“'If a man wishes to be good, Heaven will certainly allow him to be,'“ said the Bodhisattva. “If you are prepared to submit to the truth, there are of course, ways to feed yourself. There are the five kinds of food-grains, and they are sufficient to assuage hunger, so why eat people to keep alive?”
When the monster heard these words it was as if he awoke from a dream, and he said to the Bodhisattva, “I would love to reform, but isn't it true that 'a sinner against Heaven has nowhere to pray to?'”
“I'm going to the East on the orders of the Buddha to find the man who will fetch the scriptures,” she replied. “You can be a disciple of his and make this journey to the Western Heaven; thus you will gain merit and atone for your crimes, and I will see to it that you are freed from disaster.”
“I'll go with him, I'll go with him,” the monster said over and over again. The Bodhisattva then laid her hands on his head and he accepted the monastic rules. She gave him the surname Zhu (“Pig") because of his appearance, and gave him the Buddhist name Zhu Wuneng (“Pig Awakened to Power"). She ordered him to adhere to the truth and eat only vegetarian food, cutting out the five pungent vegetables as well as the three forbidden things; wild goose, dog and fish. He was now to wait single-mindedly for the pilgrim who would come to fetch the scriptures.
The Bodhisattva and Moksa then took their leave of the Pig Awakened to Power and continued on their way by low-altitude cloud. As they were travelling along they heard a jade dragon call to them in mid-air.
“Which dragon are you?” the Bodhisattva asked as she went up to him. “And why are you undergoing punishment here?”
“I am the son of Ao Run, the Dragon King of the Western Sea. Because I burnt up the bright pearls in the palace, my father reported me to the court of Heaven as a rebel. The Jade Emperor had me hung up in mid-air and given three hundred strokes, and I am to be executed any day now. I beg you to save me, Bodhisattva.”
When she heard his plea the Bodhisattva went in through the Southern Gates of Heaven with Moksa. Here they were met by the Heavenly Teachers Qiu and Zhang, who asked them, “Where are you going?”
“I would like an audience with the Jade Emperor.” The two Heavenly Teachers hurried in to announce her, and the Jade Emperor came out of his palace to receive her. The Bodhisattva went forward to greet him and said, “On my way to the East on the orders of the Buddha to find the man to fetch the scriptures, I met a wicked dragon suspended in mid-air… I have come here especially to ask you to spare his life and give him to me so that I can teach him to serve the pilgrim with his legs.” On hearing this the Jade Emperor issued a decree pardoning him, and he sent a heavenly general to release him and give him to the Bodhisattva. The Bodhisattva thanked him for his generosity and left. The young dragon kowtowed to show how grateful he was for having his life spared, and he obediently did what the Bodhisattva told him to. She took him to a deep ravine, where he was to wait until the pilgrim came. When that happened he was to turn into a white horse and achieve merit by going to the Western Heaven. On receiving his orders the young dragon hid himself.
The Bodhisattva led Moksa the Novice across this mountain, and they hurried on towards the East. Before they had gone much further they suddenly saw ten thousand beams of golden light and a thousand wisps of propitious vapour.
“Teacher,” said Moksa, “the place where all the light is coming from is the Five Elements Mountain, where the Tathagata's restriction order is posted.”
“This must be cause that Great Sage Equaling Heaven who wrecked the Peach Banquet and threw the Heavenly Palace into chaos is imprisoned there.”
“That's right,” Moksa replied, and teacher and pupil climbed the mountain together to look at the paper. On it were written the true words Om mani padme bum, and when the Bodhisattva saw them she sighed deeply and composed a poem that went:
“Pity the evil monkey who did not obey the lord
In his arrogance he showed off his valour in the old days,
In his folly he wrecked the Peach Banquet,
And he had the effrontery to sin in the Tushita Palace.
In the army of a hundred thousand there was none to match him;
His might was felt above the ninefold heavens.
But now he has been caught by our Tathagata, the Buddha:
Will he ever be able to unleash his talents and win more glory?”
The conversation between teacher and disciple had disturbed the Great Sage, who shouted from under the roots of the mountain, “Who's that up there?” When she heard this the Bodhisattva hurried down the mountain to visit him. At the foot of the mountainside the local gods, the mountain gods and the heavenly generals who were guarding the Great Sage all bowed to the Bodhisattva in greeting and took her to the Great Sage. She saw that he was pressed down inside a stone box, so that he could speak but could not move his body.
“Monkey,” the Bodhisattva said, “do you know who I am?” The Great Sage opened wide his fiery eyes with their golden pupils, nodded his head and shouted at the top of his voice, “Of course I recognize you. You, thank goodness, are the All-Compassionate. All-Merciful Deliverer from Suffering, the Bodhisattva Guanyin from Potaraka Island in the Southern Sea. You're a very welcome visitor. Every day here seems like a year, and nobody I know has ever come to see me. Where have you come from?”
“I have received a mandate from the Buddha to go to the East and find the man who will fetch the scriptures,” she replied, “and as I was passing this way I decided to come over and see you.”
“The Buddha fooled me and crushed me under this mountain-I haven't been able to stretch myself for five hundred years. I desperately hope that you will be obliging enough to rescue me, Bodhisattva.”
“You wretch,” she replied, “you have such an appalling criminal record that I'm afraid you'd only make more trouble if I got you out.”
“I have already repented,” he said, “and hope that you will show me the road I should follow. I want to cultivate my conduct.” Indeed:
When an idea is born in a man's mind
It is known throughout Heaven and Earth.
If good and evil are not rewarded and punished
The world is bound to go to the bad.
The Bodhisattva was delighted to hear what he had to say.
“The sacred scriptures say,” she replied, '“If one's words are good, they will meet with a response from even a thousand miles away; if they are bad, they will be opposed from the same distance.' If this is your state of mind, then wait while I go to the East to find the man who will fetch the scriptures; I'll tell him to rescue you. You can be his disciple, observe and uphold the faith, enter our Buddha's religion, and cultivate good retribution for yourself in the future. What do you say to that?”
“I'll go, I'll go,” the Great Sage repeated over and over again.
“As you have reformed,” she said, “I'll give you a Buddhist name.”
“I've already got a name. It's Sun Wukong.” The Bodhisattva, very pleased, said, “I made two converts earlier, and their names both contained Wu ('Awakened'). There's no need to give you any further instructions, so I'll be off.” The Great Sage, now aware of his own Buddha-nature, was converted to the Buddha's religion; and the Bodhisattva devotedly continued her search for a saintly monk.
After leaving that place she and Huian carried straight on to the East, and before long they reached Chang'an, the capital of the Great Tang. Putting away their mists and clouds, teacher and pupil turned themselves into a pair of scabby itinerant monks and went inside the city of Chang'an. It was already dark, and beside the great market street they saw a shrine to a local tutelary god and went in. The local god was thrown into confusion at the sight of them, and the devil soldiers quaked with terror; they knew that she was a Bodhisattva, and kowtowed to her in greeting. The local god then scurried off to tell the City God, the Lord of the Alter, and the gods of all the other shrines in Chang'an. When they knew that the Bodhisattva had come they all went to report to her and said, “Bodhisattva, please forgive us for our crime in being late to welcome you.”