A Prophet - Chapter 12 (Part 3)
Chapter 3 - The Metamorphosis of a Gambler
Mei Xuanzi was originally a Daoist priest at a small Daoist temple nestled at the foot of Mount Huang in Anhui. His master, the venerable elder Mei Fuzu, was a towering scholar of Daoist studies. In his earlier years, while teaching in Tianjin, Mei Fuzu had long admired the literary genius of the renowned national studies master Li Shutong, visiting him on numerous occasions and receiving profound enlightenment from him. After Li Shutong took monastic vows and became a monk, Mei Fuzu followed suit, taking up ascetic practice at the Plum Blossom Temple at the foot of Mount Huang.
Mei Xuanzi's original surname was not Mei; his given name was Xu Leshi, and he hailed from Lanzhou. His father was a mule and horse merchant. Merchants from the Central Plains who transported goods to the Western Regions or traveled west past Loulan would all hire his father's caravan of mules and horses to carry their loads.
From a young age, Xu Leshi possessed an unruly and rebellious disposition, refusing to submit to discipline. By the age of fifteen, he had fallen in with street ruffians and learned to gamble. At one point, he even stole one of his father's mules and sold it off to trade the money away at the gambling table. His father was so furious he wanted to hack him to pieces, and it was only thanks to his mother's tearful and desperate pleas that he escaped with nothing worse than a thorough beating with a stick.
In 1920, one of the rarest and most catastrophic earthquakes in human history struck the Ningxia region, shattering a quarter of China. Xu Leshi's family home was shaken to the ground, and his parents and brothers all perished. He himself survived only because he had gone out gambling with several other gamblers that evening. The den where they played was a makeshift shed constructed of bamboo poles and canvas cloth, and because no heavy objects fell during the quake, he managed to escape with his life.
Following the disaster, Xu Leshi, an incorrigible gambling addict, felt not a shred of remorse. Instead, he sold off all the mules and horses in the stable along with the surviving belongings amid the ruins of his collapsed home, using every last penny as stake money, playing higher and higher stakes. Eventually, he lost everything and accumulated heavy debts. When his creditors threatened to chop off one of his hands, he fled Lanzhou in a panic, begging his way all the way to Anhui.
A stranger in a strange land, Xu Leshi wandered the streets starving for days until he dazedly arrived at the venerable Mei Fuzu's Plum Blossom Temple. The moment he stepped through the doors, he dropped to his knees and kowtowed, begging for a scrap of food. Possessing the compassionate heart of a Bodhisattva, Mei Fuzu immediately ordered someone to prepare a bowl of vegetarian noodles for him.
Having gone without food for days, Xu Leshi pounced upon the meal like a starving wolf, clutching the bowl and devouring it ravenously.
Mei Fuzu said, "There is no rush, no rush at all. There is more once you finish."
Hearing the old master's words, Xu Leshi, whose mouth was stuffed full of noodles, actually stopped. A sour ache rose in his nose. Whether it was the sacred tranquility of the Daoist sanctuary awakening his conscience or the overwhelming weight of his days of hunger and cold making him acutely aware of his fallen state, his tears began to flow uncontrollably. In the end, he dropped heavily to his knees and cried out, "Master, Master, please take me in as your disciple! I am so tired, and I never want to step foot outside these gates again!"
Hearing this, Mei Fuzu said slowly, "To be able to taste suffering means you are not far from enlightenment. If the almsgiver has truly seen through the illusions of the mortal world, and your parents do not stand in your way, you may remain at this humble temple to recite scriptures and practice meditation every day, praying for the blessings of all living beings to spend your remaining years in peace."
Only then did Xu Leshi remember that his parents were no longer in this world—the two people who loved him most had departed forever. He felt as though a demon had possessed his heart over the past few years, his mind filled with nothing but gambling. The death of his parents hadn't moved him even in the slightest. At this thought, Xu Leshi burst into ragged, howling sobs!
Knowing that this young man bore untold sufferings in his past, but seeing that his conscience was not entirely extinguished, Mei Fuzu accepted him as a disciple, bestowed upon him the Daoist name "Xuanzi," and changed his surname to Mei. From that day onward, Xu Leshi ceased to exist, replaced by Mei Xuanzi, who would put his past and future life behind him, accompanied for the rest of his days by flickering oil lamps and ritual implements.
Buddhism teaches: "To tame and subdue stubborn and unyielding sentient beings." The words "stubborn and unyielding" cut to the bone and draw blood; human nature is deeply obstinate and bad habits are hard to break. A bad person may experience a moment of repentance, but that remorseful heart vanishes in the blink of an eye.
When he first began his ascetic practice, Mei Xuanzi indeed experienced a profound sense of sudden enlightenment. He repented and prayed daily, occasionally weeping tears onto the incense altar. Yet after a few months, the inner demon within his heart began to stir once more. One day, taking advantage of a moment when his senior apprentice brothers were not paying attention, he actually stole the incense money from the altar, slipped out of the temple, and went to gamble.
The outcome was entirely predictable: in gambling, nine out of ten games end in loss. In less than two hours, he had lost every single copper clean.
Once he had lost everything, a jittery, anxious dread gripped his heart, and he dragged his feet as he made his way back to the temple. Upon reaching the gates, he hesitated. How could he possibly face his Master! He turned around wanting to flee, but he had nowhere else to go. After turning the matter over and over in his mind, he steeled his nerves and entered the temple.
Mei Fuzu had been meditating in the back hall all along and had not noticed the incident.
