The eight divisions of the Heavenly Dragons are all relatives of the Buddha. They are transformed by the Buddha's power and virtues and protect the Dharma. Many Mahayana scriptures record that when the Buddha preached to Bodhisattvas and monks, the eight divisions of the Heavenly

The Eight Divine and Dragons are all relatives of the Buddha. They are transformed by the Buddha's power and virtues and protect the Dharma. Many Mahayana scriptures record that when the Buddha preached to Bodhisattvas and monks, the Eight Divine and Dragons often participate in listening to the Dharma and protecting it.

01

Protective Dharma, as the name suggests, refers to protecting sentient beings in Buddhism, and their main responsibility is to protect Buddhism from invasion and disturbance by demons.

Among the huge Buddhist guardian team, it is mainly divided into two categories: worldly guardians and transcendental guardians. Tianlong Bashi is mainly the protector of the world. Among Buddhist Dharma Protectors, they are the undisputed main force.

02

Tianlong is an eight kinds of gods and demons, so they are not humans, and are distributed among the four paths of " Six Paths ", among which the Heavenly Tribe and the Dragon Tribe have the greatest blessings, so they are the top leaders, called the "Tianlong Eight Tribes".

Eight parts include: Tian, ​​Long, Yasha , Ganda Po, Asura , Garura, Kinnara , Maholaga. Many Mahayana sutras record that when Buddha preached to Bodhisattvas, monks, etc., the eight heavenly and dragons often participated in listening to the Dharma and protecting it.

They are the most distinctive gods and demons in Buddhism. Let’s get to know these eight types of guardian gods one by one:

○Day

The god refers to Twenty-four heavens . They practice various good deeds during their lifetime, and were able to be reborn in the heaven, live happily, and have a long life. In the fairy tale drama, the lifespan of the gods is always tens of thousands of years, which makes people envious.

" Journey to the West " also mentions the gods of the heavenly tribe, such as Jade Emperor and the four heavenly kings.

○Dragon

refers to the dragon and the dragon king. He has divine power and usually lives in the water. He can sniff the clouds and rain, protect the underground treasures and treasures. Naru Shu Bodhisattva is to go to the Dragon Palace to see the wealth of Huayan. The dragon's mission is to protect the Heavenly Palace.

03

○Yaksha

is translated as courageous, either flying or moving in the ground, with rapid movements and fearsome appearance. Some of them protect the Dharma and safeguard all living beings. There is a story about the Buddha saving the five yakshas in Buddhism, and there are also a twelve yakshas (i.e., yakshas) gods protecting the Dharma in " Medicine Buddha Sutra ".

Yasha’s task is to maintain the realm of sentient beings.

○Gandapo

Gandapo is the God of Joy, also known as "Scent God" and "Food Fragrance". He does not eat wine and meat. He is a vegetarian. He specializes in eating fragrance and has its own fragrance, which is unpredictable.

often performs flying postures, playing heavenly music where Buddhism is flourishing or monks preach, so that people can be obsessed with listening to the Dharma without being disturbed by the outside world. If the Gundamor smells the fragrance, he will come to protect the temple.

○Asura

Asura sentient beings often fight against the heavenly beings, like fighting in nature, have a strong suspicion, but respect the Dharma. Its task is to protect the Dharma. If you make a pragmatic effort to study and practice diligently, you will definitely receive the help of Asura.

○Garula

Garula is Gorou golden-winged bird , with a large body, and its two wings are composed of treasures. The sound is sad and painful, and it feeds on dragons and snakes. After it converted, it no longer killed dragons and snakes and became a guardian god who protected Buddhism.

○Kinnaro

Kinnaro is also known as "God of Songs" and "Music Heaven". He looks like a person but not a person, like a person but not a person, has horns on his head, is good at singing and dancing, and helps the spread of Buddhism. It is both the God of Joy and the Goda.

○Maholaga

Maholaga is the god of the python, with a human body and a snake head, and usually walks with a belly. Although the Tianlong Ba Division is the most important Dharma protector of Buddhism, they do not yet have the perfect enlightenment and practices like Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They also have many anger, greed, prejudice, etc. that are like humans. This is the most important feature of the gods of the Tianlong Ba Division.

04

Specifically for each Dharma protector, Greed, Anger, and Ignorance has their own different manifestations: the gods enjoy great blessings, which is caused by their good deeds and virtues. But they are very jealous and will show the five signs of decline when they enjoy the blessings. At that time, they may have great hatred and fall into the three evil paths.

The sentient beings in the dragon division fell into the animal realm because their anger is difficult to eliminate and their evil karma is too high. They are prone to anger, stir up wind and rain, and bring disaster to the world. There is a saying in Buddhism that "the four sufferings of the dragon". Garula used dragons as his food, but eventually died of dragon poison, and his ended up miserable.

Yasha sentient beings are considered to be ghosts and gods in Buddhism. In their previous lives, they were mostly evil ghosts who committed many evil deeds. They committed too much evil karma and were sentient beings in the evil realm.

Asura is very angry and has a bad temper, and is constantly fighting with the gods. From this we can see that supernatural powers cannot defeat karma. The effect of karma is so powerful that no sentient being can escape his palm. Even if the gods in the Eight Tribes of the Heavenly Dragon and Dragon have strong supernatural powers, they are no exception.

05

It is worthy of praise that although the Heavenly Dragon Bashi has many habits, they all vow to protect the Buddhist temples, pagodas and temples, as well as all practitioners, so that everyone can avoid disasters and obstacles.

Therefore, they deserve respect and praise. The Tianlong Ba Division is not perfect, and there are still various flaws in it. But because of this, it is easier to get close to and understand. After understanding these things, I looked back at Jin Yong 's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" and felt that the whole novel was filled with Buddhist colors.

The novel tells the story of family and country grudges, and the disputes between the world, showing the seven emotions and six desires, destiny skills, compassion and courage of different characters. Just like the dragon and heavenly guardians carrying karma, they show their respective abilities and habits, overcome all obstacles in the six realms of reincarnation and move towards enlightenment.

The basic starting point of Buddhist thought is the understanding and understanding of "suffering". If you want to get rid of suffering, you must constantly practice your own mind, abandon evil and promote good, increase your wisdom, and strive for true liberation and gain inner joy.

This point requires brave face and serious thinking, whether it is for the guardian god of the Heavenly Deity, the heroes in the novel, or even every ordinary person of us.