On calm sea days, the new sunlight from the blue sky shimmers as if you can touch it. Xiu feels her soul floating, her heart filled with boundless longing. Xiu feels sorry for people, for life; many times emotions rise up and vibrate intensely, wanting to say something but not knowing what to say. Xiu stretches her arms out in the silent sky and earth, dancing and whirling in a nameless dance. At times like that, she seems to forget the concept of impermanence, no longer feels suffering and of course no longer sees any gains or losses in this life. Xiu wants to immediately transform into the white clouds of the blue sky, looking at the clouds drifting leisurely and suddenly the feeling of “nothing to worry about” from the Heart Sutra appears.

Actually, Xiu is right in that white cloud. Xiu lies in the deep blue of the sky. Xiu is present in the wind, there is no place where Xiu is not, except for distant planets where astronauts and scientists have not found any signs of life.

Xíu flies through the human world. Xiu follows the breath in and out, penetrating every cell of the human body as well as all other species. Xiu hears all the most secret thoughts in the human soul. One thing is that good thoughts are few and weak, while bad thoughts are numerous and very strong. Most people think about lust, are restless because of lust, and suffer because of lust. It is difficult for people to satisfy their lustful desires, so they suffer, desires are abundant, what they need is not there, what they do not need is always around them; young and old, big and small, male and female, Western and Eastern... it is all the same!

One day, Xiu flew over an old land located on the East Sea coast, where the Red River and the Mekong River flow through. This land has been associated with Buddhism for thousands of years, where Buddhism was transmitted before China, with all the schools of sects and sects. Buddhism here, like many other places in the world, has times of prosperity and decline, times of light and darkness, and has experienced periods of cruel and painful persecution. Currently, on the surface, Buddhism in that land seems prosperous, but in reality, it is just a colorful facade. Buddhism in that land is in crisis, political forces are manipulating and corrupting it. Secular politics has planted many fake monks, attracting those who break the precepts and corrupt the Dharma... to punish them. Many monks are attached to fame and wealth, taking personal power, participating in politics, supporting the government, using religion to gain a living, speaking nonsense and doing wrong things on the platform every day, preaching wrongly... this has caused serious consequences. Beginner Buddhists have lost their Bodhi mind. The gullible masses turned their backs on Buddhism. People became confused and doubtful of Buddhism. Social networks and people in the world had a stream of wild, chaotic, slanderous and insulting public opinion, ignorantly attacking Buddhism. In that situation, suddenly appeared a young monk, bareheaded and barefoot, wearing a robe of rags, carrying an alms bowl, eating one meal a day, sleeping under a tree at night. He completely abandoned everything from material to spiritual, completely abandoned his body and mind. He was humble and humble towards everyone, even always smiling and blessing those who attacked, insulted, and beat him. The phenomenon of the young monk practicing asceticism breathed a new wind into the atmosphere of formalism, stagnation and scandal of Buddhism in this country. Of course, the monks who were famous for their wealth and fame immediately became angry and jealous, so they did not hesitate to attack and insult that ascetic monk.

Xíu flew over the old land of the past and saw many stories that made people laugh and cry. The weather and fate were like that, there was nothing else to do, but to be sad with the results that had already come. After visiting all the pagodas, temples and meeting monks and hearing unhappy stories...Xíu felt heavy-hearted but decided to let go because he knew that keeping it in his heart would not help anything, it would only make his body and mind more tired. What happened was still there, what cause has its effect, this effect is due to that cause and fate. Having decided to let go, his empty mind and heart, without love, also drifted with the wind and clouds. Xíu and his brothers traveled all over this country, Mother Nature is truly miraculous, giving people so many privileges, not only life but also so many things to nourish that life; Not only in terms of material things for the body, but also in terms of beauty to nourish the soul: majestic mountains and forests, charming mountains and rivers, morning dew and afternoon dew, green trees and leaves, fragrant colors... Xiu is fond of beauty, wherever is beautiful, he will go. North - South - Central, everywhere is beautiful, each place has its own nuances. This country is also a combination of fate, in the beginning it was just a midland region of the North, then down to the plains, then the southern expansion to open up the territory: Chau Hoan, Chau Ai, Ma Linh, Bo Chinh, Dong Duong, Do Ban... finally reaching Ca Mau cape. This country is a combination of fate of Dai Viet, Chenla, Phu Nam, Champa... The history of this land has gone through many sorrows, much blood and tears, continuous ups and downs. The invasions of the Chinese caused much mourning and devastation. When blaming others, we should also look back at ourselves, consider the truth correctly even if the truth is painful, it is better to acknowledge the truth to learn a lesson than to cover it up and then continue to suffer in confusion. Dai Viet also caused great suffering to the Champa people, it is true that the two sides fought back and forth, but we destroyed an entire country, an entire nation, even though our ancestors were heroic, we had to admit our evil. King Ly Thanh Tong, famous for his kindness, once brought his army to Do Ban, in one morning the soldiers beheaded 30,000 people. In 1471, King Le Thanh Tong brought his army to Do Ban, Dai Viet beheaded 60,000 people and leveled the city. The truth cannot be covered up or denied. Our Dai Viet army was also bloodthirsty and cruel. Champa King Tra Toan asked for surrender and forgiveness many times, but Dai Viet was still determined to destroy the country. During the reign of King Minh Mang, the determination to destroy Champa was even more brutal, a series of villages disappeared, many residents were killed... and Champa was completely erased. Perhaps because of the karma of killing, the people of this land continued to suffer many wars and mourning that lasted until modern times. Horrific civil wars killed millions of people and then suffered the rule of family regimes, totalitarian dictatorships... the suffering continued forever, sometimes erupting, sometimes smoldering. Xiu remembers that once the fourth patriarch Thich Huyen Quang called on the authorities to open their hearts, minds, and minds to wish life to the living, peace to the dead, and peace to the people of the country... but it seemed that the blind and confused souls, the frozen heads, the iron will of blood and fire could not accept his earnest, sincere and wise call. Xiu dreamed that one day the people and the country of this land would have such a day, a day to wish life, peace and peace to the entire nation.

