But the main line of the story is to pass on the Tathagata.
It is difficult to learn from the scriptures, and it is even more difficult to pass them on.
The reason why Emperor Taizong needed the Tathagata Sutra was to eliminate the evil, evil and sin he had done before, and to clear the ghosts in his heart. I explained it last time. But think about it carefully: if Guanyin Bodhisattva didn't tell Emperor Taizong, would Emperor Taizong know about the Tathagata? I definitely don't know! If Emperor Taizong didn't know that Tathagata had the scriptures to help him solve the disaster, he wouldn't send Tang Priest to the West to learn the scriptures. So the key point of the whole incident lies in Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Then, why did Guanyin Bodhisattva come to guide Taizong? The eighth poem of Journey to the West, My Buddhist Sutra Biography, Goddess of Blissfulness and Guanyin Order Chang 'an, makes it very clear: One day, Tathagata called all the Buddhist disciples together and said to the public, I have three true sutras today, which can persuade people to be kind. I'm going to send it to the East, but I'm afraid that all beings there are stupid, slander the truth, don't know the gist of my teaching, and ignore the authenticity of yoga. How to get a magical person? Go to the East to find a good faith, teach him to cross Qian Shan, take the Wan Li Road, come to my place to get the true scriptures, and spread them to the East forever. Who wants to go for a walk?
Guanyin Bodhisattva said, "I am a worthless apprentice. I want to go to the East to find a monk. "
When the Tathagata met him, he was overjoyed and said, "You can't go anywhere else. You have to be a Guanyin Bodhisattva to go. "
Where you write a big book, you must have an outline, and then the clues are in hand, and the context is not chaotic. This time, there are many stories about learning from the scriptures. If you don't know this, you will easily be confused by the wonderful stories in the process of learning from the scriptures. As can be seen from this outline, the original reason for studying the scriptures is that the Tathagata wants to pass on the scriptures, not the Tang priest wants to learn the scriptures, and no one wants to learn his scriptures at all.
For hundreds of years, no one has read this kind of outline, and everyone mistakenly regards "passing on the classics" as "learning from the classics".
It is actually quite difficult for the Tathagata Buddha to pass on his scriptures to the East forever. How can I see it? It's Wanshui Qian Shan. Is it a long way? No, it's that all beings are stupid, slander the truth, don't know the gist, and ignore the truth. How hard is it? No one can finish this task, only the omnipotent Guanyin Bodhisattva can go. So, am I really stupid to be from China? Even if the Tathagata Buddha has boundless Buddhism, it is difficult to pass on the scriptures. Let's take a look at what Journey to the West says:
1. Comrade Zhu Bajie of Zhan Yundong in Fuling plays the role of "bandit" at the bottom of society. Comrade Zhu Bajie eats people like us because he has no job to support himself. Pig Bajie lived by eating people when he was a bandit, and he also ate people according to his own standards. It can be seen that Comrade Zhu Bajie has the principle of "don't kill" and "don't rob" bandits, which shows that he just wants to solve the most basic survival problem. The Bodhisattva enlightened him and said, "The ancients said that if you want to have a future, don't do things without a future. You broke the law in the upper bound, but now you don't change your mind, hurting people and committing crimes, but you are not punished for two crimes? "
Comrade Zhu Bajie said: "The future depends on you. Teach me to ride the wind! As the saying goes, killing people according to the official law and starving to death according to the Buddhist law. Let's go, let's go. It is better to catch a pedestrian and eat his mother's greasy food! What two crimes and three crimes, thousands of crimes! " Comrade Zhu Bajie is very straightforward. He doesn't believe in Buddhism at all. Even if Guanyin Bodhisattva stood in front of him, he wouldn't believe it. He only believes that filling the stomach is better than committing crimes.
