A Journey of Learning and Insight: An Autobiography of Chan Master Sheng Yen 聖嚴法師學思歷程(英譯版)

My Journey to the West (from Chapter 10)

When I was in my youth, I read Wu Cheng’en’s Journey to the West, and knew that Master Xuanzang of Tang, on his journey to the west to retrieve the sutras, had to go through eighty-one obstacles. Although his Dharma protector, his Monkey King disciple Qitian Dasheng (the great saint who could match the heavens), had the ability to change into 72 forms, and accompanied him on his journey, but still many disasters happened. At the time, I sympathized with Master Xuanzang who encountered obstacles one after another, yet enjoyed reading the exciting stories of Sun Wukong (the Monkey King disciple) charging to the rescue. After I read through the eighty-one obstacles, I was hoping for a further obstacle to continue reading on.

When I was older, I read the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, written by Master Xuanzang, and I found it not as splendid as Journey to the West. However, the customs, culture, religion, and geographical locations he recorded on the Western Regions, especially concerning the distribution of the Buddhist sangha and their Dharma teaching and learning activities at the time made a deep impression on me. Although the transliterated names of people, objects, and locations sounded very unfamiliar to me, with patience, I still finished reading the book.


In the autumn of 1989, I went on a trip to India by myself, which was the Western Regions where Master Xuanzang traveled to during the Tang Dynasty. However, when Master Xuanzang traveled to the various countries in the west, he endured many difficulties and hardships on the way, and it took him 14 years. My trip was either on the plane, or on the bus, and it only took me 15 days. Therefore, it was incomparable to Master Xuanzang’s journey to the west in any aspect.

My purpose for going to India was simply for the pilgrimage because in the beginning of that year, our Chung-Hwa Institute of Buddhist Studies began a greater project: we bought an area of land on the slope of the mountains at Jinshan Township, Taipei County, and we prepared to develop it into a world Buddhist education center, with multiple purposes such as education, culture, and practice, etc. Therefore, we established the Association of Dharma Supporters to develop fund-raising for its construction, and to use the collective efforts and strategic planning of the group to promote the concept of constructing such a monastery.

Buddhism originated in India, and for Buddhism today and Buddhism tomorrow, we should shed off the tone of superstition, inactivity and escapism, and restore the wisdom and compassion of the enlightened Shakyamuni Buddha. We should return to the original intention of the Buddha and put our efforts into purifying the troubled human world. Therefore, I organized and formed the India and Nepal Pilgrimage Group of a core of eighty monastic and lay members to pay homage to the historic remains from the era of Shakyamuni Buddha. The purpose was to encourage and inspire our group members to have the mind of seeking the Dharma, practicing the Dharma, upholding the Dharma, and spreading the Dharma.

After the pilgrimage trip and having returned to America, I thought about the spiritual comforts, inspiring knowledge, and encouragement of faith the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and Journey to the West had given me. I told myself, “Although this journey only lasted for 15 days, I should still write it down for myself and the whole group members to renew our faith and retain our memories. As a result, I wrote and published the book titled Pilgrimage to the Land of the Buddha (Chn. Foguo zhilu).

The Nepal of today was once part of the Western Regions, and the birthplace of Shakyamuni Buddha was within the region of Nepal. It was located between the two regions of Tibet and India. A part of Tibetan Buddhism came from India through Nepal, and part of the current Tibetan Buddhism grew within the regions of Nepal. Our visit to India also took the route from Nepal to India because it was more convenient. Therefore, the first stop of our journey was Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.

We stayed there for three days, and visited the local Buddhist monuments and the lamaseries of Tibetan tradition. We then flew out from Nepal valley and arrived at the remains of the Nalanda monastery, where Master Xuanzang studied, taught, and held the debate conventions. We then visited the famous city at the time of the Buddha Rajagriha and the nearby Veluvana. Next we visited the sacred site, Gridhrakuta (Vulture) Mountain, where Shakyamuni Buddha expounded the Lotus Sutra, and then we visited Bodhgaya, the place where Shakyamuni Buddha reached enlightenment, and the stupa (great tower) and the bodhi tree there. We visited Varanasi and the nearby Kushinagar (Buddha’s place of nirvana) and the monuments of cremation. At the same time, we also enjoyed the precious beautiful sunrise scenery at the bank of the Ganges River.

We then visited the monuments and museum at Sarnath, the place where, after his enlightenment, the Buddha first turned the wheel of the Dharma to deliver his five bhikkhu (Pali for “bhikshu”) followers. We then returned to Nepal, and visited the Buddha’s birthplace Lumbini, and from Nepal enter India and visited another famous monastery at the time of the Buddha—Jeta Grove Monastery of Anathapindada’s Garden. The pilgrimage ended, and to board the direct flight to Hong Kong and America, we arrived at New Delhi where the current Indian government was located, and we visited the famous architectures and ancient castles in the surrounding areas, which were the remains from the era of several Muslim Kingdoms.

