The room remained quiet for a long time.
Outside the window, the water surged soundlessly.
Xuanzang picked up the Prayer Beads again and looked down at them, his voice softening as though he were talking to himself:
"But why should the Buddhist Dharma make distinctions?"
"And why should Buddha-Nature make distinctions?"
He raised his head, his gaze moving slowly across his disciples' faces:
"All manifestations arise from seeds; all seeds are perfumed by manifestations."
Xuanzang got out of bed, walked to the table, and picked up the cup of leftover tea that had long since gone cold.
"When this tea was brought in just now, it was hot. Where did that heat come from?"
"From fire. Fire is the seed, and heat is the manifestation. Without fire, there is no heat."
"Without seeds, there are no manifestations."
He gently set the teacup down again.
"But where did the fire come from?"
Xuanzang looked at them all, his gaze blazing.
"From heat."
"The manifestation perfumes in return, becoming a seed once more."
"Every movement a person makes, every thought, every action, is a manifestation born from the countless 'seeds' within the alaya consciousness."
"And these thoughts and actions, in turn, perfume the alaya consciousness. They become new seeds, or continually strengthen the old ones."
At this, Sha Wujing slapped his thigh, a look of sudden understanding appearing on his honest face:
"Master, I get it!"
"It's just like farming! Plant melons, get melons; plant beans, get beans. You plant melons, harvest them, save their seeds, then plant them again next spring. The more you plant, the more you get!"
Xuanzang smiled and nodded. "Exactly."
He walked slowly back to the bed.
"Inherent seeds are the cause; newly perfumed seeds are the conditions."
"If newly perfumed conditions arise, it must be because