Buddhist Dharma

Li Qi stood in the sky, watching everything unfold below.

The young novice monk had once devoutly believed in the Buddhist Dharma, steadfastly upheld it, and cultivated himself tirelessly with the Four Demons as his goal, hoping to spread the ideals of Buddhist Dharma and compassion throughout the world. But now, he had been shaken.

Trembling, the young novice monk asked the Four Demons, "Masters, could it be... that the Buddhist Dharma is wrong?"

"Nonsense!" the Four Demons said in unison.

Cloud Whale immediately continued, "How could the Buddhist Dharma possibly be wrong? Can't you see the Buddhist Kingdom we created? The seven treasures within it, the peace, the beauty, and the compassion—are those false? Compared with the kingdoms built by bandits, is the Buddhist Kingdom not real enough?"

Though frightened, the novice monk did not lower his head. He immediately said, "Masters, if you can govern this Buddhist Kingdom through the Buddhist Dharma, then why could you not establish the Buddhist Kingdom through the Buddhist Dharma?"

Those words left the Four Demons speechless, unable to answer.

Yes. They could govern the Buddhist Kingdom with the Buddhist Dharma, but why had they not used the Buddhist Dharma to establish it?

The answer was... they had tried.

Buddhist Dharma alone could not establish a kingdom.

The Buddhist Dharma could not establish a kingdom. They had needed other methods—violence, schemes, and trickery. They had needed to defeat their enemies before they could establish the Buddhist Kingdom of today.

After driving away their enemies, they had then used Buddhist Dharma to enlighten the people, and thus the present Buddhist Kingdom had come to be.

Yet no matter what, they could not conceal the fact that they had once used methods despised by Buddhist Dharma to spread Buddhist Dharma.

Violence and trickery were methods