The ten disciples of the Tathagata were ten loyal guards who served Shakyamuni before his enlightenment, and who had listened to the teachings of Manjushri and the other two over the years. They were: 1. Mahakasyapa, 2. Sariputra, 3. Maudgalyayana, 4. Subhuti, 5. Purna, 6. Katyayana, 7. Anuruddha, 8. Upali, 9. Ananda, and 10. Rahula. Each of the ten had their own strengths and abilities.
The Tathagata, possessing the strengths of various schools, borrowed from Laozi's "One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones" technique, but added his own modifications. He used the Immortal Slaughtering Formation to slay and subdue resentment, and used the Great Law of the Three Pure Ones and the Great Law of Buddhist Saints to manifest five emanations, named the Five Vidyarajas: the Central Immovable Vidyaraja, the Great Yamantaka Vidyaraja, the Kundali Vidyaraja, the Trailokyavijaya Vidyaraja, and the Vajrayaksa Vidyaraja.
The Tathagata then selected eighteen outstanding individuals from the three thousand Buddhas whom Cundi had guided back, and they were known as the Eighteen Arhats.
After the Buddha returned to his position, Buddhism had three Buddhas of the past, present, and future (Medicine Buddha, Tathagata Buddha, and Amitabha Buddha), three Buddhas of the present, present, and future (the seven ancient Buddhas headed by Dipankara Buddha, the present Tathagata Buddha, and the future Maitreya Buddha), and three bodies of Buddha (Dharmakaya Vairocana Buddha, Han Buddha, and the three thousand Buddhas). The strength of Buddhism was unparalleled in the three realms.
Dipankara then used the Yin-Yang Pearl he had seized from Zhao Gongming to evolve the two heavens of Buddhism, which were actually divided into 20 heavens and three thousand Buddha lands. At this point, the Buddhas of Buddhism were nearly complete.
The Buddha introduced the "education for all" philosophy of the Jie Sect and combined it with the "self-cultivation and salvation" philosophy of Jieyin and Zhunti, taking the best of both worlds to develop the Mahayana Buddhist concept of "self-cultivation and salvation of others," thus perfecting Buddhist doctrine. Historically, during times of war and turmoil, when people suffered and had no spiritual refuge, the allure of the Buddhist "Western Paradise" was unparalleled by other religions.
The great rise of Buddhism is nearing its end; nothing can stop its eastward expansion. It's only a matter of time...
Let's break up this resentment.
The struggles between heaven and earth are probably caused by resentment. For example, right now, resentment has arisen in Yuanshi's heart.
Ever since the Dao Ancestor proposed the Investiture of the Gods, Yuanshi had been secretly plotting against it. Originally, Yuanshi still considered the relationship with the Three Pure Ones and planned to take advantage of the Investiture to unite the three religions of Humanity, Chan, and Jie to attack other saints, so that the Three Pure Ones could preserve their strength. However, the Ancestor directly shattered his illusions. The Western Sect did not participate in this Investiture, and Nuwa did not establish a religion, so there was nothing to attack. The only one was Penglai Island, which Yuanshi originally had some plans to scheme against, but Xuantian gave him a good talk and persuaded him to give up. There was nothing he could do; his strength was inferior to others.
Finally, seeing that the Investiture of the Gods could only be carried out among the three religions, Yuanshi panicked. As expected of Yuanshi Tianzun, seeing that he could not scheme against others, he changed his target to Tongtian and persuaded Laozi with various excuses. Seeing that his strength was still inferior to that of the Jie Sect, in order to deal with Tongtian, he even risked bringing the Western Sect into the East and dragged in the two Western Saints.
Yuanshi's plan was quite successful. According to his calculations, he first united with the Human Sect and the Western Sect to destroy the Jie Sect, enabling the Chan Sect to successfully be deified and seize the destiny of heaven and earth. Although the Human Sect benefited from this, its small number of members meant that the task of educating the human race would still fall to the Chan Sect. At this time, the Western Sect had nothing to worry about. In Yuanshi's view, although the Western Sect had two sages, it lacked the supreme treasure to suppress destiny. Moreover, it had previously taken away so many disciples of the Jie Sect. Although it could prosper for a time, it would inevitably follow in the footsteps of the Jie Sect and perish in the future. At that time, none of the major sects could compete with his Chan Sect.
However, Yuanshi's carefully laid plans were thwarted. Of course, even sages make mistakes. The intervention of Penglai Island shattered Yuanshi's idea of destroying the Jie Sect.
Yunxiao was supposed to perish, but he was saved by Xuantian. Moreover, his cultivation advanced further, and he became a Quasi-Saint before the other disciples of the Dao Sect. This made Yuanshi lose face. The Chan Sect won a great victory in this Investiture of the Gods, but the Twelve Golden Immortals were almost crippled. Meanwhile, the Jie Sect, which was almost destroyed by the Chan Sect, became a Quasi-Saint first.
Of the four disciples, Duobao was captured by Laozi and has now transformed into Shakyamuni, establishing Theravada Buddhism to divide the Buddhist fortune. The other three disciples are still alive. Guiling was originally taken to Buddhism by Jieyin, but somehow returned. Wudang Shengmu and Jinling Shengmu were taken as mounts by Cangjie and Chang'e—of course, it was fake; they've been released now. This is what infuriates Yuanshi the most—he's angry at those idiots of the Chan Sect disciples for believing the Penglai Island disciples in the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation. Now that they're released, you can't really ask them anything; if you do, they'll just say they were accidentally released. It's truly frustrating.
Yuanshi went to blame the disciples of the Chan Sect, but forgot that under the circumstances, how could a group of disciples of the Chan Sect withstand two quasi-saints? Besides, Randeng had colluded with Buddhism. Releasing Jinling and the others would firstly prevent them from creating more karma, and secondly, it would allow the Chan and Jie Sects to fight each other. After all, no matter how much the Jie Sect hated Randeng, they would not hate the Chan Sect as much.
Putting all that aside, what Yuanshi hated most were the two Western Saints and Randeng. Not only did Randeng betray the sect, but he also abducted four of the Twelve Golden Immortals. At a time when the Chan Sect was famous throughout the world, he slapped Yuanshi in the face in front of heaven and earth. How could Yuanshi swallow this insult?
The Twelve Families' Schemes
Meanwhile, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Cihang, and Julusun were reincarnated and began their cultivation, all entering the underworld.
Manjushri and Samantabhadra reincarnated ten times before returning to the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, serving the Tathagata and becoming Bodhisattvas, thus achieving enlightenment. Julusun preserved his physical body from his previous life, and his primordial spirit was not entirely sent to the underworld, but only a wisp of it went in. Although his cultivation progress was slow, it was safe. Even if that wisp of primordial spirit was destroyed, it would not be a big problem; at most, his cultivation would be reduced a bit.
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