"This is the path of a monk's cultivation."
As the South Heavenly Buddha narrated his path of cultivation, the Zen masters in the Buddha Pavilion were nothing but shocked.
Only Yanshan sitting beside the South Heavenly Buddha put his hands together and reverently said, "Provision, Thief killer, Birthlessness, King Buddha's cultivation is profound, Yanshan cannot compare."
The South Heavenly Buddha smiled kindly at Yanshan, then closed his lips and eyes, merging once again with the stupa, appearing as still as a rock, as lifeless as dead wood.
And after hearing the Buddha's preaching, the Zen masters had no mood to engage with Yanshan; some lowered their heads in complex thought, while others were so tremulously moved they could not control themselves.
Even though they had regained the ability to speak, not one of them spoke up.
At the very bottom of the Buddhist sanctum, Tang Luo, who also heard the South Heavenly Buddha's preaching, was tremendously shaken.
