(Snail Watching Journey to the West Issue 6522) Text/Walking with a Snail We often watch TV series and think that Tathagata is the boss of Buddhism, the most awesome CEO, and Lingshan must be ranked first. But it is completely different in the original work. His Buddha position i

(Snail Watching Journey to the West Issue 6522)

Text/Walking with a Snail

We often watch TV series and think that Tathagata is the boss of Buddhism and the best CEO. Lingshan must be ranked first. But it is completely different in the original work. His Buddha position is only in the third place. In front of him, there are two old leaders.

In the 100th chapter of the original work, after Tang Monk and his disciples succeeded in learning the scriptures, Tathagata rewarded them according to their merits and re-sorted them according to the size of their Buddhist duties. The original work is written like this -

Everyone put their palms together to take refuge, and all read: Namo Ran Deng Ancient Buddha. Namo Medicine Master Glazed Light King Buddha . Namo Sakyamuni Buddha...Namo Tantan Merit Buddha . Namo fights against Buddha ...

Namo means "pay tribute".

We can see that the Buddhist monks ranked last are Tang Monk and Sun Wukong, but the ones ranked first are not Tathagata. Ancient Buddha of Burning Deng and Medicine Master Glazed Light King Buddha were ranked in front of him.

The best CEO is not ranked first. Why is that?

In " Fengshenyan ", the name of the Randen Ancient Buddha is Randen Taoist , and he is the disciple of Yuanshi Tianzun , and Tota Li Tianwang Li Jing is his disciple.

But in Buddhism , he is the past Buddha of three generations, Tathagata is the present Buddha, Maitreya is the future Buddha. Because everything around him was as bright as a lamp when he was born, he was called the Deng-Burning Buddha.

Legend has it that he once prophesied for Sakyamuni Buddha, predicting that he would become a Buddha in the future, and he was the master of prophecies for Sakyamuni Buddha. Since he is the old leader and teacher of Tathagata , it is natural that he should be ranked ahead of Tathagata. But why is Medicine Buddha also ranked first?

For most people, especially those who don’t know much about Buddhism, they don’t know what the Medicine Buddha does. But to Buddhists, his reputation is like thunder. As mentioned above, Ran Deng is the first Buddha in the three vertical generations, and Medicine Buddha is the first Buddha in the horizontal three lifetimes.

In the original work, Tang Seng and his disciples chanted his Buddha's name repeatedly when they encountered something.

Chapter 78, the Buddhist scriptures team came to Bhikkhu Kingdom , and learned that the king wanted one thousand one hundred and eleven children to cure the disease. Tang Monk was so angry that he cursed. Sun Wukong said, it doesn't matter, I will smuggle them out of the city at night. When he was carrying out the moving project, Tang Monk, Bajie and Sha Seng chanted together:

"There is no life-saving Medicine Buddha! There is no life-saving Medicine Buddha!" ​​

When Sun Wukong came back to save people, they were still chanting. No life-saving Medicine Buddha!

Why don’t they ask the Tathagata to bless them and chant the name of Medicine Master Buddha? It turns out that Medicine Master Buddha made a total of twelve great vows in his past life as a Bodhisattva, among which the seventh great vow is: "To eliminate all diseases of living beings, make body and mind peaceful, and achieve supreme Bodhi." Because of this It is a great wish that Medicine Master Buddha devotes himself to curing diseases and resolving problems for all sentient beings.

In addition to this great wish, he also has life-saving wishes, wisdom wishes, merit wishes, etc. In short, he is a Buddha who sacrifices himself to save all living beings. No wonder Tang Seng and his disciples couldn't help calling his Buddha's name when they saw more than a thousand children about to be killed, hoping that he would keep the children safe.

It is precisely because Medicine Master Buddha is a human being and has high prestige among the masses that the author of "Journey to the West" did not follow the Buddhist arrangement of three vertical and horizontal generations, but directly disrupted the order and ranked him second.

So, Taoism has Taoist ancestors, Buddhism has Buddha, and the demon world has demon ancestors? Please see the breakdown in the next issue.