Chapter 984 I am the only one in heaven and under heaven
The corner of Lu Yang's mouth twitched. The story of Kaihuang Temple's fortune was really unexpected.
"Xitian Temple is the orthodox Buddhist country after all, so it shouldn't kill anyone..."
Master Duanchen stroked his white beard: "Monks don't kill, so the abbot's life should be safe. It's hard to say how he will be treated besides his life. Our Kaihuang Temple has no connection with Xitian Temple, and we can't find out the whereabouts of the abbot." "
"After that abbot disappeared, the size of Kaihuang Temple has not changed, and there is no ambition."
"After the poor monk became the abbot, he made a great wish to make Kaihuang Temple prosperous and have an average annual passenger flow of 10 million."
"In order to fulfill his great ambition, the poor monk worked hard to find ways to expand the popularity of Kaihuang Temple, make Kaihuang City comparable to large cities, and make the lives of the people in the city better."
"...Master, the ambition you have made is quite detailed."
"It's natural. The two donors must have never been to our Buddhist country. I don't know how we made great wishes. The great wishes made by our Buddhist country have always been very accurate. If we only make a wish of 'prosperity of incense', How should the judgment criteria be determined?”
"What counts as a prosperous incense? One day, a million donors suddenly came. Does it count as a prosperous incense? A donor buys the entire temple's incense for a year does it count as a prosperous incense? A fire breaks out in the temple and all the incense is lit. Isn’t it the most popular thing?”
“Until standards are set, ambitions are just words and can never be realized.”
"The master really worked hard to open the Huangsi Temple, which is admirable."
Master Duanchen smiled and said: "Monks don't lie, but the poor monk is not that great. Kaihuang Temple is very prosperous, so being the abbot of the poor monk will naturally bring benefits. He can also fulfill his great ambitions, so why not do it."
As far as Lu Yang knew, 50% of the incense money obtained by each temple belonged to him, 30% was used to build a golden body for the Buddha, and 20% was handed over to Xitian Temple.
Cultivation of immortality is inseparable from the word "wealth". The stronger the incense in Kaihuang Temple, the more spiritual stones Master Duanchen will obtain, which can be used for cultivation.
Originally, Master Duan Chen felt that it was getting late and wanted to take Lu Yang and the two of them to the guest house to rest. However, Lu Yang felt that the opportunity was rare, so he might as well go to the Main Hall to have a look. He had only seen the Main Hall built by the Immortal Fairy in the spiritual space before. In reality, Haven't seen it yet.
Meng Jingzhou had never been to the Main Hall and agreed with Lu Yang's proposal.
Master Duan Chen introduced Lu Yang and the two into the Main Hall. The gold-cast statue of the Great Sun Tathagata was in the center, holding flowers and smiling, showing mercy to others.
It was already night, the main hall was brightly lit, and the Buddha statues reflected the light of candlelight, looking extremely sacred.
"What's so good about the Mahavira Hall? The Mahavira Hall I built for you is the most authentic one." The Immortal Fairy pouted. According to Buddhist scriptures, as the founder of Buddhism, her location is the Mahavira Hall, which is sacred and inviolable.
In the spiritual space, at the end of the desert, a Mahavira Palace rises from the ground, which is even more glorious than the Mahavira Palace in Kaihuang Temple.
In the center of the palace, an immortal fairy wearing vermilion eyeshadow and dressed in the style of the Western Regions stands half-crouched on a lotus platform with one foot, the other foot resting on the thigh, and clasped hands, charming all living beings.
"Master, I heard that the Buddha Festival is a festival to celebrate the birth of the World Honored One?" On the way here, Lu Yang studied the origin of the Buddha Festival in detail, so as not to know anything in the Buddhist country and end up like a tourist.
"What Donor Lu said is true. According to legend, in ancient times, the World Honored One could walk when he was born. He stepped on a lotus flower with each foot, pointed one finger to the sky and the other to the earth, and said, 'I am the only one in the sky and the world.'"
"In order to commemorate the birth of the World Honored One, this day is designated as the Buddha's Birthday and a Buddha-blessing activity will be held."
Meng Jingzhou interjected from the side: "I am the only one in heaven and under heaven. The words of the World Honored One are so domineering."
Master Duanchen laughed and said calmly: "It's not surprising that Master Meng has this misunderstanding. Many people in the world misunderstand this statement and think that the World Honored One is an arrogant person. This is not the case."
"The deep meaning of 'I' here is the inherent 'Buddha-nature' of every sentient being, which refers to the noumenon everywhere, the inherently perfect and pure 'True Self', which is also the 'eternal self' mentioned in the Nirvana Sutra. "I am happy and pure."
"The Ruiying Sutra says: 'I am the only one who is respected in heaven and on earth. All three realms are suffering, so how can I be happy?' It can be seen that the 'respect' here mainly refers to the great responsibility of relieving the suffering of the common people."
"So the original meaning of this sentence is that the World Honored One shows that he is born with the mission of saving all sentient beings, and that he wants to save all sentient beings from the sea of suffering in life and death. This will also be the case on the day when all sentient beings become Buddhas."
Listening to Master Duanchen quoting scriptures to help him understand this sentence, they were all Buddhist scriptures that he had never heard of. Meng Jingzhou nodded frequently because he had misunderstood the World Honored One.
In the spiritual space, the immortal fairy standing on the lotus platform scratched his head after hearing this.
"Ah? Isn't this what I said after I defeated Ying Tianxian and the four of them? I had an idea and imitated Ying Tianxian's tone?"
"I think these words are quite domineering and describe my abilities very well, so I asked Ying Tianxian and others to include them when compiling Buddhist scriptures to show that I am the first of the five ancient immortals."
"Does this sentence still have this meaning?"
Meng Jingzhou clasped his hands together: "I didn't expect that the World-Honored One has the world in mind. I misunderstood the World-Honored One."
Master Duan Chen smiled slightly: "The World Honored One has great wisdom, great perseverance, and great compassion. I wonder if Benefactor Meng has heard that when the World Honored One was enlightening under the Bodhi tree, the Demon Buddha Bo Xun sent three witches to flatter and disturb the Buddha. The World-Honored One is enlightened. The World-Honored One is not disturbed by the witches. In seven days, he attains complete enlightenment and attains great wisdom."
"After the World Honored One attained enlightenment, the Buddha's light illuminated the world in all directions. Even the four ancient immortals came to congratulate him."
"There is another matter." Meng Jingzhou had not had much contact with Buddhism before, but now after listening to Master Duanchen's narration about the past of the World Honored One, he felt that the World Honored One was really admirable.
"Speaking of the bodhi tree, at first I felt that my cooking skills were great, and I wanted to write a "Cooking Encyclopedia" that would bring blessings to all generations, so I wrote this book under the bodhi tree. Xiaoling, Lianyi, and Qinghe always liked to sit around I asked the immortal to play with them and interfere with my writing of the book."
"It's strange to say that I remember that Xiao Ling and the other three left for something. They shouldn't have appeared somewhere. Is it someone's hallucination, or inner demons or something."
"Anyway, I have strong willpower and was not interfered by them. It took me seven days to finally finish the "Cooking Encyclopedia"."
"Then Jiuzhongxian came over with several golden crows. They were so bright that they almost burned the book they had just written. Later, Ying Tianxian and the three of them came over one after another to congratulate me. I smiled when I saw them. I was so happy that I cried with joy.”
Lu Yang watched Meng Jingzhou chatting happily with Master Duan Chen, and was considering whether to tell his good brother the truth about the World Honored One.(End of this chapter)