Taking the Stage (Bonus Chapter, Seeking Subscriptions)

On the high platform, after the two monks completed the ritual, they exchanged a glance.

Neither side had sent an expert for this opening debate. Their cultivation was only around the Breath Ingestion realm.

The Lotus Temple monk was named Qiongda. Wearing a yellow vest, he clapped sharply, the sound ringing out. "The inherent nature of all dharmas is empty, like dreams, illusions, bubbles, and shadows!"

Lobsang of Horse-Headed Vajra Temple stamped his foot, as though a vajra pestle had struck the earth, and shouted, "If the inherent nature of all dharmas is empty, then may I ask where you came from? If you were originally empty, why are you still standing here?"

Qiongda immediately answered, "Man is but a thing, inherently empty, no more than a provisional name established through the gathering of causes and conditions... If forcibly named 'dog,' then it is merely a stray hound by the roadside. If forcibly named 'cow,' then it is livestock..."

Lobsang immediately assumed a demon-subduing stance. "Then are karmic retribution and recompense empty as well? Could it be that the causality spoken of by the Buddha is false too?"

Qiongda's face turned white. He staggered several steps back, seemingly cowed by that imposing force. "Emptiness is not annihilative emptiness, but the emptiness of dependent origination. It is precisely because all dharmas lack inherent nature that they flow and turn according to causes and conditions, while karmic retribution never misses by a hair. If they possessed inherent nature, they would be fixed and unchanging—doing good would not yield good fruits, and doing evil would not bring evil retribution..."

Lobsang clapped and cried, "Then is Buddha-nature empty as well? The Nirvana Sutra says, 'All sentient beings possess Buddha-nature.' If Buddha-nature is empty, how can all Dharma Kings attain Buddhahood?"

Qiongda answered with difficulty,