Finally, Journey to the West, why did the two monks take bribes from the Tang Priest to learn from them?

Tang Priest and his disciples went through all kinds of hardships and came to Dalingshan in Hezhou, Xiniu, where they met the lions' mouths of Ye Jia and Ananda. The elders asked Tang Priest what personnel he had brought, and Tang Priest was puzzled. Buddha has always been merciful in the hearts of all beings, and has not been tainted with money and copper stink. How can he ask others for a bribe?

The Tang Priest said that he hadn't heard what personnel he needed to bring to fetch Buddhist scriptures, so the two venerable men gave Tang Priest a wordless scripture, which is also a fake scripture. After discovering this, Tang Priest and his disciples returned to Lingshan to seek justice from the Buddha. The Buddha told them a story: Buddha used to cross the mountain, and others gave him three buckets and three liters of rice gold, and the Buddha also thought the price was too low. You don't give benefits, and you always want to get rewards from others without paying. Then I'll have to give you wordless scriptures.

Later, the Tang Priest sought advice from Arnold and Ye Jia, but Arnold and Ye Jia still needed personnel. The Tang Priest gave them a Zijin alms bowl, and they got the scriptures. The Zijin Bowl was given to Tang Priest by Emperor Taizong when he sent Tang Priest to fetch scriptures. Therefore, in addition to its own use value, Zijin Bowl also has a very important symbolic significance. It also represents the trust and entrustment of Tang Priest, so Zijin Bowl is very precious to Tang Priest.

At the beginning of The Journey to the West's lecture, Tang Priest's story in Datang shows that Datang at this time is not without Buddhist scriptures, but talking about the difference between Hinayana Buddhism and Western Buddhism. Buddha sent avalokitesvara to tell him that there is Mahayana Buddhism in the western world and asked him if he would like to learn and benefit the world. This has the difference between size and Buddhism, so what is the difference between them? The main differences between Mahayana and Hinayana are: Mahayana emphasizes not only liberating oneself, but also liberating all beings and making them become Buddhas; Hinayana holds that as long as you get rid of all troubles and life and death, you can become an "arhat".

The Tang Priest and his disciples went through hardships in the process of learning the scriptures, but they never put down the Zijin alms bowl given to them by the Tang King, that is to say, they never put down their selfishness and fame and fortune in the world. This is actually a manifestation of greed. For example, Tathagata told Ananda and Ye Jia what accepting bribes meant and let go. Only by letting go can they get the true scriptures. This is Hinayana Buddhism. It is Mahayana Buddhism to treat the Zijin alms bowl given by the Tang King as a personnel and let them make contributions to the truth and benefit the world.

In fact, The Journey to the West is a very popular educational book on being a man and doing things, and the process of learning from Tang Priest's disciples is a process of constantly learning to be a man, getting rid of his narrow self in the past and constantly abandoning his imperfect side. In this process, they become more perfect and become Buddhists. In today's society, some people always want others to help them for free. When they get help, they don't give it back to others. They just want to be cheap. Such people are only worthy of wordless scriptures and have been living in misery.

A person who works hard to get out of suffering must be a person who knows how to be grateful and know how to repay. He doesn't care how much you give in return. Poor ability, less return. If you are strong, you will return more. Pu Zuo's novel "The Godfather" also talked about the same idea, helping others must be rewarded.

In interpersonal relationships, it is precisely because everyone knows how to repay kindness that we can form a win-win alliance by constantly cultivating interpersonal relationships and make ourselves stronger. So whenever the godfather accepts help, he always says: I can help you, but I may need your help in the future, and then you have to help, although I may only ask you for help.