2. The Bodhisattva took the cassock and Zhang Xi to Chang 'an for sale. I met some stupid monks and lost the election as the host of the Water and Land Law Society, but I have a few village stories. The foolish monk asked, "How much is your cassock?" The bodhisattva said, "The cassock is worth 5,200 yuan, and Zhang Xi is worth 2,200 yuan." The silly monk smiled and said, "These two monks are crazy and stupid! These two rough things sold for 7.2 thousand silver? It's just that unless you put on your upper body and live forever, it's not worth it to become a Buddha as an ancestor! I can't sell it if I take it! "
Silly monk, there are several village notes. This is the representative of the small rich and well-off class, with a few dollars in his hand. It is also a representative of the internal members of Buddhism and a very senior member, because they were defeated by the host of the Land and Water Dharma Association. You should know that the monks who can attend the land and water law meeting convened by the emperor are all famous monks in the country. Although these eminent monks wear the cloak of Buddhism, in fact, they don't believe in Buddhism at all, because they are very realistic, that is, they have clearly expressed their attitude towards "immortality" and "becoming a Buddha as their ancestors": they are not interested.
3. Let's look at the aristocratic class in the palace. Tai Shicheng Fu Yi boldly slandered the Buddha;
There is no monarch, minister or son in the western regions. Seduce him with three roads and six roads, chase his past sins, peek at his future happiness, recite his Sanskrit to steal it. Since the Five Emperors and Three Kings, there has been no Buddhism, and it was not until Emperor Han Ming established the Shen Hu. However, Sang Men, who autobiographed his teachings, was actually a foreigner who committed China. Words and ceremonies should be related to the monarch, the Buddha's back is related to becoming a monk, competing with the husband for the son of heaven and following the body. If you follow the teachings without a father or a gentleman, it means that the unfilial person has no relatives.
Tai Shicheng and Fu Yi not only don't believe in Buddha, but also "slander" Buddha, pick out its disadvantages and directly put forward the theory of Buddha's harmfulness. This shows that it is not true to say that all China people are stupid. I think these evil, snobbish and powerful people are neither stupid nor stupid. It is true to say that slander is true. Almost everyone slanders, everyone slanders. The endless Buddhism has no market among the people who have not solved the most basic survival problems at the bottom of China Datang society. People who are small and well-off and have a few dollars in their hands have no market. There is no market among the upper aristocratic bureaucrats. It's really difficult to promote your products in a place where there is no market!
When we are all watching The Journey to the West, we generally mistakenly think that the difficulty of learning from the scriptures lies in the way of learning from the scriptures. I always thought that Tang Priest's hardships were the biggest difficulty. Actually, it's not. There are two difficulties: first, there is no market. The second is the difficulty on the road. From the above Tathagata, it is obvious that he is not worried about the difficulties on the road; The worry is that there is no market in this place.
After some market research, all social strata in China Datang don't believe in Buddhism, and there is no demand for Buddhism. There is no market here. And the supply is huge! The shipment of Tathagata is: Buddhism collection, talking about the sky; "Shang" is called implicit; Classics are ghosts when hidden. These three Tibetan scriptures have 35 volumes, with 15,144 volumes!
Looking around the world, all walks of life are not difficult, but "shipping" is the most difficult! If you can't sell it, it's zero. Even if you are Tathagata, you are no exception. It's really difficult to promote one's own product "Three Stories" to a place where there is no market! So the Tathagata thought, to do this, "How can you get a magic?" Guanyin Bodhisattva immediately stated: I am willing to go. When the Tathagata met him, he was overjoyed and said, "You can't go anywhere else. You have to be a Guanyin Bodhisattva to go. "
So, what kind of person is Guanyin Bodhisattva? What is this? What kind of magic is there? What magical power? Only she can accomplish such a great task? If folklore can be used to evaluate her compassion and help the poor, then someone will quote the list of gods and say that he is a kind channel person who specializes in making poisonous devices. Holding a clean glass bottle in his hand, he sucked people and animals into the bottle and turned his body into pus. Later, he cheated the teacher, betrayed his ancestors, cut the sparrow, changed his gender, changed his name and threw it into the Western Heaven. This is not innocent. It is more objective and fair for us to find the answer from the original Journey to the West.
In Journey to the West, Guanyin Bodhisattva is a woman.
