Infinite true path

There has always been a legend in the Three Realms. However, monks in the human world know this legend best, and even mortals know a little about it. But very few monks in heaven and hell have heard of this legend.

This legend is called Ksitigarbha saving his mother.

According to legend, there is no realm lord Ksitigarbha in hell, but is directly controlled by the Ten Halls of Yama. At that time, Ksitigarbha was just an ordinary person in the human world. He was only about twenty years old, but he was a thorough scholar.

As a mortal, Ksitigarbha loved to study, was kind-hearted, and extremely filial. He was a good young man with a reputation far and wide. However, although Ksitigarbha was good, his mother was a woman with an extremely weird temper, violent and vicious nature.

On weekdays, Ksitigarbha was always doing good deeds, but his mother was domineering and notorious, always doing some hateful things.

Although Ksitigarbha always advised his mother to be kind and be a good person. However, his mother never listened. All she could think about was how to play tricks on people and not make them feel better. It seems that it is difficult for people to live in peace, but Ksitigarbha's mother herself can obtain great happiness.

So, this son and one mother, one good and one evil, just made do and continued to live. Many people who are familiar with them don't know why a vicious mother can give birth to such a good son. Some people even say that Ksitigarbha’s mother had accumulated great virtues in her previous life, otherwise she would have suffered retribution long ago.

However, good will be rewarded with good and evil will be punished with evil. This is a saying that sounds very simple, but it is also an iron law. No matter how good Ksitigarbha was, it would still be difficult for her mother to avoid evil retribution forever.

One day, without the knowledge of Ksitigarbha, a mortal, his mother had another evil thought in her heart.

Ksitigarbha's mother knew that there was a temple called "Hanshan Temple" not far from the town where she lived. The temple is not big, even a little small, and naturally it is not luxurious at all.

However, this temple is an ancient temple that has stood for more than five hundred years. It is solemn and solemn, and the Buddha's name is spread far and wide. Especially because the monks in the ancient temple are all ascetics with extremely high virtues. They often benefit the ordinary people nearby even if they suffer themselves. Therefore, this ancient temple is almost regarded as a scenic spot by the local mortals.

Often, if someone encounters a major disaster, they will go to Hanshan Temple to ask for a fortune, and then listen to some wonderful Buddhist words, and most of the time, the disaster can be avoided.

Ksitigarbha's mother had teased too many ordinary people in her daily life, and she gradually found it meaningless. So for some reason, she suddenly decided to target the ascetic monks in Hanshan Temple.

She knows very well that the ascetic monks in Hanshan Temple eat fast and chant Buddha's name, abide by the rules and precepts, and do not dare to cross the line at all. Especially because "avoid killing" is the first of the five Buddhist precepts, the monks in Hanshan Temple will not be contaminated with meat or fish under any circumstances. This has been a tradition for hundreds of years and has not changed at all.

So, she wanted to change the monk. She wanted to know what it would be like if the monks in Hanshan Temple really ate meat.

Therefore, she prepared a large basket of dog meat buns and pretended to go to Hanshan Temple to worship Buddha. Since Ksitigarbha's mother was notorious, almost no one in the neighborhood knew about her. So when the ascetic monks in the temple saw her arrival, they thought with compassion that she had finally had the idea of ​​repentance in her heart, so they wanted to come and listen. The sound of Buddha purifies the soul.

Being able to turn evil into good is a great merit for Buddhists. Therefore, the kind-hearted monks never thought that Ksitigarbha's mother actually came here with a vicious heart, and they only focused all their thoughts on how to persuade her to be kind.

At first, in order to achieve her goal, Ksitigarbha's mother naturally pretended to be extremely pious, as if she wanted to repent and change her past mistakes. And when she felt that the monks believed in her, she took out the dog meat buns she had prepared, saying that they were vegetarian buns she had prepared, hoping to establish a relationship with Buddha.

Giving is a good deed advocated by Buddhism to accumulate virtue and do good. Seeing Ksitigarbha's mother being so kind, the monks naturally would not refuse, so they all took her dog meat buns without warning, and some even started eating them quickly.

Among them, the abbot master of Hanshan Temple is one. He felt extremely happy when he saw Ksitigarbha's mother coming to worship the Buddha and even more kindly giving alms. So, in order to encourage Ksitigarbha's mother to do such good deeds, he, who was highly respected, did not hesitate to eat the buns that she handed over to her in front of her.

The abbot only took one bite and his expression changed. He had never been exposed to meat in his life, and the strange and strange smell that came from the buns made him feel very uncomfortable.

