I’m Really a Superstar
Chapter 196: Zhang Ye’s one gatha after Another!
Zen verse?
This person even knew Zen verses?
When living, sit, don’t lie. When dead, lie down, don’t sit.
How can a set of stinking bones, be used for training?
Those who did not know could not understand at all, but those who really knew could tell the profoundness of the Zen verse. Even Buddhist masters might not be able to freely say such verses!
Zhang Ye’s Zen phrase meant: A pile of stinking bones will rot, but if it stubbornly insisted on doing the actions of meditation without understanding the verses, then they were demonstrating “When living, sit, don’t lie. When dead, lie down, don’t sit”. By the time you had such thoughts, your senses and character would only be fake inside out. How was there any merit established? How was one to gain enlightenment? Or if it was put simply, Zhang Ye was telling them: Are you learning to meditate or learning to be a seated Buddha? If you were meditating, then that was not something you could do just sitting there. If they were learning to be a seated Buddha, Buddha was not a fixed state, so how was one to accomplish it by sitting? To gain Buddhist enlightenment from meditation was not a feasible route!
In Buddhism, there were gatha and Zen verses. They were given such names and not called poems. But to Zhang Ye, they were no different from poems!
“You…” a young monk said in disbelief.
Not only him, even the abbot could not accept that such a profound Zen verse came from the mouth of a “martial monger” who had beaten his four disciples!
The abbot looked into Zhang Ye’s eyes, “Almsgiver, you know Zen verses?”
Many people in the filming crew did not understand Zhang Ye’s gatha, but from the monks’ faces of shock, they knew Zhang Ye had said something awesome.
Yao Jiancai laughed.
The Deputy Director laughed.
Many people in the filming crew were also laughing.
They knew that for acting, Zhang Ye was a complete layman. He was inferior to even a typical rookie, or they would not have wasted so much of the film footage without succeeding in filming his motions. However, when it came to poems and literature, this Teacher Zhang Ye was an expert amongst experts. All the members of the filming crew combined together could not even amount to a finger of Zhang Ye. It could be said that this was his true trade! Everyone laughed knowing that these monks had encountered a hard problem! When some people live, they are already dead. When some people die, they are still alive. Some of them knew that Zhang Ye had previously used a short poem like this. This short line made it evident that Zhang Ye’s literary skill was not to be underestimated!
Zhang Ye smiled. “I can’t say I know.”
“You don’t have to be humble. Just that gatha you said might not even be produced by an esteemed monk who has meditated for decades. Hur Hur. Since I happen to meet you, let us exchange our knowledge on verses?” His disciples had been beaten, so the abbot probably was suppressing his anger. Compete in martial arts? Since he couldn’t beat others, he changed to competing through words!
Xiaoyan could not help but laugh. Compare your literary attainment with Teacher Zhang? This was shooting themselves in the foot, and immediately cheered on Zhang Ye, “Teacher Zhang, compete with him!”
“Right! Attack!”
“Let them broaden their horizons!”
“Haha, there are still people these days that want to compete with Zhang Ye in literature?”
“Eh, this is Zen studies, right?” Does Teacher Zhang know?”
“Isn’t Zen studies also a form a literature? It’s not much different.”
Everyone started to shout, urging Zhang Ye to have a literary battle with the monk. Many of them were confident of Zhang Ye. Only a small number of them did not know Zhang Ye well, and were not as optimistic.
An old monk sneered, “To have an exchange in verses with the abbot?”
Another monk said, “If your senses are dirty, what verses are there to talk about?”
“A layman dares to have an exchange in verses with our abbot? He doesn’t know his strength.” A young monk scoffed. Yes, he said that although he was previously shocked by Zhang Ye’s verse.
This bunch of monks did not watch television, so they did not know anything about Zhang Ye.
It was obvious that neither side was willing to step down. They could not fight, nor could they afford to fight, but they had to decide who was better. They had to vent this anger!
Zhang Ye said nonchalantly, “Alright, please go ahead.”
Taking advantage of the moment, Zhang Ye did a few actions with his hands and bought a Memory Search Capsule from the game ring’s Merchant Shop. After eating it, he very quickly remembered the gatha and Zen verses from his world. These text-based things were recalled quickly. With a blink of an eye, Zhang Ye was ready. People fought for their anger, while Buddha fought for incense. The past two days of accumulation had slightly in