Continued above).Fa Xian and the others heard Huijing's call, and when they turned around, they saw Huijing lying in the snow.
Fa Xian hugged Huijing tightly in his arms and called Huijing.
Huijing should not. Dao Cheng said, "Maybe we have encountered a poisonous dragon. ”
Fa Xian said: "Don't lie, if you encounter a poisonous dragon, we should be the first to be poisoned." Maybe it's due to Huijing's lack of physical strength. ”
Baoyun stretched out his hand, took the pulse on Huijing's wrist for a while, and then said slowly: "It's not in the way, now he is weak and weak, and he can't breathe well, let him be quiet, and he will be able to ease his breath after a while." ”
Fa Xian looked at Huijing's pale face, thinking that when they first traveled, Huijing was in the prime of life and full of vitality. Along the way, he slept in the open air, and suffered a lot of hardships, which made him thin and weak. Fa Xian looked at it and thought about it, and couldn't help but burst into tears.
Fa Xian untied the robe he was wearing and wrapped Huijing tightly around his chest.
The monks stood or squatted against the wind, sheltering Huijing and Fa Xian behind them.
In fact, there is no poisonous dragon on the mountain, but the terrain is extremely high, the air is thin, it is difficult to breathe, and people with a slightly weaker physique will have altitude sickness when they reach this height.
The altitude sickness reaction makes people dizzy, palpitations, and weakness in the hands and feet, as if they are enchanted.
The ancients didn't understand the truth, so they attached a bizarre statement that the poisonous dragon was doing evil.
After a long while, Huijing woke up. So everyone took turns to support Huijing, climbed to the top, and climbed over the highest part of the Green Ridge Ancient Road.
The monks climbed the snowy peaks in a southwesterly direction, and after descending the peaks, they turned west along the course of the mountains. At this time, the mountains to the right are the Karakoram Mountains and the Himalayas to the left. The endless mountains stretched like two huge dragons in parallel to the west, stretching far, far away.
Among the mountains, several peaks rise into the sky.
The monk looked up at the top of the mountain with a white hat and was amazed.
These peaks are so high that the monks cannot compare them with the snow-capped peaks they climb.
The Green Ridge Ancient Road follows the mountain range, at the intersection of two mountain peaks, and extends to the west. The snow on the mountain turns into a trickle, and then collects along the mountain, from high to low, and finally becomes a small river with a strong flow at the bottom of the mountain.
The creek runs west along with the ancient trail.
This small river is called the Xintou River, a tributary of the Indus River, which flows into the Indus River and eventually into the Arabian Sea.
Fa Xian and the others walked for a full month before they walked out of the Green Ridge Mountain.
They finally arrived in Beitianzhu, and the first country they arrived at was called Tuoli Kingdom.
The country of Toli is very small, with only a few hundred households. Although the country is small, there is a large monastery in the country, with hundreds of monks, all of whom believe in Theravada Buddhism.
Fa Xian and others came to this temple to place orders.
A plaque is hung on the temple gate, and Sanskrit is written on it. Huijing raised his head and said, "Maitreya Temple." "This is the temple dedicated to Maitreya.
Fa Xian and others walked into the main hall dedicated to Maitreya Bodhisattva and bowed down respectfully.
The statue of Maitreya is more than eight feet high, sitting with a knotted eyebrow, kind eyes, and a slight smile. The statue is extremely vivid, as if the real Maitreya was in the world.
Fa Xian was stunned, and after a while, he heard a sentence leak from Baoyun's mouth: "There is no such statue in Han Land." ”
Fa Xian stood on his knees, his body moving slowly, and his eyes never took off the statue of Maitreya for half a minute. In the process of standing up, Fa Xian felt that Maitreya was like a golden light, which was eye-catching. This is really a unique Maitreya statue in the world.
When Fa Xian and others knelt down in the Maitreya Hall, a small novice had already entered the apse to tell the abbot, saying that a few foreign monks who had never seen it had already worshiped Maitreya Bodhisattva at the top of the main hall.
