Read Online Stick Out Your Tongue by Ma Jian - Free Book Online

they had been able to read the master’s thoughts. The master asked Sangsang Tashi what she had seen. She was the youngest student in the class, and the only Living Buddha. She immediately entered into a meditative state, but since she had studied yoga for only six years, her inner eye was still clouded. She chanted a mantra to calm her inner deity and regulate her heart channel, but could not visualise the four drops of her subtle body. She felt a sudden burning sensation in her toes. Gradually, the heat became a ball of fire that rose from her legs to her inner eye. She recited the Om Svabhava Mantra to purify her body and steady her consciousness, and slowly saw the image of a frozen river take shape inside her master’s mind. Just as her meditation was about to transport her to the Realm of Light, she saw herself standing naked in this river of ice. She swiftly retreated from her trance and told the master what she had seen.
    The master said, ‘The image you saw in my mind is the image that I saw in yours. The eye that sees the future is not the same as the inner eye.’ The master picked up his knife again and rammed it into the corpse’s skull.

    Sangsang Tashi was confused. The master hadn’t explained why she had been standing in the ice river. Was that my future? she wondered. The sight of her naked body surprised her. She looked like a dakini, the sky-walking goddesses depicted on the religious paintings she stared at every day. At that moment, the master prised out a small piece of cartilage from below the pituitary gland and said, ‘This is the eye of the future. After years of practice, you will be able to use this eye to see the illnesses and evil spirits that hide inside people’s bodies. A few minutes ago I saw Sangsang Tashi in the frozen river. This is one of the six sufferings and three austerities she is destined to endure two days from now. But listen to me, Sangsang Tashi – your yogic skills are sufficient for you to keep yourself alive for three days in the ice river without coming to harm.’
    Sangsang Tashi felt anxious. The frozen river was far away; she had only ever seen it from the top of a mountain. Although she could sit in the snow for a few days without feeling the cold, she had no idea how it would feel to stand in a frozen river. She thought of the heat she’d felt in her toes a few minutes ago. It hadn’t emanated from her own body. She glanced around her and saw a halo of light hovering above Geleg Paljor’s head. She smiled at
him. She knew that Geleg’s yoga had already surpassed the master’s, but that he had chosen not to reveal this to anyone.
    The master lifted the piece of cartilage from the corpse and said, ‘This man was ignorant and foolish. He led a muddled, confused life. That’s why the cartilage is yellow. If you achieve enlightenment through meditation, your cartilage will become transparent. The Chan, Orthodox and Tantric Buddhist practices all depend on the use of this eye. It alone allows you to see into the Buddha Realm, clarify your vision and discern the pure essence of all things.’
    The master dug out the corpse’s eye with his knife and pierced it. Observing the turbid liquid that flowed out, he said, ‘The ordinary man sees things through this eye. Because the nature of this eye is clouded, the ordinary man is corrupted by the five poisons and is unable to reach enlightenment.’ Sangsang Tashi gazed at the half-dismembered corpse. He was a middle-aged man, with large, white teeth. A swarm of flies hovered above his exposed innards.
    Â 
    In the afternoon, Sangsang Tashi sat alone in her room, meditating. She had just visited her sick mother. Over the past months, Sangsang Tashi had tried to cure her mother’s illness with the knowledge she had
gained at the medical college, but nothing she’d done had worked. A few weeks ago, she had transferred some of the evil spirits of