Chapter 47: We Are Not The Same - 47
"Hello, my name is Zhou Fan." Zhou Fan said while holding out his hand.
"Hello Zhou Fan, my name is Siddhartha Gautama. It is nice to meet you." The man said with a smile on his face.
He then shook Zhou Fan's hand.
Zhou Fan sat down in front of Siddhartha and started to talk.
"What exactly are you doing?" he asked.
"I am practicing the dharma." He answered.
"The dharma? What is that?" Zhou Fan inquired. He had never heard such a term before.
"It's normal that you haven't heard it. As I traveled the empire, I came across an interesting group of people. They practiced what was called the dharma. It is the cosmic law of the world and teaches many things about life." Siddhartha responded.
When Zhou Fan first heard Siddhartha describe what he called the dharma, he thought that it was their name for the Dao.
However, after some discussion, he realized that it was only a part of the dao, and not the dao itself. The Dao encompasses a much larger idea.
"Can you tell me your story?" Zhou Fan asked.
The man in front of him was really unique. He had never met another man such as him in all his travels.
"It started when I snuck out of the palace. I had always been entrapped, or protected, from the outside world. I didn't even know what death was. Only after sneaking out did I see it. After that, I told my parents my findings, and after I learned that they knew of such a thing all along, I demanded to leave. Although they didn't like the idea, they realized they couldn't stop me for long. Since then, I have been understanding the world, the dharma, and even life and death." He told.
"You seem as if you have suffered a lot." Siddhartha said. "Would you like to learn with me, and all the people here?" He asked.
"I would." Zhou Fan responded.
Just like that, Zhou Fan started to follow the man and learn with him.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, 5 years passed.
By now, Siddhartha's philosophy was much more refined. He had also become clearer and clearer on the output of life.
After so long, many people had come and gone. However, a few stayed the whole way. After a while, they became known as his five disciples.
One of those disciples was Zhou Fan. When he first met Siddhartha, he felt that they were equals, and would have never thought that he would become his disciple.
However, as time passed, Zhou Fan realized that the man that sat before him was much much greater than anyone else he had ever met.
In fact, Zhou Fan almost felt a sense of inferiority. But before Siddhartha's teachings, Zhou Fan got rid of such feelings.
In another blink of an eye, 12 years passed.
Today, Zhou Fan turned 30. To him, it truly felt like the blink of an eye.
However, something much more important was happening today. At this moment, Siddhartha was becoming perfect.
In his own words, he was achieving nirvana. Freedom from the cycle of rebirth. Only 5 people sat around him. Namely, his five disciples. The rest had left or died along the way.
All of a sudden, Siddhartha stood up.
As he walked towards Zhou Fan and the other disciples, he uttered a few words that not a single one, including Zhou Fan, would ever forget.
"I am the arahant in the world, I am the supreme, I alone am a perfectly enlightened one, whose fires are quenched and extinguished, I go now, to the empire of mortaniel, to set in motion the wheel of the dharma. In a world that has become blind, I go to beat the drum of the deathless."
As Zhou Fan heard these words, his comprehension of the Dao shot forward farther than ever before, doubling.
If he was previously at the 1/4th point, he was now halfway to the end.
Along with the other disciples, Zhou Fan bowed to Siddhartha. They couldn't help it. Although he wasn't a cultivator, the aura spilling out of him filled them with indescribable reverence.
Zhou Fan and the other disciples soon stood up and followed behind him. In the next few years Siddhartha would teach hundreds of thousands of people the way of nirvana, gaining countless followers and countless fame.
However, he never searched for fame or hoped for followers. Instead, he followed his duty, to teach the people of the world how to end the endless cycle of rebirth, and end suffering.
He eventually gained the name 'Buddha' and marked his place in history.
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In an empty field outside of the entrance to the capital of the kingdom of Gautama, Zhou Fan sat alone.
No one would know, but the tree he sat under was the first tree he met Siddhartha under.
By now another 40 years had passed, and Siddhartha had passed away. Zhou Fan felt indescribable sadness under the tree. He felt a loneliness that couldn't be described with words.
Every single one of the Buddha's disciples, and some of his followers, achieved nirvana. However, Zhou Fan was the exception.
A couple years ago, he made it to the end of the Dao. Or at least, one step before the end.
This step, no matter how understanding Zhou Fan was, was unsteppable.
As the buddha died of old age, he took one last look at Zhou Fan, who hadn't aged a day since they first met, and mouthed one last sentence.
"We are not the same."
When Zhou Fan heard this, an extreme feeling filled his heart. He couldn't understand it at all, but it felt like he held the key, but was missing the lock.
As Zhou Fan sat under the tree, he repeated the words Siddhartha had mouthed just a month ago. It echoed back and forth in his brain for hours and hours and hours.
Days passed and seasons changed as Zhou Fan's mind was filled to the brim with the same sentence.
"We are not the same."
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