Journey West for Scriptures, Trial at Two Boundaries Mountain

Taiji Hall. Xuanzang, clad in a kasaya, arrived here.

"Xuanzang greets Your Majesty!"

"Rise, Master!"

Li Shimin smiled and raised his left hand slightly.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

"Master, take a look at the Kasaya and Khakkhara beside you. I wish to purchase them and bestow them upon you."

Xuanzang trembled and hurriedly bowed in thanks, then turned his gaze toward the Kasaya and Khakkhara held by the monk Sudhana had transformed into.

He did not stand on ceremony and immediately changed into them.

Once he put them on, Xuanzang seemed like an entirely different person. The golden Buddha light on the kasaya nearly blinded the assembled ministers.

Li Shimin nodded with great satisfaction and smiled.

He turned his gaze toward the traveling monk beside him. "Elder, name your price."

The traveling monk stroked his beard and smiled. "One who recognizes this treasure may have it without paying a single coin." He waved his hand.

Then he turned his gaze to Xuanzang and raised his hands in a Buddhist salute.

"May I ask what Buddhist teachings you expound, Master?"

Xuanzang likewise returned the Buddhist salute and smiled faintly. "The Buddhist temples of Great Tang all practice Hinayana Buddhism. That is also what this humble monk expounds."

"Do you know Mahayana Buddhism?" the traveling monk asked directly.

Xuanzang shook his head.

"Mahayana Buddhism can send the dead to heaven, free all living beings from suffering, prevent them from falling into Reincarnation after death, and grant them rebirth in paradise."

At those words, the entire Imperial Court was astonished.

"May I ask, Elder, where may Mahayana Buddhism be found?"

The traveling monk stroked his beard. "At the Great Thunderclap Temple on Spirit Mountain in Western Paradise, where my Buddha Tathagata resides."

Xuanzang considered this, then turned and bowed in salute to the