Chapter 747: Great mirror wisdom

The Cloud Whale floated above the sky, swaying with the direction of the wind.

Pale light surrounded its Physical Body, and the turbulence caused by his singing encircled it, like swarming fireflies or the Milky Way falling into it.

The singing echoed melodiously above the sky, the swirling notes chanting loosely, clean and desolate.

Li Qi listened to the singing, and his mood seemed to gradually calm down.

“Since you don’t have a name, I’ll call you Cloud Whale. Cloud Whale, you are very unusual,” Li Qi said after calming down.

“All creatures in this world are unique and unusual, and so are you,” the Cloud Whale said.

This voice directly resounded in Li Qi’s mind, while the Cloud Whale’s Physical Body continued to sing.

“Why can you directly see my inner thoughts? This seems different from my Dao. I directly scan your thinking organs, but you… are just an unranked entity. You shouldn’t be able to scan my inner thoughts,” Li Qi asked curiously.

In front of him, the Cloud Whale could not lie. As long as the Cloud Whale thought of a scanning method, Li Qi could immediately know the key.

For an unranked entity, even if the other party could read minds like himself, Li Qi could still maintain an absolute advantage in the conversation.

But who knew, the Cloud Whale replied, “Dao? What is a Dao?”

Li Qi could clearly read that the other party truly did not know what a Dao was.

Thinking about it carefully, it was very reasonable. This Cloud Whale had no cultivation whatsoever; it had never cultivated at all!

Under such circumstances, how could it read minds?

Li Qi was full of doubts.

But he felt that he could still continue to communicate.

So, Li Qi stopped speaking and instead began to communicate with the Cloud Whale in front of him purely through his spirit.

Li Qi said, “You seem to be in great pain. Something is gnawing at you. I’ll help you drive them away.”

He felt the Cloud Whale’s pain. There were many wounds on its underside, and such pain would probably be unbearable for ordinary creatures.

He glanced around and saw many small beasts and birds perched on the Cloud Whale’s belly, as well as a pile of parasitic organisms, like barnacles, firmly gnawing on the Cloud Whale’s body. All of these caused the Cloud Whale immense suffering.

So, he would help it clean them off.

But the Cloud Whale immediately refused. It said, “No, please don’t hurt them. It’s nothing to me.”

As it answered, Li Qi also saw the image the Cloud Whale was thinking in its shallow thoughts.

Once, flocks of birds hunted individually. For survival, they quickly opened their mouths, constantly devouring other creatures, harming each other, and avoiding each other.

The Cloud Whale in front of him felt the helplessness of the weak and the inevitability of the strong preying on the weak.

So, it made this decision. As a Cloud Whale, it sustained these pursuing creatures with its own body, and thus the current scene came to be.

“...Truly, it’s so standard,” Li Qi couldn’t help but exclaim upon seeing everything the Cloud Whale was thinking.

It was truly too exemplary. Such a story, such a mental journey, was simply a template of ‘Compassion’.

The most crucial thing was that this was not an act. The other party was just an unranked entity and could not possibly act in front of Li Qi.

It genuinely believed this from the bottom of its soul.

So, Li Qi nodded, “Alright, I understand. Then I won’t disturb you for now.”

As Li Qi spoke, his body vanished from its original spot.

He indeed did not plan to disturb the other party. He would first see where this Cloud Whale would ultimately go.

The Cloud Whale felt Li Qi leave, and although it felt a bit bewildered, it didn’t delay anything.

It was indeed bewildered. Li Qi’s sudden appearance and then sudden disappearance had a strange feeling.

How to put it…

If it were seen by outsiders, it would probably be like Zhu Fengdan’s style: suddenly appearing, saying a few disjointed words, and then suddenly disappearing.

It’s really similar, equally mysterious and unpredictable, like a Dragon seen only by its head and not its tail, not knowing what this person is thinking, only feeling that the other party seems to act as they please, which is a bit infuriating.

How to put it…

Unbeknownst to him, Li Qi’s actions and style had already begun to align with his teacher’s, yet Zhu Fengdan had clearly not taught him much.

One can only say that they were indeed master and disciple.

But the Cloud Whale didn’t dwell on it too much. It simply regarded this as an interlude and continued to do its own thing.

It continued to sustain many birds and beasts with its own body, singing loudly, absorbing the Spiritual Qi from the atmosphere into itself, and then using it to repair its constantly gnawed Physical Body.

This self-sacrifice even continued for several years.

