by Wu Cheng-En
The Golden Vajra is stronger than Wood,
The Mind Ape could bring the Wooden Dragon to submission.
When Metal obeyed and Wood was tamed they were at one;
When Wood was loving and Metal kind they worked together.
One host and one guest with nothing to keep them apart,
With the three in harmony they had a mysterious power.
Nature and feelings both rejoiced as they joined in the Supreme Principle;
They both promised without reservation to go to the West.
In a moment they were back at the village. Holding the monster's rake in one hand and twisting his ear with the other, he said, “Do you know who that is sitting up straight in the main hall? It's my master.”
When Old Gao and all his friends and relations saw Monkey coming, tugging the bound monster by his ear, they all came into the courtyard and said happily, “Venerable sir, this is the son-in-law all right.” The monster went forward, fell to his knees, and kowtowed to Sanzang with his hands behind his back.
“Master,” he shouted, “Your disciple failed to welcome you. Had I known, master, that you were staying in my father-in-law's house, I'd have come to greet you and do homage, and I'd have been saved all this agony.”
“How did you make him submit and come to pay homage?” Sanzang asked Monkey.
Monkey then let the monster go, hit him with the handle of the rake, and yelled, “Tell him, fool.” The monster then told Sanzang all about how he had been converted by the Bodhisattva.
Sanzang was so pleased that he asked Squire Gao for an incense table to be brought, which was done at once. Sanzang then washed his hands, burnt incense, bowed low to the South, and said, “Thanks be to the Bodhisattva for her divine grace.” The elders also burnt incense and bowed low in worship. When this was done, Sanzang took the seat of honour in the hall and told Monkey to untie the monster. Monkey shook himself to take his hairs back, and the ropes untied themselves. The monster bowed to Sanzang once more and vowed to go to the West with him. Then he bowed to Monkey as his elder brother because he had joined first, addressing him as “elder brother” from then on. “If you wish to earn a good reward by going with me as my disciple, I'll give you a Buddhist name to call you by.”
“Master,” he replied, “When the Bodhisattva laid her hands upon my head and told me to obey the prohibitions, she gave me a Buddhist name-Zhu Wuneng, Pig Awakened to Power.”
“Wonderful, wonderful,” said Brother Monkey with a smile, “I'm called Wukong, Awakened to Emptiness, and you're called Awakened to Power. That makes us members of the same sect in the Buddhist faith.”
“Master,” said Pig, “I have been instructed by the Bodhisattva and I never eat the five stinking foods and the three forbidden meats-wild goose, dog, and snakehead. I've eaten vegetarian food in my father-in-law's house and never touched the stinking foods; but now that I have met you, master, I'm freed from these restrictions.”
“You are not,” Sanzang replied. “You are not to eat the five stinking foods and the three forbidden meats, and I'm giving you another name: Eight Prohibitions, or Bajie.”
“I shall obey my master's command,” the moron happily replied, and from then on he was known as Zhu Bajie, or Eight Prohibitions Pig.
Squire Gao was happier than ever to see that he had turned from evil to good, and he ordered his servants to set out banquet with which to thank the Tang Priest. Pig went over to Squire Gao, tugged at his coat, and said, “Sir, may my wife come out and pay her respects to these two gentlemen?”
“Brother,” said Monkey with a laugh. “You've entered the church now and become a monk. Don't ever talk about a wife again. Only Taoist priests can have families-we Buddhist monks never marry. Let's all sit down and eat a vegetarian meal, then we can set off early tomorrow morning on our journey to the West.” Squire Gao had the table and chairs set out and asked Sanzang take the seat of honour. Monkey and Pig sat on his left and right, and all the relations sat below them. Squire Gao opened a pot of wine, from which he filled a cup and poured a libation to Heaven and Earth before handing it to Sanzang.
“Frankly, sir,” Sanzang said, “I have been a vegetarian from the womb, and have not consumed strong-flavoured food since my earliest childhood.”
“Venerable master, I know that you are a vegetarian,” Squire Gao replied, “which is why I haven't pressed any meat or strong-flavoured food upon you. But this wine is made from vegetable matter, so a cup of it will do no harm.”
“I don't drink either,” Sanzang explained, “as alcohol is the first of the prohibitions of the priesthood.”
“Master,” pig hastily interjected, “I may be a vegetarian, but I haven't given up liquor.”
“And although I haven't strong head for the stuff and can't finish a whole jar of it, I haven't given it up either,” Monkey added.
“In that case you two had better drink some; but don't get drunk and ruin everything,” said Sanzang. The pair of them then took the first cup, after which everyone sat down again as the vegetarian dishes were brought in. Words could not describe the flowing cups, the well-filled dishes, and the splendid food.
When master and disciples had eaten, Squire Gao brought pieces of gold and silver to the weight of two hundred ounces on a red lacquer tray and offered them to the three pilgrims to help with the expenses of their journey. Then he produced three brocade-collared gowns that could serve as overcoats. “We are mendicant monks,” said Sanzang, “Who beg for our food in the villages and other places through which we pass, so we could not possibly accept gold, silver, or cloth.”
