Becoming A Monk In Tokyo

Chapter 34: Buddha Is Never Wrong

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation

Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Mr. Ikeda had to go to the police department to give his statement before he could come to the temple with his wife.

Headmaster Takai decided not to bother Baishi Shu anymore. Along with his wife and both his daughters, he went to the front of the Buddha statue and began chanting scripture under the guidance of the old abbot.

Originally, the Takai family was Shintoist.

However, after going through everything that had happened, every member of the Takai family became a devout Buddhist. It was the monk from Asakusa Kannon Temple that saved Mayuko Takai’s life, despite the fact that he failed to eliminate the evil spirit in the end. Then, three years later, it was Baishi Shu who freed her from the web of endless grief and got her family’s life back on track. The Takai family believed everything that had happened was part of Buddha’s plans and they were destined to become Buddhists.

Buddhism and Shintoism were the two most prominent religions in Japan. There were plenty of paranormal activities happening all the time on this island country, so the people were exceptionally pious and superstitious. An estimated 90% of the population in Japan was either Buddhist or Shintoist. It went without saying that other religions such as Catholicism and Protestantism existed as well. The only problem was that they were not as famous and they had much fewer followers when compared to Buddhism and Shintoism.

Rubbing his cheeks, Baishi Shu watched the Takai family from afar. The scene of them chanting the scripture wholeheartedly, with wisps of smoke slowly spiraling up into the air, calmed his mind. The excitement brought forth by the 50 million yen receded. He took a deep breath and heaved out a long sigh.

The reason he wanted to earn so much money was not for his own benefit, but because he wished to expand the temple. Be that as it may, he knew that money was a worldly possession and those buildings were just a bunch of hollow shells without monks and followers.

It was only when a temple had a steady stream of gratified patrons that it could prevail. Size did not matter at all. Even if it was a small temple, it would still be respected by people.

‘Any mountain can be famous with the presence of an immortal and any river can be holy as long as there is a dragon. Therefore, a small temple can also be a beacon in your life as long as there is a monk in the temple.’

The words he once told Asada Senna flitted across his mind. It seemed as if he was giving her a lecture, but in reality, he was expressing his ambition.

Needless to say, he would not refuse someone if they offered to pay him for his service. After all, it was not a bad thing to spruce up the temple a bit.

Besides, it would also do Mr. Ikeda some good. As a rich man, money was merely a series of digits to him. Although 50 million yen might not be a lot for him, it was still a token of his gratitude. Baishi Shu could utilize the money given to him by constructing a kyōzō. By doing that, not only would he have a proper place to store the stock of ancient scriptures, he would also help Mr. Ikeda accumulate merit. As for the evil spirit that did the unforgivable, Baishi Shu swore that he would deliver the punishment it deserved.

He also knew that the reason why Mr. Ikeda wanted to stay by his side when he was eliminating the killer of his son was because his heart was filled with hatred.

According to Buddha, hatred was one of the eight sufferings. It was a cyclical phenomenon that would go on forever and only by letting it go and treating it with compassion would the cycle end.

However, not everyone was a Saint or a Buddha. Anyone who used this sentence to console others to put down their hatred was insensible. As a man who made use of the knowledge in the new era to decipher the scripture, Baishi Shu was different. He knew that Buddha had also said that what goes around, comes around.

The evil spirit had killed his son, so it would only be right to purge the evil spirit right before the eyes of its victim. In doing so, not only would he quell the hatred in Mr. Ikeda’s heart and put him out of his misery, but he could also send the evil spirit to chant scripture beside Buddha and wash away its sins.

“Amitabha,” Baishi Shu nodded contentedly.

Adaptability was one of the most crucial skills modern men needed to learn. Those who refused to change would eventually be eliminated from the river of time.

Even though he’d decided to accept Mr. Ikeda’s request, there was one thing he needed to consider. As a normal human, Mr. Ikeda could not see spirits. Shrine priests had the clairvoyance talisman to solve this problem but what about monks?