Several years later, disaster struck the heavens, and some Sky Islands suffered from famine.

With the famine, a large number of lives fell into hunger. All living beings had nothing to eat, killing each other and devouring each other to survive.

The Cloud Whale, relying solely on parasites on its body, could no longer save all living beings.

So, it plummeted straight down, its body splitting into pieces, distributed among the many hungry creatures.

However, every day, hungry birds and beasts would come, freely cutting off the fish meat they needed from the Cloud Whale’s body to sustain their lives. The Cloud Whale’s massive body was covered in wounds from being cut and pecked.

Several months passed. The Cloud Whale endured the pain. Its body was already in pieces, but it was still alive.

Li Qi, observing, was surprised.

It was just an unranked entity; it should have died when it split apart. Now, shattered into so many pieces, it was still alive and continuously regenerating, providing food for the birds and beasts that came to feed daily.

So, Li Qi reappeared, arriving at the whale’s head, and asked, “You sustain all living beings with your own body, and every day you endure their pecking and cutting. Such pain is indescribable, yet you still persist and do not die. Why? You have already offered all your flesh. Isn’t that enough?”

The Cloud Whale replied, “I cannot do that! If I die, this fish body will quickly rot, and all living beings will once again fall into the predicament of hunger, and they will begin to kill and devour each other to live. I truly cannot bear to see such a tragedy happen again, so I must persist and live.”

Li Qi was filled with admiration.

But he immediately said, “Then why don’t you cultivate? The effort you put into repairing your body is completely enough for you to become ranked. Once you reach the Ninth Rank, with the Aptitude of this Physical Body, you can sustain even more people.”

However, the Cloud Whale replied, “Why should I do that? I sustain them out of compassion. This is something I want to do, not for the sake of sustaining them. Why bother?”

This answer stunned Li Qi.

But he immediately understood the Cloud Whale’s meaning.

Everything about the Cloud Whale was very simple.

It couldn’t bear it, so it sustained all beings with its own body.

This had nothing to do with cultivation. It would not cultivate for the sake of sustaining, nor did it sustain for the sake of sustaining.

If one cultivated for better sustenance, then what was the sustenance for?

The answer was, sustenance was for nothing; it was simply Compassion in the heart, nothing more.

Therefore, it would not cultivate for ‘better sustenance,’ because ‘better’ sustenance simply did not exist.

Amitabha forging the Amitabha Pure Land, encompassing billions of worlds’ beings, was no nobler than a young monk donating his steamed bun.

The essence of both was the same: ‘Compassion’.

Similarly, the unranked Cloud Whale sustaining living beings with its Physical Body was no more humble than a Ninth Rank Cloud Whale. If that was the case, then what was the reason for cultivation?

Why cultivate?

Based on this question, Li Qi’s and the Cloud Whale’s inner minds began to reflect each other.

Li Qi read the Cloud Whale’s inner mind, and the Cloud Whale also looked into Li Qi’s inner mind. The two were like two opposing mirrors, constantly reflecting the same things.

Theoretically, standing between two mirrors facing each other would create an infinite number of images, because relative reflections can be repeatedly reflected. But in reality, it would not be infinite; ultimately, the number of reflections mainly depends on the mirror’s scattering and absorption effects on light, in other words, the ‘resolution limit’.

It depends on which mirror is smoother and has a higher reflectivity, then it can repeat more times.

And Li Qi felt this constant mapping, and finally, Li Qi stopped.

The Cloud Whale’s inner mind was too pure.

Although Li Qi could also reflect inner minds, he was not as good as the other party, so this infinite reflection would only stop at Li Qi’s side. This was a manifestation of Li Qi being inferior to the other party.

This made Li Qi marvel.

At the same time, the answer about the Cloud Whale naturally emerged.

Great Luminous Mirror!

This is the Great Luminous Mirror!

The Buddha-Dharma’s Great Luminous Mirror is also called “Great Round Mirror Wisdom.”

This is a metaphor, for example, a monk is like a perfect and smooth mirror, which can illuminate inside and outside, heaven and earth, without obstruction, reaching all sentient beings in the Dharma realm, without exception, and illuminating at all times.

Never forgetting or being foolish, all phenomena.

Its nature and appearance are pure, free from all defilements.

Pure and complete virtue, the present basis of all things.

It can manifest and generate the wisdom-shadow of bodies and lands, without interruption or cessation, reaching the end of future kalpas, like a great round mirror, manifesting all forms.

