"It's only enduring one beating. I also want to eat something." Little Tulku Duozha circled around the altar, and as he turned, Little Tulku Jianggong's mouth continued to salivate. Suddenly Jianggong walked straight up to the front of the altar, grabbed a torma made from tsampa flour and stuffed it in his mouth, saying, "It's really delicious, you should also eat one." If people take the lead, then often their followers will not be afraid of anything. Little Tulku Duozha grabbed two torma in one hand, broke them up into pieces and swallowed them down. The two of them gorged themselves until they were full, and then Little Tulku Duozha finally said, "Tomorrow Tulku Dapu will discover that there are fewer tributes on the altar, and we will have to bare our buttocks for a beating."
Little Tulku Jianggong grimaced and pointed to the protective statues, "As long as they don't tell anybody, then we won't be beaten."
"But, but, there aren't many tributes on the table!"
"Isn't there a wild cat that lives in the temple?"
"A cat?" Little Tulku Duozha wondered aloud.
"Tomorrow, we'll take the cat and put it in our room. We'll tell Tulku Dapu that it was the cat that ate the tributes at the altar."
Little Tulku Duozha said admiringly, "You really are Tulku Jianggong's reincarnation, you're too clever!"
From then onwards, the wild cat became a guest in the two spirit children's room. Every time Tulku Dapu came to their dormitory and looked with suspicion at the gradually lessening tributes on the altar, they would say, "The cat ate the tributes. He probably doesn't respect the Buddha much." It seemed as Tulku Dapu didn't suspect that the two spirit children were so greedy, and only twirled his prayer beads in his hands and said, "If they were eaten by the cat, then that's a call for men to add some more."
The period of studying the sutras was always monotonous, slow and boring. The education of the Ninth Tulku Dapu was severe and rigid and brooked no doubts. Every day they needed to recite the sutras, using a stick of incense to measure the length of the lesson. They would open the sutra book and the incense would be planted in the incense holder on the desk. When it had completely burned, Little Tulku Jianggong was then finally able to leave and play. The burning of the incense could be really slow. Sometimes the sun had already set in the mountains and the whistle of the children returning from the pastures was already echoing outside of the temple, sometimes the birds in the trees had returned to the nests and the wildflowers in the mountains had already opened, and still the stick of incense in front of little Tulku Jianggong would have a good length left.
Gradually, the incense in front of him started to burn a little faster and even Tulku Dapu was surprised. When the little Tulku was chanting sutras, he naturally didn't stay at his side for every moment, for there were always things for him to deal with. He knew clearly that when he left the child with an unfinished stick of incense, on his return would always discover that the incense had burned completely and that the Little Tulku had gone to play in some unknown place. But the column of ash proved that it had really burned out. He asked a young lama, Duoji, who waited outside for Little Tulku Jianggong. He confirmed that the Little Tulku only left the temple once the incense had reached the very last trail of smoke.
The Ninth Tulku Dapu thought: surely this little Tulku has not already mastered some magic that I do not know?
He eventually got an answer to this question. One day, the Ninth Tulku Dapu brought Little Tulku Jianggong The Heart Sutra to recite. First the older Tulku would read a sentence and then the young Tulku would follow with one. Eventually he let the Little Tulku recite by himself, saying, "Chant it 30 times and then you will be able to recite it by heart." After that Tulku Dapu turned sideways, twirled the prayer beads in his hands and began to recite his verses. In the intermittent times between chanting, Tulku Dapu suddenly heard a "huuuuu, huuuuuu" sound. The old Buddha turned around and saw that the clever little boy was pursing his mouth and swelling his cheeks to blow on the incense!
"Ahhh." The old Tulku groaned in a dignified way.
Little Tulku Jianggong stopped pursing his mouth and swelling his cheeks, and looked blankly at the Tulku who was looking down on him. The slap released another "hu" sound. It's not known how hard the Tulku slapped him, or exactly how angry he was, but the blow still opened a hole in his cheek! This was because he was still holding the prayer beads in his hand. In the evening, Tulku Dapu went to Little Tulku Jianggong's room. The injury on his face had already been bandaged up, but the marks of his tears were still clearly visible on his face. Tulku Dapu brought over the Tibetan medicine that he had personally prepared and changed Little Tulku Jianggong's dressings. Then he asked, "Does it still hurt?"
"It hurts. But the Tulku was good to me. Knowledge should be sought in one's youth and the fields should be harvested in the autumn." This was what Khenpo Pinsong had taught him when he had visited him that afternoon and now he repeated the phrase verbatim.
"No, you should always remember this slap in the face. For people who abide with goodness, you only need to give them one lesson and that's enough. For horses who can run, you only need to whip them once and that's fine. You are a reincarnated spirit child and from a young age you need to study to become an honest man. When you later become a tulku, if you are not honest, then how will you give compassion to the people?"
"Tulku, I was wrong." Little Tulku Jianggong stood up and knelt in front of Tulku Dapu.
"All things in this world are related in cause and effect. A good cause has good effects and an evil cause leads to evil effects. My duty is to plant the seeds of goodness in your heart, and that's it." Tulku Dapu said. His eyes suddenly fell on the altar, "Is that wild cat still stealing the tribute offerings?"
