Chapter 302: Merit
Sato Fumio saw that my Big Brother’s explosive farts were continuous and inexhaustible, with an even more violent momentum vaguely forming.
He stopped entangled with me, retracted his Red Tassel Spear, took out a scroll, and scribbled some things on it before throwing it into the void.
Before long, a huge gap tore open in the sky of the Underworld, and Li Jing, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King Li, arrived with the Four Heavenly Kings, Nezha, and countless heavenly soldiers and generals.
The Earth Realm was the same. Several powerful Ghost Immortals of a high level also arrived with countless ghost soldiers and generals.
Seeing this scene, everyone stopped what they were doing.
Jin Buque also immediately put down my Big Brother, whom he had been carrying on his shoulder. I pulled up my pants and secretly gave Jin Buque a look. Jin Buque nodded and stealthily walked towards Mingyue, who was still standing there foolishly.
“Hahaha, General Li, I trust you are well! Hahahaha…” Accompanied by a hearty and booming laughter, Sato Fumio looked up at Li Jing in the sky, smiled broadly, cupped his hands towards the other party, and greeted him with a very familiar demeanor.
Seeing this, Li Jing also smiled and returned the gesture to Sato Fumio. His heroic figure on the clouds was particularly eye-catching, as if a god of war had descended to the mortal world.
Following this, Sato Fumio turned his gaze to the leading Ghost Immortal on the Earth Realm’s side. He bowed slightly, his attitude respectful and humble, and then slowly said, “Thank you, General, for coming to my aid without shirking hardship. After this matter is settled, I will surely keep my promise and complete the important matter that I previously agreed to with Empress Houtu. Please rest assured, General!”
The Ghost Immortal did not speak, but nodded expressionlessly.
Meanwhile, while they were talking, my Big Brother gulped down several handfuls of peanuts, secretly and continuously recovering his mysterious power.
He also retracted and compressed the external Overbearing Qi, waiting for its next outbreak.
Because, even from their brief conversation, my Big Brother could not help but discern the reason.
This Sato Fumio, that old bastard, must have made some important promises to the two great figures in heaven and below, which is why he could mobilize these powerful individuals to assist.
However, I didn’t find anything wrong with this. Even cultivators in the mortal realm often do this. When their abilities are insufficient, they like to burn incense and give gifts, making promises and dealing with human relationships with those above and below, to seek the help of these so-called deities.
Before I cultivated immortality, my Big Brother had done the same thing several times.
But, times have changed. I am no longer the same. After countless metamorphoses, I no longer seek any external power, but rather continuously seek within, constantly comprehending truth from all things, absorbing spiritual energy, and enhancing my own Dao’s mysterious power.
Talking about other things is useless. It’s just like the worldly affairs that many mortals experience; it’s completely similar to this situation in the immortal cultivation world.
They often use a phrase to describe this problem: “The poor in the bustling city are ignored, while the rich in the deep mountains have distant relatives.”
To put it bluntly, it’s because you lack strength. If you have strength, you are awesome everywhere. Those without strength either cling to power and seek alms from others, or they blame heaven and others, and don’t look for problems within themselves.
They are so foolish and have no promise, living such suffocating lives.
It is far more comfortable to spend that time enriching and nurturing oneself, cultivating oneself into a powerful individual.
Only by becoming King oneself is the true and solid principle.
To speak frankly, in this day and age, having a big fist is not as good as having one’s own fist, and having a strong backing is not as reliable as becoming one’s own backing.
Whether one is cowardly or not is never determined by external factors, but by one’s own original heart’s power. Only in this way can all stalemates be broken, and a bright path of one’s own be forged.
Otherwise, that fool pretends to be a Pig Person and talks about algorithms for merit, while that fool pretends to be an Alien and talks about Alien studies, and you can’t even distinguish whether what they say is true or false.
They often use famous quotes to try to brainwash you, telling you: “A superior person hears the Dao and diligently practices it; a middle person hears the Dao and it may or may not exist; an inferior person hears the Dao and laughs at it. If you don’t laugh, it’s not worthy of being called the Dao.”
These words themselves are not wrong, but if you combine their own words with these, it becomes the key to falling into demonic ways.
The reason is simple: what is merit? It is the goodwill unintentionally revealed, the good deeds done without thinking, can this be calculated? And talking about merit having algorithms? Can your merit be calculated?
