旃檀功德佛 Buddha of Candana Merit
逐句解 Line by line
“Homage to the Buddha of Candana Merit.
That is the Tang monk. He was given that name about four hundred characters ago, and here is a congregation of buddhas chanting it back at him while he stands among them. The list of the eternal buddhas has reached the man who arrived this morning.
“Homage to the Buddha Victorious in Strife.
And that is Monkey. Forty-eight buddhas of the ages, and then the two who were appointed today, in the order they were appointed. He was under a mountain for five hundred years and is now the forty-ninth name in a liturgy.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Guanyin.
The list changes rank here: from buddhas to bodhisattvas. And the first of them is the one who has run the whole journey — recruited every disciple, supplied the golden band, audited the ledger and ordered the eighty-first ordeal. 觀世音 — She Who Beholds the Sounds of the World.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta.
Great Strength Attained, who stands on Amitabha's other side. He and Guanyin flank the Buddha of Boundless Light in every Pure Land painting, so naming them together is naming a picture.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Manjusri.
Wisdom's bodhisattva, who rides a blue lion. That lion got loose twice in this novel and had to be collected — once at the Black Rooster Kingdom, once at Lion Camel.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra.
Universal Worthiness, who rides a white elephant — and that elephant was the second of the three fiends at Lion Camel. Two lines, two bodhisattvas, and both their mounts were monsters the pilgrims fought.
“Homage to the Bodhisattvas of the Pure Great Ocean-Assembly.
The list stops naming and starts collecting. 大海眾 — the ocean-assembly, the standard phrase for a congregation too many to count.
“Homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the Lotus Pool Assembly.
蓮池海會 — the ocean-assembly of the Lotus Pool, meaning everyone gathered in Amitabha's Pure Land. This line is chanted daily in Chinese temples to this day.
“Homage to all the Bodhisattvas of the Western Heaven, the Land of Utmost Bliss.
西天 — the Western Heaven. It is the phrase the whole novel has used for where they were going, from chapter twelve onwards, and here it is a place in a liturgy.
“Homage to the three thousand great Bodhisattva-Guardians.
The Guardians — the invisible escort who followed the pilgrims for eighty chapters and handed their warrants back at the top of the last one. They are in the liturgy too.
“Homage to the five hundred great Bodhisattva-Arhats.
The five hundred arhats, a fixed number in Chinese Buddhism — many temples have a hall with five hundred statues in it, all different.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva-bhiksus, laymen, laywomen and nuns.
The fourfold assembly: monks, laymen, laywomen and nuns. The liturgy has come down from cosmic buddhas to the ordinary people sitting in the temple. 塞 is read sāi in the transcription.
“Homage to the Bodhisattvas of the boundless, measureless Law.
無邊無量 — without edge, without measure. Two negatives in four characters, and the same word for measure that named Amitabha fifty lines ago.
“Homage to the holy Bodhisattva-Mahasattvas of the Diamond.
大士 — mahāsattva, a great being. The diamond returns, and with it the eight guardians who spent the chapter carrying everybody about.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Cleanser of the Altars.
And that is Pigsy — with a promotion. The Buddha made him a 使者, an envoy, and refused him the rank of buddha to his face while he complained about it. The liturgy calls him 菩薩. He was told his post was a grade with perquisites. Ten minutes later the assembly is chanting his name with bodhisattva on the end.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva-Arhat of the Golden Body and Eight Treasures.
Sha Monk, and he has picked up a decoration too — the eight treasures were not in his title an hour ago. The liturgy is more generous than the appointments board was.
“Homage to the Bodhisattva Dragon of the Eight Classes, of Vast Power.
The horse. He is the last of the five and the only one whose title has grown by a whole epithet — 廣力, vast power, added to what the Buddha gave him. He was pushed into a pool and came out a dragon, and he is now a bodhisattva in a liturgy that Chinese Buddhists still chant.
“And so with all the buddhas of every world:
如是等 — and such as these. The formula that closes any Buddhist enumeration, and admits it could go on. The roll-call ends the way the ledger of eighty ordeals ended last chapter: with a claim that the list is complete, made by a document that has just stopped.
The list reaches the men standing in it. Forty-eight buddhas of the ages, and then the Buddha of Candana Merit and the Buddha Victorious in Strife — the Tang monk and Monkey, named about four hundred characters ago, chanted back at them by a congregation of eternal buddhas while they stand there.
Then it drops a rank to the bodhisattvas, and the first is the one who ran the whole journey: Guanyin, who recruited every disciple, supplied the golden band, audited the ledger and ordered the eighty-first ordeal. Manjusri and Samantabhadra follow, and both their mounts — a blue lion and a white elephant — were monsters the pilgrims had to fight.
And at the end of it, all five pilgrims are in the liturgy, with promotions. The Buddha made Pigsy an envoy and told him to his face that the post came with perquisites. The assembly chants his name with bodhisattva on the end. Sha Monk has picked up eight treasures he did not have an hour ago, and the horse has picked up vast power.
The liturgy is more generous than the appointments board was. And it closes the way the ledger of ordeals closed last chapter — with a formula asserting the list is complete, from a document that has simply stopped.