Journey to the West (vol. 1)

by Wu Cheng-En

  The Buddha did not dare refuse, so putting his hands together he replied, “This old monk only came here in obedience to Your Celestial Majesty's command. What magic powers can I pretend to? This was all due to the wonderful good fortune of Your Celestial Majesty and the other gods. How could I possibly allow you to thank me?”

  The Jade Emperor then ordered all the gods of the Department of Thunder to split up and invite the Three Pure Ones, the Four Emperors, the Five Ancients, the Six Superintendents, the Seven Main Stars, the Eight Points of the Compass, the Nine Bright Shiners, the Ten Chiefs, the Thousand Immortals, and the Ten Thousand Sages to a banquet to thank the Buddha for his mercy. Then he ordered the Four Great Heavenly Teachers and the Nine Heavenly Maidens to open the golden gates of the jade capital, and Palace of the Great Mystery, and the Tong Yang Jade Palace, invite the Tathagata to take his seat on the Throne of the Seven Precious Things, arrange the places for all the different groups of guests, and set out the dragon liver, phoenix bone-marrow, jade liquor, and magic peaches.

  Before long the Original Celestial Jade Pure One, the High Celestial Precious Pure One, the Heavenly Celestial Pure One of the Way, the True Lords of the Five Humors, the Star Lords of the Five Constellations, the Three Officers, the Four Sages, the Left Assistant, the Right Support, the Heavenly Kings, Nezha, and the whole of space responded to the invitations that had been sent out magically. Their standards and canopies came two by two as they brought shining pearls, rare jewels, fruit of longevity, and exotic flowers, and presented them to the Buddha with bows.

  “We thank the Tathagata for subduing the monkey fiend with his infinite powers. His Celestial Majesty has asked us all to come to his banquet to express our thanks. We beg the Tathagata to give this banquet a title.”

  The Buddha accepted this commission and said, “Since you want a name for it, we could call it the 'Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven.'”

  “Splendid, 'Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven,' splendid,” exclaimed all the Immortals with one voice, and then they all sat down in their places, put flowers in their hair, and played the lyre. It was indeed a splendid banquet, and here are some verses to prove it:

  The Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven far surpasses

  The Banquet of Peaches that the monkey wrecked.

  Radiance shines from dragon flags and imperial chariots;

  Auspicious vapours float above streamers and symbols of office.

  Melodious the fairy music and mysterious songs;

  Loud sound the tones of phoenix flute and pipe of jade

  The rarest of perfumes waft around the Immortals, assembled calm in the sky.

  To congratulate the court on Pacifying the Universe.

  When the Immortals were all enjoying the feast the Queen Mother and a group of fairies, immortal beauties, and houris, floated through the air as they danced towards the Buddha, and after paying her respects the Queen Mother said, “My Peach Banquet was ruined by that monkey fiend, and this Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven is being given because the Tathagata has used his great powers to chain down the evil monkey. Having nothing else with which to express my gratitude, I have picked a number of peaches of immortality with my own pure hands as an offering.” They were

  Half red, half green, sweet-smelling beauties

  Growing every ten thousand years from immortal roots.

  The peaches of Wulingyuan seem laughable:

  How can they compare with those of Heaven?

  Purple-veined and tender, rare even in the sky,

  Yellow-stoned, and matchless on earth for their sweetness.

  They are able to adapt the body and make it live for ever;

  Those lucky enough to eat them are no ordinary beings.

  The Buddha put his hands together to thank the Queen Mother, who instructed the fairies and houris to sing and dance again, and their performance met with the praises of the whole assembly. Indeed:

  Misty heavenly incense filled the room;

  A chaos of heavenly petals and flowers.

  Great is the splendour of the jade city and golden gates,

  Priceless the strange treasures and rare jewels.

  Two by two, coeval with Heaven,

  Pair by pair, outliving ten thousand kalpas:

  Even if land and sea changed places

  They would not be astonished or alarmed.

  Soon after the Queen Mother had ordered the fairies and houris to sing and dance, and when wine cups and chopsticks were weaving to and fro, suddenly

  A strange scent reached their noses,

  Startling the stars and constellations in the hall.

  Immortals and the Buddha put down their cups,

  Each of them raising their heads to look.

  An old man appeared in the middle of the Milky Way

  Holding a sacred mushroom.

  His gourd contains ten-thousand-year elixir.

  On the sacred rolls his name is written Eternal Life.

  In his cave Heaven and Earth are free.

  In his bottle Sun and Moon were created.

  As he wanders around the Four Seas in pure idleness

  Taking his ease in the Ten Continents, enjoying the bustle.

  When he went to Peach Banquets he often got drunk

  But when he came round, the moon was as bright as ever.

  A long head, big ears and a short body,

  Known as Longevity from the Southern Pole.

  The Star of Longevity had arrived. When he had made his greetings to the Jade Emperor and the Buddha he made a speech of thanks.