Ksitigarbha's mother, who saw the abbot of Hanshan Temple eating dog meat buns with her own eyes, finally let go of her bad taste. So, she could no longer act, laughed wildly in Hanshan Temple, and directly told the truth.

When they learned that they had actually eaten dog meat, almost all the monks vomited on the spot. The abbot's face instantly became extremely ugly, and his old body suddenly collapsed on the ground. He stared blankly at Ksitigarbha's mother, but was speechless for a long time.

Seeing the embarrassed appearance of the monks around him, Ksitigarbha's mother was even more happy. What she wanted to see when she came today was the tragic situation in front of her. She thought it was "funny".

However, no matter how wildly Ksitigarbha's mother was laughing at this moment, the kind-hearted monk would never blame her. He only blamed himself for not being able to tell the difference and constantly chanting "sin".

As for the abbot master of Hanshan Temple, his reaction was the most intense. I want him to practice hard all his life and devote himself to Buddha. In this way, at the age of seventy, he already had a vague feeling that perhaps he was about to reach the land of bliss and transcend.

Who would have thought that today's bite of buns would destroy all his life's hard work. He had recited the Buddha's name for many years, but today he broke the great precept. How could he still have the dignity to go to the Paradise to meet the Lord Buddha?

Therefore, the more the abbot master thought about it, the more miserable he felt in his heart, and the more he thought about it, the more depressed and uncomfortable he felt. Finally, not long after, he died of grief and anger on the spot, and sat alive in front of Ksitigarbha's mother.

At this time, Ksitigarbha's mother was also frightened. She didn't expect that after taking a bite of the buns, the abbot master would react so violently. So, she finally escaped from Hanshan Temple and ran down the mountain.

Many times in the past, Ksitigarbha's mother could always run away successfully after doing evil, or even run away openly. But this time, when heaven and earth were finally furious because of the death of the abbot of Hanshan Temple, the retribution of reincarnation came, and she couldn't run away no matter what.

Ksitigarbha's mother ran and ran and kept running. But after running for a long time, she found that the road down the mountain was terrifyingly long and seemed to be endless. Until a certain moment, when she was exhausted and in a daze, she suddenly discovered that there was an extra door in front of the path she was on.

"This is a way out!" Ksitigarbha's mother thought, so she ran over without hesitation and pushed open the door.

What greeted her was not the familiar return path, nor the bright sunshine, only the endless sea of ​​fire and suffocating heat.

Ksitigarbha's mother was frightened and wanted to turn back. But when she turned back, she found that the door was no longer there, and what surrounded her were only countless horrific and bloody scenes - those were the climactic scenes of the eighteenth level of hell!

Reincarnation sent Ksitigarbha's mother to hell and turned her into an ugly vicious dog. Since then, Ksitigarbha's mother has been trapped in hell and suffered suffering and punishment in order to atone for her sins.

Soon after, the mortal Ksitigarbha knew all this. He felt deeply repentant for everything his mother had done, but as a son of man, how could he let his mother suffer in hell?

Therefore, he resolutely broke away from the mortal world and entered Taoism, and began a long period of hard training. And because of his perseverance and extraordinary talent, he finally achieved greatness many years later.

So, he resolutely stepped into hell and came to the sea of ​​demon cultivation. He met Yama, hoping to rescue his mother. But how could Yama agree to his conditions? Unless, there is such a being whose status and power are higher than Yama.

This kind of existence is the only realm lord that hell does not yet possess!

This became Ksitigarbha's new goal. So he continued to practice hard for tens of thousands of years on the sea of ​​demon cultivation, and finally achieved great power, was recognized by the hell world, proclaimed himself Ksitigarbha, and commanded the ten palaces of Yama!

Finally, Ksitigarbha saw his suffering mother. However, the power of reincarnation is so powerful that he cannot transform his mother from a dog back into a human at all. In desperation, he had no choice but to open the door to hell and release his mother first.

And he didn't expect that his mother had suffered so much in hell. Not only did she not show any remorse, she even ran away after breaking out of the eighteenth level of hell.

I don’t know where it came from, but Ksitigarbha’s mother, who transformed into a dog, gained extremely powerful power. So, she decided to take revenge on the world that sent her to hell and turned her into a dog.

The way she thought of revenge was to take away the light of night between heaven and earth, and plunge the night into complete darkness. So, she began to chase the moon, and as soon as she caught it, she would use her great magical power to eat the moon alive in one bite.

There is another legend among the Three Realms. This legend is a follow-up to Ksitigarbha's rescue of his mother, which was called Tengu Eating the Moon.

According to legend, the Tengu is the incarnation of Ksitigarbha's mother, and in front of her, the light of the bright moon will be completely obscured.