The Buddha's Dharma Is Unparalleled
Chapter 615: Unparalleled Buddhist Dharma
In Licheng, Qin Mu came to the Buddhist temple in Licheng early in the morning, knocked on the door, handed in a visiting card, and said, "I'm here to see Master Ma."
The monk who received him hurried back to report.
The reason why Qin Mu said he came to see Ma Ye instead of Ma Rulai was because Ma Rulai was the leader of Buddhism and needed to stay in the Great Leiyin Temple to preach Buddhism, while Ma Ye was his relative.
One is identity, the other is family affection.
To see Ma Rulai, one must act as the Emperor of Man and the Celestial Saint. To see Ma Ye, one must act as the child raised by Ma Ye.
After a while, the monk came forward and said, "Master Ma wants to see you."
Qin Mu smiled and followed him into the temple. This temple was a place allocated to the Great Leiyin Temple by the gods and demons of Taihuangtian. The monks of the Great Leiyin Temple built a temple here and practiced daily.
Qin Mu looked up and could see the hazy Twenty Heavens hanging in the sky above the temple. There were also many monks chanting scriptures below the Twenty Heavens. The sounds of chanting collided in the air and turned into rays of Buddha's light that poured into the Twenty Heavens.
The Twenty Heavens are the Buddhist heavens. The Twenty Heavens floating above the temple are projections of the real heavens, not real.
Qin Mu withdrew his gaze, and then he saw a simple old man who had taken off Tathagata's robe and was looking at him with a smile.
Lord Ma.
Qin Mu became excited. Ever since Master Ma became Ma Rulai of the Great Leiyin Temple, they had seen each other less and less. Now that Ma Rulai had taken off his robes, he was meeting him as a relative. How could he not be excited?
But this is the Great Leiyin Temple after all, and there are monks everywhere. He has to suppress the surging affection in his heart and not bring trouble to Master Ma or cause him mental distress.
"Master Ma, didn't you already contact the Twenty Heavens a long time ago?"
Qin Mu calmed down and asked curiously, "Why do we need to keep in touch with the twenty heavens? Don't the Buddhas in the Buddhist world teach us higher-level skills and methods?"
"It has been spread. But not much."
Master Ma led him to the monks who were chanting sutras and communicating with the Buddhist world. He saw that the temple was quite spacious, with nearly a thousand monks sitting cross-legged, some sitting on the ground, some sitting in the air, and some sitting on the pagoda. He said, "The Buddhist world wants us to concentrate on cultivating Buddha and not get involved in the disputes of the secular world. They don't want to care about worldly affairs, and there seem to be many taboos. And my intention is to ask them to teach the profound Dharma. Buddha has the heart to save the world, how can he watch the secular people fall into suffering and not save them?"
Qin Mu looked around and saw hundreds of monks, both men and women, humans and demons, all chanting the Buddha's name, making the twenty Buddhas in the heavens restless.
This kind of beating is more like a method of harassment. Chanting the name of Buddha will make the Buddha hear it. The monks of the Great Leiyin Temple are chanting the names of the Buddhas.
"Originally, there were several Buddhas who passed down the Dharma, but later on, no one passed it down anymore and it was kept secret. I wanted to ask them to come down to the world, but they were unwilling to help."
Master Ma shook his head and said, "I think they are not afraid of being involved in the mundane world, but they are afraid of some terrible existence. Although they have a high realm and advanced skills, their state of mind has fallen behind. A few days ago, the Buddhas in the Buddhist world were disturbed by them, so they proposed to compete with the Buddhist teachings among the disciples."
"A competition of Dharma?"
Qin Mu suddenly became interested and asked with a smile, "How do we compare?"
"It is to select the Buddha's disciples and compare their attainments in Buddhism. This kind of comparison is a distance comparison. The one I sent out is Zhan Kong."
Master Ma raised his hand and pointed, saying, "Zhan Kong is there, and he has already defeated several Buddhist disciples of the Twenty Heavens."