The wars are extremely tragic, the wars of the past and present, in the East and the West, have all left behind countless sufferings and pains. People fight for land, for fame, for material things, for religious beliefs, for ideology, for delusional schemes... there are so many reasons, whether reasonable or unreasonable, to fight. Meanwhile, there are so many practical and necessary reasons to love each other, sympathize with each other, share with each other, but people do not listen, do not act. The reasons for people to fight are so ignorant, if only people understood that this world is a combination of causes and conditions and will eventually disintegrate because of causes and conditions, once it is formed, it will disintegrate. The human body is also a combination of the four elements and the consciousness element, and it will disintegrate when the causes and conditions end. Even this body is not me, not mine, not my self, so how can my land, boundaries, wealth, fame be? Yet people rush to kill each other, chase each other, and exterminate each other. The history of mankind from the ancient times until now is a history of battles, still being fought now and will surely continue to be fought in the future.

Xíu and his brothers stopped to wander on Thi Nai lagoon, freely kayaking, swimming, watching birds... the landscape of this lagoon is exactly like the West, the scenery is so romantic and peaceful. Yet the world does not know that this place has been the site of terrifying naval battles in history, naval battles between Dai Viet and Champa, between Tay Son and Nguyen Anh. Struggling in the cool, clear water, Xiu imagined blood and fire filling the surface of the lagoon, the sound of battle cries, the rumbling of cannons, the chaotic slashing of swords, smoke and fire rising to the sky... Suddenly, Xiu heard Tron's voice ask in a teasing tone:

- This body of the four elements is not me, is not me, is not my self. Buddhism also says there is no such thing as a soul, so when the body stops breathing, who will be reborn? Who will attain the four holy fruits? Who will fall into the three evil paths and six paths?

Xiu and the group stopped swimming, completely stunned, having never known this before, so no one could answer. Giot Dieu coquettishly said:

- Oh my, what a difficult question, who can answer?

Giot Ca is the oldest brother, has a lot of years of experience, has traveled a lot, has heard a lot... but is also cautious:

- This is a big problem in Buddhism, it is not easy to answer, it requires a high and deep level of thinking to ask this question. It is difficult to use language to explain, many teachers and students have always secretly understood, secretly passed on the seal of enlightenment but could not explain. This question can be seen as a koan.

After Giot Ca finished speaking, Xiu continued cautiously:

- The human body is inherently a combination of the four elements, the space element and the consciousness element. It is not an independent entity, this world does not have anything that can be called an independently existing self. However, since time immemorial, humans have been attached to the self, because of this self there is suffering - happiness, paradise - hell, up - down... and also because of that there is birth and death, there is death and rebirth. Once the ego is completely destroyed, then there is no happiness or suffering, up or down, hell or paradise... just look at the Bodhisattvas, they have completely destroyed ego and dharma attachments, there is no longer the "I" so there is no self, right or wrong, sentient beings and life, so a leaf is also the world and the world is also a leaf and of course there is no birth and death cycle, the world is one, so where is paradise or hell? Xiu only speaks what he knows even though it is inherently immature and ignorant, not knowing whether it is right or wrong. Xiu needs to consult more with monks and good friends to understand more about this issue.

Xiu finished speaking but everyone was silent, no one said anything, it seemed like there was nothing to say, because this issue is not an easy one to talk about. A moment later, Út spoke softly:

- It's too confusing, Út doesn't think it's necessary to know this, what about life and death, what about the self and non-self, and then rise and fall... I'm so tired, Út is going to jump on the waves!

The whole group immediately responded to Út's words and happily jumped into the waves that had just rolled to the shore.

At Lang city, 0924