Xuanzang

The blazing sun hung overhead, and sandalwood incense curled through the air.

Twelve hundred eminent monks wore kasayas and chanted scriptures in unison.

At the very center of the raised platform, a young monk knelt on a meditation cushion, his posture solemn and upright.

He slowly opened his eyes.

A trace of bewilderment flickered through them, followed by shock.

Where... was this?

Maitreya's Pure Land?

He remembered that he had already passed into nirvana.

At Jade Flower Temple.

That year, he had been sixty-five, nearly twenty years after returning from his westward journey in search of the Dharma.

His name was Chen Yi, and his Dharma name was Xuanzang.

He was also the Tripitaka Master of Great Tang. He had traveled west for nineteen years, passing through more than a hundred kingdoms, bringing back 657 Buddhist scriptures and translating 1,335 volumes.

He had thought he would sleep forever.

But now...

He opened his eyes and found himself seated on a raised platform, clad in a kasaya, surrounded by a dense throng of monks whose chanting was deafening.

Was this... the Water and Land Dharma Assembly?

Just as bewilderment gripped him, a screen of light suddenly appeared before his eyes. A book flipped rapidly through its pages, as though deliberately preventing him from seeing them clearly, leaving only a few images before him.

Journey to the West.

Sun Wukong, Havoc in Heaven, Tang Sanzang, the Journey to the West.

Nine times nine-the Eighty-One Tribulations.

A pilgrimage stretching 108,000 li.

Immediately afterward, an icy warning resounded in his heart:

[The great calamity of the Journey to the West is about to begin. The Dharma should have been spread throughout the world to dispel karmic obstructions. Yet through the schemes and arrangements of various powers, the true Dharma was never transmitted, bringing forth the great calamity, unleashing karmic obstructions, and endangering all living beings.]

[Thus, you are appointed master of this calamity, to undertake the Journey to the West anew.]

[Act as a holy monk under your holy monk's name, and the Heavenly Dao shall reward you.]

[Should every step follow the old path, the Heavenly Dao shall withhold its protection and return you to your original world.]

...The Heavenly Dao... a great calamity...

These concepts were far too unfamiliar to him.

He continued absorbing the hazy information in his mind. What he saw most clearly was the conduct of "Tang Sanzang in the original novel."

Xuanzang sighed softly.

Was this the "destined" Pilgrim?

Could someone become a Buddha like that?

He, Xuanzang, was not the man described in that book, nor did he wish to become that sort of Buddha.

Since the Heavenly Dao had sent him to walk this road again...

Xuanzang's gaze gradually settled into calm.

A sudden commotion stirred through the crowd.

In the distance, Wei Zheng held an imperial decree and called out:

"By decree of King Tang, Master Xuanzang is summoned to an audience."

Xuanzang rose from his meditation cushion.

The first act of the great calamity of the Journey to the West had begun.

To those watching, the master on the raised platform slowly opened his eyes, his gaze clear and bright.

He rose neither hurriedly nor slowly, carrying himself with an innate steadiness.

"The master... what a fine bearing."

Upon meeting Emperor Taizong, Xuanzang bowed.

Emperor Taizong raised a hand for him to rise and spoke amiably:

"Thank you for your efforts in conducting the rites, Master. I had not yet decided what gift to give you in thanks."

"But this morning, Xiao Yu encountered two monks willing to give you two Buddhist treasures: a wondrous Brocade Kasaya and a Nine-Ringed Monk's Staff."

"So I summoned you expressly to take them back and use them."

Xuanzang pressed his palms together and said calmly, "I am grateful for Your Majesty's generous favor. However, this kasaya and staff are supreme treasures of the Buddhist Order. My virtue is shallow; I fear I lack the blessings to receive them."

King Tang was surprised. He was just about to speak when the Bald-headed Monk standing nearby, dressed in rags with a face covered in grime, called out loudly:

"Master, if you are an eminent monk, do you recognize these treasures?"

Without waiting for Xuanzang's answer, the monk said:

"Wear my kasaya, and you will not sink into perdition, fall into hell, suffer vicious afflictions, or encounter calamities brought by tigers and wolves."

"Should a dragon drape itself in a single strand of my kasaya, it will escape being devoured by the Golden-Winged Great Peng."

"Should a crane hang a single thread upon itself, it will gain the wondrous power to transcend the mundane and enter sainthood."

"Wear it, and you will not sink into perdition, fall into hell, or suffer vicious afflictions."

"As for my staff: copper-bound iron bears nine linked rings; nine joints of immortal vine preserve the youthful face. Once held, one tires of seeing lean blue bones; descending the mountain, one lightly brings white clouds home. The five maha patriarchs roamed the heavenly courts; Luobo sought his mother and broke through the gates below. Untouched by even a speck of mortal dust, it gladly accompanies a divine monk up the jade mountain."

Xuanzang's expression remained calm. He spoke slowly, his voice clear. "Venerable elder, I recognize these treasures."

"If you recognize them, why refuse them?"

"Precisely because I recognize them, I dare not accept them lightly. Those who leave home have severed their worldly ties and drained the golden sea dry. Though this kasaya and staff are Buddhist treasures, I believe that those who cultivate should not rely on external things."

"Your Majesty."

Xuanzang's voice was soft.

He turned, putting his back to the treasures that could keep a person from "falling into hell," and looked directly at King Tang upon his dragon throne as he spoke slowly.

