Refuting the Heavenly Demon

Li Qi looked at Shariputra before him. Though he appeared humble now, that had come later.

Many years ago, Shariputra had been just as full of pride, believing no one in the world could match his wisdom.

But after meeting Ashvaghosha, he had been led by that venerable one to behold the Buddha.

The Buddha expounded the Dharma to him, and that knowledge unfolded before his eyes as though heaven and earth were collapsing. Like sunlight tearing apart every shadow, like lightning splitting the pitch-black canopy of the sky, Shariputra's eyes were suddenly filled with light, and the clouds of doubt that had gathered in his heart over the cosmos unraveled one after another.

He had already understood that the physical body was impermanent and could not endure forever. All worldly people, blinded by ignorance and devoid of wisdom, fell into the Twelve Dependent Originations and wandered through life and death. Human birth came from affection and attachment; from birth came old age, from old age came illness, from illness came death, and from death came grief and weeping, bringing boundless suffering.

Having learned that affection and attachment were the root of life and death, Shariputra contemplated his own body and the bodies of others. At all times, he reflected upon the foul fluids within the body—snot, spittle, cold and heat, stinking places... all manner of impurity—to guard against attachment to the decaying physical form. Once that form decayed, its flesh would be eaten by worms, its bones and joints scattered apart, until it became ash and dirt. That was what it meant to "die."

Thus, he pressed his palms together and recited, "When my body dies, it too shall become thus. I should not rely on my own good looks to adorn myself extravagantly, giving rise to arrogance. I