At every critical moment in history, Buddhism has inevitably faced the battle between the Buddha and Māra.

Ru Chun: Last night I continued contemplating in my dreams, seemingly about Mahāyāna-related questions—perhaps because I had no good realization, my mind consciousness did not know the specific content of the contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā). I also had a dream in which an immortal in white robes held a large long sword radiating dazzling golden light, battling in the air against a person in black robes wielding a sword that emitted black vapors; the power of the long sword was far greater than that of the black sword.

During the night, the root behind my nose cracked and popped seven or eight times, quite loudly; each time it sounded, I woke up briefly, and after waking my nasal breathing felt quite clear and unobstructed. This morning while sitting in meditation, I contemplated the cooperative relationship among the three transforming consciousnesses: the manas is the master regulator; the tathāgatagarbha, according to its intentions and karma, generates the dream and transforms the physical body; the mind consciousness must both rest and not sleep too deeply—it must remain alert to observe and keep records—and the fine balance in all this is regulated by the manas.

Assessment: The battle in the dream between the immortal in white robes and the person in black robes hints at the current battle between Buddha and Māra within the Buddhist world. We have been harassed and antagonized by the dark forces of the Buddhist world for ten years. Because these dark forces have no legitimate standing in terms of Dharma principles and cannot prevail against us, they have been secretly sabotaging us behind our backs, never letting up for ten years. Even though they have gained no advantage whatsoever, and their sabotage has failed to achieve the intended effect—on the contrary, the more they sabotage, the faster, steadier, and stronger we grow—those dark forces simply refuse to give up. They have tried every kind of sinister and underhanded trick, yet they can do nothing to us. More and more people are accepting our Dharma teachings, being positively influenced and transformed by us. Evil can never triumph over justice in the end, and we wage war without waging war: toward the various destructive acts of the Māra forces, we only engage in passive defense, unwilling to expend effort on large-scale retaliation. We devote all our energy to liberating sentient beings and developing the Buddhist enterprise, and Buddhism will naturally develop in a healthy and orderly way. The evil forces will have their own karmic retribution; as for whether that retribution means sitting in prison until the end of time or dwelling long in hell, we do not wish to know, because we are not interested—we are not even interested in speaking their names or presenting evidence of their various vile deeds. People who are both wicked and evil are not worthy of being our opponents, and therefore we have no interest in them.