At evening chow, a junior disciple in the front hall named Xuan Kong came to report, "Master, the money on the incense altar is short..."
Mei Fuzu was startled and asked, "Did any outsiders visit the temple this afternoon?"
Xuan Kong replied, "Only three or five incense-burners came to offer prayers and fulfill vows. However... however..."
Mei Fuzu raised his gentle eyebrows. "However what?"
"However... however, Junior Apprentice Brother Xuanzi went out this afternoon..."
Mei Fuzu glanced at Mei Xuanzi and asked, "Xuanzi, what did you go out to do?"
A wave of nervous panic seized Mei Xuanzi. "I went out to... buy sesame oil. Seeing that the oil in the lamp was running low, I went to—"
"You are lying!" Xuan Kong interjected. "What sesame oil? You're the one who stole the money..."
"Impudent!" Mei Fuzu shouted sternly. "Xuanzi is your junior apprentice brother; how could he steal money!"
Mei Xuanzi's heart hammered frantically against his ribs.
Afterward, Mei Fuzu turned to Mei Xuanzi and said, "Xuanzi, in the future, if you must go down the mountain to attend to matters, you must inform your senior apprentice brother beforehand. Do you understand?" With this final sentence, the old master emphasized his tone.
Sweat beaded all over Mei Xuanzi's face, and he stammered, "This disciple will remember it."
That night, Mei Fuzu summoned Mei Xuanzi into his meditation room to give him a private lecture on the Dharma.
"Those who take monastic vows, whether monk or Daoist, pay homage to the Three Pure Ones, revere the Three Jewels, and lay to rest all affairs of the mortal world—this is the greatest of virtues. No matter how wonderful worldly pursuits may appear, they are nothing more than flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon mirrored in water. Do you understand?"
Mei Xuanzi nodded slightly.
Mei Fuzu looked at him and continued, "Let me tell you a story. There was once a man who was deeply versed in musical theory; he was the very first person in the country to compose music using staff notation. He excelled in calligraphy; Lu Xun, Guo Moruo, and others considered it an honor to obtain a single stroke of his handwriting. He was skilled in poetry and lyrics; after one of his songs, Farewell, was set to music, it was sung across the entire Republic. He mastered painting; grand masters like Feng Zikai were disciples nurtured beneath his tutelage. He was refined in seal-carving, possessing a knife technique so natural it seemed born of heaven itself. He championed modern drama; as early as the thirty-third year of the Guangxu Emperor's reign, he took to the stage to perform The Lady of the Camellias. All these realms, which ordinary people exhaust their entire lives failing to reach, he achieved effortlessly. He was a man who approached perfection. Do you know who this person was?"
Mei Xuanzi answered in a low voice, "Li Shutong."
Mei Fuzu said, "Correct. The world mostly knows Li Shutong for his radiant glory, yet remains ignorant of Master Hongyi of the Buddhist monastery. He abandoned every single one of his hobbies and honors, dedicating his heart entirely to Buddhism. Why?"
Mei Xuanzi lowered his head and kept silent.
Mei Fuzu continued, "People in the world all say that those who take monastic vows do so out of helplessness, because they cannot survive in secular society; others say that those who take vows are foolish, ignorant of worldly happiness. Li Shutong used his own actions to interpret the true meaning of renunciation. Was he helpless? Far from it; he possessed vast learning and the most fulfilled inner spirit. Was he unable to survive in the world? Even less so; he enjoyed renown across the nine provinces and was the recipient of a myriad of favors. Was he foolish? A person with greater wisdom than him has probably not yet been born. Did he understand worldly happiness? Quite the contrary; his peerless attainments in multiple fields gave him a profound mastery of earthly pleasures! He chose the monastic life because he saw through the truth that all of these things are mere illusions and phantoms! To give is to receive, to let go is to gain; Master Hongyi could let go of so many passions, so you should reflect deeply upon yourself."
Upon hearing this, Mei Xuanzi felt as instantly enlightened as if cold water had been poured over his head. He gritted his teeth and secretly resolved, "If I ever gamble again, may I drop dead!"
Yet good times did not last. Two months later, unable to restrain himself once more, he stole money again and headed straight for the gambling den. After losing everything, he returned to the gates of the Daoist temple, kowtowed heavily three times to the temple doors, and then hurried around to the back mountain. He lunged headfirst into a massive boulder, instantly bathing himself in gushing blood as he collapsed unconscious.
When he finally regained consciousness, he was lying inside his master's meditation room.
In truth, the moment he bolted out the door that afternoon, the temple novice at the entrance had reported it to the master, and Mei Fuzu had instructed his eldest disciple, Xuan Kong, to keep a close eye on him.
Xuan Kong had followed him all the way to the gambling den, thinking to himself that this brat truly could not break his old habits of eating filth. However, obeying the master's instructions to simply keep watch, he sat waiting at a nearby teahouse. Before long, the kid came walking out. Xuan Kong immediately trailed after him, and later watched him perform the three prostrations before the mountain gates, thinking that this scoundrel still had a shred of conscience left. But when the kid subsequently sprinted toward the back mountain, Xuan Kong became puzzled, figuring he was trying to run away from the temple. Instead, the fellow stopped in front of a giant boulder, and Xuan Kong chuckled inwardly, thinking he was going to face the wall in penance. Seeing that dusk was setting and just as he was about to call him back, he never imagined the fool would slam his head straight into the boulder!
"You aren't even afraid of death, yet quitting gambling is that difficult?" Mei Fuzu looked at him and said.
"Master—" A sour ache flooded Mei Xuanzi's nose, and tears began to stream down...