The Great Sage looked up to the sky and yelled at the top of his voice, “Where are you, Ao Guang? You and your brothers must show yourselves to me in your true forms.” On hearing this summons the dragon kings soon appeared in their true forms; writhing through the mist and clouds in the sky they danced through the air to the throne hall. This was what could be seen:
Flying transformations,
Coiling through the clouds.
Their jade claws hung like white hooks,
Their silver scales danced with the brightness of mirrors.
Vigor was in every strand of their floating white beards;
And their horns rose proud and full of purity.
Lofty were their foreheads,
Bright shone their round, round eyes.
None can predict their appearance;
Their flight is beyond appraisal.
But when the rain was prayed for, it fell,
And the skies cleared as soon as requested.
These were holy and magical dragons,
Surrounding the palace with numinous radiance.
The king burnt incense in his palace hall and the ministers bowed low in worship before the steps. “Now that your noble selves have granted us your presence we need detain you no longer,” said the king. “We shall have a thanksgiving mass said another day.”
“All you gods may now go too,” said Monkey. “The king will have a thanksgiving mass said another day.” The dragon kings went straight back to their oceans, and the gods all returned to Heaven. Indeed:
Great and boundless is the wonderful Dharma;
False faiths are smashed when its truth is revealed.
If you don't know how evil was eliminated, listen to the explanation in the next installment.
Chapter 46
False Faith Oppresses the True Dharma
The Sage Mind-Ape Eliminates Evil
The story tells how when the king saw that Monkey had the power to summon dragons and order gods about he put his seal on the passports and handed them to the Tang Priest, whom he allowed to continue on his journey West. The three Taoist masters were so terrified that they prostrated themselves in the Hall of Golden Bells and submitted a memorial to the king, who came down from his dragon throne, helped them to their feet with his own hand, and said, “Why are you performing this obeisance to me today?”
“Your Majesty,” the Taoists replied, “we came here to help the country, protect the state and look after the people. We have toiled here for twenty years but now these Buddhist monks have put themselves ahead of us and ruined our reputation with a magic trick. Are you not insulting us by letting them off their death sentences just because of some rain? We implore you to keep their papers and allow us three brothers to challenge them to another competition. What do you think?”
The king of Tarrycart really was muddle-headed: when he heard advice from the East he inclined to the East, and when he was advised from the West he inclined to the West. “What sort of competition with them do you propose, Teachers of the Nation?” he asked.
“We would like to compete with them in sitting in meditation,” said the Great Immortal Tiger Power.
“The Teacher of the Nation must have made a mistake,” the king replied. “That monk comes from a sect that practices dhyana meditation. He must have mastered the art of meditation before his emperor sent him to fetch scriptures. Why would you want to compete with him at that?”
“The way we sit in meditation,” the Great Immortal replied, “is not the ordinary way. It has a special name: 'revealing one's holiness on a cloud ladder'”
“What does that mean?” the king asked.
“A hundred tables are needed,” said the Great Immortal. “Fifty of them are piled one on top of each other to make the meditation platform. Once must mount it not by using one's hands or a ladder, but by riding a cloud to take one's seat on it and sit motionless for the agreed number of hours.”
Realizing that this was rather difficult he asked this question: “Monks, the Teacher of the Nation would like to compete with you in a way of sitting in meditation called 'revealing one's holiness on a cloud ladder'. Can any of you do that?” When Monkey heard this he kept silent and did not reply.
“Brother,” asked Pig, “why aren't you saying anything?”
“I'll be honest with you,” Monkey replied. “I can manage all sorts of tricks like kicking the sky into a well, stirring up the sea, turning rivers upside down, lifting mountains, chasing the moon away, and moving stars and constellations around. I'm not afraid of having my head chopped off, my brains sliced up, my entrails laid open, my heart cut out and being shifted about in other ways like that. But when it comes to sitting in meditation I'm beaten. I'm not a sitter by nature. Even if you chained me to an iron column I'd want to wriggle up and down. I'd never want to sit still.”
Then Sanzang cut in with, “I can sit in meditation.”
“That's splendid,” said Monkey with delight, “splendid. But how long can you do it for?”
“When I was young,” Sanzang replied, “a monk of the Chan sect who came to my monastery taught the way of fastening one's being to the root, settling the nature, and fixing the spirit while on the boundary of life and death. I can sit for two or three years.”
“If you're going to sit there for two or three years, Master,” said Monkey, “we can give up the idea of going to fetch the scriptures. You won't need to sit there for more than a few hours before coming down.”
“But I can't get up there, disciple,” Sanzang protested.
“Go forward and accept the challenge,” said Monkey. “I'll get you up there.”
The venerable elder put his hands together in front of his chest and said, “This humble monk can sit in meditation.” The king then ordered that the meditation platforms be built. The state had the resources to tear down mountains, and in less than an hour the two meditation platforms had been built, one to each side of the throne hall.
The Great Immortal Tiger Power then went down from the hall, stood in the middle of the steps, sprang into the air and went straight up on a cloud to the Western platform and set down. Monkey plucked out one of his hairs and turned it into a double of himself that stood below with Pig and Friar Sand while he made his real self into a coloured auspicious cloud that lifted the Tang Priest up through the air to take his seat on the Eastern platform.
Then he put the cloud away, turned into the tiniest of insects, flow into Pig's ear, and said, “Brother, keep a very close eye on the master and don't talk to my double.”
“I understand, I understand,” replied the idiot with a grin.
The Great Immortal Deer Power had been sitting on his embroidered cushion for a very long time watching the two of them sitting on their high platforms without either emerging as the winner. He decided to help his elder brother, so he plucked a hair from the back of his head, rolled it into a ball, and flicked it straight at the Tang Priest's head, where it turned into a huge bedbug that started biting the venerable elder. Sanzang first itched and then was in pain. When sitting in meditation movements of the hand are forbidden; if he moved his hand he would lose. The agony was soon unbearable, and he pulled his head down to scratch it against his collar.
“This is bad,” said Monkey. “The master's being driven mad by epilepsy.”
“No,” said Friar Sand, “it's a migraine.”
When Monkey heard this he said, “Our master is sincere and a gentleman. If he says he can sit in meditation he most certainly can. Gentlemen don't lie. You two shut up while I go up there for a look.” The splendid Monkey then flew with a buzz straight up to the Tang Priest's head, where he saw a bedbug the size of a bean biting the master. He immediately picked it off him then scratched and rubbed his head for him, so that the venerable elder did not itch or ache any more and sat up straight again.