To find out the answer, Baishi Shu went to the old abbot.

After hearing his question, the old abbot shook his head and said, “Paper talismans are used in Shinto. We monks are more inclined towards the use of mantras. I do know some mantras that can temporarily grant people the ability to see spirits, but that person must have spiritual power for the mantra to take effect.”

Baishi Shu had read about those mantras from the scripture before. The problem was that Mr. Ikeda did not possess any spiritual power.

‘Isn’t there any other way?’ He frowned.

He had considered borrowing several clairvoyance talismans from Asada Senna, but soon rejected the idea. After all, a monk borrowing paper talismans from a shrine maiden sounded wrong. Besides, it would set an unprofessional tone.

After spending a short while ruminating, an idea popped into his mind.

“Since I don’t have a paper talisman, I can just create one!”

At the end of the day, everything was fundamentally the same. Regardless of whether it was paper talismans or mantras, they were just different ways to draw out one’s spiritual power. As a neoteric, he should see them through a scientific viewpoint, not abandoning either of them just because they were from different religions.

Pulling out his phone, Baishi Shu began to search for the creation process and ingredients of paper talismans. His fingers danced nimbly over the screen, and very soon, a lot of results came up.

In this age of Big Data, many of the shrine’s tool making processes, and even the way to consecrate an object, were readily available online. However, without spiritual power, even if one tried to make something by following the creation process, the object that came out would not have any beneficial effect.

Fortunately, Baishi Shu had spiritual power. According to the making process, the main ingredient of a paper talisman was paper tag and cinnabar. He remembered the old abbot had those two ingredients stored somewhere in the temple.

After getting all the ingredients he needed, he picked up the ink brush and fell silent. Since this was his first attempt in making a clairvoyance talisman, he injected just 10 points of spiritual power.

The tip of his brush flew across the paper like a dragon soaring in the sky. After a few quick and fluent strokes, a clairvoyance talisman appeared before Baishi Shu’s eyes.

Unlike the usual illegible and scrawly handwriting, the calligraphy on the clairvoyance talisman was beautiful and had a unique style of its own.

The students in Japan were required to practice calligraphy and as a scholar-lord, Baishi Shu excelled at it. Although his skill was nowhere near the master level, he outstripped most of his peers at school.

Since this was his first time trying to recreate a clairvoyance talisman, he did not know if it would work. He did not know if his spiritual power could be used to activate a paper talisman from Shinto either. Be that as it may, now was not the time to dilly-dally. Mr. Ikeda would arrive at any moment.

With that thought in mind, Baishi Shu tried to activate and apply the effect of the clairvoyance talisman on himself by using the method Asada Senna taught him.

The next second, the world before his eyes changed. The effect was similar to his Divine Eye. He could clearly see the faint yin and yang energy in the air. Since he was in Reimei Temple and it was afternoon right now, the yang energy was stronger than the yin energy.

“Not bad,” Baishi Shu nodded.

Buddha was right. Everything was fundamentally the same and it was possible to create a paper talisman by using spiritual power even though he was a monk. Even so, Baishi Shu’s spiritual power was very strong, thus the effect of his clairvoyance talisman was better than Asada Senna’s.

If he had to make an analogy, using Asada Senna’s clairvoyance talisman was like seeing things with 8.0 diopters while using his was like seeing with 2.0 diopters. It was far clearer.

“This should work for the moment.”

Since the clairvoyance talisman far exceeded his expectation and Mr. Ikeda had almost arrived, Baishi Shu decided to settle with this measurement for the time being.

He also decided that he should work on the talisman technique during his free time. After all, there were other paper talismans that could be pretty versatile in all sorts of situations. He wanted to try combining the mantra and paper talisman and see what happened.

Buddha was compassionate and he was confident that the kami-sama was the same as well. So long as the approach could save people, he was certain that they would not mind something like this.