Western Heaven, Spirit Mountain's Great Leiyin Temple, where Buddha Light shone upon all.
In the Mahavira Hall, Tathagata, who had obtained the Gatha left behind by the Two Sages of the West, stopped preaching the scriptures and began to comprehend the Gatha.
At this moment, within the great hall were he, Guanyin, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, and more than thirty Buddhas.
These holy ones of the Buddhist Sect were the main upper echelon of the Modern Buddha lineage headed by Tathagata, with Xuanzang, who had been conferred the title of Merit Sandalwood Buddha, ranked at the very end.
The Buddhist Sect had the saying of the Three Ages Buddhas.
The Three Ages Buddhas were further divided into the Past, Present, and Future Buddhas by time—the Vertical Three Ages Buddhas—and the Horizontal Three Ages Buddhas, calculated by space.
The Past Buddhas were headed by Randeng. He had once governed the Buddhist Realm before Tathagata, nurturing many Bodhisattvas and Buddhas; even the present Tathagata was his disciple and had received his prophecy from him.
It was just that as Tathagata's cultivation reached perfection and he entered to take charge of the Buddhist Realm, Randeng naturally stepped down from the position of lord of the Buddhist Realm. By now, the Past Buddhas had basically all passed into nirvana, leaving only Randeng.
This was the cultivation of the Buddhist Sect. Even Buddhas had a time when they died. Their death was called entering extinction, passing into nirvana; this was their own tribulation, impossible to resist.
However, if they passed through it, they could return through nirvana. Of course, if they failed, naturally there was no more game to play.
At this very moment, Tathagata, who was comprehending the Gatha, suddenly opened his eyes and lifted his gaze toward the east, his eyes deep and profound.
"Buddha,