Guanyin Bodhisattva first appeared for the sixth time after the Monkey King stole a flat peach and turned against Heaven. At this time, it was Erlang God who recommended it to the Jade Emperor, which led to the Monkey King's first arrest. The Bodhisattva said to the old gentleman, "Where is Erlang God mentioned by the poor monk?" He added: "I threw the pure willow bottle and hit the monkey head;" Even if you can't kill him, you should fall down and teach the little sage Jiro to get rid of him. "
The fact is: the Bodhisattva himself just said it, but didn't do it. He asked the old man, "What weapons do you have?" The old man said, "Yes, yes, yes." He rolled up his sleeves, took off a diamond ring, photographed it from the Tianmen, and touched the Monkey King's head with cocoa. I bumped into a celestial spirit, slipped and fell. This shows that the Bodhisattva is quite complacent about his "way of employing people". And the last sentence, hiding behind your back to make a dirty move and ordering others to sneak around, is definitely not a clear move.
When the Bodhisattva first appeared, it didn't do a good thing or a bad thing. She didn't cast any spells or use any instruments, but spoke a few words in vernacular without moving. It serves to show: inscrutable!
Now in the field of sutra, the Tathagata's view of her is: magical power, divine power. Under the Tathagata, there are four Bodhisattvas, eight King Kong, five hundred arhats, three thousand knot emperors, monks, monks, excellent women, excellent women and saints of all sizes. No one can do this except her. So Guanyin Bodhisattva is the most effective person around Tathagata. If Guanyin Bodhisattva can't do it, I believe others can't do it. The performance of Guanyin Bodhisattva at this time is: When the Bodhisattva heard the news, she bowed enthusiastically and left. That is to say, ask Huian Walker to accompany him. That Hui 'an made a clay iron rod, weighing one thousand kilograms, and only surrounded the bodhisattva, becoming a powerful man to subdue demons. It seems that Bodhisattva is very excited to set up a new branch after receiving this big order. The Hui 'an walker around her is probably a vicious person, so we should not take it lightly.
This is the second appearance of Bodhisattva in The Journey to the West.
So far, the Bodhisattva has done nothing, and she is still motionless. However, the environment in which she appeared twice was clearly explained. The first time was the Great Change of the Heavenly Palace, and this time it was Tathagata's great sorrow. She always appears at critical moments, which can be described as: compassion, helping the poor, and inspiring Guanyin Bodhisattva. On the way to Chang 'an, the Bodhisattva met Friar Sand, Bajie and Wukong, and we can see three tricks used by the Bodhisattva:
1. Criticize each other's sins,
You can get away with it by entering my door.
3. Persuade people to do good.
After reading the complete works of Journey to the West, the Bodhisattva only learned the theory well and advised others to do good. She managed to do a good thing by herself, that is, save the little white dragon's life, but her purpose was to get a good horse.
Bodhisattva arrived in Chang 'an Datang State. When I walked to Dashi Street, I saw a land temple, and I entered, scaring the land public and fighting bravely. Knowing that it was a bodhisattva, they kowtowed and joined in. The land quickly reported to the city god, social order and all the gods in Chang 'an. They all know that it is a bodhisattva. See the newspaper: "Bodhisattva, forgive the gods too late." The Bodhisattva said, "Don't leak a word. I came here to look for Buddhist scriptures on the orders of the Buddha. I'll borrow your temple and have the right to stay for a few days until I meet a real monk. " The gods went back to their own places and drove a piece of land in the city god temple for a while.
Note: The Land Man was driven out by Guanyin Bodhisattva.
Land guy is the most grass-roots cadre in heaven and jade emperor. Not a Buddhist. So, what is he afraid of? Will the Bodhisattva come to inspect his work? No, the Bodhisattva is neither a boss nor a cadre, but a monk. Now my identity is selling clothes and abducting people in the street. As far as I know, grassroots cadres deal with people who sell clothes and crutches in the street. Well ... let's not talk about it. Why is this grassroots cadre afraid of her, afraid of becoming like this? I'm afraid of some strange things, I'm afraid of some outrageous things, and I've given up my office.
It can be seen that in the eyes of grassroots cadres and landowners, Guanyin Bodhisattva is a very powerful and horrible role!
The Bodhisattva said, "Don't leak a word." So mysterious! What does she want? What is there to hide, afraid of leaking out? There is no direct explanation in the book. This is The Journey to the West's eighth trip, but in the next five trips, since Guanyin Bodhisattva arrived in Chang 'an, three strange things happened in Chang 'an!