  “When I heard that the monkey fiend had been taken by the Lord Lao Zi to his Tushita palace to be refined I thought that this was bound to restore peace,” he said, “and I never expected he would rebel again. Happily the demon was quelled by the Tathagata, and so when I heard that this feast was being given to thank him I came at once. As I have nothing else to offer I have brought with me purple magic mushrooms, jasper herbs, greenish jade lotus-root, and golden pills of immortality: these I humbly present.” The poem says

  Offering the jade louts-root and golden pills to Sakyamuni,

  To give him as many years as the grains of sand of the Ganges.

  Peace and eternal joy decorate the Three Vehicles;

  Prosperity and eternal life make the nine grades of immortals glorious.

  Within the gate of No-Phenomena the true Law rules;

  Above the Heaven of Nothingness is his immortal home.

  Heaven and Earth both call him their ancestor,

  His golden body provides blessings and long life.

  The Buddha happily accepted his thanks, and after the Star of Longevity had taken his place the wine-cups started to circulate once more. Then the Bare-foot Immortal appeared, kowtowed to the Jade Emperor, and thanked the Buddha.

  “I am deeply grateful to you for subduing the monkey fiend with your divine powers. As I have nothing else with which to express my respect, I offer you two magic pears and a number of fire-dates.”

  Sweet are the Bare-foot Immortal's pears and dates,

  And long will be the life of the Buddha to whom they are offered.

  The lotus seat of the seven treasures is as firm as a mountain,

  His thousand-golden-flower throne is as gorgeous as brocade.

  Coeval with Heaven and Earth-this is no lie;

  It is true that his blessings are greater than a flood.

  His Western Paradise of leisure and bliss

  Truly provides all the long life and blessings one could hope.

  The Buddha thanked him too, and telling Ananda and Kasyapa to collect together all the offerings he went over to the Jade Emperor to thank him for the banquet. When all the guests were thoroughly drunk the Miraculous Patrolling Officer reported that the Great Sage had poked his head out.

  “It doesn't matter,” the Buddha said, producing from his sleeve a strip of paper on which were written the golden words Om mani padme hum. He gave this piece of pape
r to Ananda and told him to stick it on the summit of the mountains. The Venerable Ananda took it through the gates of Heaven and pasted it firmly to a square boulder on the top of the Five Elements Mountain. When this was done the mountain sank roots and joined up all its seams. The Monkey King was still able to breathe and he could still stick his hands out and move them. Ananda went back to Heaven and reported that he had pasted the paper in place.

  The Buddha then took his leave of the Jade Emperor and all the other deities. When he and his two disciples had gone out through the gates of Heaven his merciful heart moved him to chant a spell ordering a local tutelary god and the Revealers of the Truth of the Five Regions to live on the mountain and keep guard over him. When he was hungry they were to feed him iron pellets, and when he was thirsty they were to give him molten copper to drink. When the time of his punishment was over, someone would come and rescue him. Indeed:

  The monkey fiend was bold enough to rebel against Heaven,

  But was subdued by the Tathagata's hand.

  He endures the months and years, drinking molten copper for his thirst,

  And blunts his hunger on iron pellets, serving his time.

  Suffering the blows of Heaven, he undergoes torment,

  Yet even in the bleakest time a happy fate awaits.

  If some hero is ready to struggle for him,

  One year he will go to the West in the service of the Buddha.

  Another poem goes:

  His great power grew as he humbled the mighty,

  He used his wicked talents to subdue tigers and dragons.

  He stole the peaches and wine as he wandered round Heaven,

  Was graciously given office in the Jade Capital.

  When his wickedness went too far his body suffered,

  But his roots of goodness were not severed, and his breath still rose.

  He will escape from the hand of the Buddha,

  And wait till the Tang produces a saintly monk.

  It you don't know in what month of what year his sufferings ended, listen to the explanation in the next installment.

  Chapter 8

  Our Buddha Creates the Scriptures and Passes on Perfect Bliss

  Guanyin Obeys a Decree and Goes to Chang'an

  If you try to ask about the dhyana

  Or investigate the innumerable

  You will waste your life and achieve nothing.

  Polishing bricks to make mirrors,

  Or piling up snow to turn it into grain-

  However many years have you wasted like that?

  A hair can contain an ocean,

  A mustard-seed can hold a mountain,

  And the golden Kasyapa only smiles.

  When you are awakened you will surpass the Ten Stages and the Three Vehicles,

  And stop the four kinds of birth and the six types of reincarnation.

  Who has ever heard, before the cliff of thoughts extinguished,

  Under the tree that has no shadow,

  The sound of the cuckoo in a spring dawn?

  The path by the Cao Stream is dangerous,

  The Vulture Peak is high in the clouds:

  Here the voice of the ancients was a mystery.

  On a cliff ten thousand feet high

  Five-leaved lotuses bloom

  As scent coils round the shutters of the old palace.

  At that time

  Your knowledge smashes all the currents of thought;

  The Dragon King and the Three Treasures can be seen.

  This lyric poem is set to the tune Su Wu Man. Our story goes on to how our Buddha, the Tathagata, left the Jade Emperor and went back to the Thunder Monastery, where he saw the three thousand Buddhas, five hundred Arhats, eight great Vajrapanis and countless Bodhisattvas standing under the pairs of sala trees at the foot of the Vulture Peak, all holding banners, canopies, jewels and magical flowers. The Tathagata brought his propitious cloud to a halt and addressed them thus:

  “With my deep insight

  I surveyed the Three Worlds.

