Earth Immortal Righteous Path

Chapter 164 On Ford

"I don't know what you have realized, Fahai? Maybe tell me about it?"

The little girl next to her, Ji Xueluo, also stared curiously.

"There's nothing to say."

Fa Hai got up, and took the big bowl of rice noodles brought by the child with both hands.

There is a layer of chopped green onion and some cabbage on it. This is a special vegetarian dish prepared by the store for monks who are used to traveling from north to south.

"The poor monk was selected as a substitute for the prince to become a monk since he was a child, and to accumulate merit for the current prince. This is the reason why I entered Jinshan Temple in this life."

"I have shaved my hair and practiced since I was a child. I read Buddhist scriptures all over the place. I was able to debate the Dharma with you at the age of ten. It can be said that I have sharp ears and eyes, better than most monks."

"However, reading the Buddhist scriptures all over the place can't break greed, hatred and ignorance; the mana is so profound that you can't let go of all kinds of obsessions."

"I just think that I have great supernatural powers and profound mana, and I am everywhere to cast down demons and eliminate demons, and commit all kinds of evil karma without knowing it, so that I almost become a villain who acts recklessly in the name of acting on behalf of the heavens... ·”

Fahai confessed his past mistakes without shy away.

"Now that I wake up, I realize that the past is hideous. In the past, I thought I was free from greed, anger, and obsession, but I didn't do my best. To subdue demons and eliminate demons, there are many crimes that will not result in death. I broke the precepts many times, but I pretended to be righteous."

Ji Xueluo became more and more confused. This little girl only heard Zhou Xun tell her the basics of cultivating the Tao, but never talked about the principles of Buddhism.

Zhou Xun smiled slightly, and followed Fa Hai's words, and also gave Xueluo some insight by the way.

"Fahai, what you said is biased."

"In the past, you were a real monk, and most of the things you did were not wrong."

"Everyone has greed, anger, ignorance, and all kinds of desires. If you can really get rid of these, you are an Arhat in your Buddhist school. You are not yet at that level, but your practice has not been perfected, so there is nothing to say. I think you are too much for yourself. Be too harsh."

"Subduing demons and demons, this kind of thing sees the benevolent and the wise. I have heard a lot about your deeds. Occasionally, there are a few wrong collections. It doesn't matter. It's just a matter of making up for it afterwards. Anyway, you don't often Start the killing ring."

"I still say the same thing, you are too strict with yourself, who can guarantee that you will not make mistakes..."

Zhou Xun stretched out his big hand, pushed Xueluo's little head back, turned around and glared at her, warning her, the little girl immediately sat down obediently and listened attentively.

Zhou Xun turned his head and comforted Fa Hai.

"When you see demons killing innocent people indiscriminately, step forward to subdue them, and if you save their lives, you are accumulating merit, and you will surely enjoy blessings in the future."

"Of course, the bad karma you create will also have karmic consequences."

"Seeing you enlightened today may not be due to the merits accumulated in the past."

"You are the most proficient in Buddhism, you should be able to understand this."

Fahai clasped his palms together, closed his eyes and recited a Buddha's mantra.

"Benefactor Zhou, I do have 25 merits."

"Ford has omissions, every time greed, hatred, ignorance, thoughts, every time you break the precepts and kill animals, or when you speak bad words and hurt people, etc., such evil thoughts and viciousness will leak out little by little. Calculate how many blessings you have missed, and you can probably calculate how much karma you have created."

Zhou Xun intentionally explained the difference between merit and merit to Ji Xueluo, so he deliberately asked Fa Hai.

"Fahai, can you tell me the difference between merit and merit? What is merit and what is merit?"

Fa Hai's mind is clear, and at this time when his wisdom power is soaring, he saw through Zhou Xun's meaning at once, so he was naturally happy to explain.

"Fortune is still in the six realms that my Buddhism distinguishes, but the source of merit is not in it, and merit is beyond the six realms of reincarnation."

"There are leaks in merit, but there are no leaks in merit."

"All living beings in the world have karma due to good or bad karma. There are six destinations for this karma, which are called the six paths. The six paths are divided by the Buddha according to the size of the blessings received by the karma body. They are: the way of heaven, the way of humanity, and the way of animals. , Asura, Hungry Ghost, and Hell. Those who create evil karma will naturally fall into the three evil ways, while the merit is counted in the three good ways. The depth of the merit is the way of heaven, the way of humanity, and the way of Asura. Among the six circles of reincarnation, those who cultivate merit will be rewarded with blessings, which is the so-called good will be rewarded with good."

"However, there will be a day when the merit is exhausted. No matter how great the merit is, it is the same, so there will be leaks. When you enjoy the blessings, even if the merits are exhausted, no matter how many treasures will leave you, you will be poor. Monks usually don’t pay much attention to merit.”

"Merits and merits look similar, but they are different in essence."

"Anyone who wants to accumulate good deeds so that he can ascend to the sky, or goes to do good deeds for other purposes, counts the number of good deeds after the event, or is obsessed with complacency after the event, wishing that the whole world knows it, this is merit. For example, many Those who become immortals, but their external skills have not been completed and have to stay in the world, the so-called external skills they have cultivated wholeheartedly are this kind of merit. Because of insufficient blessings, even if the Tao is sufficient, they cannot fly. At this time, they have to cultivate merits to accumulate blessings .”

This is easy to understand, that is, those who do good deeds specifically for the sake of doing good deeds are all cultivating merit.

"The merit is very different. Before doing good deeds, there is no purpose of doing good deeds. Everything is natural. Afterwards, you don't claim to have meritorious service, and you don't care about it, and you don't think you are doing good deeds. This kind of merit is without omission. It can better reflect a person's true moral cultivation, so it cannot be calculated by numbers."

"There is no number of merits and virtues, only high or low, it belongs to the virtue of no omission."

Zhou Xun agreed.

"Only you know merit and virtue, and outsiders can't see it. Therefore, we immortals only look at internal and external merits when ascending, and no one judges whether merits are high or low."

"The ultimate man has no self, the gods have no merit, and the sage has no name. That kind of merit is similar to the realm of gods and men. It is the morality of inaction to achieve success without self-assertion... Sure enough, when the old gentleman came out of Hangu Guan, the rumors about teaching Venerable Sakyamuni are not groundless!"

"If not, why is the merit and virtue mentioned by your Buddhist school so similar to Laojun's morality of inaction?"

It's hard to answer this question, because it involves the controversy of orthodoxy, even Fa Hai can't answer whether it's right or wrong, so he can only avoid talking about it.

This matter is a public case. At the beginning, the Western religion changed its name to Buddhism, and wanted to spread the Dharma widely to teach people to relieve many sufferings, which conflicted with Taoism.

In order to spread the Dharma in the Central Plains, the Buddhist sects are also full of tongues, wantonly fabricating many myths, trying to overwhelm the local Taoist sects.

For this reason, the two schools have debated several times, and the Taoist school lost more than they won, so they had to pull in Confucianism, forming a situation of separation of the three schools.

"Master Zhou, it's good to say this in front of me, but not in front of other monks."

"Haha, Fa Hai, you are indeed a real monk, so stop talking."

(End of this chapter)