I attained immortality in the real world.

Chapter 78 Fragments of the True Scripture
The Ullambana Festival is being held in Bianjing City!

The ceremony, which included a day for religious services, a day for preaching the Dharma, and a day for debating the Dharma, concluded at dusk on July 17th.

The bronze bell rang nine times in a row, and the monks who participated in the Dharma assembly left one after another. The crowd, however, took advantage of the moonlight and the bright lights to play around, and many literati and scholars discussed the Dharma through the flower arranging ceremony.

Master Wuyuan respectfully escorted Li Zhi back to the palace, then returned to his meditation room at Baima Temple. His expression suddenly darkened: "The Yogacara school! The Yogacara lineage has a thousand branches; how can dead ashes possibly be rekindled?"

The true scriptures—Master Wuyuan wanted to obtain the true scriptures of the Yogacara school, but the Yogacara school is not a dead thing to be slaughtered at will.

Unbeknownst to them, the disciples of the Yogacara lineage had somehow gotten involved with the emperor, a miscalculation.

Jinshan Temple appointed a disciple of the Yogacara lineage to be in charge, which is problematic, very problematic. They failed to notice it in time, which was a miscalculation.

Having repeatedly miscalculated on the same person, Master Wuyuan felt a strong sense of crisis and alarm bells went off in his heart.

Master Wuyuan took out a thumb-sized, colorful stone from the rosary in his hand.

He handed the document to one of his attendants and instructed him: "Go! Get the details of the conversation between His Majesty the Buddha and Chiba on July 14th from Monk Guangzhi."

Without uttering a word, the attendant held the luminous relic in both hands and went to the room next to the abbot's meditation room to wait for the right moment.

"........."

Half an hour later.

After finishing his miscellaneous tasks at the temple, Guangzhi returned to his meditation room, exhausted both physically and mentally, but he did not choose to go to sleep immediately.

I immediately lit three incense sticks and bowed to the Maitreya statue in the shrine. As the incense smoke rose, a wisp of white smoke drifted out from the adjacent meditation room. The spirit of a monk controlled the smoke from the burning incense, which coalesced into a blurry human figure.

A deep and authoritative voice suddenly resounded in Guangzhi's mind: "Guangzhi, do you still recognize me?"

Guangzhi looked up and saw the illusory smoke and shadows appearing before the Buddha statue. He quickly bowed and said, "Disciple Guangzhi greets the messenger of Maitreya Buddha."

The illusory figure nodded in satisfaction and continued, "The Buddha foresaw a great calamity for Buddhism, which began three days ago when the Buddha's relics were viewed in the pagoda. Do you know what happened inside the pagoda that day?"

Guangzhi had been a monk at Baima Temple for many years, transforming himself from the inside out. He remained loyal to the emperor and would never tell anyone about the pagoda, but coincidentally, the person in front of him was not human.

After a moment's hesitation, he finally revealed what he had said about the pagoda: "Your Majesty wants to promote Buddhism, but also wants to destroy it..."

"........."

White Horse Temple, a monastery.

The core lineage of the Yogacara school has gathered together.

Two people from Baima Temple, Wu Kui and Fa Xing; one person from Kongming Temple, Fa Xuan; one person from Daci Temple, Fa Heng; and two people from Jinshan Temple, Fa Ji and Qian Ye.

Chen Jing then took out a purple-gold bowl containing golden magnolia flowers, signifying that everyone should, as agreed, present their Yogacara lineage for the union of schools.

The monk Faxuan of Kongming Temple was the most straightforward. He took out a sutra from his robes, the cover of which read "The Secret of Hearing My Nature in Mahayana Buddhism," and handed it directly to Chiba, bypassing Faji.

He began, “On the Dharma Debate Platform, Master Qianye possesses the demeanor of Patriarch Xuanzang. This humble monk is truly impressed and willing to offer the secrets of his knowledge and experiences passed down through the Five Natures of Consciousness-Only lineage, as well as the crucial points missing from the scriptures. This humble monk will personally inform you of them later.”

The monk Wu Kui of Baima Temple remained silent, his eyes lowered as he gazed at the golden magnolia flower in the purple-gold alms bowl.

Faheng of Daci Temple spoke up: "In the debate, this humble monk is also inferior. However, as a disciple of the Yogacara lineage, how can you serve as the head of Jinshan Temple? You slander the Bodhisattva's teachings and believe in similar teachings. You need to give me a reasonable explanation. Otherwise, this humble monk would rather break the precepts than hand over the lineage."

