The question of whether there are gods and Buddhas was finally asked to the abbot of Tianyuan Temple.
The abbot hesitated. How should he respond? From his own experience, he believed in the existence of gods and Buddhas. After all, he had met a Buddhist disciple and a child with extraordinary abilities. He had experienced and seen many things in this world that were beyond human ability and were bizarre.
But he also knew that most people in this world did not actually have any adventures and lived ordinary lives. The stories of gods and ghosts were more like a kind of spiritual comfort.
If you don't need this kind of comfort, and you have a strong spirit and consciousness and can live a good life, then that's fine. Rather than waiting for the Buddha's salvation of all sentient beings to reach you, it's better to save yourself.
Therefore, the abbot of Tianyuan Temple had no choice but to say: "I do believe in gods and Buddhas, but Buddha is merciful and does not force donors to believe or not. It is all up to your heart.
Just like the young nun Lu Yinbao, her head nun once said that practicing Buddhism requires following one's heart and fate, and it cannot be forced. "Whether or not to believe in gods and Buddhas is also a matter of one's heart and fate."
But the dispute between gods and Buddhas intensified, and each person's experiences and observations supported different views. For example, the soldiers who had seen the ghost soldiers believed in gods and Buddhas. Otherwise, where did these strange soldiers who could not be killed, were not afraid of water and fire, and hid during the day and came from?
For example, the officials who went with Luo Yunyan and the great monks of Tianyuan Temple to break the soul-sucking formation, they witnessed with their own eyes the illusion displayed by Yuhui and the magnificent spectacle released by eight thousand heroic souls.
Some have also risen up to refute this, saying that what you say doesn't prove the existence of gods and Buddhas. It only proves that besides humans in the world of the living, there are demons in the underworld. But where are the gods and Buddhas? The gods and Buddhas are silent, allowing us to fight against the demons. Just like Xiao Lingdang, Lu Yinbao, Huang Zhiyi, and Lou Mingyue, when they were brutally murdered, the gods and Buddhas remained silent.
So some people say that everything in this world is endless and has its own laws and lifeline. Since everyone is born between heaven and earth, they are nourished and nurtured by heaven and earth. Instead of believing in gods and Buddhas, it is better to believe that since you have come to this world, you are your own god and Buddha.
Different from the small temples and related practitioners who are eager to argue that there must be gods and Buddhas in this world, the three major temples have all maintained a peaceful and tolerant attitude.
The abbess of Yunlan Temple was also asked if she believed in the existence of gods and Buddhas. How can one explain the conspiracy and murder of one person in Yunlan Temple, a place of tranquility for Buddhists?
Someone anxiously argued, "It was because the little nun Lu Yinbao was a Buddhist monk but didn't believe in gods and Buddhas that she was murdered. If she did believe in gods and Buddhas, she would have been doing her Buddhist studies at that time, and wouldn't have been sleeping alone in a deserted place, and she wouldn't have been killed."
Everyone looked at the abbess of Yunlan Temple, waiting for her answer. Is that so?
The nun said, "The gods and Buddhas do not bless every person in this world to be born healthy, happy, satisfied, free, and to live out their lives. What the gods and Buddhas do protect is the great principles of this world. When the great principles exist, the principles of nature exist. Therefore, evil cannot defeat good, evil cannot defeat good, and falsehood cannot deceive the truth."
So, whether it takes ten or twenty years, the truth will eventually come out, and the perpetrators will eventually be put behind bars. Each of us chooses our own destiny, our own fate, our own path, and our own karma.
The young nun Lu Yinbao was murdered in my temple. This wasn't the fault of the gods or Buddhas, but the fault of us, the self-proclaimed good people. Lu Yinbao was a young nun in my temple. Her reluctance to practice Buddhism, a fact sanctioned by the entire temple, warranted her protection. We shouldn't have left her alone, with nowhere to go, forced to find a deserted place to rest. The death of the young nun Lu Yinbao was the fault of both the murderer and Yunlan Temple.
The murder of Huang Zhiyi and Lou Mingyue, mother and daughter, was not the fault of gods or Buddhas, but a man-made disaster. The reason why Huang Mengling could do evil was nothing more than that she had an evil father at home and her identity outside. Her kindness was weak compared to his. Also, Huang Mengling deceived the world by pretending to be the deceived wife of the Yuan Dynasty.
When people do evil, they tend to blame it on the gods and Buddhas. The gods and Buddhas only guarantee that everything in the world is interconnected and that, through chance and coincidence, the truth will eventually come to light.
Regardless of whether one believes in gods or Buddhas, doing what one can to punish evil and promote good, and helping the needy, is also a form of self-cultivation of the Buddha's heart. If one cannot do so, remaining true to one's original aspiration and reflecting on oneself, refraining from doing evil and speaking of evil, is also a form of great virtue.
If this is the case, then in my humble opinion, why should we dwell on whether to believe or not?
Regardless of the right and wrong of this unprecedented debate and the discussions about the Yongding Marquis Mansion.
The village where Little Bell was executed was completely shunned by the world. The first to feel the difference were the businessmen from the village who went out to do business. They found that if they revealed their village of origin, their business would be ignored.
Then there are some young people of marriageable age who find it difficult to find a wife or get married in other villages except for the girls and boys in their own village.
Next are the people who have left this village and have "made it". Some of them work as minor officials in other places or have passed the imperial examinations and are studying in famous academies. Although many people know the environment they live in and cannot discriminate against them just because of where they come from, it still shows up to some extent.
When these people spoke up for themselves, someone would always ask: "Did you pour oil on Xiao Lingdang? Did you whip Xiao Lingdang? Did you burn her with fire? Did you spit on her?" Usually at such times, most of the villagers in the village would flee in panic.
Later, even the most honest and indifferent farmers in the village, who only focused on farming and selling grain, finally discovered that something was wrong.
There were fewer and fewer people in the village. The first to move away were businessmen, who moved to the town or other places for various reasons. Then came some people who were studying or working as officials outside. They gradually moved their families away and changed their names.
The few honest families that remained felt particularly wronged. They had just followed the crowd in the beginning. Would the villagers have let them off if they hadn't done those things? Would the village chief and the elders have let them off?
Now those who can leave have left, and the few honest families left are unable to find wives or marry off their daughters. In the end, these families can only intermarry, but they also know that this is possible for this generation, but can it still be done for the next generation when they are all brothers and sisters?
So since this generation cannot leave, the next generation will have to prepare to leave the village early.
The village chief and the elders finally realized that the situation was hopeless. This village, said to have lasted for over a hundred years, had finally fallen to them. They stubbornly refused to move. All their families left, but the village chief and the elders stayed. And those few families, even if they left, still planned to cling to this land.
They may not feel that they have wronged Xiao Lingling, but they are indeed heartbroken. They knelt in the clan ancestral hall and in front of the ancestral grave. The two old people cried bitterly and broke down wailing.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