Qin Mu looked up and saw the demon ape Zhan Kong sitting on a tower. The tower seemed to be as high as the twenty gods. Opposite him, sat a Buddhist disciple riding a precious elephant. The precious elephant was adorned with garlands and was extremely gorgeous.
Behind the precious elephant is a magnificent temple complex. Behind the heads of the tall Buddhas are halos spinning and their appearances are solemn.
The debate between the two was quite intense. The Buddhist disciple from the Twenty Heavens spoke eloquently and incessantly, and he spoke for half an hour without stopping. His voice was sometimes high-pitched and passionate, and sometimes low, but people could not help but listen carefully.
This eloquent speech is so long and irrefutable.
After the Buddhist disciple finished speaking, he finally stopped talking, looked at the demon ape with a smile on his face.
The demon ape stretched out its hairy palm, five thick black fingers, and said word by word in an obscure voice: "Extreme."
The Buddhist disciple didn't understand what he wanted to say, and thought hard. After a while, the demon ape said again: "Empty."
The Buddhist frowned, and immediately his imagination ran wild. The demon ape said again: "Yes."
The Buddhist disciple's body trembled slightly, and he said in a lost voice: "If it is empty, why is there still something?"
The demon ape turned a deaf ear and said, "Silence."
The Buddhist disciple was furious and shouted, "If it exists, why can it be still? Your words are not in line with Buddhism!"
The demon ape said: "Wei."
The Buddhist disciple was furious and was about to refute the whole thing, but suddenly his body shook violently and he froze on Baoxiang's back, dumbfounded and speechless.
Behind him, a big Buddha sighed, "There is stillness in the extreme emptiness. It is so profound and wonderful. The words are like pearls. Each word is a great treatise on the Mahayana Buddhism. The five words together are extremely profound. Kong Xiang, you have been talking for half an hour and have said a lot of long speeches, but unfortunately it is not as good as any of his five words. You lose, go down."
The Buddhist disciple Kongxiang stood up from the precious elephant, saluted to the demon ape, and slowly retreated.
Qin Mu was shocked and horrified, and asked Master Ma: "Master Ma, does the big guy really have wisdom?"
Master Ma said solemnly: "You have great wisdom! Even better than me, and higher than Mingxin!"
At this time, another Buddha's son came from the Twenty Heavens, coming from the upper level of heavens, followed by several Buddhas with huge flesh bodies. As soon as he sat down, this Buddha's son began to emit bright light all over his body. The light was dazzling, shining down from the Twenty Heavens and illuminating everyone in the temple.
The Buddha's light shone everywhere, shocking all the monks in the temple: "This Buddhist disciple has such a profound Buddhist practice!"
The demon ape raised his hand and blocked the Buddha's light with his big hand, and the shadow of his hand was cast on his face.
The Buddhist disciple who had just sat down was about to speak to argue when he saw this. He was shocked and suddenly felt a sweetness in his throat. He spat out a mouthful of blood and said in a lost voice, "Your attainments in Buddhism are so high? You've already defeated me before I could even say anything!" After that, he fell on his back, gasping for breath.
Behind him, the big Buddhas rushed to rescue him and finally saved him. One Buddha praised: "The content of the Dharma debate that Puzhao wanted to discuss this time was "What is Ming". I never thought that this little Buddha would directly solve his question. He is really a great debater! I admire you, I admire you!"
Qin Mu was dumbfounded. He with difficulty turned his gaze away from the demon ape and looked at Master Ma in confusion.
He no longer understood this kind of argument.
Master Ma explained: "Pu Zhao Buddha started with light, and his whole body was radiant with light, and the Buddha's light was everywhere. Zhan Kong raised his hand to block it, and what was under his hand was darkness, which was to tell him that there is light and there is darkness, and they are interdependent. Therefore, Pu Zhao Buddha's argument was directly cut off, and he was speechless, and he vomited blood. This shows Zhan Kong's wisdom."
Qin Mu was speechless.
He could see that the cultivation level of the Puzhao Buddhist just now was extremely high, and he was most likely a Buddhist master at the celestial realm. Even if Qin Mu fought against him, he might not be able to defeat him.