Chen Jingping replied calmly, "Naturally, it's for the sake of becoming a sect leader, an ancestor, and a renowned, enlightened monk." Faheng's expression turned cold: "Breaking the precepts for a false reputation? How can you be considered a successor of the Yogacara school?"

Chen Jing replied, “This humble monk does not observe the precepts in order to revive the Yogacara school, while you do not observe the precepts of non-reluctance to partake, claiming it is to prevent the true scriptures from falling into the hands of false doctrines and becoming accomplices to evil. However, for thousands of years, the Yogacara lineage has been like a candle flickering in the wind, while false doctrines have been flourishing day by day. Which is right? Which is wrong?”

Upon hearing the words "revive the Consciousness-Only School," the monk Wukui stared at Chen Jing with his cloudy eyes: "How do you revive the school?"

Things are accomplished in secrecy and ruined by leaks. Once the plot to destroy Buddhism is exposed, how could those who practice false Buddhism not want to eliminate Chiba as soon as possible?
Seeing that Chen Jing was about to utter anti-Buddhist remarks, Faji quickly stopped him, saying, "You mustn't!"

“Master, it can’t be hidden. Once you do it, it will definitely come out. Although it’s convenient and fast to go down from the top, it’s also a viable alternative. It’s better to let more people know. As long as someone does it, it will eventually be realized.”

The desire to destroy Buddhism was hidden until the end of the Ullambana Festival, which was the limit of its power.

Once they start spreading basic Buddhist principles to the world, those who practice false teachings are not fools; how could they not see through the intention behind this move?
Chen Jing revealed a relieved smile and uttered two words calmly: "Slay Buddhism!"

Faheng: "…………"

Wu Kui: "…………"

Fa Xing: "…………"

Seeing that the others were stunned and didn't care about anything else, Chen Jing explained his plan to spread basic Buddhist principles and destroy Buddhism to promote other schools of thought.

The meditation room fell into a deathly silence. Who could imagine that anti-Buddhist rhetoric could come from the mouth of a monk?

Although the monks found it unbelievable, upon closer examination, they realized that the Yogacara school was not actually deeply connected with modern Buddhism, and they even accepted this theory.

Monk Faheng pondered the feasibility of suppressing Buddhism and promoting other schools of thought, and asked again: "Master Qianye wants to spread his fame throughout the world and promote basic Buddhist principles. Once these basic Buddhist principles have spread widely, that will be the time to uphold the precepts of not being stingy with the Dharma. Wouldn't the true scriptures be at risk of falling into the hands of false teachers?"

Chen Jing replied, “All those who are qualified should receive the true scriptures. Does that mean that those who have gone astray are not saved by Mahayana Buddhism? What we are preventing is not that the true Dharma falls into the hands of false Dharma, but that the true Dharma only falls into the hands of false Dharma, who are stingy with the Dharma, hoard their knowledge, and distort the meaning of the scriptures, thus losing the true scriptures.”

The monk Faheng respectfully said, "This humble monk has no more doubts..."

After saying this, Abbot Faheng took out a scripture with the title "Mahayana True Vision and Precepts" on the cover and said, "I am willing to hand over the Yogacara Precepts lineage, which is based on the principle of consciousness-only. The scripture is missing some key points, and I will explain them to you personally later."

What else can be said about someone who willingly enters hell to inherit a family business and build a lineage?
The mere fact that he put forward this astonishing theory shows that he is definitely not someone who believes in false laws.

Because this is not some insidious scheme; just the fact that people know about it poses a great threat to the false law.

The monk Wukui also took out a scripture from his robes, the cover of which read "Mahayana Nirvana Vijnanavada" (Treatise on the Great Vehicle Nirvana and Consciousness-Only). He passed it over Faji and handed it to Qianye, saying, "The lineage of the Universal Vehicle of Consciousness-Only is also willing to offer the Treatise on Consciousness-Only. Please step aside for a moment, and let this humble monk explain to you the missing key points in the scripture."

When Faxing, a disciple of the monk Wukui, saw that the lineage was being passed on to outsiders, his mind raced, and he showed no intention of stopping it.

As Chen Jing said, regardless of one's motives, one would be happy to see it succeed.

This is an opportunity for the Yogacara school, but it is also an opportunity for false teachings.

The more widely the true scriptures are spread, the greater the probability of obtaining them becomes, eliminating the need to devise a plan for how to acquire them.

For those who control the Buddhist landscape, it is not difficult to prepare in advance to suppress the spread of basic Buddhist doctrines.

However, this argument against Buddhism must be informed of the National Preceptor immediately. If Chiba were to spread basic Buddhist teachings with the momentum of the Ullambana Festival's transformation of Buddha and the offering of flowers, it would be a huge problem.

(End of this chapter)