Chapter 198: Jin Chanzi Awakens

After listening to what Tathagata said, Fa Neng shook his head slightly: "What the Master said is sophistry. According to what the Master said, Buddha is a supreme wise one who is self-awakened, awakens others, and has perfected awakening and conduct. The Buddha has a compassionate heart, the ability to save all sentient beings, and no three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. Why would the Buddha care whether people worship him, and thus only protect those who worship him? Doesn't this show that the Buddha still has the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance, and is not as selfless as the legends say?"

"My Buddha is naturally selfless, but although my Buddha has vast supernatural powers, he does not have the ability to lift all sentient beings across the sea of suffering together. He can only send down protection when sentient beings call out, and worshipping my Buddha's golden body is a form of communicating with my Buddha." Tathagata refuted.

"According to what the Master said, if all sentient beings place all their hopes on the Buddha, then sentient beings will not think of making progress, will not engage in production, will donate all the wealth they have worked hard to earn to the temple to seek blessings for the next life, and will attribute all the suffering in this life to the karma of the previous life. This is not protecting sentient beings, but paralyzing them. May I ask the Master, is such a Buddhist teaching really saving all sentient beings?"

Fa Neng's words pointed directly to the core doctrine of the Buddhist community—karma and reincarnation.

"You demon monk, are you questioning whether my Buddha is deceiving sentient beings?" The old monk of Baoguang Temple changed his face upon hearing this and pointed at Fa Neng, scolding him.

Hearing this, Tathagata's face also completely sank.

Fa Neng was going to completely overturn the foundation of the Buddhist community!

"Nonsense!" Tathagata shouted coldly, "Sentient beings all suffer; this is the normal state of the world. Birth, old age, sickness, and death, separation from loved ones, meeting with those you hate, not getting what you want, and the five aggregates are all suffering; no one can avoid it. My Buddha is compassionate and passed down the true scriptures to guide sentient beings toward good, precisely to let sentient beings understand the root of suffering, so as to cut off evil and cultivate good, accumulate merit, and seek to escape the sea of suffering in the next life and be born in the Pure Land. You slander it as paralyzing sentient beings; it is simply reversing black and white, with malicious intent!"

"Hahaha..." Fa Neng laughed up to the sky upon hearing this, his laughter filled with desolation.

"What a 'sentient beings all suffer,' what a 'escape the sea of suffering'!"

He stopped laughing and stared at Tathagata with burning eyes.

"Birth, old age, sickness, and death are natural laws. If there is life, there is death. If there is blooming, there is withering. This is the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth; why has it become suffering in the eyes of the Buddha?"

"Now you keep saying that sentient beings all suffer, just to make them accept your salvation and let sentient beings support you. You use an illusory next life to deprive sentient beings of the courage and hope to change this life; this is the greatest evil!"

Fa Neng became more and more excited as he spoke, his voice generous and stirring, deafening.

The common people below the platform were dumbfounded.

"You have already entered the demon barrier and have too deep a prejudice against Buddhist teachings." Tathagata looked at Fa Neng before him and continued to refute: "My Buddhist doctrine..."

This debate between the two continued back and forth until late at night.

By this time, the common people who were watching the fun had dispersed, and the monks of Baoguang Temple had already gone to rest.

On the high platform, only Fa Neng and Tathagata remained.

The two had debated for a whole day without eating or drinking.

Although Fa Neng's spirit was still excited, his body, after all, was a mortal one and had long reached its limit.

His face was pale, his lips were dry and cracked, and his body was swaying.

And the ascetic monk opposite him was still calm and composed, as if he hadn't been affected at all.

"You lost." Tathagata looked at Fa Neng and said slowly.

"I... didn't lose..."

Fa Neng gritted his teeth and wanted to say something more, but his eyes went black, and his body could no longer support him, slowly falling to the ground.

Looking at Fa Neng who had fainted due to exhaustion, there was no joy on Tathagata Buddha's face, but rather a piece of solemnity.

Although he finally said Fa Neng lost, he didn't actually defeat Fa Neng in the debate; it was just that Fa Neng fell first.

"That 'Liaochen,' what is his background? He could think of such a tricky method to shake the foundation of my Buddhist community and make Jin Chanzi fall into the demon barrier, even making me unable to make him return to the right path."

Tathagata became more and more curious and wary of that mastermind behind the scenes.

He walked to Fa Neng's side, squatted down, reached out his withered finger, and gently tapped on Fa Neng's brow.

Now, to make Fa Neng return to the right track, he could only directly awaken Jin Chanzi's memory.

As long as Jin Chanzi's memory revived, all problems would be solved. By then, this second disciple of his would naturally return to the right path obediently.

As Tathagata tapped Fa Neng's brow, a wisp of Tathagata's divine sense entered Fa Neng's sea of consciousness.

Tathagata's divine sense turned into a golden Buddha body and appeared in Fa Neng's sea of consciousness space.

He looked at the sleeping Fa Neng's soul, didn't wake him, but reached out and tapped Fa Neng's soul gently.

"Wake up!"

With his light shout, a point of golden light began to slowly light up in the depths of Fa Neng's soul.

That was a soul origin wrapped in layers of seals.

It was Jin Chanzi's Primordial Spirit!

Tathagata's voice contained the power of supernatural powers, penetrating the layers of seals and ringing directly in the depths of Jin Chanzi's Primordial Spirit.

"Jin Chanzi, why don't you wake up yet!"

This voice was like a great bell, deafening.

Jin Chanzi's Primordial Spirit, which had been reincarnated and sleeping for more than twenty years, trembled violently.

The seal wrapped around him began to show cracks.

The memories belonging to Jin Chanzi, with the breaking of the seal, constantly poured into Fa Neng's soul.

From the time he was subdued by Daoist Jie Yin, joined the Buddhist community, became the second disciple under Tathagata, to the time he listened to the lecture in Lingshan, took a nap, and was demoted to the mortal world by Tathagata...

From the time he was reincarnated as a human, vowed to travel West, to the time he walked into Pudu Temple and met that Master Liaochen who changed his life...

One scene after another, one event after another, clearly surfaced in his mind.

"I... am I Jin Chanzi?"

"No... I am Fa Neng..."

Two completely different identity recognitions collided and tore frantically in Fa Neng's soul.

"You are Jin Chanzi, my second disciple, the scripture-fetcher who bears the heavy responsibility of traveling West!"

Tathagata's voice rang out again, forcibly suppressing Fa Neng's consciousness.

"Ah!"

Fa Neng's soul let out a painful roar, and then his eyes began to become clear.

The memory belonging to Jin Chanzi gained the upper hand.

He slowly raised his head and looked at Tathagata who had awakened him.

"This disciple pays respects to the World Honored One."

He finally remembered his identity and also knew what stupid things his reincarnation in this life had done.

He had actually openly opposed the Buddhist community, preached the "Master Liaochen's" demon talk, and almost shook the foundation of the Buddhist community.

Thinking of this, Jin Chanzi broke into a cold sweat.

"World Honored One, that was absolutely not this disciple's intention. It was that old monk Liaochen who deliberately set a trap to guide this disciple's reincarnation to go astray."

As soon as Jin Chanzi woke up, he hurriedly shifted the blame. ===== CHAPTER 199 =====