Qu Zan sat cross-legged on the wooden boards and closed his eyes.
He recalled the state he had entered while visualizing his Yidam image during that day's Dharma teaching.
When I taught the Dharma, everyone and I entered a wondrous state. The Yidam image I visualized in my mind actually changed.
When I gave all beings fearlessness, did they nourish me in return?
Qu Zan gained an entirely new understanding of teaching the Dharma as an act of giving.
It was like a teacher who improved himself while imparting virtuous knowledge to his disciples.
The Buddha delivered all beings, and all beings delivered the Buddha in turn!
Perhaps this was an opportunity. I could try using myself as the Yidam image and praying to myself. This was also one of the profound principles of attaining Buddhahood in this very body.
With a shift of his thoughts, Qu Zan entered the Bamboo Grove Vihara. It seemed that only this vihara could represent his image; the other things had no distinguishing features.
In Buddhism, every Yidam image needed distinguishing features. For example, the Peacock Wisdom King's image took the form of a bodhisattva with one head and four arms, riding a peacock, each arm holding a different offering. These formed his Yidam image.
Chakrasamvara, one of the great Yidams venerated in esoteric Buddhism, wore five human heads as a headdress and had four faces and twelve arms.
The five human heads represented the Five Dhyani Buddhas, the four faces represented the Four Activities of Pacifying, Enriching, Magnetizing, and Wrathful, and the twelve arms represented the twelve links of dependent origination. Each ritual artifact held in his hands also signified something. A Yidam image that represented me.
Qu Zan thought for a moment, then sat upright amid the bamboo with his left arm