My Enemy Became My Cultivation Companion

The next morning arrived softly and quietly.

The morning bell of Emile Temple rang, but the elderly Abbot had risen long before it. He made his way to the Buddha Hall, leading everyone in chanting scriptures.

"I was born from the right side; you, Maitreya, were born from the crown.

If I live a hundred years, Maitreya lives eighty-four thousand years.

My land is barren, yours is golden.

My land is filled with suffering, yours is filled with joy..."

Accompanying the chanting was the rhythmic turning of prayer beads. With each recitation, the bead in hand revolved once.

Rows upon rows of skeletal starving ghosts knelt on meditation mats, day after day offering devotion to the scriptures.

In the dim Buddha Hall, the lamps burned eternally, illuminating it as though it were broad daylight. The Maitreya Buddha on the Magic Platform continued to wear his eternal smile, his belly large and round like a drum. Wisps of blue smoke drifted from the incense burner, and the sacred hall sparkled in resplendent gold.

The elderly Abbot was the backbone of this temple and also the village chief of Thousand Buddha Village.

He was eloquent and skilled in preaching the Buddhist Law. He never put on airs, but interacted with people with plain humility. In the village, anyone in trouble—aside from issues of food—would come to him. He had managed this village for over eighty years, and not a single person had spoken ill of him.

This Thousand Buddha Village, filled with starving ghosts who should, by nature, be insatiably greedy and fierce, had become a place of harmony under the Abbot's guidance. Here, no one takes what isn't theirs. Doors remain unlocked at night. In fact, it surpasses the mortal world itself.

For this village, the elderly Abbot was akin to a living Buddha.

After the morning bell had tolled for some time, a pair of quarrelsome women barged into the Buddha Hall. The elderly Abbot stepped forward to mediate. Upon inquiry, it turned out to be a dispute over one woman's house construction; she had inadvertently extended her wall beyond its boundary, encroaching by an inch onto another's "Karmic Field." The other woman accused her of arrogance and unreasonable behavior, claiming the field rightfully belonged to her.

In this village, the Karmic Field is immensely important. Though it yields gold, that gold represents karmic burdens. Only by transforming these karmic burdens into Buddha statues and amassing enough can villagers obtain the Buddha's power of wishes and ultimately find liberation.

This belief forms the simple yet profound view of Thousand Buddha Village.

After all, the good men and women here follow the Pure Land Sect, and Emile Temple itself is a Pure Land Temple.

The Abbot, after pacifying both parties, reviewed the records meticulously. After thorough examination, it turned out the woman had indeed occupied an extra inch of the Karmic Field.

The woman blushed red with embarrassment, and the Abbot proceeded to reprimand her kindly but firmly. "What isn't yours can never truly belong to you. Even if you were to claim another hundred inches of Karmic Field, the gold it produces will still be someone else's karmic burden. Furthermore, if greed remains unchecked and breeds evil deeds, one is destined to remain a starving ghost forever."

These words left the woman speechless.

The Abbot rarely resorted to the deceit of a paperhanger. He was a fair man who discerned right from wrong; he would always hold the guilty accountable.

No sooner had the women's dispute been resolved than a group of skeletal men came seeking judgment after getting into a fistfight over yet another minor quibble—such were the trivialities filling life in Thousand Buddha Village.

The elderly Abbot, however, never dealt with these matters perfunctorily or carelessly.

He dared not slack off.

For to slack off would mean neglecting Maitreya's descent into the world. The Buddhist Scripture foretells that when Maitreya descends, everything will transform into a Pure Land. When that time comes, everyone in Thousand Buddha Village will understand the Buddhist Law and achieve enlightenment.

............…

One calm morning, after a busy morning of work, the elderly Abbot heard from one of the monks that Chen Yi and his companions were scouting various areas of Thousand Buddha Village.

"Namo Maitreya, the Future Buddha descending to our world—they truly have a purpose," the Abbot remarked.

A monk then asked, "Should we approach that woman directly and ask her to chant scriptures?"

The Abbot shook his head and sighed deeply. "If they'd entered the village untroubled, that might have been possible. But Kong Ming mistook them for external demons and had the villagers ambush them. This has soured their impressions, particularly that leading man. If we approach them directly now, they will surely grow suspicious. And besides, that man is no easy person to deal with."

The monk wore a bitter expression and asked, "But if we don't approach her, how can we have her chant the scriptures?"

Another rough-looking monk, finding the conversation cryptic and confusing, couldn't hold back and blurted out, "Which woman are we talking about, and why do we need her to chant scriptures?"

The Abbot hesitated for a moment and then revealed a hint of the divine prophecy. "It's the shortest woman among the four. The Bodhisattva appeared to me in a dream, revealing that she possesses the Heavenly Ear Technique and was born with Buddha seed."

Hearing this, the two monks were utterly astounded, stunned into silence, and didn't dare raise their voices further.

The Abbot continued, "If this woman recites the scriptures, her words will manifest as lotus flowers, and her voice will shape the law. In such a manner, Maitreya will descend into the world, and our Thousand Buddha Village will also achieve liberation."

At this, the monks couldn't help sighing heavily. Chanting a few Buddhist verses, the rough monk even lashed out in anger, scolding and threatening to punish a young novice monk severely.

"If she was born with Buddha seed and such great power, wouldn't chanting the scriptures allow her to immediately attain Buddhahood? Helping someone achieve Buddhahood is a tremendous merit, even if it doesn't directly grant us liberation. But now, she might refuse to chant," the monk complained with repeated sighs. "Abbot, what should we do now?"

The Abbot deliberated for a while, then carefully composed his words. "I observe this woman… deep down, she has a compassionate heart. It's only the presence of that man that prevents her from showing it.

Asking her outright is impossible. However, if we hold a communal prayer under the guise of seeking blessings and gather the entire village to chant together, we might subtly ask her why she wouldn't join in. If she still refuses, we can persist by questioning her reasons.

With her kind nature and the pressure of repeated inquiries, she's bound to feel uneasy. It's like cutting flesh with a soft blade—eventually, she'll agree to chant."

The two monks contemplated this plan for a moment and agreed it was feasible.

In the side room, the three monks clasped their hands in reverence and chanted in unison with utmost devotion:

"Namo Maitreya, the Future Buddha descending to our world."