My Journey to the West (excerpt from Chapter 10) PDF Free Download
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My Journey to the West (excerpt from Chapter 10)
When I was in my youth, I read Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West, and
knew that Master Xuanzang of Tang, on his journey to the west to
retrieve the sutras, had to go through eighty-one obstacles. Although
his Dharma protector, his Monkey King disciple Qitian Dasheng (the great
saint who could match the heavens), had the ability to change into 72
forms, and accompanied him on his journey, but still many disasters
happened. At the time, I sympathized with Master Xuanzang who
encountered obstacles one after another, yet enjoyed reading the
exciting stories of Sun Wukong (the Monkey King disciple) charging to
the rescue. After I read through the eighty-one obstacles, I was hoping
for a further obstacle to continue reading on.
When I was older, I read the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions,
written by Master Xuanzang, and I found it not as splendid as Journey to
the West. However, the customs, culture, religion, and geographical
locations he recorded on the Western Regions, especially concerning the
distribution of the Buddhist sangha and their Dharma teaching and
learning activities at the time made a deep impression on me. Although
the transliterated names of people, objects, and locations sounded very
unfamiliar to me, with patience, I still finished reading the book.
In the autumn of 1989, I went on a trip to India by myself, which was
the Western Regions where Master Xuanzang traveled to during the Tang
Dynasty. However, when Master Xuanzang traveled to the various countries
in the west, he endured many difficulties and hardships on the way, and
it took him 14 years. My trip was either on the plane, or on the bus,
and it only took me 15 days. Therefore, it was incomparable to Master
Xuanzang’s journey to the west in any aspect.
My purpose for going to India was simply for the pilgrimage because in
the beginning of that year, our Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies
began a greater project: we bought an area of land on the slope of the
mountains at Jinshan Township, Taipei County, and we prepared to develop
it into a world Buddhist education center, with multiple purposes such
as education, culture, and practice, etc. Therefore, we established the
Association of Dharma Supporters to develop fund-raising for its
construction, and to use the collective efforts and strategic planning
of the group to promote the concept of constructing such a monastery.
Buddhism originated in India, and for Buddhism today and Buddhism
tomorrow, we should shed off the tone of superstition, inactivity and
escapism, and restore the wisdom and compassion of the enlightened
Shakyamuni Buddha. We should return to the original intention of the
Buddha and put our efforts into purifying the troubled human world.
Therefore, I organized and formed the India and Nepal Pilgrimage Group
of a core of eighty monastic and lay members to pay homage to the
historic remains from the era of Shakyamuni Buddha. The purpose was to
encourage and inspire our group members to have the mind of seeking the
Dharma, practicing the Dharma, upholding the Dharma, and spreading the
Dharma.
After the pilgrimage trip and having returned to America, I thought
about the spiritual comforts, inspiring knowledge, and encouragement of
faith the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and Journey to the
West had given me. I told myself, “Although this journey only lasted
for 15 days, I should still write it down for myself and the whole group
members to renew our faith and retain our memories. As a result, I wrote
and published the book titled Pilgrimage to the Land of the Buddha (Chn.
Foguo zhilu).
The Nepal of today was once part of the Western Regions, and the
birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha was within the region of Nepal. It was
located between the two regions of Tibet and India. A part of Tibetan
Buddhism came from India through Nepal, and part of the current Tibetan
Buddhism grew within the regions of Nepal. Our visit to India also took
the route from Nepal to India because it was more convenient. Therefore,
the first stop of our journey was Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
We stayed there for three days, and visited the local Buddhist monuments
and the lamaseries of Tibetan tradition. We then flew out from Nepal
valley and arrived at the remains of the Nalanda monastery, where Master
Xuanzang studied, taught, and held the debate conventions. We then
visited the famous city at the time of the Buddha Rajagriha and the
nearby Veluvana. Next we visited the sacred site, Gridhrakuta (Vulture)
Mountain, where Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, and then we
visited Bodhgaya, the place where Shakyamuni Buddha reached
enlightenment, and the stupa (great tower) and the bodhi tree there. We
visited Varanasi and the nearby Kushinagar (Buddha’s place of nirvana)
and the monuments of cremation. At the same time, we also enjoyed the
precious beautiful sunrise scenery at the bank of the Ganges River.
We then visited the monuments and museum at Sarnath, the place where,
after his enlightenment, the Buddha first turned the wheel of the Dharma
to deliver his five bhikkhu (Pali for “bhikshu”) followers. We then
returned to Nepal, and visited the Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini, and
from Nepal enter India and visited another famous monastery at the time
of the Buddha—Jeta Grove Monastery of Anathapindada’s Garden. The
pilgrimage ended, and to board the direct flight to Hong Kong and
America, we arrived at New Delhi where the current Indian government was
located, and we visited the famous architectures and ancient castles in
the surrounding areas, which were the remains from the era of several
Muslim Kingdoms.
In this journey, I felt grateful, sentimental and aspiring. The Dharma
was able to be passed down due to the birth of the Buddha, which allowed
countless sentient beings over the years to receive spiritual comfort,
and have refuge in life and faith. How could we not feel grateful?
