Session 20: Guanyin Volunteers to Find the Man for Fetching the Scriptures
- liz zhang
- Mar 17
- 1 min read
In this session, the Buddha explains the varied morality of beings across the four continents, emphasizing human greed and their delight in the suffering of others. Recognizing the urgent need for spiritual guidance, he seeks a worthy person to undertake the arduous journey to the West, cross mountains and rivers, and bring the Buddha’s teachings back to the East to educate all living beings. For this sacred mission, he entrusts Guanyin Bodhisattva, who is given five treasures to aid the scripture seeker along the way.
Key Questions for contemplation:
If you try to ask about the dhyana (meditation)
Or investigate the innumerable
You will waste your life and achieve nothing.
Polishing bricks to make mirrors,
Or piling up snow to turn it into grain−−
However many years have you wasted like that?
Q: What message does this verse convey?
Are you familiar with the story behind the phrase "polishing bricks to make mirrors"?
What lesson does it teach?
Q: Why was the intention of the Buddha talking about the four continents with varied morality, and the Three Stores of True Scripture?
The Buddha said, ”No one but the venerable Guanyin, whose divine powers are so great, will do for this mission,"
Q: Why did the Buddha choose Guanyin for this task?
Why was this mission particularly challenging?
Q: What instructions did the Buddha give to Guanyin?
How do these instructions reflect the difficulties of the journey ahead?
Q: What were the five treasures given by the Buddha to aid the scripture seeker, and what were their uses?
Why did the Buddha foresee the need for these specific treasures in the journey?
I am Nobu, currently living in Prague.
"Journey to the West" is inspired by a true story that took place around 1,300 years ago. In today's modern world, such a journey is less about physical travel and more about an inward journey of the heart. Within me, both a civilized realm, where Buddha resides, and a barbaric land, inhabited by greed and contention, coexist. My aspiration is to harmonize my inner world and transform the barbaric into the civilized. This session offered insight into a safe and meaningful path for achieving this transformation.
The journey is safe because it is guided by a wise teacher, the Buddha, and accompanied by a faithful mentor, the Bodhisattva. Just as Buddha instructed Guanyin…
I am Chuan, living in Prague of Czech Republic.
When I read that the Buddha thought 500 years had passed in the human realm, he lectured all the bodhisattvas the different natures of sentient beings across the four continents. I feel that the Buddha was laying the groundwork for the causal conditions that would lead to the Western Journey for the scriptures. In fact, it all began when the Buddha subdued Sun Wukong beneath the Five Elements Mountain. The Buddha had every power to eliminate Sun Wukong, yet he chose not to; instead, he pressed him under the mountain, allowing Sun Wukong to reflect on his own mistakes.
Among the five treasures the Buddha gave to bodhisattva was one that…