This passage tells the story of Mr. Tang Da Yuan, a professor at the Buddhist University who was deeply learned in the Idealist School. When his son died young, Mr. Tang refused to bury him and instead arranged the corpse in the hall of the university. He told his friends and students that they should not think that his son was dead, but that he was alive because everything is interdependent consciousness.
Here are some questions and answers about the passage:
- What is the Idealism School?
- What happened to Mr. Tang’s son?
- Why did Mr. Tang refuse to bury his son?
- What is the warning that the author gives to scholars?
Here are the answers to the questions:
- The Idealism School is a school of thought that holds that reality is ultimately mental or spiritual in nature.
- Mr. Tang’s son died young.
- Mr. Tang refused to bury his son because he believed that everything is interdependent consciousness, and that therefore his son was still alive in some sense.
- The author warns scholars not to become slaves to words, but to practice meditation and other spiritual exercises in order to gain a deeper understanding of reality.