This is a record of an interview with the demon king Mo Ying, who sought at the Hsiang Kuang Buddhist Centre in Australia. He now resides in the Western Land of Nature. This account reflects upon his origins and his encounter with the Centre, recorded by the chief writer, Venerable HaiZe, on March 8, 2022.
Venerable HaiZe: (As I invited the demon king Mo Ying, who now resides in the Western Land of Dharma Nature, to speak, what manifested before me was a being with a dragon head, adorned with two long, earthy-yellow whiskers, yet possessing a human body.) Are you the demon king Mo Ying?
Demon King Mo Ying speaks:
"I am. Eight hundred years ago, I was a dragon—a dragon with a very strong demon nature. I possessed the head of a dragon and of a human. The famous Dragon Kings of the Four Seas were fortunate; they were born in the Dragon Palace and ascended to their positions, also possessing dragon heads and human bodies. I, however, did not have their good fortune. When I was discovered by humans, they captured me. Because of my ferocity, they could not control me, and in the end, they imprisoned me and killed me with a thousand arrows piercing my heart.
A Tragic Origin: The Dragon in the Forest
In truth, I was a dragon with human-like qualities. I grew up in the deep mountains, living a life of freedom. I had no parents, and from a young age, I never left the forest. When a massive fire broke out in the mountains, I fled with the other animals and stumbled into the human world. I never knew that my dragon head and human body would cause such panic among people. Some saw me as an inauspicious omen, while others viewed me as a strange celestial phenomenon. Regardless, they harboured ill intentions toward me. I sensed their defensive and malicious hearts, which in turn triggered the demon nature hidden within me. I roared in my cage, releasing the anger in my heart, which only led to even more ruthless treatment from them.
Before I breathed my last, I saw a monastic chanting words over me. I felt much better, yet I still left the human world carrying that deep resentment. I knew my soul was filled with darkness, and I was taken to a place where everyone looked incredibly strange—beings with the heads of dragons, pigs, cows, snakes, lions, and leopards, yet all possessing human bodies. In the human world, there are actually interdimensional spaces where the offspring of animals and humans exist. In the world of men, they are treated as freaks, suffering constant bullying, and after dying in resistance, they enter the Alien Demon Realm."
The Hypocrisy of the Human World
"In the human world, monastics and practitioners are supposed to be the representatives of and equality. Logically speaking, they should treat all people, animals, and even beings from various spaces with equal regard. But in our experience, there are far too few monastics and practitioners who can actually achieve this. Today, I am one of the kings of the Alien Demon Realm. The person who originally led me into this realm was a monastic—a being with a human body but the head of a demon. This signifies that while many monastics may appear as respected practitioners while they have their human bodies, their souls are already growing demon heads.
A demon head represents a mind filled with the various personalities of demon crowds. This is even more demonic than a demon king, which is why we hold a degree of wariness toward monastics. Some even perform heinous acts behind the scenes. Believers may not see it, understand it, or be aware of it, but we demon beings see it very clearly. Whether one keeps the or not, one should be very clear about it in their own heart. These heinous acts are violations of the precepts. Violating the precepts is not just about physical actions; having improper thoughts while assuming others do not know, and thus indulging oneself, is also a violation. This situation is something we in the demon realm see with absolute clarity! We can enter their bodies, causing them to act upon those negative thoughts and commit even heavier transgressions. If they did not have those initial thoughts, we would have no way to invade."
The Nature of the Pandemic
"In fact, demon beings exist in the animal and insect worlds as well. Their worlds are the same as the human world, just without the complexity of the human mind. In every species of animal or insect, there are those with fierce personalities and those with gentle ones. These fierce animals and insects, after death, are absorbed into the demon realm of their respective species due to their violent nature. They often invade others of their own kind; they belong to a different space than humans, yet they share the same space as the souls of demon beings.
Take this current pandemic, for example. The primary invaders are the physical mutated viruses that make everyone sick. However, in reality, there are spiritual mutated viruses attached to these physical viruses, much like how humans have and spiritual attachments. As for which people these viruses invade, aside from the spiritual mutated viruses carrying the physical ones into the human body, there are also demon beings who carry the mutated viruses into the human body. These situations happen around people at all times, with the physical mutated viruses, the invisible spiritual mutated viruses, and the demon beings working together to advance the pandemic."
A Confrontation with Practitioner Su
"The reason I came to investigate the construction of the Pure Land Centre is that we find it rare to see practitioners who can act with such selfless hearts, treating all beings with equality and compassion, even when there is no benefit to themselves. I had never encountered such a practitioner, so I came to investigate.
The name of Practitioner Su is famous even in our Alien Demon Realm. This is because Practitioner Su has performed Chao Du for so many insects, moths, earthworms, birds, and other crawling and flying creatures, as well as ants, frogs, snakes, and other reptiles. Especially the souls of animals raised for food—cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, fish, and shrimp—and animals like cats and dogs. Furthermore, the souls of large animals like leopards, lions, giraffes, and horses—among these souls, there are also demon beings. Therefore, this includes the demon kings, sons, and grandsons of our Alien Demon Realm. Many have been subdued by Practitioner Su, who removed their demonic appearances and restored them to their original state. This is something we in the Alien Demon Realm have never encountered before. Yet, in the spaces that Practitioner Su's enters to perform Chao Du, many of our kind have been liberated. This may be something you do not know, but it truly happens in our Alien Demon Realm every single day.
Because Practitioner Su is a truly equal and compassionate practitioner, we were worried that if the Pure Land Centre were established, it would save even more crawling, flying, insect, reptile, and animal beings. This would leave our Alien Demon Realm with no room to develop. That is why we ventured to the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre, hoping to see if there was any opportunity to stop the establishment of the Centre. To our surprise, Practitioner Su noticed our presence and wrote out memorial tablets. I never expected that Practitioner Su's skills would be such that, at the very moment the tablets were read, we would be drawn into the large chime bowl and brought here. We originally did not know what this place was, but after listening to Practitioner Su's Dharma talks, we learned that this is the Western Land of Dharma Nature of the temple—truly a most extraordinary place!
I am still learning about the environment here; it is so vastly different from our Alien Demon Realm! Is this the world of the Buddha's teachings? It is so bright and pure. So, the Buddha's teachings have such a space, and it is not just the world inhabited by those insincere and dishonest monastics we imagined. Here, I have revealed the true thoughts we held when we arrived."
The Buddha gave Mo Ying the Dharma name 'Shi Zhuanben'.
