Roberta E. Adams
Notes on Buddhist Elements
Self-Cultivation and Integration
The real journey is the internal one, the journey to enlightenment, true emptiness, through self-cultivation (xiu dao), the journey of the Dao. The pilgrims undertake this journey together as one integrated Self. Sections of the text also stress the Tripitaka/Monkey, Master/disciple relationship; they frequently seem like the two halves of one person. Each pilgrim, Master and disciples, is working toward his own self-cultivation and self-authorization, each embodies a kind of personal authority in seeking the scriptures, but only together will they achieve the goal. The demons on the trip (which in this context are demons of the mind/heart—manifestations of the unenlightened mind and the attachment to the physical world) cause frequent harm, and on many occasions the pilgrims are sure that Tripitaka is dead and all is lost. But even more dangerous than demons is the disintegration of pilgrim unity. This happens when Tripitaka twice dismisses Monkey (Chapters 27 and 56), and in episodes when there are doubles, a false Tripitaka ( Ch. 39) and a false Monkey ( Ch. 58). As Plaks notes, multiplicity (duo xin) is “an impediment to the singularity of consciousness demanded for spiritual cultivation.” (Andrew H. Plaks, The Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1987, 247).
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