes to my Nanhai in his dream. He hurriedly drags my sleeve and asks me:

'Guanyin goddess, my queen and my concubine started a quarrel. Please tell me who I should help!'

...

'Guanyin goddess? Ayy, Guanyin goddess, I am really in a hurry! Why do you not respond to me again? Aren't deities all-knowing...'

His ability to rattle is even more than his imperial brother. No wonder they became sworn brothers. Listening to any of them is the same bother.

I silently block him and kick him back to Tang.

Go find Tathagata if you want. He makes the rules and he has more free time than me.

I just drove away the Tang emperor and my lotus pond sends me voices again. It must be something happened to Heaven.

I hear someone from the Heavenly Southern Gate crying out: 'Guanyin goddess, things have gone wrong! That master who made havoc in Heaven came again!'

'Guanyin goddess, didn't you lend Four Time Guardians and Six Ding Six Jia to him to protect the Tang monk on the way?!'

...

It is just a few days that I didn't pay attention to this troublesome monkey. He goes to toss over Heaven again.

Before I begin to go manage what happened, another lotus flower in my lotus pond speaks. The voice belongs to a small deity who manages my temples in the mortal world. He cries out shocked: 'Guanyin goddess, things have gone wrong! The Guanyin temple near Black Wind Mountain is on a big fire!'

...

I have a feeling that these two things happened at the same time will have something to do with me.

As expected, after a while, my disciple comes back and looks at me with "Shifu, you have known all."

...No, I don't know. I don't want to know.

It is probably because Tathagata has lectured him once that he stops using eye contact to communicate with me. He says: 'Shifu, I know you have known it. That Sun Wukong stays overnight in a Guanyin Temple and he couldn't help showing off that kasaya to the leading monk of the temple. Then that leading monk grows greedy in his mind and he wants to take away that kasaya after burning the Tang monk and the monkey to death. Who knows that the troublesome monkey didn't resign when he knew that monks were going to burn him to death. He didn't put out the fire but he lent a fire-proof cover from the Heavenly Southern Gate to cover his shifu. Then he blew winds to make the fire bigger and burned the whole temple!'

...This monkey has too many sins.

Arguably, I cannot make him easy since he burned my temple. However, that leading monk who worships me has greed and he is a thief who wanted to kill and rob. He failed to harm but was harmed, so I cannot judge this thing because it will make me seem to be the kind of being who only sides with the closer connection and who doesn't know right and wrong. Yet, if all these humans were burned to death in the temple and I as Guanyin bodhisattva didn't save them but created so many angry ghosts, how can I administrate my other temples in the future?

After they died, they will all come to cause trouble in my Nanhai by saying they have worshiped Guanyin throughout their lifetime and died distressingly just because they had a greedy leading monk. They will say Guanyin bodhisattva is cruel and I will have to compensate for these sins of several humans' lifetimes.

I don't have other solutions but telling that small deity to let go the fire but don't let it kill anyone in the temple.

I say to myself that I have lots of temples in the mortal world, but I cannot oversee every single one of them. What a sin I have!

I say to Huian: 'Later when you are enlightened and assigned to be a buddha who has temples in the mortal world, administrate these temples carefully and don't let this situation happen to you.'

Huian says: 'I don't need temples. Just add a seat near shifu's statues and I can guard Guanyin temples everyday to avoid this from happening.'

It is easy to say but things will not be this easy. It is like a human child, no matter how dependent he was when he was a kid, he will have to have his own family in the future unless he doesn't become a buddha in his lifetime and stays in my Nanhai, living on my extra incenses.

No matter how useless my disciple is, I as the Guanyin bodhisattva will not watch him starving to death.

I say to myself: Probably this Sun Wukong will go on after he burned the temple. He may pack up and just leave. Then, I will have some peace.

Yet, the next day comes and the sun rises. A shout from the black bamboo grove of Sun Wukong comes to me: 'Guanyin bodhisattva, you harmed me again! My shifu met your temple on the way and you enjoy the worship of humans and let that black bear yokai living next to the temple! Now he stole the kasaya of my shifu! Give it back to me!'

...

Say that again?

Didn't you blow the fire bigger? Didn't the leading monk take away the kasaya? Where does this black bear yokai come from?

Were you born from troubles? How can you be so good at causing trouble? Big troubles can reproduce smaller troubles. Smaller troubles can reproduce more troubles. A nest of troubles after a nest of troubles.

I split my attention and look back into the history. This monkey's fire attracted a nearby yokai. This yokai saw this kasaya shining in the fire so it stole it.

He even looks for me for such a little thing! Now he is really smart! He cannot fight against that yokai and he knows how to deceive me!

You know that black bear yokai stole the kasaya because you blew the fire bigger. You made the fire bigger and caused another trouble. Do you think it was me who blew the fire to attract this yokai?!

Actually, you just want to find me troubles right?

The monkey sees that I didn't rebuke him, so he becomes more unbridled. He disregards the class difference and blackmails me.

He leaps and lands on my lotus seat. He stretches out his hand and says rascally: 'It must be you who told that black bear yokai to steal the kasaya. Give the kasaya back to me. Give it back to me.'

...Your shifu's kasaya was given by me to him in the past.

I look at his open palms and I hate myself for not being able to chop his hands off.