Buddha-nature

Amitabha!

A Buddhist invocation rang out by his ear. He Ping slowly turned his head and, strangely enough, saw someone dressed in monk's robes.

No, strictly speaking, it was not a person either. This so-called person was indeed dressed like a monk, except its head was not a human head—it had been forcibly fitted with a donkey's head.

It was a monk with a donkey's head. With its palms pressed together, it softly recited a Buddhist invocation as it descended the stone steps by the mountain gate, one step at a time.

"This is a puppet too?"

He Ping was equally astonished. He had to admit that this donkey-headed monk puppet had been crafted with extraordinary delicacy. Its gestures and movements were no different from those of a living person. Especially that lifelike donkey head—it must have been taken from a living donkey, then altered through some exceedingly ingenious method until even the subtle expressions that appeared on a person's face while speaking could be perfectly imitated.

"Are you a monk here?"

He Ping asked.

"Yes. This humble monk is indeed a monk of this Jialan Ancient Temple."

The donkey-headed monk pressed its palms together and said blandly, "This Jialan Temple was founded by the Jialan Great Sage, a direct disciple of the Buddha. It has stood for several thousand years—even earlier than the founding of Stone Zen Temple in Great You. Within the Buddhist sect, this temple is renowned for its 'Ten Antiquities.'"

"The first antiquity: the oldest ancient temple in the Southern Frontier; the second: the first reliquary pagoda among all temples in the Southern Frontier; the third: the oldest burial place of the Jialan Great Sage; the fourth: the earliest Sanskrit Buddhist scripture to enter these lands, the Palm-Leaf Sutra, is also housed in this temple; the