In fact, the food chain in Journey to the West is still very clear. Sun Wukong is already considered a first-class master. No one in the entire heaven is his opponent, but Tathagata Buddha can easily subdue Sun Wukong when he comes forward. Therefore, Tathagata He should be the top figure on the biological chain. However, Tathagata Buddha also relied on his own practice to reach this position in the early days. So how did Tathagata become a Buddha and develop a six-foot-long golden body? In fact, the early Tathagata also went through many difficulties, and overcoming tribulations may be their only way. Bar.

In the seventy-seventh chapter of "Journey to the West", Sun Wukong went to the West to complain to the Buddha in tears because he was tortured into a dog by Dapeng. Here, Buddha told an old story.

The Buddha said, I cultivated a golden body six feet tall on the top of the Snow Mountain...

That is to say, the Buddha cultivated and became a Buddha in the Snow Mountain. So after becoming a Buddha, a large wave of demon kings and demon soldiers came. They came to prevent Buddha from becoming a Buddha.

Hasn’t the Buddha already become a Buddha? How can it be stopped?

Strictly speaking, the Buddha is at the critical moment of becoming a Buddha. You say he has become a Buddha, he is already a Buddha. But he still lacks the most crucial step to become a Buddha, which is to overcome the tribulation.

So, our story begins here.

1.

Everyone is familiar with the word "overcoming tribulation", but no one knows the mystery of why it is necessary to overcome tribulation.

Let’s popularize and learn science together.

Before the so-called practice, everyone was an ordinary person. Then the methods of practice are collectively called "Tao". According to the Bodhi Patriarch in "Journey to the West", there are three hundred and sixty side gates in the "Tao" gate, and all side gates have positive results. The categories of cultivating the "Tao" can be roughly divided into the "shu" gate, the "flow" gate, the "dynamic" gate, and the "quiet" gate.

The word "shu" mainly focuses on magic, such as asking immortal Fuluan and asking for divination to know how to seek good luck and avoid bad luck. This kind of magic is currently used by many people and is relatively common.

The "liu" sect refers to Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Yin-Yang, Mohism, and medical schools, who read scriptures, recite Buddha's name, and pay homage to the true saint. This explanation is clear at a glance. Our current "Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism" all belong to the sect of "liu". So later in the Song Dynasty, Shao Yong, Zhang Zai, Cheng Yi, Cheng Hao, and Zhou Dunyi studied the "unity of three religions" together, which was called "New Confucian culture" in history.

At present, the "moving" word sect is basically similar to heresy. This involves gathering yin and replenishing yang, climbing a bow and stepping on a crossbow, rubbing the navel to relieve the qi, making it with herbs, burning cogongrass and making a tripod, adding red lead, smelting autumn stones, and taking women's milk. Zhu Bajie's "Massage Zen Method" and "Fierce Battle Zen Method" basically fall into this category.

The word "quiet" refers to resting food and guarding the grain, being quiet and doing nothing, meditating, observing precepts, fasting, sleeping or performing meritorious deeds, and incorporating it into Dingzuo Guan and so on. Because the method is simple, this category is currently studied by people in Taoism and Buddhism.

Patriarch Bodhi has already said before that all three hundred and sixty side sects can achieve positive results.

There are two questions here. First, why are these categories all side sects? Second, why can others achieve positive results?

Let’s first explain the first question. The reason why it is said that they are all side doors. This is because all types of practice are actually about cultivating oneself. Your first goal is to achieve enlightenment, become an immortal, and become a Buddha. If this is the case, then the process of practice must cause harm to those around you. This is exactly what the Tao Te Ching says: the way of man is to make up for what is lacking and what is lacking.

Let’s explain the second “positive result” issue. All practice involves "requesting" first and then "giving back".

In other words, when you practice, you cause harm to the surrounding environment. When you take away the "good", you leave the "bad" behind.

So we discovered a very embarrassing problem. Wherever a saint appears to practice, the environment will eventually become very bad.

For example, the state of Lu was the birthplace of Saint Kong. The State of Lu was originally the fiefdom of Zhou Gongdan, and it can be said to be a model of etiquette.

Later, when Confucius became a saint, he first promoted "Zhou Rites" in the State of Lu, but as a result, the "Three Huan Rebellion" occurred in the State of Lu. From a historical perspective, this period of history was precisely the period when the Lu Kingdom experienced the most "collapse of rituals and music". It also directly led Confucius to travel around the world.

Looking at Tathagata Buddha, he became a Buddha in the Snowy Mountains. Where is the Snowy Mountains? In fact, he is the current Afghan generation. So we find that the higher a saint achieves, the more barren and desolate his place of practice becomes. This is actually not the saint's original intention, but there is nothing we can do about it. This is the "law of heaven".

2.

Originally, the world was in a state of "chaos". If someone takes away the light, darkness will inevitably remain; if someone takes away the goodness, ugliness will inevitably remain; if someone takes away the beauty, ugliness will inevitably remain.

That’s why Patriarch Bodhi said that among the three hundred and sixty Dharma doors, all are side sects.

Could it be said that it is wrong for us to pursue beauty, kindness, benevolence and etiquette? It is true.

At the beginning of the world, it was actually a world with "no good and no evil". As it is said in "Zhuangzi Yingdiwang", the world changed because the Nanhai Emperor and the Beihai Emperor opened the seven orifices to the Chaos Emperor. People have "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind" and begin to pursue and change what they think is an ideal world according to their own preferences, understanding, and understanding.

This is the change of the world from Wuji to Taiji, and then from Taiji to Yin and Yang.

So, Yin and Yang are the essence of the current world.

In this case, the birth of the saint has important significance.

