The Monk That Wanted To Renounce Asceticism

At that moment, there was a series of tumultuous bangs. The trucks had collided into a pile! Metallic parts flew in every direction along with glass fragments. All sorts of chaotic sounds were heard at once.

When Monkey saw this scene, he exchanged looks with Lu Xiaoya, and they saw shock and lingering fear in each other’s eyes. They were not shocked due to the accident, but because of Fangzheng’s original words! Back then, he had exhorted them to maintain a safe distance when they encountered a four-truck convoy. Clearly, he had foreseen all of this! If not, he absolutely would not have said such words to them!

They realized what would have happened if they had not listened to Fangzheng’s words.

Lu Xiaoya carefully asked, “Monkey, if you had continued accelerating, what would have happened?”

Monkey gulped a mouthful of saliva and said, “Don’t talk about it. If not for Master’s words, I would have accelerated to overtake the convoy and leave Fatty behind. However, if that had happened, I would have definitely been crushed by the trucks! Then – the both of us would have been dead meat.”

When Lu Xiaoya imagined that, her face lost color.

At that moment, Monkey snapped them back to reality as he yelled, “Let’s quickly get out of here! We shouldn’t stay in the car. Stopping on a highway is equally as dangerous. It’s safer to wait on the side of the road. Also, hurry up and call the police while I put up a warning sign to prevent cars behind us from running into the pileup.”

Lu Xiaoya alighted from the car and called the police. Monkey also made himself busy.

Meanwhile, Fatty, Ruan Ying, and Jiang Ting were all dumbfounded. They had seen the four coal-carrying trucks, and they all recalled Monkey’s previous speed. They looked at each other as if they had seen ghosts. Spontaneously they all shouted at the same time, “Master is godly!”

Fatty slapped himself in the mouth. “I’m truly stupid. Master is incredibly godly, so the temple must be even more efficacious! I should have made a wish or at least offered a stick of incense and donated some incense money. Sigh…”

…

“Achoo!” Fangzheng sneezed and muttered, “Who’s talking about me?”

“Ding! Congratulations! You have saved another two lives. Now, you have two chances at the draw. Do you want to begin drawing?”

“Yes! It’d make no sense not to draw now. It’s not like it will give birth to children if I leave it for later,” Fangzheng said immediately.

“Ding! Congratulations! You have received a White Lunar Monk Robe,” said the System.

“A monk robe? Oh my Buddha! System, did you find this robe of mine too tattered? Are you going to loosen the precepts imposed on me?” Fangzheng said with a smile. He was unable to leave the mountain, so getting a new set of clothes was definitely a problem. Even if he had money, he was unable to buy other clothes. As for the old clothes in the temple, they were clothes that had been patched year after year. To be honest, he truly did not like them.

After all, he was a young man, and he wished to look good.

However, above clothes, Fangzheng wished to receive more awesome powers. For example, magical powers like the Heavenly Eye or communication with animals were extraordinary and appeared much more impressive. Therefore, he still felt somewhat disappointed.

The moment his voice faded, a monk robe fell into his hands.

The monk robe was white, but he did not know what it was made of. It was neither too thick nor too thin, but it felt really nice to touch. It even emanated a light fragrance that wasn’t too strong. If he hadn’t payed attention, he might have even missed the smell. And when he paid some extra attention to the smell, he sensed something different. It smelled a little like oil lamps and books. It also smelled like sunshine. In short, it made one feel comfortable.

However, Fangzheng was rather curious about it. He had heard One Finger mention that monk robes had various colors and meanings, and they could not be worn wantonly! He had heard of brown, red, blackish-red, yellow, and gray monk robes. Yet, he had never seen white monk robes before! Also, weren’t monk robes supposed to avoid uniform colors?

Fangzheng felt baffled, so he asked, “System, are you sure this robe is the right one? Look at this monk robe. It clearly isn’t right! According to what I know, there are three kinds of monk robes. One of them is the minor clothing, sewn with five kinds of fabric, commonly known as Five-Clothing. It’s worn when engaging with cleaning or labor work.”

“Another one of them is the medium clothing, sewn with seven kinds of fabric and commonly known as Seven-Clothing. It’s worn for everyday life.”

“And lastly, there are the major clothings, sewn with nine to twenty-five kinds of fabric and also known as Ancestral-Clothing. It’s for ceremonial purposes, worn when going out or when meeting esteemed seniors.”

“These three kinds of clothings are known as Kasaya and of course, the red-colored portion worn outside is also known as Kasaya. However, this monk robe of yours is weird. It’s neither minor clothing, Seven-Clothing, or major clothing. It seems to be something in between Seven-Clothing and major clothing.”

“Also, the color isn’t right!”

“If I recall correctly, Kasaya should be the name of a color. It’s because monks have to wear mixed-colored clothes that they avoid the colors blue, yellow, white, and black. Instead, they use one of the non-primary colors as the Kasaya color. Our country has determined that the Kasaya color is red. As for the southern Buddhist canon, it says it’s a kind of orange-yellow color. It should be a mix between red and yellow.”

“And according to the records, after Buddhism was split into different schools in India, the colors and its different denominations have their differences. Some wear red or yellow, while there are others that wear black or brown. However, according to what my old man said, those are all rubbish. In the sixth century in India, what happened was that all of the schools wore red. The so-called black or brown robes just had minor differences.”

“As for Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, India, and Nepal, the monk clothes are all yellow. The only difference is the tone.”

“Chinese monks’ Kasaya color is mainly red, and the Five-Clothing and Seven-Clothing are typically yellow.”

“Tibetan monks’ Kasaya has yellow as major clothing and usually, they wear reddish medium clothing.”

“Due to the cold weather in the north, three items of clothing are insufficient. Therefore, the monks there wear other common clothes inside the Kasaya. These common clothes are what ancient commoners provided, and it added slight alterations to the outfit. The color of common clothes was standardized by the Ming dynasty’s Emperor. Monks who practice Zen would usually wear brown for their inner regular clothes. Monks who preach scriptures would wear blue, while the Risshu monks wore black. After the Qing dynasty, there were no more official standards, but due to the rise in popularity of the Risshu monasteries because of the Vinaya School in the early Qing dynasty, typical monks would wear yellow.”

“It is especially taboo for Burmese Buddhist devotees to wear black because in ancient Burma, there had been heretic monks who wore black and engaged in all sorts of illegal acts. It was then strictly banned.”

“It’s also taboo to wear black for Tibetan devotees.”

“Furthermore, out of all the colors you could give me, you gave me a white one, and it’s uniform!”

“My old man once said that Buddhism has rules for monk clothing. Firstly, they are not allowed to use colors of royalty or pure colors. Secondly, all new clothes should have another color at certain spots to destroy the uniformity of the clothes, to avert the hankering for nice clothes. It’s called ‘coloration’ or ‘adulteration’.”

“No matter how much I search for relevant information in my mind, I have never seen anyone make monk robes in white!”

Fangzheng had to admit that his studies were bad. However, he knew a lot about some of the rules in Buddhism. As Zen Master One Finger was a person who abided strictly by the rules, Fangzheng had been nagged about the rules from a young age. Even a pig would be able to recite it backwards after so long.

As for why a small temple’s abbot like Zen Master One Finger could know so much, he would always avoid the topic, regardless of how curious Fangzheng was about it. Fangzheng eventually gave up. Now, as he thought more about it, he felt increasingly perplexed. Such knowledge wasn’t usually known by an old monk in a rural mountain region. That was because Fangzheng had realized that many small or medium temples were not particular about the rules. Most of them gave the monks free reign.