"The third option is secluded retreat.
"You could stay within Corpse Camel Temple, or find a famous mountain or great river elsewhere, and enter a long retreat to seek verification of your attainments in cultivation.
"The fourth option is itinerant Dharma propagation.
"Travel throughout the surrounding regions, expound the scriptures wherever you go, and take in disciples far and wide. You would not necessarily remain tied to a single monastery. Geshe Gyatso, which would you like to choose-"
The third and fourth options-Qu Zan ruled those out first.
The second option, going to a manor to receive patronage, was indeed a comfortable path. But the initiative still lay in the hands of the nobles and wealthy merchants. They called it patronage, but in reality, he would still be working for someone else.
Still, given his status as a Geshe, they would never dare treat him rudely. Earning some gold and silver in his spare time would be good, though.
The first option, becoming a monastic official?
He could now apply to the temple to become a chant leader or scripture master, or take an outside appointment as the monastery abbot of a small temple.
But although Qu Zan was a Whole-Monastery Geshe, he stood only at the fifth rank in the hierarchy of knowledge monks. There were knowledge monks of higher ranks above him.
The higher the degree he obtained, the higher his eventual rank as a monastic official would naturally be.
"Gyatso, which path will you choose?" Guocuo asked with a smile.
In fact, becoming a Geshe was already the finish line that most scholar monks struggled toward.
Most knowledge monks spent their entire lives studying scriptures just to obtain some official post and enjoy themselves thereafter.
Guocuo had earned the degree of Whole-Courtyard Geshe, which was the sixth