Legend of Gold Mountain Living Buddha 11 - Magic Game 活佛魔法遊戲

(Chinese and English subtitles) Written by Master Optimist , 金山活佛神異錄, 樂觀法師(1902~1987) 著
Subtitles:
Living Buddha is a very interesting person. He never has the air of a great monk nor a cold face, and he is very naive. Often when people are not paying attention, he will show off his abilities and perform a little bit of something that is close to a supernatural power game, like a magic trick, which makes people feel unfathomable after watching.
If you were serious about asking him to show his supernatural powers, he said again with a serious face: “What magical powers do I have? I only know how to eat and sleep, poop and pee, sleep when I'm full, and eat when I wake up. If people say I have supernatural powers, it means I will eat sweet and fragrant things and poop out stinky and dirty things, which is my magical ability."
People laughed and said, "Everyone has this kind of supernatural power." He also laughed and said, "If everyone has it, why should you watch mine." He often playfully responded this way.
I remember one day when we were living in Hu's house, we enjoyed the shade in the garden, and a bumblebee was flying in front of us. The Living Buddha, like a child, stretched out his finger and pointed at the flying bumblebee and said, “Disciple, you are too busy and work so hard, just rest here for a while."
I saw the bee truly fell on his finger, and the Living Buddha spoke "three refuges" to it and caressed his body with his fingers.
Strange enough! The bee was very tame, crawling on his fingers, and licked the Living Buddha's fingers with his mouth. He looked very intimate and flew away after a while.
Another time, the Living Buddha played an interesting trick. One day, Layman Wang invited the Living Buddha to his house for offerings. They held a birthday party for someone in the Wang family and invited many guests. Most of them are disciples of Living Buddhas, and the food is very delicious.
I and people of the Hu family were also invited to accompany. When the banquet began, the Living Buddha saw the dishes on the table and said with a smile: "It's rare for me to eat such good dishes. Today I must let go of my belly and eat a full meal." Everyone laughed on hearing that.
That day, he was very disciplined at the table. He didn't pinch his nose or spit. He didn't even speak but sat there holding the bowl, burying his head and eating.
His female disciples saw how delicious he was eating, so they kept serving him dishes and meals. After he ate a bowl, someone served him another bowl, you served a bowl, I served a bowl, everyone was rushing to serve him rice.
Some said, "You ate his rice, I am also your disciple, and you should also eat my rice."
The Living Buddha said with a smile: "Eat, eat, I will eat it, I will eat it when it is served, no matter who served."
On hearing that, everyone stirred up a disturbance and began to stack bowls of rice in front of the Living Buddha. They stacked rice bowls on top of the lower ones, like a pagoda of bowls.
Living Buddha lowered his head, only focused on eating without uttering a word. After a while, astonishingly, he ate that whole stack of rice.
At the end, Miss Wang served another big bowl of noodles, and he ate it up too.
Some people was insane and wanted to add more rice to the Living Buddha, but Layman Wang stopped him and said: "Living Buddha, you have eaten too much today and shouldn't eat anymore. If you eat and get any problem, we are guilty."
Living Buddha smiled and said, "If you say that I eat too much, I will not eat it anymore."
I counted it on the side. He ate a total of 18 bowls of rice plus a bowl of noodles. If we poured it out, it might fill a large basin.
When we returned after dinner, I asked him with a smile, "Living Buddha, why did you eat so much food today? Your belly does not look swollen. Where did the food go?"
He just looked at me with a smirk, and when he finished smirking, he replied, "Master is a person who learns to teach dharma and often say, it doesn't come or go, it doesn't increase or decrease. What does this mean?"
I said, "What do you mean by that?"
He said, "What do you mean by asking me to eat too much?"
On hearing his words, I laughed, and he laughed too. I think, this must be the magic trick of the Living Buddha. A person, no matter how big his food intake is, can never eat eighteen bowls of rice and one bowl of noodles, unless the figure in the novel has such a big belly.
After the Living Buddha arrived in Myanmar, he also revealed his skill and played several magical tricks. When he first arrived in Myanmar, he lived in a Chinese temple under the Shwedagon Pagoda - Longhua Temple. Myanmar has a hot climate. People living in Myanmar have to ‘take a cold shower’ every day.
One day, the Living Buddha was standing by the well in the monastery to 'take a cold shower'. He put his trousers on the well, and suddenly a gust of wind blew his pants down into the well.