The story of Journey to the West tells that Buddha Tathagata sent Quan Am Bodhisattva to find a person in Dai Duong to get the scriptures back to teach sentient beings there. The shaman Tran Huyen Trang (Tang Tang, Duong Tam Tang), who was the reincarnated elder Kim Thien, was chosen. The rest is to find assistants to protect and help the Tang Sangha on the arduous road to Tay Thien Buddha land. Instead of finding perfect, flawless characters, Quan Am chose Ton Ngo Khong, Tru Bat Gioi, Sa Tang and Bach Long Ma as disciples of Tang Tang. The common point of these four disciples is that they all had “a criminal record” in heaven and were punished.
Great disciple Ton Hanh has outstanding magic skills, has 72 transformations, generous divine powers, when the heavens are uproar, the heavenly generals can’t do anything. It was only when the Buddha took action that the Great Saint Qi was arrested and imprisoned under the Marble Mountains for 500 years, until he was liberated by the Tang Sangha himself on the way to ask for sutras. From then on, the beautiful Marquis followed this shaman to Tay Truc.
Second disciple Tru Bat Gioi was originally Thien Bong Marshal, had 36 transformations, and was assigned to command more than 80,000 marines in heaven. Because he couldn’t control his lust and teased Hang Nga, this marshal was banished from heaven, pushed down to earth, and reincarnated into a pigsty.
The Three Disciples of Sa Tang, who was originally Quyen Liem, a general in heaven, was also a great criminal who was banished to the ceiling after he accidentally broke the Jade Emperor’s lapis lazuli. In the world, this former general became a fierce demon, making rain and wind in the Luu Sa River, continuing to commit crimes until he met Tang Tang, the master that Guan Yin Bodhisattva told to wait patiently. wait.
The white horse that Tang Sang rides on, considered to be the fourth disciple, is also of the “flawed resume” category. It was originally Bach Long, the son of Tay Hai Dragon King. The crime of this crown prince was to burn the night pearl, the wedding gift of the Jade Emperor, on the day of his marriage, when he discovered his newlywed wife was having an affair with someone else. With this rebellious and disrespectful crime, Bach Long was chained in the middle of the sky, had to wait for someone who took the scriptures to pass by to worship him as his master, had his horns cut, peeled off his scales, stripped off his dragon form, and served as a riding horse for Tang Tang.
Decoding Journey to the West: Why did 4 of Tang Tang’s disciples all have “convicts” in heaven?
Why, when looking for disciples for Tang Tang, Guan Yin Bodhisattva chose all those with “criminal records” like that? What deep message does this contain? You should notice when supporting the master to go to Tay Thien, 3 disciples were given dharma names with the word “enlightenment”: Ngo Khong, Ngo Nang, Ngo Tinh, Ngo Ky. Enlightenment means enlightenment, is the understanding to change, to re-perceive along the path towards the truth of liberation. It is the process of overcoming one’s own demonic nature, unifying body and mind.
The name Wukong means removing the mind of attachment, Ngo Nang means eliminating lust, Ngo Tinh means the desire to return to a pure and pure mind by being patient, enduring, and calm. motion.
The process of asking for sutras of the teachers and students of Tang Tang is actually the process of people overcoming themselves to reach enlightenment. Therefore, Master Tang Tang was built with the image of a mundane human being, although his disciples came from a fairy background, many magical transformations, but all “stained”, all needed to be changed. The battle with thousands of youkai on the way to Tay Thien is the “civil war” to purify the mind. That’s why even Ton Ngo Khong has 72 transformations, once making the whole heavens afraid, but sometimes he has to give up when he meets “smiling” goblins who are just mounts of some fairy.
In a nutshell, the process of asking for sutras of a master with a physical body and his four “stained resume” disciples is the process by which people struggle to overcome ignorance, greed, hatred, and delusion. towards true peace.