  The origin of nature

  Is ultimately emptiness,

  Like the great void,

  Containing nothing at all.

  The subjection of this evil monkey

  Was a mystery beyond understanding.

  It is called the beginning of life and death:

  Such is the appearance of things.

  When he had spoken a sacred light filled the sky with forty-two rainbows that linked North and South together. All who saw them bowed, and a moment later the Buddha gathered together some felicitous cloud and climbed to the supreme Lotus Throne, where he seated himself in majesty.

  Then the three thousand Buddhas, the five hundred Arhats, the eight Vajrapanis and the four Bodhisattvas came forward to bow to him with their hands together and ask, “Who was it who wrecked the Heavenly Palace and ruined the Peach Banquet?”

  “The wretch was a monkey fiend born on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruit,” the Buddha replied, “whose towering crimes would beggar description. None of the heavenly generals were able to subdue him, and when Lord Lao Zi refined him with fire after Erlang had captured him, he was unharmed. When I went there he was in the middle of the thunder generals, giving a great display of his martial prowess and his spirit. I stopped the fighting and asked him what it was all about. He said that he had divine powers, was able to do transformations, and could ride a somersault cloud for thirty-six thousand miles at a single jump. I made a wager with him that he could not jump out of my hand, then grabbed him, turned my fingers into the Five Elements Mountain, and sealed him under it. The Jade Emperor opened wide the golden gates of the Jade Palace, and invited me to be the guest of honour at a Banquet to Celebrate Peace in Heaven he gave to thank me. After that I took my leave of him and came back here.” They were all delighted by the news and they congratulated him effusively, after which they withdrew group by group, each to go about his duties as all rejoiced in the divine truth. Indeed:

  Propitious vapours filled Paradise,

  Rainbows surround the Venerable One.

  The Western Paradise, known as the best,

  Is ruled by the dharma King of non-phenomenon.

  Black apes are always offering fruit,

  Deer hold flowers in their mouths;

  Blue phoenixes dance,

  Coloured birds call;

  Sacred turtles offer long life,

  Immortal cranes present magic mushrooms.

  Here they peacefully enjoy the Pure Land of the Jetavana Park,

  The infinite realms of the Dragon Palace.

  Every day flowers bloom,

  Fruit is always ripe.

  Through practicing silence they return to the truth,

  Achieving reality by contemplation.

  There is no birth nor death;

  They neither wax nor wane.

  Mists follow them as they come and go;

  Untouched by heat or cold, they do not notice the years.

  One day, as the Buddha dwelt in the Thunder Monastery on the Vulture Peak, he called together all the other Buddhas, Arhats, guardian deities, Bodhisattvas, Vajrapanis, monks and nuns and said, “As we are beyond time, I don't know how long it has been since the crafty ape was subdued and Heaven pacified, but by earthly reckoning it must be about five hundred years. As today is a fine early autumn day and I have a precious bowl filled with a hundred kinds of rare flowers and a thousand varieties of exotic fruit, what would you say to our having an Ullambana Feast?” They all put their hands together and performed the reverence of going round him three times in acceptance. The Buddha then ordered Ananda to hold the bowl of flowers and fruit while Kasyapa laid them out. The hosts were moved to gratitude, which they expressed in verse.

  The poem on happiness went:

  The Star of Happiness shines bright before the Venerable One;

  Gifts of happiness spread wide and deep, ever richer.

  Fortune is boundless and lasts as long as the Earth;

 
A happy fate has the luck to be linked with Heaven.

  Fields of happiness are widely sown and flourish every year;

  The sea of happiness is mighty and deep, never changing.

  Happiness fills Heaven and Earth, leaving legacies of happiness

  Happiness grows beyond measure, eternally complete.

  The poem on official rank went:

  With rank as high as a mountain, coloured phoenixes call;

  With rank ever increasing, we praise the evening star.

  Salary raised to ten thousand bushels, and a healthy body;

  Salary raised to a thousand tons, and the world at peace.

  Rank and salary equaling Heaven, and eternal too;

  Rank and fame as great as the sea, and even clearer.

  Rank and favour continuing for ever, greatly to be admired;

  Rank and nobility without bounds, like ten thousand kingdoms.

  The poem on longevity went:

  The Star of Longevity shines towards the Buddha;

  The glories of the land of longevity start from here.

  Fruits of longevity fill the bowls, glowing with good omen;

  Longevity's flowers are newly plucked and placed on the lotus throne.

  Poems of longevity, pure and elegant, full of rare conceits,

  Songs of longevity sung with exquisite talent.

  Life as long as sun and moon,

  Life that will outlast both mountains and seas.

  When the Bodhisattvas had presented all the poems they asked the Buddha to expound the fundamentals to them. Then the Tathagata opened his excellent mouth and expounded the great Law and retribution. He spoke about the wonderful scriptures of the Three Vehicles and the theory of the Five Aggregates as contained in the Surangama-sutra; the deities and nagas gathered round, and flowers came raining down in profusion. Indeed: