Journey to the West (Updated)

The Heart Sutra is the song of the soul singing to God. – Ricardo B Serrano

I experience soul enlightenment through Qigong,
the Ten Da and the Heart Sutra. – Ricardo B Serrano

Akashic Records Reading with Tao Chang
Even among all yogis, one whose inner self has come to me, who is full of faith, who offers love to me – that one is considered by me to be the most deeply absorbed in yoga. – Bhagavad Gita 6.47

A Commentary on the Journey to the West by Ricardo B Serrano:

Sun Wukong, Monkey King from Forbidden Kingdom

Sun Wukong, Monkey King
The popular Chinese novel Zhang Jizhong, Journey to the West (2011) with 66 episodes in video format is a fictionalized account of the legendary pilgrimage to India of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, and loosely based its source from the historic text Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and traditional folk tales.

The monk travelled to the “Western Regions” during the Tang Dynasty, to obtain sacred texts (sutras). Bodhisattva Kuan Yin, on instruction from the Buddha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples — namely Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing — together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang’s steed, a white horse. These four characters have agreed to help Xuanzang as an atonement for past sins.

My favorite main character of this awesome Buddhist novel is the Monkey King Sun Wukong because he is the Chinese version of Lord Hanuman who is an ascended master of Kashmir Shaivism. The Heart Sutra mantra of Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara is also the novel’s theme song and practiced by the warrior characters of the novel with devotion to their Sifu/Master Xuanzang and Bodhisattva Kuan Yin and Gautama Buddha which I believe are instrumental to their eventual enlightenment in the span of over 10 years along their perilous journey against demons, human robbers, gods and evil spirits.

This Chinese Buddhist novel is a metaphor to the ancient immortals’ inner quest for returning to oneness with the essence of true consciousness, called the Atma (Higher Soul) or the Original Spirit (Yuan Shen), which is fundamentally our illumined original nature.

The Heart Sutra is the means to reach Buddhahood.
– Master Sha

This Chinese Buddhist novel reminded me of my spiritual journey of over 45 years as an immigrant from the Philippines to Canada with a three month Chinese Medicine internship stay in Zhejiang, China that I was fully grateful for learning from life challenges in healing and relationships, and from my Taoist and Buddhist Qigong and Chinese medicine teachers which have all been necessary lessons for my healing and spiritual growth and Self-realization (soul enlightenment).

Unfortunately, the spiritual journey has been difficult for most Chinese themselves in mainland China due to the fact that it’s political Chinese Communist Party as an evil cult suppresses freedom of religion – Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and other spiritual paths such as (spiritual Qigong) for healing and Qi cultivation with spiritual growth.

“Form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” – Heart Sutra

An important spiritual message for me after finishing this long novel is that the truth about emptiness has to be experienced before believing “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” stated in the Heart Sutra, an important Buddhist sutra. The essence of all things is emptiness.

The Noble Eightfold Path is an important path to the Heart Sutra practitioners: