Wandao long distance

Chapter 1011 Great Tripitaka

Maudgalyayana died.

Kapilavastu was attacked by demons, and Maudgalyayana went to stop them. He used his divine power to break through the blockade and wanted to save the people of Kapilavastu. However, his karma was too strong to overcome, and ultimately he failed to save anyone.

This even exposed his weakness and he was discovered by the devil. Maudgalyayana's magical powers were no match for karma, and eventually a demon named Aslan seized the opportunity, trapped Maudgalyayana at the foot of the mountain, and smashed him to death.

Maudgalyayana was trapped by karma, his supernatural powers became ineffective, and he eventually died here.

After Maudgalyayana's death, Kashyapa found the demon prince.

Because, the one who has the most powerful control over the karma of the universe now is the Demon Prince. He was deprived of the power of the Karma Demon because of the retribution for the evil karma of the Heavenly Demon. Now he is in charge of a part of the underworld and controls the cycle of karma to hone his skills.

"So, what do you want to know from me?" the Demon Prince asked Kasyapa.

From beginning to end, the Demon Prince showed no expression.

Kasyapa did not answer directly, but looked at the beings in the underworld.

The scenery of the underworld was the same as his expression, unchanged as always. The gloomy dark red sky seemed like the night that would never come and the dawn that would never appear.

The earth is withered, the sky is lonely, and nothing in the world changes.

There are always people who describe something as a "hellish existence", but when they see hell with their own eyes, they will probably find that few people in this world deserve the adjective "hellish".

The existence of hell transcends will, and endless chains drag countless souls and throw them into different levels.

The sharp claws that stretched out from hell because of unwillingness and despair grabbed the arms and legs of every newcomer, making them unable to move and terrified.

The souls here screamed, but actually could not make any sound, because the souls had no vocal organs. Their screams would only turn into a "gloomy" atmosphere, making people feel creepy, but no trace could be found.

People who often visit hell sometimes lament that they would rather be buried in a suffocating and dark grave than stay in the underworld any longer.

The pressure of the underworld can make all practitioners feel that they are getting weaker and weaker, and for those souls who are punished in the underworld because of karma, even perceiving the outside world has become a luxury.

Countless souls came to this place either voluntarily or were detained by ghost officials. They walked in this lonely and withered land, lining up to be judged.

Of course, if there is no cause and effect, then you will leave here soon, but if you are entangled in cause and effect, you will be delayed here for a very long time.

What the Demon Prince has seen since he took charge of the karma of the underworld has always been like this, but compared with the retribution for evil karma, these are nothing but a drop in the bucket.

After a long silence, at least seven years, Kasyapa seemed to have seen all the beings in the underworld, and finally spoke: "Have Sariputra and Maudgalyayana been reincarnated?"

"It's too difficult to do it alone?" The Demon Prince who was working raised his head and asked.

"It's not like that, it's just... the Taoist tradition is not vibrant enough in my hands. I am like a stubborn rock in a mountain. I can maintain the existence of the Taoist tradition, but I cannot make them go any further." Kasyapa lamented.

Kasyapa spoke sincerely.

Under the leadership of Kashyapa today, Buddhism can only be said to be "still existing", and there is no vitality at all. Kashyapa does not have the positive and enterprising spirit like Sariputra and Maudgalyayana. Today's Buddhism has a strong atmosphere of retreat to the mountains, conservative asceticism, and is greatly influenced by Kashyapa.

Kashyapa was able to endure hardships. Although he could not do other things, he could persevere and overcome any difficulties. Therefore, after the Buddha's death, he could take the initiative to take on the remaining responsibilities of the entire Taoist lineage, collect the Buddha's manuscripts, recompile the Tripitaka, and rebuild the Taoist lineage with the help of Ananda and Upali. But all of this was to lay the foundation for the future reconstruction of the Taoist lineage.

However, Kasyapa alone could not rebuild the orthodox tradition.

He only relied on his own perseverance to maintain the current status quo and prevent it from falling further. As for the real take-off, he still needed to rely on people like Sariputra and Maudgalyayana.

  But now, Sariputra has passed away, Maudgalyayana has died, and no other Buddhist disciple is able to shoulder this responsibility, so is that why Kashyapa came to find the Demon Prince?

"The Buddha said that I can achieve the status of a bodhisattva in the future, but I cannot achieve the status of a Buddha. It is just like my current situation. I can only be a piece of stone and cannot fly."

"And you, Shangfan, the Buddha himself said that two people could become Buddhas, namely Sariputra and you. Now Maudgalyayana is dead. I really want to know why the Buddha chose you. If I could see that you have the qualifications to become a Buddha, I would have no regrets." Kasyapa said.

The demon prince sighed and said, "I don't know what qualifications I have, so you don't have to take it to heart. If the Tathagata is truly infallible, Buddhism wouldn't have perished. There's no need to take his words too seriously."

These words left Kasyapa speechless for a moment.

Kasyapa was actually very tired.

He was called "the first of ascetics", which actually means "asceticism". When the Buddha passed away, other Buddhas retired, and the great Bodhisattvas were busy with their own affairs, it was Kashyapa who was working hard for the rest of Buddhism.

Many billions of years have passed.

Even Kasyapa himself couldn't count the things he had experienced. In this dark universe, he needed to deal with many things in order to support the remaining sect to move forward.

The split within Buddhism, the coveting of other sects for the Great Tripitaka compiled by him, various dangers, consequences, and even the oppression of other forces.

It has been a very long time since the Buddha's nirvana. In today's Buddhism, Kashyapa feels that he has reached his limit.

The reason why he was able to persevere was simply because he knew there was hope for the future.

Shariputra may be resurrected one day.

Maudgalyayana might be freed from karma, become enlightened, and return to the religious community.

Ananda will grow up one day.

Rahula might come to his senses from his madness.

Then, with the help of Upali, he might be able to restore Buddhism to its former glory.

But in the end, Maudgalyayana's death hit Kasyapa hard, and made him realize that he might not be able to hold on until that time, so he began to look for the demon prince who, as the Buddha said, would become a Buddha in the future.

If the demon prince is bound to become a Buddha in the future, then he may also be a person like Sariputra.

But after hearing the answer from the demon prince, Kasyapa simply clasped his hands together and said, "So that's how it is. I understand now."

"What did you understand?" The Demon Prince was puzzled.

Kasyapa replied: "Perhaps I still care too much, and my obsession is still there in my heart, and I cannot be free. This may be the reason why the Buddha said that I cannot become a Buddha."

The Demon Prince just felt confused, so he said: "If you are bored, go back to work and don't bother me."

Kasyapa then performed a Buddhist salute, turned around and prepared to leave hell.

The Demon Prince just felt that he had wasted seven years.

But looking at the look on Kasyapa's face, perhaps the current situation of the Buddhist community is really not very good.

Shariputra's death was a great blow to them.

But the Demon Prince really didn't care much.

What he was thinking about now was mainly in the Desire Realm. However, when he saw Kasyapa's back, for some reason, the Demon Prince suddenly said, "Wait a minute."

Kasyapa turned around and looked at the Demon Prince in confusion.

"I heard that you are compiling the Great Tripitaka." said the Demon Prince.

The three great collections are the Vinaya, Sutra and Abhidharma.

Although the Buddha has passed away, his teachings have never disappeared but have been passed down.

Although after the Buddha's nirvana, all records about him completely disappeared, along with all existence itself. In this world, no real existence is even qualified to "record" the Buddha. The Buddha completely erased his own existence, and there is no trace of him left.

However, the existence of reality can break this. Although the Buddha's existence has disappeared and all his interference has been completely traced back to his source, his church has been passed down by the Buddhists in the form of their own memories.

Finally, after the Buddha's death, Ananda recited the Sutras, Upali recited the Vinaya, and Maudgalyayana compiled the first Abhidharma from the Sutras. Eventually, these materials were compiled by Kasyapa himself into the "Great Tripitaka", which has been passed down as the remaining Buddhist thought system today.

"It has been compiled." Kasyapa replied.

"I want to see Tripitaka, can I?" asked the Demon Prince.

Kasyapa showed a surprised expression, then put his hands together, bowed and said, "Of course."

"Isn't this your secret? The many teachings that the Buddha recited and that you memorized, are very precious, right?" The Demon Prince was a little surprised that the other party agreed so readily.

"You are the one whom the Buddha himself said will become a Buddha in the future. There is no reason to reject you," said Kasyapa.

"Yes." The Demon Prince nodded, then temporarily put down what he was doing and left hell with Kasyapa.

He is still very interested in the Buddha's teachings and ideas.

Especially when he still had the Formless Realm in his hands, reading the books compiled by the Buddha's disciples would definitely be beneficial to him, and...

There is no progress on Li Qi's side now, which means he has indeed encountered problems.

Then I can't just sit there and wait, I have to find some possibility of a breakthrough.

------------

As for Li Qi, what he didn't expect was...

Zhu Fengdan did not go directly to Wu Xian, but took Li Qi to visit someone Li Qi had been looking for for a long time.

Fairyland!

That’s right, Zhu Fengdan actually has a way to contact Xiantian.

But if you think about it carefully, it is normal.

At the beginning, it was actually Zhu Fengdan who was responsible for contacting Xiantian, so it was normal for him to have Xiantian's contact information.

However, Li Qi was a little puzzled, so he asked: "Teacher, we came to find Xiantian, do you think Xiantian will help us?"

"How is that possible? Xiantian is so stingy, it would be strange if he would help us." Zhu Fengdan curled his lips with disdain on his face.

Obviously, he knew Xiantian's character very well.

"Well, when I was looking for Xiantian, it caused quite a stir. Why didn't you come and tell me that you could contact Xiantian?" Li Qi was a little helpless.

“?” A question mark popped up in Zhu Fengdan’s head.

And it really appeared, his thoughts manifested into reality, and the surrounding spiritual energy and time and space were clearly distorted into the shape of a question mark.

Li Qi waved his hand: "Okay, I understand, let's move on."

The question mark on Zhu Fengdan's forehead disappeared, and her usual smile reappeared. Then, they continued to travel through the void.

After about 60,000 years of perceived time, they finally passed through this period of nothingness.

However, things like perceived time are usually not counted. For the second-grade people, their perceived time can be completely disconnected from that of other people.

They go somewhere to fight for thousands or trillions of years, and when they come out, the time in the real universe is likely to have gone backwards.

  Time is a subjective feeling, very illusory and unreal. It can only be used as a metric to describe the scale of movement, but cannot be used as an absolute reference system.

The classical view of absolute time and space has long been ineffective at this stage.

Soon, the master and the disciple came to an... indescribable 'branch time and space'.

The reason why it is a branch space-time is actually because the structure of this space-time is more complex.

Generally speaking, a person can only make one choice, one choice corresponds to one reality, and other choices that are not made will disappear in the sea of ​​possibilities.

But this is not necessarily the case in some time and space. Here, people can make all possible choices at the same time. No matter how small the possibility is, these possibilities will occur at the same time, resulting in endless "branches".

This will produce a space-time form called "tree-like space-time", where endless possibilities will produce endless branches every second, and endless branches will each produce endless subordinate branches.

Infinite, infinite, infinite, and so on.

But infinity added together is still infinity.

Aleph zero to the power of Aleph zero is still equal to Aleph zero.

As long as we don’t reach Aleph One, which is a ‘new possibility’ and produce new properties that Aleph Zero absolutely does not have, then no matter how many infinities are superimposed on each other, there will be no change.

Infinity raised to the power of infinity may sound impressive, but it is no different from ordinary infinity.

Therefore, although Li Qi cannot traverse the entire infinity, he can easily deduce all the properties contained in the infinity. With these properties, he can get the position of each point in the infinity, which is close to understanding the infinity itself.

So, Li Qi looked at this abstract infinite space and time and said, "Is this... Xiantian's new creation? He seems to be controlling history. This should be something that one should learn when he is at the third level - no."

Li Qi suddenly realized.

At the beginning, Xiantian was still studying the fifth-grade techniques.

But after all these years, when I saw him again, he was actually studying the third-level techniques.

“Is this… growing?”

"Of course it will grow." Zhu Fengdan replied.