Unexpectedly, the demon ape blocked the light tightly, causing Puzhao Buddhist to vomit blood and almost die!
The demon ape has already argued to the Heaven of Great Merit among the twenty heavens, and the next heaven is the Heaven of Great Eloquence.
In the Great Eloquent Heaven, the Buddhas and a young Buddhist child came forward and faced the demon ape. The young Buddhist child slowly sat down, said little, made a Dharma seal with his hands, pinched a lotus, and said, "Nothing."
The demon ape said, “Yes.”
The young Buddhist frowned, put down the lotus, and said, "Yes."
The demon ape said: "No."
The young Buddhist stood up and shouted, "Are you an ordinary person?"
The demon ape shook his head: "I am Saint."
The young Buddhist asked a shocking question, "Are you the Holy Buddha?"
The demon ape shook his head again: "I, Fan."
The young Buddhist's face turned red, and he said angrily: "Sometimes you say there is nothing in my hand, and sometimes you say there is something in my hand. I asked you if you are a mortal, and you said you are a holy Buddha. I asked you if you are a holy Buddha? You said you are a mortal again! What do you want to say?"
The Buddhas behind him frowned and called several Vajra to fork him. One Buddha apologized to the demon ape, saying, "Brother, please forgive me. He has lost his mind. There is no action and there is no action. When the mind is holy, the saint is ordinary. Brother, you have attained the Dharma, and we admire you." Note①
The demon ape returned the greeting but said nothing.
Qin Mu was shocked and felt dizzy. He held his forehead and said to Master Ma: "Master Ma, I don't understand anything anymore. I don't have the wisdom to do this. I'd better not come to listen to the lecture."
Master Ma smiled and said, "When I was Zhan Kong's age, I definitely didn't have such attainments. Since you are confused, let's go out of the temple for a walk."
Qin Mu felt relieved.
When they walked out of the temple, Master Ma breathed a sigh of relief and said with a smile, "Mu'er, I am now a Buddha, and I am getting further away from you. Wearing the cassock and sitting on the Buddha's throne, I am no longer the Master Ma of the past. In my eyes, you are all living beings. But when I step down from the Buddha's throne and take off the clothes, I will be the Master Ma of our Canlao Village, the Ma Shenpo, and you will be the child I watched grow up."
Qin Mu suddenly hugged him tightly.
Master Ma was stunned for a moment, then smiled and patted him on the back, saying, "Zhan Kong learns very quickly, and Ming Xin is also a good kid. In the future, they will be the two who will inherit the Great Leiyin Temple. By then, I will not be Tathagata, and I will return to Canlao Village, where I will still talk and laugh with you, and eat wine and meat."
Qin Mu asked, "Why are the Buddhas of the Twenty Heavens unwilling to teach the Dharma, nor willing to come down to the world to help? Did Master Ma ask the reason?"
"I have asked. A Buddha told me that the reason why the Great Leiyin Temple was able to survive through the calamities of the past dynasties was because people did not ask. If they had asked, it would not have been preserved. They told me not to ask either."
Master Ma sighed and said, "This time I used the trick the mute taught me. The mute told me to order the monks to chant the Buddha's name to disturb them and make them quiet. If they can't stand it, they will talk to you. If you can win this debate, the Buddhas of the twenty heavens will grant three places to enter the Buddhist world to study. However, they still won't let people from the Buddhist world come down to help. I thought about it carefully, and it's better to have three places than nothing."
At this moment, there was a sudden uproar in the temple and the cheers of the monks were heard. Qin Mu and Ma Ye looked at each other and hurriedly turned back and rushed into the temple, only to see the monks throwing the demon ape high up, catching it, and throwing it up again!
"We won, we won!" the monks cheered.
Note ①: These debate topics come from the Thirty-Six Pairs of Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Buddhism. Friends who are interested can search for them. The Extreme Emptiness and Tranquility also comes from Huineng's Extreme Emptiness and Tranquility. They are all debate topics in Buddhism with a very high artistic conception.