Scions of Heaven - Calamity

Chapter 24 - Gungun

Fushen had concluded that Dong Hua's mind had reached the single-minded state within the nine mental abidings. At the next equanimity stage, he would have transcended into an entirely different existence, there has only been the Buddha of the Western Heavens who has attained this level of enlightenment. - pillowbook 1, page 98

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Heavenly Realm, Jiuchongtian, Taichen Palace - Late Morning
Day 3 since Fengjius death
Gungun —-------------------------------

Light pink curtains and all the other miscellaneous additions his father had made to the study for his mothers liking were unchanged. Everything was as he'd remembered it, he hadn't been here in five days, since before he'd said goodbye to his mother for the last time in Qing Qiu's fox den.

It was a relief, but it also made him slightly sad, for a reason he couldn't pinpoint. There was nothing to indicate that anything was different from three days ago, as if his mother wasn't dead, and his father wasn't in a state of emotional stasis.

Ten thousand years ago, when Gungun had been eight years old he'd taken every exam given to children, adults and officials, both in Jiuchongtian and Qing Qiu and passed them all. The teachers in Qing Qiu and Jiuchgontian could find nothing more to teach him, that was when his father had offered to teach him. Ever since then this study was where he had spent the most of his waking moments and absorbed his fathers teachings.

Gungun's father, who was Dong Hua Dijun, last of the primordial beings still in existence, of all beings the greatest, in power, in understanding and wisdom, and of enlightened beings, only Buddha had attained greater insight.

It wasn't surprising then, that his father's manner of teaching was nothing like the teachers within the Hall of Learning, the Daoist Master Cihang, or Bodhisattva Guanyin all of whom had been his teachers before. These teachers' methods were that of a teacher standing or sitting in front of a class or student, lecturing on one subject or another, imparting information, but not true understanding.

His father's methods were very different; they were of questions and answers, assertions and rebuttals of discussion and debate. Knowledge gathered and understanding built, only to be broken, thoughts destroyed, but then his father would help him build that tower anew, stronger, brighter and more beautiful, fractals and facets unveiled, imperfect but glorious in their imperfection.

Numbers and logic, of matter and reality, the laws by which reality moved, gravity, the speed of light. Debated the constituent parts of physical beings, flesh and spirit, and the result of that union, the body and soul, but which they existed in the world.

Every day of the past ten thousand years Gungun had woken and looked forward to entering the study, each day was endless in the possibility of knowledge, understanding and insight into every possible aspect of nature, magic; anything within the universe was open to be discussed.

Gungun would enter and his excitement and wonder would have him thinking, 'will my previous understanding of a subject or theory be torn apart, and discarded? or have its flaws chipped away to reveal a sharper insight?'

More often than not a question from his father would unravel and upend his understanding, and leave him once more a novice where he'd thought himself a master, but wasnt that also wonderful?

In the very beginning, Gungun would answer a question posed, utterly certain and with unshakable confidence.

"How do you know?" his father would ask, and in the beginning Gungun would reply; "I read it in a book." or "My teacher told me." and Dong Hua would continue, "And is that true?", "I do not think my Teachers would lie." "Knowledge filtered through the lens of others' minds is tainted by their understanding, this is bias. They do not lie to you, they offer you what they perceive to be true, but nonetheless, it is only their truth, not yours. Examine all knowledge yourself, not through another's lens, and build your own truth unhindered by the thoughts of other minds."