In simple terms, its inner mind is too pure and flawless, so much so that it has no dust, and thus can reflect others.

There is a verse that says:

Bodhi originally has no tree, nor is the bright mirror a stand. Since there is nothing originally, where can dust alight?

When your inner mind is completely free of dust, the pure spirit can reflect the spirit of others.

In fact, ordinary people can also do it; what is called ‘empathy’ is precisely this.

When you see someone stub their toe, you also feel pain; this is a kind of ‘empathy’.

When you see someone else’s sorrow, you also seem to feel a certain sorrow permeate you; this is also empathy.

But the hearts of ordinary people are like a bright mirror stand, covered by dust, so much so that they lose the ability to empathize with others, and only extremely strong emotions can cause this empathy.

But the Cloud Whale in front of him was different.

It truly achieved ‘originally nothing exists, where can dust alight’.

It was the true Great Luminous Mirror, Great Round Mirror Wisdom, reflecting Li Qi’s inner mind through its own inner mind, thereby gaining Li Qi’s empathy, and then experiencing Li Qi’s thoughts and feelings.

It was like a keen observer, a deep thinker with profound wisdom, who only needed to observe a person’s actions to see through the secrets deep within another’s soul.

The ability of those eminent monks to see through people’s hearts must rely on such power.

Can an ordinary Cloud Whale do this?

No wonder it was collected by Chang Qiao’s people. This… is simply the quality a Buddha’s Son should possess!

Li Qi was in a great mood. He felt that he had definitely found the right person.

With such Aptitude, who else could it be but the Reincarnation of a Buddha’s Son?

One must know that the Great Luminous Mirror is a major source of Buddha-Dharma’s ‘Compassion’.

Li Qi had also studied Buddha-Dharma and knew what this represented.

Why did the Buddha cut his flesh to feed the eagle?

Because he was the Great Luminous Mirror, capable of understanding the eagle’s hungry pain.

True empathy in every sense, so he held genuine Compassion for all sentient beings, just as he would for himself.

Once this ability is possessed, the sheep can understand the wolf’s hunger, so they will not resent the wolf for having eaten their family members before.

The wolf understood the pain of the sheep’s flesh being torn, so it would no longer prey on the flock.

People no longer regarded each other as enemies, because complete empathy allowed them to understand each other.

People were no longer hostile to each other.

People helped each other, were friendly to each other, the injured received good treatment, the dead were properly buried, former enemies shook hands and made peace, and former adversaries helped each other.

People were no longer lonely. Everyone’s inner mind was revealed, allowing them to let go of all hatred, because they understood the “plight of the enemy,” and understood the “thoughts” of those who had previously fought with them.

When you truly “understand” others, instead of “misinterpreting” others from your own perspective, you will find that everything is excusable, everything is so natural, and you will not resent them, because everyone can “understand” each other.

Therefore, this sustenance is completely unrelated to cultivation; it is merely a choice of the heart.

Buddha-nature.

Li Qi saw complete Buddha-nature in this, which must be a characteristic possessed only by a Buddha’s Son.

Then, there was only one last point needed to prove that the other party was Sariputra.

That is, cultivation and wisdom.

Merely having Compassion and the Great Luminous Mirror only indicates possessing Buddha-nature and the Aptitude to become a Buddha’s Son. But there are so many Buddha’s Sons, and it’s not necessarily Sariputra.

So, after thoroughly comprehending the other party’s ‘Buddha-nature,’ Li Qi said to the Cloud Whale, “I have a way that can allow you to save more lives and also allow you to save all living beings from another perspective. Do you want it?”

“Saving all living beings from another perspective?” The Cloud Whale was bewildered. It didn’t know what Li Qi was talking about.

But the next moment, the Great Luminous Mirror reflected Li Qi’s inner mind, letting it know what Li Qi was saying.

What Li Qi wanted to say was that the sustenance of the Physical Body was only temporary; its flesh would always be eaten up, and it would always die.

However, if one were to educate and popularize Buddha-Dharma, allowing all living beings to comprehend Buddha-Dharma, then if all living beings practiced giving and offering, wouldn’t everyone no longer need to give and offer? This way, everyone would achieve a good outcome.

The Cloud Whale immediately became joyful and said, “There is such a method! Please teach me!”

Li Qi nodded, then sat down and began to chant Buddhist scriptures, thereby transmitting the Dharma.

If the Cloud Whale was truly Sariputra, then once it began to cultivate, it would surely display extraordinary qualities.