In this journey, I felt grateful, sentimental and aspiring. The Dharma was able to be passed down due to the birth of the Buddha, which allowed countless sentient beings over the years to receive spiritual comfort, and have refuge in life and faith. How could we not feel grateful? Therefore, at the place where the Buddha attained enlightenment, near the Bodhgaya Stupa, there was a stela (stone pillar) in memoriam for the Mahabrahma-deva’s (The King of the Heavens) request for the Buddha to expound the Dharma. After I prostrated at the sight, I felt so grateful that I could hardly stand up. I witnessed that the places, Veluvana, Jeta Grove, Gridhrakuta, and Sarnath, where the Buddha taught the Dharma and delivered sentient beings, were all in wilderness and not even torn-down walls or broken ruins could be seen. There were only a few red bricks covered on the floor to symbolize the footings of the bases of the architectures, and there was virtually nothing left.

At the same time, surrounding New Delhi, one could see construction materials of monasteries left over from the several Muslim Kingdoms. I’ve heard that they were torn down from ten or more Buddhist monasteries. How could one not feel sorrow and desolation in the mind after seeing stone Buddhist statues that had their nose chopped away, eyes plucked out, ears cut off, and hands torn off? It was because the Buddhists lacked talents, and the invasion of the Muslims from the north, resulted in the end of Buddhism in India after the 14th and 15th centuries, and it was a complete extinction.

However, after the end of the Second World War in 1945, Jawaharlal Nehru assumed the position of the Prime Minister of India. Although he was a Hindu follower, he instructed the government to set specific funding for rediscovery and reorganization of the various Buddhist monuments within India, and set up museums for Buddhist historical monuments. This allowed the Buddhists worldwide to be in a trend of traveling to India for pilgrimage of the Buddhist sacred monuments. Especially Buddhists in Japan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, and Tibet would pilgrimage in groups to India to visit the eight great holy sites of Buddhism.

The Chinese already established monasteries at the eight great holy sites. Although very few people from Mainland China would go on pilgrimage, there were many Chinese from Taiwan and Southeast Asia who went for pilgrimage. Buddhist activities gradually revived within India, and it was a fact that they had Buddhists in the country. As a result, I thought this called for the establishment of the common ethos for world Buddhists to restore the original features and aspects of Buddhism at the time of the Buddha, and that this was worth aspiring to.

Buddhism, after surviving for 2500 years, was like an old vine which though it had its old roots cleared away, its branches and shoots were still growing, and since the individual branches were separated, they seemed like strangers who didn’t recognize one another. Fortunately, there was still a common source of the Dharma—the Buddha’s monuments in India, which allowed the Buddhists of each individual branches to trace their source and search for their roots. This also gave world Buddhists a common ethos: to return to the original intention of the Buddha, and then unify each other’s vision, harmonize the footsteps of development, and march on towards an integrated Buddhism of tomorrow. This was also the common wish of the visionaries in the world Buddhist community today.

On our pilgrimage, every time we arrived at a place, I would explain and introduce to our group members on the trip—before hand, on the spot, or afterwards—about the events concerning the Buddha that happened at that place, what the Buddha said, and what kind of inspiration we could get from it. Being there personally on the scene was much more realistic than giving lectures and teaching sutras in the classrooms in Taiwan. The scenes we saw and the roads we walked on were probably all described in the Buddhist sutras, and were probably the living environment where the Buddha and his arhat disciples had lived and walked on. As we walked in these places, we were also following the Buddha’s footsteps, and walking towards the path of becoming a buddha and a bodhisasttva.

Therefore, almost every place we went, many people were moved to tears. The place where the Buddha gained enlightenment, Bodhgaya, was a distance of several hundred kilometers away from Sarnath, where he first turned the Dharma wheel to deliver the five bhikkhus. The Buddha walked all the distance on foot just to deliver these five people. Then as he was about to enter nirvana after forty-nine years of spreading the Dharma and delivering sentient beings by traveling to various countries, the Buddha walked all the way from Mahavana Vihara of Vaishali in the south, to Kushinagar in the north. The Buddha taught as he walked; every time he passed by a village, he would stop for a rest, and he would use the time of resting to speak the Dharma to the villagers along the way. When he arrived at the Sala Forest, he was already very exhausted, but he continued to speak the Dharma.

Before the Buddha entered nirvana, there was an old Brahmin named Subhadra, a 120-year-old wise ascetic, who had the five super-mundane powers, who came to request teachings from the Buddha. Upon hearing the words from the Buddha, he immediately became an enlightened arhat and became the Buddha’s last disciple. At this point, the Buddha closed his eyes and entered into nirvana, and his mortal body left our human world. After listening to my explanations at each place, the members of our pilgrimage group would weep silently.

This pilgrimage trip to India was more useful than the two years of lectures I gave in Taiwan, and it allowed everyone to affirm their faith in establishing the Dharma Drum Mountain. Afterwards, we came up with the following four-fold common ethos: (1) Our vision: to improve human character and build a pure land on earth; (2) our spirit: to devote ourselves and benefit people in society; (3) our direction: to return to the original intention of the Buddha, and work for the purification of the world; (4) our approach: to promote comprehensive education and extend loving care to all.