Although it is said that the saint caused harm to the world when he was born. But then, they will immediately start feeding the world back. However, after birth and before feeding back, the devil also appeared.

Where did the devil come from? In fact, he was also created by saints.

All phenomena in the world are opposites; all conditions in the world are created by the mind.

As mentioned earlier, the birth of a saint worsened the environment for his practice. Then in this environment, another demon king was immediately born.

Let’s give an example. Buddhism is symbolized by the lotus flower. So where is the lotus flower? It is born in the mud. In fact, this land, before the lotus existed, was just an ordinary land. It is precisely because of the lotus that the land turns into mud.

The purer the lotus, the dirtier the mud.

Sometimes we think about whether there are always many bad people around a good person. The better the good people are, the worse the bad people are. It's like saying that if there is a Yue Fei, there will be a Qin Hui.

Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that when Buddha was born, the devil immediately came to kill him. If you don't become a Buddha, the devil will not exist; as soon as you become a Buddha, the devil will come immediately with his devil sons and grandsons.

So this is the tribulation. If you want to become a Buddha, you must survive this calamity yourself. Whether you can successfully overcome the disaster depends entirely on your wisdom.

So how did the Buddha survive the tribulation?

The Buddha described such a story in "Journey to the West".

The peacock was the most evil when it was born. It could eat people and sucked them up in one bite for forty-five miles. On the top of the snow mountain, I cultivated a six-foot-long golden body, but he had already sucked me in. I wanted to leave through his private door, but I was afraid of tainting my true body; so I cut open his back and stepped onto the spiritual mountain. If you want to hurt his life, you should be persuaded by the Buddhas, hurting the peacock is like hurting my mother, so I kept him in the Lingshan Assembly and made him the Buddha's Mother, Peacock, Great Ming King and Bodhisattva.

In fact, before the Peacock, Buddha had already withstood the temptations and attacks of various demons, but he resolved them all one by one. The peacock's fate is also part of it.

The Buddha's approach did not directly "fight violence with violence, and evil with evil", but adopted a method of tolerance and resolution. This is the "method of positive fruition" mentioned by Patriarch Bodhi earlier.

Now we can briefly summarize. Buddha became a saint and also created the devil. Then after becoming a saint, you must rely on your own wisdom to resolve the knots in the hearts of these demons. In other words, the mud has made the lotus holy, but we cannot just ignore the mud. We must turn the mud into pure land.

The difficulty can be imagined. As people continue to rely on their own wisdom to become saints, new demon kings will continue to appear. So the battle between demons is always endless. This is what the saying goes, "The way is higher and the devil is higher."

If the devil does evil, he will eventually fall into hell. This is not decided by anyone, but by cause and effect.

Buddhism’s greatest contribution to the world is the theory of cause and effect.

Causation is the best explanation for the formation of the world.

3.

The whole world is like a Tai Chi diagram, half is black and half is white. There is black in white, and white in black.

You will understand it very clearly if you look carefully at the yin and yang fish in the Tai Chi diagram. There is a yin eye in the yin fish, and there is a yin eye in the yang fish. It exactly represents the causal relationship mentioned above.

The saint absorbed all the positive energy and presented himself with a yang side, but the "yin eyes" in his heart represented the "evil causes" in the process of growth; while the devil was forced to accept the remaining negative aspects. Energy itself presents a negative side, but the "yang eye" in his heart represents the "good cause" that will enable him to become a saint in the future.

This is why Buddha must help all demons and ghosts escape from the sea of ??hell. Because he wants to relieve his karma.

Then there must be some specific measures. Of course, didn't Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva always help the Buddha manage hell? Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva has a famous saying: If the hell is not empty, you will never become a Buddha.

The hell is managed by Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, so it can be slowly transformed first. What about the human world?

The classification of human beings is relatively complicated. It is a mixture of good and bad, good and evil. We talked about the Demon King earlier. Although the devil has no ability to prevent Buddha from becoming a Buddha, he is still quite capable of confusing ordinary humans.

When the Demon King failed, he left a message to the Buddha. Although I can't fight you, what if I let my demon sons and grandsons wear your clothes, read your scriptures crookedly, and misinterpret your thoughts?

At that time, the Buddha shed tears. . Because, for the time being, he didn't think of a good way to stop the devil's conspiracy.

However, the yin and yang both contradict and reinforce each other. There were things that Buddha had no way to do, but Sage Confucius was still there.

The devil secretly stirred up trouble, which indeed led to a decline in social order. People are constantly "evil, gossiping, gossiping, and lying" to each other.

In "Journey to the West", Buddha said: Your eastern land is Nanfangbuzhou. Although Confucius established the teaching of benevolence, justice, etiquette and wisdom there, the emperors succeeded each other, and some of them were punished by being hanged and beheaded. , How could he be such an ignorant and indulgent person!

This sentence can be regarded as a very objective evaluation of Confucius' Confucianism. After all, Confucianism's "benevolence, justice, etiquette, wisdom, and trust" have a purifying effect on social atmosphere. It plays a role in alleviating the decline of people's hearts.

Of course, Buddha also said that Confucianism cannot really change people's hearts.

Sun Wukong had already said to Patriarch Bodhi that it is better to make the decision yourself than to ask gods for divination.

No one can change anyone, only the wisdom of mind can change oneself. This is the highest state of the unity of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism - no explanation.

Therefore, Buddha has always asked everyone to cultivate their minds. However, for those who are stubborn, they must also have Confucian "benevolence" to alert and deter them.

And all education is actually a relief tip. The only thing that truly determines the trend of a person's life is cause and effect. Whatever cause is sown, whatever appearance appears, and what result will be produced. The so-called karma is really not good at all.