Among the four great Bodhisattvas , why is it that there is only the mount of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the spirit beast Listening to the Spirit does not cause chaos in the lower realms?
The four major Bodhisattvas of Buddhism are Guanyin Bodhisattva , Manjusri Bodhisattva , Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. The four Bodhisattvas respectively represent great compassion, great wisdom, great conduct and great wishes.
Whether in literary works or folk cultural legends, these four Bodhisattvas are either sitting on the lotus platform, or riding on their respective mythical beasts.
Among them, Guanyin Bodhisattva's mount is a golden-haired lion, Manjushri Bodhisattva's mount is a green-haired lion, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva's mount is a white-haired elephant, and Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's mount is the listening beast.
Regarding the origins of the mounts of the four great Bodhisattvas, Chapter 83 of the original work of the literary novel about gods and demons " Fengshenyan ", in the chapter "The Three Masters Receive the Lion and Elephant Jiao", talks about Manjusri Guangfa Tianzun and Samantabhadra in detail Real person and The origin of the three great masters of Cihang Taoist surrendering their mounts.
"One hook is like a bright moon and half a wheel of autumn, and three points are like stars. Seek carefully. The lion and elephant are famous and related to each other. Cihang Assassination borrows form to cultivate. The Yuan Dynasty is most afraid of greed, anger and defeat. Taking off the beard is like an obstacle to hatred. Always for all. When immortals encounter a calamity, all their hair and horns will be gone. "In the myth of apotheosis of gods, Zhunti Taoist among the two Western saints asked the boy Shuihuo to fish away the golden-bearded crocodile with six quiet bamboos. Brought to the Western Bade Pond.
Manjushri Guangfa Tianzun, with the help of Yuanshi Tianzun and Taoist Zhunti, conquered the Qiu-headed Immortal (green lion) in the Tai Chi array; Puxian Zhenren, with the help of Yuanshi Tianzun and Taishang Laojun Next, he conquered the spirit tooth fairy (white elephant) in the Liangyi array; Cihang Taoist, with the help of Yuanshi Tianzun and Antarctic Immortal , conquered the golden-haired lion in the four-elephant array.
Interpretation: After the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation battle between the disciples of the two sects, Manjushri Guangfa Tianzun, Puxian Zhenren and Cihang Taoist have their own mounts.
The three great masters later became the four great bodhisattvas of Buddhism, the golden haired animal, the green lion and the white elephant, and they have been following the three bodhisattvas ever since.
The origin of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the origin of his mount Tingting do not appear in the list of gods. So, how did he become the four great Bodhisattvas, and what is the origin of his mount?
It is recorded in the Buddhist classic "Ksitigarbha's Original Vow Sutra" that the name of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is taken from its meaning of "being as patient and motionless as the earth, meditating deeply as a secret treasure", and because of his great power. I wish that hell is not empty, and I swear that I will never become a Buddha, so I am also known as the "Great Wish Bodhisattva"!
In Buddhist scriptures, it is recorded that Prince Jin Qiaojue brought a white dog from overseas to Jiuhua Mountain in Anhui to practice more than 1,500 years ago, and eventually became Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and this white dog, It is said that it was the later psychic beast - Diting.
In the four famous works "Journey to the West", Guanyin Bodhisattva's mount, the golden-haired lion, once went down to the Xiezhi Cave in Qilin Mountain of the Zhuzi Kingdom, where he transformed into Sai Tai Sui and avenged the male and female peacocks who were shot on behalf of the Buddha Mother Peacock Daming King Bodhisattva. of hatred.
The golden-haired lion Jian took advantage of the shepherd boy who was guarding him to sleep and bit off the iron rope at the lower boundary. He once separated the king of Zhuzi Kingdom and the empress of Jinsheng Palace, Lao Yan, for three years until Tang Monk's scripture-seeking team came to Zhuzi Kingdom and Guanyin Bodhisattva appeared. He took away the golden lion.
And the green lion and white elephant mounts of Manjusri and Samantabhadra, as well as the golden-winged roc eagle, became the lion and camel ridge and the lion and camel kingdom for seven years, eating all the subjects in the country. They turned a good celestial kingdom into a tiger and wolf city with tigers and insects blocking the way.
The three demons, the green lion, the white elephant, and the Dapeng eagle, repeatedly blocked the Buddhist scripture-seeking team from continuing their westward journey, which made Monkey King Sun Wukong burst into tears and burst into tears.
Sun Wukong finally came to Daleiyin Temple in Lingjiu Mountain in the West, and asked Tathagata Buddha to come forward for help. The Buddha did not take action rashly this time. Instead, he invited the Ancient Buddha , Maitreya Buddha, Manjushri and Samantabhadra and other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to work together to subdue the three demons.On the
network, some careful readers have noticed that in the myth of Journey to the West, among the mounts of the four great Bodhisattvas, the mounts of Guanyin Bodhisattva, Manjushri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva all once caused trouble in the lower world and prevented Tang Monk’s Buddhist team from traveling westward. Only Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva The horse is listening, there is no lower world, why is this?
Reading through the original work of "Journey to the West", we will find that except for Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva's mount, which did not participate in the Journey to the West project and the chaos in the lower realms, at the beginning of the formation of the scripture gathering team, Guanyin Bodhisattva invited Lishan Old Mother and Manjusri on the way. Three immortals, Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra, came down the mountain specifically to test the sincerity of Tang Monk and his disciples in learning scriptures, hence the name "Four Saints Testing the Zen Heart".
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva did not appear in this group activity. Later, after Tathagata Buddha recovered the three demons of Shituo City, he only invited Manjushri and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.
Why Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and Listening are not involved? This is related to the background of the four great Bodhisattvas. There should be the following reasons:
First, the backgrounds of practice are different.
Among the gods, Guanyin Bodhisattva, Manjushri Bodhisattva and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva are all disciples of Yuxu 12 Jinxian. They are the disciples of Chanjiao Yuanshi Tianzun, and they are closely related to each other.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, before the death of Sakyamuni Buddha and the birth of Maitreya Buddha , was instructed by the Buddha to voluntarily save all sentient beings in hell.
The second is that the magical power of the mounts is different. In
, the mounts of the three masters were transformed by the Biyou Palace disciples of Jiejiao , Lord Tongtian , and they were also the Eight Immortals who accompanied Lord Tongtian, and had strong attacks. force and lethality.
The main power of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is to penetrate into the three realms, identify good and evil, listen to the good and evil of people's hearts, and understand Buddhist principles.
Although in the myth of Journey to the West, the origin of the psychic beast Tingting before Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s sutra, it is said among the people that the original form of Tingting was a white dog that followed Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva in practice.
"The country of Zhuzi is in trouble 54 times", "The road blocks the lions and camels 61 times", "The Buddha asks the Buddha to collect the demons 64 times"... From the disaster book that records the eighty-one hardships that Tang Monk suffered, we can know the disasters that Tang Monk encountered while studying for scriptures. , are all training and tests for him in the three realms of heaven, Buddha and Tao.
These disasters may have been deliberately arranged by the three realms. However, the main responsibility of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the sacred beasts is to save the sentient beings in hell, and they do not participate too much.
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