Read more classics, and read fewer idle books written by those who engage in dualistic opposition. When they use the word “algorithm,” they are already in dualistic opposition, that is, Yin and Yang, good and bad, right and wrong, how many. When they say they are the return of a Pig Person or an Alien, and you believe them because they said something you found reasonable, you have obviously fallen into appearance yourself.
Have you forgotten the dialogue between Patriarch Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu of Liang back then?
Emperor Wu of Liang saw the wind chime swaying and said to Patriarch Bodhidharma: “The wind is blowing and the chime is moving.”
Damo replied: “In my opinion, it is the Emperor’s heart that is moving.”
Emperor Wu of Liang then said: “Since I ascended the throne, I have built Buddhist temples, created Buddha statues, copied scriptures, and supported countless monks. May I ask, Master, what merit do I have?”
Patriarch Bodhidharma replied: “No merit, no virtue. This is like a shadow that follows; it is said to exist, but in reality, it does not.”
Emperor Wu of Liang was puzzled and asked Patriarch Bodhidharma again: “Then, what kind of actions are considered meritorious?”
Patriarch Bodhidharma said seriously: “Only a pure and perfect enlightened one has merit. This kind of merit cannot be sought in actions.”
“May I ask, Master, is there a Buddha in this world?”
“No.”
Emperor Wu of Liang was amused to the point of anger: “Hahahaha, as a monk, do you know who you are?”
Damo replied: “I don’t know.”
Don’t you understand these words? When you judge right and wrong, good and bad, thinking this has more merit and that has less merit, it is all because your ego’s heart is moving, calculating gains and losses, and weighing pros and cons.
Purity and perfection mean discarding the acquired, that is, the ego, and stepping out of dualistic opposition, after which true conscience is revealed, and then subsequent actions are considered meritorious. At this time, people act solely based on their original heart, thus they have no greed. Therefore, to say they have merit is merely to describe them to worldly people; for such people, there is no such thing as merit or lack thereof. This is true merit. When a good deed is done, it is simply done; once it is done, it is done, and nothing is deliberately left in the heart. And before that, whatever was done does not count at all. Since it does not count, how can there be the term “merit has algorithms”?
Furthermore, Patriarch Bodhidharma’s statement that there is no Buddha in the world refers to the human-form Buddha, that is, the Buddha as ordinary people perceive or conceive of. Translated, it means that anyone who pretends to be ghosts, gods, celestial beings, earthly beings, Pig People, dog people, Aliens, etc., in the mortal world, are all fake. Those are merely their ego’s demonic hearts at play. There are no true gods in the world, and whether a true god is true or not. A true god is also a mortal, and is called a god by people due to selfless kindness and virtue.
Moreover, the word “Buddha” itself is an adjective, describing someone who has attained enlightenment and awakening. Such people are called Buddhas.
Enlightenment is the clear understanding of principles, and awakening is the awakening of a state that is neither increasing nor decreasing, neither impure nor pure, neither born nor undying. Those who remain in an awakened state for a long time are awakened beings. This so-called awakening is the Higher Self that has stepped out of dualistic opposition, or it can be called the naturally complete True Self, or it can be referred to as the activation of the Primordial Spirit. It can also be described as selflessness and thoughtlessness.
This selflessness does not mean the absence of a person, but the absence of the ego’s perspective. Thoughtlessness does not mean the absence of thoughts, but rather that no action arises without thought, and when an action occurs, thought does not linger. Thoughts arise and are instantly perceived, with clear discrimination, but without engaging in discriminatory thinking, that is called non-discrimination.
After awakening, humans are no different from Buddhas. All sentient beings are unawakened Buddhas. Fool, you are yourself a ghost and god! You are a ghost when you are evil, and a god when you are good. After stepping out of the ego’s definition of good and evil, your sincere, innocent, and genuine self, acting spontaneously without agitation, performing good deeds, is true kindness. Because, in your subconscious state, you are your true self. And what you think of yourself is merely what you believe yourself to be.
In this state, no matter which perspective you use to distinguish good and evil, there will be an opposite side, and you will never escape dualistic opposition!
There is a saying: “Tathagata is originally me, but I am not Tathagata.”
“Tathagata is originally me” refers to you before the absence of discriminative mind.
But “I am not Tathagata” means that after the presence of discriminative mind, that is, the ego, you define all things in the world, and the ego that determines good and bad, right and wrong, how many, up and down, beautiful and ugly from its own perspective! What you affirm, you fall into that appearance. When you affirm nothing, you are formless! Being formless, you can manifest all forms spontaneously.