Therefore, at the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment, near
the Bodhgaya Stupa, there was a stela (stone pillar) in memoriam for the
Mahabrahma-deva’s (The King of the Heavens) request for the Buddha to
expound the Dharma. After I prostrated at the sight, I felt so grateful
that I could hardly stand up. I witnessed that the places, Veluvana,
Jeta Grove, Gridhrakuta, and Sarnath, where the Buddha taught the Dharma
and delivered sentient beings, were all in wilderness and not even torn-
down walls or broken ruins could be seen. There were only a few red
bricks covered on the floor to symbolize the footings of the bases of
the architectures, and there was virtually nothing left.
At the same time, surrounding New Delhi, one could see construction
materials of monasteries left over from the several Muslim Kingdoms.
I’ve heard that they were torn down from ten or more Buddhist
monasteries. How could one not feel sorrow and desolation in the mind
after seeing stone Buddhist statues that had their nose chopped away,
eyes plucked out, ears cut off, and hands torn off? It was because the
Buddhists lacked talents, and the invasion of the Muslims from the
north, resulted in the end of Buddhism in India after the 14th and 15th
centuries, and it was a complete extinction.
However, after the end of the Second World War in 1945, Jawaharlal Nehru
assumed the position of the Prime Minister of India. Although he was a
Hindu follower, he instructed the government to set specific funding for
rediscovery and reorganization of the various Buddhist monuments within
India, and set up museums for Buddhist historical monuments. This
allowed the Buddhists worldwide to be in a trend of traveling to India
for pilgrimage of the Buddhist sacred monuments. Especially Buddhists in
Japan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Tibet would pilgrimage
in groups to India to visit the eight great holy sites of Buddhism.
The Chinese already established monasteries at the eight great holy
sites. Although very few people from Mainland China would go on
pilgrimage, there were many Chinese from Taiwan and Southeast Asia who
went for pilgrimage. Buddhist activities gradually revived within India,
and it was a fact that they had Buddhists in the country. As a result, I
thought this called for the establishment of the common ethos for world
Buddhists to restore the original features and aspects of Buddhism at
the time of the Buddha, and that this was worth aspiring to.
Buddhism, after surviving for 2500 years, was like an old vine which
though it had its old roots cleared away, its branches and shoots were
still growing, and since the individual branches were separated, they
seemed like strangers who didn’t recognize one another. Fortunately,
there was still a common source of the Dharma—the Buddha’s monuments
in India, which allowed the Buddhists of each individual branches to
trace their source and search for their roots. This also gave world
Buddhists a common ethos: to return to the original intention of the
Buddha, and then unify each other’s vision, harmonize the footsteps of
development, and march on towards an integrated Buddhism of tomorrow.
This was also the common wish of the visionaries in the world Buddhist
community today.
On our pilgrimage, every time we arrived at a place, I would explain and
introduce to our group members on the trip—before hand, on the spot, or
afterwards—about the events concerning the Buddha that happened at that
place, what the Buddha said, and what kind of inspiration we could get
from it. Being there personally on the scene was much more realistic
than giving lectures and teaching sutras in the classrooms in Taiwan.
The scenes we saw and the roads we walked on were probably all described
in the Buddhist sutras, and were probably the living environment where
the Buddha and his arhat disciples had lived and walked on. As we walked
in these places, we were also following the Buddha’s footsteps, and
walking towards the path of becoming a buddha and a bodhisasttva.
Therefore, almost every place we went, many people were moved to tears.
The place where the Buddha gained enlightenment, Bodhgaya, was a
distance of several hundred kilometers away from Sarnath, where he first
turned the Dharma wheel to deliver the five bhikkhus. The Buddha walked
all the distance on foot just to deliver these five people. Then as he
was about to enter nirvana after forty-nine years of spreading the
Dharma and delivering sentient beings by traveling to various countries,
the Buddha walked all the way from Mahavana Vihara of Vaishali in the
south, to Kushinagar in the north. The Buddha taught as he walked; every
time he passed by a village, he would stop for a rest, and he would use
the time of resting to speak the Dharma to the villagers along the way.
When he arrived at the Sala Forest, he was already very exhausted, but
he continued to speak the Dharma.
Before the Buddha entered nirvana, there was an old Brahmin named
Subhadra, a 120-year-old wise ascetic, who had the five super-mundane
powers, who came to request teachings from the Buddha. Upon hearing the
words from the Buddha, he immediately became an enlightened arhat and
became the Buddha’s last disciple. At this point, the Buddha closed his
eyes and entered into nirvana, and his mortal body left our human world.
After listening to my explanations at each place, the members of our
pilgrimage group would weep silently.
This pilgrimage trip to India was more useful than the two years of
lectures I gave in Taiwan, and it allowed everyone to affirm their faith
in establishing the Dharma Drum Mountain. Afterwards, we came up with
the following four-fold common ethos: (1) Our vision: to improve human
character and build a pure land on earth; (2) our spirit: to devote
ourselves and benefit people in society; (3) our direction: to return to
the original intention of the Buddha, and work for the purification of
the world; (4) our approach: to promote comprehensive education and
extend loving care to all.
