Journey to the West: The Monk’s Self-Cultivation

[Journey to the West / historical Xuanzang / walking the Journey to the West again / Buddhist cultivation / not primordial chaos / only the calamity setting / no conspiracy flow]

Guanyin Bodhisattva has been having a headache lately.

A great calamity is about to begin, and the Buddha has told him to find the scripture-seeker and send him to the Western Heaven to obtain the scriptures. Originally, everything had already been arranged.

But this scripture-seeker seems a little off?

Guanyin: “If you wear this kasaya, you will not fall into hell.”

Xuanzang: “If simply wearing a piece of clothing can do that, wouldn’t cultivation in this world become a joke?”

Guanyin: “The Mahayana Dharma is in the Western Heaven. It can dispel calamities and save all people. Wait for someone to come and fetch it.”

Xuanzang: “If such a marvelous method exists, why not deliver it yourself? Is that compassion, or arrogance?”

Guanyin: “......”

After the historically true Xuanzang, having passed away, has his soul transmigrated into the world of Journey to the West—

looking at the timid, weak, morally confused scripture-seeker in his mind who cries at the drop of a hat, he laughs.

He wants me to bow and scrape? He wants me to rely on my disciples for alms and protection? He wants me to speak of compassion while turning a blind eye to the suffering of the masses? And then make him a Buddha like this?

Sorry, I won’t take this scripture; I won’t become this Buddha; this road to the West will be walked my way.

In this life, it is not a mortal begging for Buddha, but a holy monk proving the Dao with this body, going to Spirit Mountain to ask Tathagata what true “Buddha” really is.