"We who cultivate should not depend on external things. If merely draping ourselves in this layer of embroidered splendor allows us to transcend the mundane and enter sainthood, never sink into perdition, never fall into hell, and never suffer vicious afflictions..."

Xuanzang's voice abruptly rose:

"Then would not the thousand sufferings of this world and its myriad paths of cultivation all become a joke?"

Xuanzang's voice was calm and forceful, as though he were stating the simplest of truths.

It was not loud, yet it reached everyone's ears clearly, carrying a strange resonance.

"What an arrogant monk!"

"Monk! I heard you expound the Dharma!"

The Bald-headed Monk cried out sharply:

"You speak only of the Hinayana Teachings. Can you speak of mahayana? These Hinayana Teachings of yours cannot deliver the dead to higher realms; they can only mingle with the common world and soften their light."

Xuanzang raised one hand in salutation:

"Venerable elder, I venture to ask a question."

Xuanzang's expression was solemn, his voice clear and resonant. "What makes one great, and the other small?"

"You say the Buddhist Dharma I expound is hinayana."

"But in my eyes, all phenomena are consciousness alone, and the Three Realms are mind alone."

"If the mind has boundaries, even the vast ocean is a shallow hollow; if the mind is unobstructed, a mustard seed is Mount Sumeru."

Xuanzang stared into the old monk's eyes. His words came neither fast nor slow, yet each was sharp as a blade. "If someone practices the hinayana Dharma but holds all living beings beneath heaven in his heart, is he a practitioner of mahayana?"

"If someone practices the mahayana Dharma but seeks only his own liberation, does he possess only the capacity for hinayana?"

"Since all phenomena reside within the heart's tiny spiritual altar, with no distinction between them to begin with..."

"Then why... should the Buddhist Dharma harbor a discriminating mind?"

He paused and leaned forward slightly:

"Venerable elder, do you agree?"

Opposite him...

The bald-headed old monk's gaze had changed completely.

"All phenomena are consciousness alone..."

The old monk murmured to herself, then raised her head and gave Xuanzang a long, searching look.

"Good! Good! Good!"

"Xuanzang, your innate wisdom far exceeds my expectations."

She was a bodhisattva, after all, and had not been stumped. The Bald-headed Monk laughed three times, her voice making the great hall hum.

"Since you have asked, I shall answer!"

"Since you understand consciousness alone, you should understand all the more that 'tangible' teachings are needed to break through the karmic obstructions of 'ignorance.'"

"If living beings hear the Dharma from the Buddha, the World-Honored One, and accept it with faith, diligently striving onward, seeking spontaneous wisdom, delighting in solitary tranquility, and deeply understanding the causes and conditions of all phenomena, this is called the pratyekabuddha vehicle, also called hinayana. They are like those children who leave the burning house in pursuit of deer carts."

"If living beings hear the Dharma from the Buddha, the World-Honored One, and accept it with faith, diligently cultivating and striving onward, seeking all-encompassing wisdom, Buddha-wisdom, spontaneous wisdom, wisdom without a teacher, the Tathagata's knowledge and insight, powers and fearlessness, compassionately bringing peace and joy to immeasurable living beings, benefiting gods and humans, and delivering all, this is called mahayana. Because bodhisattvas seek this vehicle, they are called Mahasattvas, like those children who leave the burning house in pursuit of ox carts."

"At that time, the Tathagata thought thus: 'I possess immeasurable, boundless stores of Buddhist teachings-wisdom, powers, fearlessness, and more. These living beings are all my children. I shall grant them mahayana equally, allowing none to attain extinction alone, but bringing them all to extinction through the Tathagata's extinction.'

"My Buddha, the Tathagata, has heard that those in Jambudvipa covet lust and delight in calamity, killing often and fighting much-a truly savage arena of tongues, a wicked sea of right and wrong. I now possess the Tripitaka Scriptures, which can encourage people to do good."

"The mahayana Buddhist Sanzang can deliver the dead from suffering and preserve the living body from decay. It can untie a hundred knots of grievance and dispel unbidden disasters!"

"These scriptures await someone to retrieve them from my Buddha, the Tathagata, at Great Thunderclap Temple in the Western Tianzhu Kingdom."

"Xuanzang, are you willing to go?"

Before Xuanzang could argue further, the monk struck the staff in her hand against the ground.

Thud!

The muffled impact seemed to strike directly upon everyone's heart.

The Bald-headed Monk swept a hand across her face. Her tattered robes shredded in the wind, transforming into ten thousand beams of golden light, a thousand streams of auspicious radiance, and surging clouds of blessing.

In midair, Guanyin Bodhisattva stood upon the Lotus Pedestal, holding the Willow Branch and Pure Water Vase. At her left stood Hui'an the Wanderer, Mucha, holding the Nine-Ringed Monk's Staff, his bearing majestic.

The Brocade Kasaya rose of its own accord and hung in midair, shimmering with brilliant colors.

"A bodhisattva! It's Guanyin Bodhisattva!"

"The bodhisattva has manifested!"

Overjoyed, King Tang bowed toward the sky, while his civil and military officials knelt and burned incense.

Throughout the temple, monks and nuns, Daoists and laypeople, scholars, artisans, and merchants all bowed in prayer, chanting, "Homage to Guanyin Bodhisattva."

Guanyin discarded her disguise and revealed her true form.

Everyone present bowed in worship.

Only one person remained standing, unmoving.