I have to say that the monkey that jumped out of the fairy stone in Huaguo Mountain was very lucky. When he wanted to visit the fairy road, he met Subhuti. Not only did he get a good name, but he also got a teaching He secretly passed down the inner magic and learned the art of immortality and the seventy-two transformations. Only then did he have the ability to go up to heaven and earth and stir up unrest in the three realms.
Then the question is, what is the origin of Subhuti? Why did he name the stone monkey Sun Wukong? And why should the secret of the heart be passed on to the wild stone monkey?
This is an area that is easy to overlook when reading Journey to the West, but it is an area that should not be ignored. Subhuti's move was by no means random. I didn't understand its deep meaning until I read the Diamond Sutra recently. As a Buddhist disciple, it was Subhuti's intention to choose the stone monkey to save him.
In "Journey to the West", Subhuti is described as the image of the unity of immortality and Taoism. "He is either an immortal or a Taoist. He sits quietly and talks about "Huang Ting"". The Great Master of Heart".
In fact, Subhuti is an out-and-out Buddhist disciple. He is one of the ten disciples of Sakyamuni, the Buddha, and he is the best at "relieving emptiness".
What is "empty relief"? When it comes to Buddhism, almost everyone can name a few words related to "empty", such as "the four elements are empty", "empty is form, form is empty", etc., but if they really want to say how to understand "empty", no one can say This is why. What exactly is "empty"? Subhuti understood it most thoroughly and was able to explain it in the most popular way. Therefore, Subhuti is known as "the first to solve emptiness".
Subhuti's process of naming the stone monkey was his "empty-clearing" operation.
Although your body is humble, you look like a hozen eating pine cones. I will give you a surname, and I will give you the surname "Hong". The word "猢" went to the side of a beast, but it turned out to be an ancient moon. Ancient means old, and moon means yin. Lao Yin cannot transform and educate, so it would be better to teach you a surname of ‘狲’. The word "狲" is next to the animal, which is the sub-lineage. The son is a boy, and the tie is a baby. This is in line with the basic theory of babies. I will teach you to give your surname "Sun". "When the Monkey King heard about it, he was filled with joy and kowtowed upward and said: "Okay, okay, okay! Today I know my surname. Master Wanwang is compassionate. Since he has a surname, it would be easier to call him by giving him a name. "The Patriarch said: "There are twelve characters in my sect, and they are assigned names. You will be the tenth generation disciple. The Monkey King said: "Those twelve characters?" "The Patriarch said: "It's the twelve words of 'the vast wisdom, true nature, ocean, enlightenment and perfect enlightenment'. It’s time for you to ‘enlighten’ the word. Let’s give you a Dharma name called ‘Sun Wukong’, okay? "
Because the body is like a hozen, the surname is taken from the body, which is called origin.
The two characters "hozen" are both related to beasts and belong to the category of beasts. ***The same characteristic is wildness. Therefore, we must first remove the animal side, that is, remove the wildness of the beast.
Remove the animal side, leaving the word Hu and Sun. Hu is Gu Yue, which is Lao Yin. , has no function of fertilization. The so-called Laoyin can be generally understood as an old woman, that is, a woman who has lost her fertility. Of course, she cannot fertilize, so the traditional Chinese character for "Hu" is abandoned. "grandson", "child" on the left and "line" on the right, son is a man, the line is a newborn baby, and the line is a newborn boy.
The main characteristic of a newborn baby is "empty", mainly thinking He is "empty", knows nothing, understands nothing, and everything in human beings has not affected him.
This is exactly what Laozi calls "the innocent", with no concept of right and wrong, good and evil. . This is the primary meaning of "empty": nothing, nothing.
With the surname, the name is even simpler. According to the ranking, it is the tenth generation with the word "enlightenment", plus Zhibai. With the word "empty", the name of the stone monkey is: Sun Wukong - Sun Wukong.
Subhuti is looking for a successor for himself.
The stone monkey is born. At that moment, "two golden lights shot into Dou Mansion", which shocked the heaven. The Jade Emperor "immediately ordered his clairvoyance and his ears to open the Nantian Gate to watch", and then concluded: "The things below are born from the essence of heaven and earth. For different. ”
If you can alarm the Jade Emperor, you will naturally let the Buddha world know about it. The Jade Emperor is no different, but Subhuti has thought about it. It is too difficult to find something in the world that is empty after birth. , this stone monkey statue was made for Subhuti.
The stone monkey is born empty, which is compared to human babies. However, babies are born from their parents.
To illustrate this point, a woodcutter is featured in the book.
I have had a hard life. I was raised by my parents from a young age until I was eight or nine years old before I became aware of human affairs. Unfortunately, my father died and my mother became a widow. There are no more brothers or sisters, I am the only one, so I have no choice but to serve them morning and night. Now my mother is old and dare not leave her alone. However, the fields were desolate and the food and clothing were insufficient. He had to pick up two bunches of firewood and carry them to the shop. He bought a few liters of rice for a few pennies, made his own food and arranged some tea and rice to support his old mother, so he could not practice Buddhism.
This is the hindrance of being a human being. Buddhism does not support human beings to abandon their responsibilities and become a monk alone, unless they are truly destined to Buddhahood. For example, although Tang Monk had parents, he was separated from them at birth and grew up in a temple. Like Stone Monkey, he was born for spiritual practice.
Therefore, Wukong is the successor chosen by Subhuti.
The selection of Stone Monkey as the successor also reflects the Buddhist principle of "equality of all living beings".
How can all living beings be equal? Explanation of the "Mahayana Authentic Branch" in the third chapter of the "Diamond Sutra":
All living beings are born from eggs, wombs, moisture, transformation, color, colorlessness, If there are thoughts, or if there are no thoughts, if there are no thoughts, if there are no thoughts, I will cause them to enter nirvana without residue and save them. In this way, countless, countless and boundless sentient beings can be annihilated. In fact, no sentient being can be annihilated.
All sentient beings, no matter what kind of birth method they came from, whether they have thoughts or not, are among those who should be saved. Here, there is no ranking order, and those born from the womb are not higher than those born from eggs, moisture, and metamorphosis.
The stone monkey is a combination of oviparity and metaplasia. "It has a fairy cell inside, which bursts open one day and lays a stone egg, which is as big as a ball. When it sees the wind, it turns into a stone monkey."
The Diamond Sutra is a result of Subhuti's diligent study and inquisitiveness. It records conversations between Subhuti and the Buddha, and is the Buddha's answers to Subhuti's questions.
Therefore, Subhuti is also the most thorough in practice. Following the example of the Fifth Patriarch passing down the mantle and mantle of the Sixth Patriarch, he secretly taught Wukong his mind.
Wukong was born empty, but whether he can take on the important task of inheritance depends on whether he can withstand the test, so he came up with "Enlightenment of the True Wonderful Principle of Bodhi".
Wukong practiced at Subhuti, and seven years passed in a blink of an eye. He "learned polite speech, lectured on scriptures, practiced calligraphy and burned incense every day. In his free time, he swept the floor and hoeed the garden, planted flowers and trees, and looked for firewood. Light the fire, carry water and pulp.” Wukong enjoys such a boring life of cultivation.
What attracted him? The Patriarch went to the altar to preach, and when Wukong heard the wonderful sound, he was "so happy that he scratched his ears and cheeks and smiled." This is a sign of wisdom.
So, the Patriarch gave him a test question, using several Taoist techniques that people in the world wanted to learn to test his original intention. Wukong remained unmoved and stuck to his original intention: to only learn the art of immortality.
This persistence is called "good and protective thoughts" in the Diamond Sutra. The reason why human beings have many worries is because they have many thoughts, and their thoughts are always changing. Today they want beauty, tomorrow they want money, and the day after tomorrow they want power. When thoughts arise in the mind, it is inevitable that evil thoughts will arise without even realizing it.
Therefore, the way to practice lies in "protecting your thoughts well" and being good at protecting your original intention.
After seven years, Wukong’s original intention has not changed, which shows that he is not swayed by temptation.
Therefore, Subhuti prepared to teach him the secret method of enlightenment and let him learn the art of immortality.
When the Patriarch heard this, he jumped down from the high platform with a loud sound, held a ruler in his hand, pointed at Wukong and said: "You hozen, you don't learn this way, you don't learn that way, but what will happen to you?" He stepped forward, He hit Wukong three times on the head, put his hands behind his back, walked inside, closed the middle door, and left the crowd.
Reprimanding Wukong in front of everyone, but set up a secret word to test whether Wukong can break it.
Sure enough, everyone complained that Wukong had collided with the Patriarch, but Wukong understood the Patriarch’s secret words, “The Patriarch will hit him three times and teach him to be mindful at the third watch; If the middle door is closed, teach him to progress through the back door, and teach him the secret way."
This plot is a copy of the allusion of the fifth ancestor passing on the mantle of the sixth ancestor.
According to the "Sixth Patriarch's Altar Sutra", the Sixth Patriarch Huineng was originally an illiterate poor boy. He joined the Fifth Patriarch, Master Hongren, and was assigned by the Fifth Patriarch to do odd jobs in the backyard.
One day, Master Hongren wanted to choose a successor among his disciples, so he asked everyone to compose a verse. Huineng composed the famous verse:
Bodhi has no tree, and the mirror is not a stand.
There is nothing in the first place, so where is the dust?
When the Fifth Patriarch saw this, he publicly criticized Huineng’s nonsense and hit Huineng three times on the head.
Huineng understood and came to the Fifth Patriarch's bedroom at three o'clock that night. The Fifth Patriarch taught Huineng the Diamond Sutra. Halfway through the lecture, Huineng fully understood it, thus completing the Fifth Patriarch's inheritance of the Sixth Patriarch's mantle.
Wukong, who saw through the secret words of the Patriarch, also came to the Patriarch's bedroom at the third watch and accepted the "Wonderful Way of Immortality" secretly taught by the Patriarch.
Three years later, the Patriarch taught Wukong somersault clouds and the method of seventy-two transformations, giving him the ability to go to heaven and earth. He also found an opportunity to drive Wukong out of the fairy mountain.
It’s easy to make people confused: If Wukong is so valued and given special education, why not keep him around to continue training, but instead kick him out to disrupt the Three Realms?
This must be understood in conjunction with the previous naming.
Subhuti, who is "the number one in solving the void", hopes that Wukong can inherit his mantle, but there is still animal nature between Wukong and "empty". If the animal nature is not eradicated, there will be no words left.
How to get rid of animal nature? It cannot be eliminated through quiet practice in the mountains. The animal nature must be brought out, let him experience it in self-release, realize it, and then eliminate the animal nature on his own.
Therefore, from making a big fuss in the Heavenly Palace to being subdued by Tathagata and pinned down under the Five Elements Mountain, to escorting Tang Monk to fetch Buddhist scriptures, the whole process was Tathagata and Subhuti's plan: Tathagata's disciple Jin Chanzi returned after fetching scriptures Buddhist altar; Subhuti's disciple Wukong got rid of his animal nature and became a Buddha after undergoing Buddhist scriptures.
Only when the animal nature is removed from the Wukong can one know what emptiness is. This is to use emptiness to realize emptiness. First, let yourself be emptied, and use your empty body to realize the emptiness state. That is, as written in the original work: "At the beginning of Hongmeng, there was no surname, and to break the stubbornness, Wukong was needed."