The human heart nowadays is extremely impetuous and complicated. Breaking illusions is a thousand times, ten thousand times more difficult than in ancient times, hence it is the End of Dharma.
Spiritual Awareness, Spirituality, Spiritual Energy, this “spiritual” and that “spiritual,” none of it refers to external things; it always refers to the state of your mind and spirit.
The ordinary person’s mind and spirit run around all day long, rarely staying with themselves. Even when sleeping, they always wander off. Sometimes, upon waking, they forget and mistakenly think they had no dreams. No dream does not mean being unaware of everything. In a dreamless state, a person is sleeping, but their mind is like meditating. They know they are sleeping and can still feel as if they haven’t slept and can even think and contemplate in this state. But their body is truly asleep. And this does not require deliberate effort; it will automatically activate from time to time when the state is right. Deliberately pursuing it often has the opposite effect; instead, when you are not thinking of anything, you achieve twice the result with half the effort.
This is called the Unmoving Netherworld Heart, also called the Unmoving Vajra.
A true, unmoving heart will produce wonderful applications. The “heart not moving” here refers to the heart not moving wantonly, not being swayed by external things. Although the mind moves, it does not attach to external things and does not greedily seek them, only then can it truly produce wonderful applications.
And external things not only refer to what you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch, but sometimes also refer to what you think.
Eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind are the Six Roots.
Form, sound, fragrance, taste, touch, dharma are the Six Dusts.
They are all the same thing, both root and dust. The six consciousnesses that arise from this are: Eye Consciousness, Ear Consciousness, Nose Consciousness, Tongue Consciousness, Body Consciousness, and Consciousness.
These three combined are collectively known as the Eighteen Realms.
Do you understand? Roots, dust, and consciousness are all the same thing. They are roots when used well, and dust when used poorly. The feedback from the Six Roots and Six Dusts to you is the Six Consciousnesses.
These are also the Five Aggregates of the Five Aggregates being empty, which is form is emptiness, and emptiness is form, so form is emptiness, emptiness is form, there is no emptiness or form, there is no form or emptiness, form and emptiness are one.
How clearly and simply have I explained it?
Alas… little confused one, little confused one.
I spent a tremendous effort to pull you out of appearance, and you didn’t love to come out.
Those who dragged you into appearance only need a few simple words, and you can’t distinguish them and fall into it.
This truly puts me in a difficult position.
Why else would one say that one’s own suffering is self-inflicted? If your eyes are unclear, won’t your heart feel it?
In this age, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, how can a person be so easily fooled by someone pretending to be a Pig Person or an Alien?
Then, should I claim to be Santa Claus and the Jade Emperor? Or should I also claim to be a Pig Demon, and say I have two rows of mother’s milk that can supplement your merit? Come on, don’t just stare, hurry and bow your head to have a few bites, this will increase your merit calculation amount. Huh? You believe this too?
My Big Brother is almost speechless. Even though I’ve explained it so easily, the masses, alas… they are always in a state of being awake and not awake, constantly changing. Even worse, some have never truly woken up. After thinking they’ve understood a principle, they exclaim, “Oh, I’m awake.” This is not being awake, or rather, you have only understood that principle in that particular matter, and you are not as deeply mired as before.
True awakening is to say…
Just as I was standing still, accumulating strength, and having wild thoughts while jumping precariously.
After Sato Fumio exchanged a few brief pleasantries with the two, he waved his arm lightly, and the subordinates behind him retreated like a tide.
Li Jing stared at me with sharp eyes, then suddenly raised his hand and shouted, “Beat the drums!” With his command, the many heavenly soldiers he brought immediately sprang into action, vigorously beating the massive war drums.
For a time, the drumming was deafening, resounding through the heavens.
“Dong… dong… dong dong… dong… dong… dong dong…” Every heavy drumbeat seemed to shake the heart, causing an invisible pressure to surge forward. At the same time, the Ghost Immortal beside him was not to be outdone; he also commanded his subordinates to blow long ivory horns.
“Wooooo…”
The long and low horn sound echoed, like a call from the depths of hell, filled with an eerie and solemn atmosphere. The two sounds intertwined, forming a battle melody that was both chilling and exhilarating.
Seeing this, my Big Brother naturally could not just sit there and wait to die.
His hands rapidly formed hand seals, moving so fast they left afterimages, and he rapidly muttered incantations: “Ni ma mi ni ma mi, whoever pretends to be cool in front of me is an idiot, heeheeheeheehee…”