When the abbot of the temple heard that there were monks from afar who came to the temple, he naturally greeted him warmly. Led to the lobby, the case monks and guests sat down one after another, and the little novice served a kind of drinking water that looked yellow-green.
The abbot said, "Masters, please use water. ”
Fa Xian replied in Tianzhu language: "Thank you, abbot." ”
Huijing took a sip, and suddenly felt a stream of heat flowing down the dantian, and his spirit was lifted, so he asked, "What kind of water is this?" Why is it so refreshing? ”
The abbot smiled slightly and said, "This is Somo water. In the mountains in Tianzhu, there is a kind of grass, which we call Suoma grass. This grass is extremely hard to find and often grows in inaccessible places. The stalk of the Somo grass can be pressed out of the sap, and the sap can be transferred into the water, that is, the Suo Mo water, and the Tianzhu people all use this water to entertain guests. ”
Huijing said: "It's like Chinese tea, but the taste is very different. ”
The abbot was extremely surprised and asked, "What in China?" ”
Huijing said: "Tea." ”
The abbot said: "The old monk has been to China, but he has never seen any water called 'tea'. ”
This time it was Fa Xian's turn and the others to be surprised. Fa Xian asked, "Has the master been to China?" ”
The abbot replied, "Of course, the older monks of our monastery have all been to China. ”
Fa Xian was even more strange, "Have you all been to China? Which China? ”
The abbot said: "Tianzhu is divided into southeast, northwest, and middle, and we are here in North Tianzhu, from which to the south, to the middle reaches of the Ganges River, where is the Middle Tianzhu, and the people in Buddhism call it 'China'." ”
I see. 
So Fa Xian explained: "We all came from the Han land, which is also called China. I'm waiting to come from China and go to 'China'. ”
The abbot had never been to the east of the Green Mountains, but he had also heard that there was Buddhism to the east of the Green Mountains, and there were many countries, the largest of which was called "Han". So, the abbot asked, "How far is Han China from here?" ”
Fa Xian and the others couldn't figure it out, so Fa Xian replied from a different angle, "I waited for three years before I arrived in your country." ”
When the abbot heard this, he was in awe and said, "In this way, you are the distinguished guests of the Maitreya Temple, because the Maitreya Temple has never received monks and visitors from afar like you. ”
Fa Xian stood up and replied, "The abbot doesn't have to be polite, we just need to eat and live like the monks of your temple." When Buddhism spreads eastward, there will be Tianzhu monks who will travel long distances to the Han land; It is not surprising that we are looking for the Dharma from east to west. ”
The abbot said, "When the Venerable Master mentioned 'the Dharma is spreading eastward', do you know when the Dharma is spreading eastward? ”
Fa Xian was silent, and Dao Cheng and the others shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know.
The abbot pointed in the direction of the Maitreya Hall and said, "I have this image, the Faliu Eastern School." ”
Fa Xian saluted again: "We are ignorant, and I would like to hear the details." ”
Jia Zhi took a sip of Somo water and said slowly: "A long time ago, there was an arhat in the country of Tuoli, named Sueda Diga, who knew that Maitreya Bodhisattva was going to inherit the Buddha throne of Shakyamuni and become a Buddha, so he found a skilled craftsman who specialized in carving Buddha statues and asked him to carve a statue of Maitreya. ”
The craftsman said that he did not know what Maitreya looked like, so the arhat used his divine powers to send the craftsman to the heavens of Tushi. Tushitian is a heavenly fairyland, and Maitreya Bodhisattva lives there. The craftsman carefully observed Maitreya's height and physiognomy before coming down to carve it. ”
When he was halfway through the carving, the craftsman could not remember what Maitreya looked like, so the arhat sent him to Tushitian again. In this way, the statue of Maitreya was completed. ”
Tomorrow update, the relationship between the eastward transmission of Buddhism and the Maitreya Buddha statue.
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