Monkey then marched up and grabbed a handful of the money. Then he addressed the young man Gao Cai. “Yesterday,” he said, “I troubled you to lead my master here, and today he has recruited another disciple, but we have been unable to show our gratitude. So take these pieces of gold and silver as your fee for guiding us, and buy yourself a pair of straw sandals. If you have any more evil spirits in future, and you help us again, we'll be able to show even more appreciation.” The young man Gao Cai took the gold and silver, then kowtowed to express his thanks.
“If you won't take gold or silver,” Squire Gao said, “please be good enough to accept these rough clothes as a mark of our gratitude.”
“If we monks accepted a single thread, we would have to atone for it for a thousand ages,” replied Sanzang. “It will suffice if we take the pancakes and fruit that we haven't eaten with us as provisions for the journey.”
“Master, elder brother,” said Pig, who was standing beside them, “it's all right for you two to refuse them, but I was a son-in-law in this family for several years, and I deserves three bushels of grain to take with me. On yes, father-in-law, my tunic was torn by elder brother yesterday and my shoes have split, so please give me a black brocade cassock and a good pair of new shoes.” Old Squire Gao, who could scarcely refuse this request, gave him the new shoes and a tunic in exchange for his old ones.
Pig swaggered over to Old Gao, chanted a “na-a-aw” of respect, and said, “Please inform my mother-in-law, my sisters-in-law, my brothers-in-law, and my uncles that I have become a monk today, and ask them to excuse me for not saying good-bye to them in person. Father-in-law, look after my wife well. If we don't get the scriptures, I'll go back to lay life and work for you as a son-in-law again.”
“Moron,” shouted Monkey, “stop talking nonsense.”
“I'm doing nothing of the sort,” Pig replied, “I am thinking that if things go wrong I'd be wasting my time as a monk, and my wife's marriage would have been ruined, both for nothing.”
“Enough of your idle chatter,” said Sanzang, “let's be on our way at once.” Their luggage was hung from a carrying-pole on pig's shoulders. When the white horse was saddled, Sanzang mounted it, and Monkey led the way with his iron cudgel over his shoulder. Thus the three of them left Squire Gao, his relations, and his friends, and headed West. There is a pome to prove it that goes:
The trees tow
er above the misty earth
As the Tang disciples of Buddha toil and suffer.
When hungry, they beg their food from a thousand homes;
When cold they wear cloaks with a thousand patches.
Do not allow the Thought-horse to run wild,
And don't let the stubborn Mind-ape howl at will.
With passions stilled and one's nature firm, all destinies are in harmony;
When the full moon of contemplation is reached, you will be pure.
After travelling peacefully Westwards for a month, the three of them left the territory of Stubet and saw a mountain soaring up above their heads. Sanzang stopped whipping his horse on, reined him in, and said, “Monkey, Monkey, that's a high mountain in front of us, so please go and reconnoiter it.”
“No need,” said Pig. “It's called Pagoda Mountain, and there's a Rook's Nest Hermit who cultivates his conduct on it. I've met him.”
“What does he do?” Sanzang asked.
“He has some powers,” Pig replied. “He once invited me to cultivate my conduct with him, but I didn't go.” As master and disciples talked they were soon on the mountain. It was a splendid mountain at that:
South of it were blue pines and verdant locust trees,
To the North were green willows and red peach-blossom.
Cawing noisily,
The wild birds talked to each other;
Soaring gracefully,
The cranes flew together.
Rich in fragrance
Were the thousands of different flowers;
Softly dark
Were the endless kinds of herbs.
In the gullies were bubbling green streams,
The crags were wreathed in auspicious cloud.
It was indeed a scene of rare and elegant beauty.
Lonely, where no man came or went.
As the master surveyed the scene from his horse he noticed a grass hut in front of a fragrant locust tree. To the left of it were David's-deer with flowers in their mouths, and to the right were monkeys holding offerings of fruit, while phoenixes of many colours wheeled around the top of the tree, in which cranes and golden pheasants had gathered. Pig pointed and said, “That's the Rook's Nest Hermit.” Sanzang gave his horse the rein, whipped it on, and went straight to the foot of the tree.
When the hermit saw the three of them coming he jumped down from his bird's nest. Sanzang dismounted and bowed to him, and only then the hermit reply, helping him up, “Please arise, holy priest. I'm sorry I did not welcome you properly.”
“Greetings, venerable hermit,” said Pig.
“Aren't you the Iron-haired Pig from the Mount of Blessing? How have you had the great good fortune of travelling with a holy monk?”
“Last year,” replied Pig, “I was converted by the Bodhisattva Guanyin, and I swore that I'd go with him as his disciple.”
“Wonderful, wonderful,” exclaimed the delighted hermit, who then pointed at Monkey and asked, “Who is this gentleman?”
“Old hermit,” said Monkey, “how is it that you know him but didn't recognize me?”
“Please excuse my ignorance,” the hermit replied.
“He is Sun Wukong, the senior of my disciples,” explained Sanzang.
“I apologize for my discourtesy,” said the hermit.
Sanzang bowed again and asked him the way to the Great Thunder Monastery in the Western Heaven. “Far away,” the other replied, “far away. The journey is a long one and there are many tigers and leopards along the way. It will be difficult.”
“How far is it?” asked Sanzang with great interest. “Although the journey is a long one,” the hermit replied, “you are bound to get there in the end. But there will be evil influences that you'll find hard to dispel. I have a Heart Sutra, a total of 270 words in 54 sentences, and if you recite it when you encounter evil influences you will come to no harm.” Sanzang prostrated himself on the ground and begged the hermit to tell him it, and the hermit recited it to him. It went:
When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara was meditating on the profound prajna-paramita, he perceived that all the five aggregates are void and empty, and he was thereupon freed from all sufferings and calamities. Sariputra, matter is not different from voidness and voidness is not different from matter: matter is voidness and voidness is matter. Such is also the case with sensation, perception, discrimination and consciousness. Sariputra, all these things are void in nature, having neither beginning nor end, being neither pure nor impure, and having neither increase nor decrease. Therefore, in voidness there is not matter, no sensation, no perception, no discrimination and no consciousness; there is no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body and no mind; there is no sight, no sound, no smell, no taste, no touch and no mental process; there is no category of eye nor is there a category of consciousness; no ignorance nor the cessation of ignorance; no old age and death, nor the cessation of old age and death; there is no suffering, no causes of suffering, no cessation of suffering, and no way leading go the cessation of suffering; and there is no wisdom, nor anything to be gained. As nothing is to be gained, a Bodhisattva depending on prajna-paramita becomes free in his mind, and as he is free in his mind he has no fear and is rid of dreamlike thoughts of unreality and enjoys ultimate Nirvana. By mean of prajna-paramita, all Buddhas of the past, the present and the future realize anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Therefore, we know prajna-paramita is a great, divine spell, a great enlightening spell, a supreme spell, and a spell without a parallel, that can do away with all sufferings without fail. Thus we recite the Prajna-paramita Spell and say: Gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate, bodhi, svaha!
As the Patriarch from the Tang had already the origins of enlightenment inside himself, he was able to remember the Heart Sutra after only one hearing, and it has been passed on down to this very day. This sutra is the kernel of the cultivation of the truth, and it is the gateway to becoming a Buddha. When the hermit had recited it, he started to rise up to his crow's nest by cloud, but Sanzang tugged at him and said that he wanted to know about the way to the Western Heaven. To this the hermit replied with a smile:
“The journey will not be difficult,
If you try to follow my instructions.
There will be a thousand mountains, a thousand deep rivers.
Many evil miasmas, and many a devil.
If you reach the edge of the sky
Do not worry or be afraid.
If you come to Precipitous Cliff
Walk with your feet placed sideways.
Be careful in the Black Pine Forest,
Where many an evil fox may block your path.
The capital cities will be full of spirits,
And demon kings will live in the mountains.
Tigers will sit in the music rooms,
Wolves will be in charge of the accounts.
Lions and elephants will all be kings,
With tigers and leopards for ministers.
A wild boar will carry your luggage,
A water monster will lead the way.
A very old stone monkey
Has no cause to be angry.
Ask those friends of yours-
They know the way to the West.”
Monkey smiled bitterly and said, “Let's go. No need to ask him; you can ask me.” Sanzang did not understand what he meant. The hermit changed himself into a beam of golden light and went up to his nest, while the venerable Sanzang bowed to him in gratitude. Monkey, now furiously angry, raised his iron cudgel and was just going up to wreck the place when ten thousand lotus flowers appeared, protected by a thousand miraculous mists. Brother Monkey, you are strong enough to stir up the ocean or turn a river upside-down; but don't even dream of touching a twig of that nest! When Sanzang saw what he was going to do, he grabbed hold of him and said, “Wukong, what do you mean by trying to wreck this Bodhisattva's nest?”
“He insulted us two disciples,” Monkey replied.
“He did not insult you,” said Sanzang. “He was talk
ing about the way to the Western Heaven.”
“You wouldn't be able to understand,” Monkey said. “When he said, 'A wild boar will carry your luggage,' he was insulting Pig; and 'A very old stone monkey' was an insult to me. You didn't get his meaning, of course.”
“Don't be angry,” said Pig. “That hermit knows about the past and the future as well. We don't yet know whether his talk about a water monster leading the way will come true or not. Let him off.”
Monkey saw the lotus blossoms and the miraculous mists draw in round the nest, and could but ask his master to mount the horse and go down the mountain to the West. On this journey,
Although they knew blessings rare on earth,
There was many a demon and disaster in the hill.
If you don't know what lay in store for them, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 20
The Tang Priest Meets Trouble on the Yellow Wind Ridge
Pig Wins Mastery Halfway up the Mountain
The Dharma is born in the mind,
And in turn is destroyed by the mind.
Who do life and death come from?
Decide for yourself.
If it is all from your own mind,
Why do you need others to tell you?
All you need to do is work hard,
Squeezing blood out of iron.
Thread a silken rope through your nose.
And fasten yourself to emptiness.
Tie it to the tree of non-action,
To prevent it from collapsing.
Don't acknowledge bandits as your sons,
Or you will forget the Dharma and the mind.
Do not allow yourself to be deceived by others-