#buddhist magic

I am happy to announce that I've finished my 177-page catalog of Sun Wukong's powers from all 100 chapters of Journey to the West. Fans of Lego Monkie Kid and Black Myth: Wukong, fanfiction writers, and artists will certainly find it useful.

This is a really good question and I wish the answer was yes, but truthfully I haven't reached esoteric Buddhism in my explorations quite yet. I am also aware of the suttas disinclination toward magic and while I'm familiar with that sort of thing as a Jew--in the end, magic appears regardless of what texts say because magic just Is--I definitely want to be very cautious how I approach Buddhist magic as someone who hasn't even taken the precepts yet at my sangha. Going through the jukai ceremony is really important to me and for that reason I'm waiting until next year for when I'm ready. Even past that, though, I want to be super conscientious and make sure I'm not appropriating anything.

So, chanting is one of the cornerstones of Buddhist practice.

That is because the mantra is the deity in sonic form, a direct invocation of them and their power. The mantra is chanted to build up a connection between the seeker and the deity, and it comes with an array of blessings to remove obstacles in their life so that they may pursue true liberation.

Imagine an dry river channel full of debris, and each chant is a drop of water. Eventually the water drops form a river and will wash the debris away, creating a connection that flows with power and inspiration.

For that reason, there is a practice called mantra accumulation, where the seeker is expected to recite the mantra a certain number of times before reaping the full benefits.

An initiate (someone ritually empowered by a guru/lama) might be expected to accumulate hundreds of thousands of one particular mantra, for one deity, before receiving further magical teachings for that deity. The magic depends on the connection to both the deity and the guru, through whom the connection is formed. There is no shortcut.

The other effect of mantra recitation is training the breath, which is intrinsically tied to the spirit body.

Sigil Type: Active/Instant

Method: Boolean

Meaning: Transfer karmic merits

Planetary Correspondences: Sun

Directional Correspondences: North/East

Color Correspondences: Blue/White

Numerology:1/2/3

How many times did Tang Sanzang use the tightening spell on Wukong?

A total of 12 times:

1st (ch. 14)

2nd (ch. 16)

3rd to 5th (ch. 27)

6th (ch. 38)

7th & 8th (ch. 39)

9th (ch. 56)

10th (ch. 57)

11th & 12th (ch. 58)

The following comes from my catalog of Monkey's powers and skills. See the citations for specific locations.

The laser beams only appear in the beginning of the novel.

I've previously suggested in this article that they are one of several events from the historical Buddha's biography that the author-compiler of Journey to the West borrowed in order to make Sun Wukong's early life more familiar. The pertinent section reads:

Upon his birth, the Buddha is said to have “shed in every direction the rays of his glory” (fig. 3) (Beal, 1883, p. 3). The source continues to describe this light, as well as the Bodhisattva’s first few moments outside the womb:

His body, nevertheless, was effulgent with light, and like the sun which eclipses the shining of the lamp, so the true gold-like beauty of the Bodhisattva shone forth and was diffused everywhere. / Upright and firm and unconfused in mind, he deliberately took seven steps, the soles of his feet resting evenly upon the ground as he went, his footmarks remained bright as seven stars. / Moving like the lion, king of beasts, and looking earnestly towards the four quarters, penetrating to the centre the principles of truth, he spake thus…” (Beal, 1883, pp. 4-5).

The historical Xuanzang (on whom Tripitaka is based) notes in his travelogue that the Buddha even walks towards the cardinal directions: “After he had been born the Bodhisattva walked seven steps unaided to each of the four quarters … [u]nder each step a large lotus flower sprang up from the earth” (Xuanzang, 1996/2016, p. 158).

Wukong too produces a great light in every direction: “Having learned at once to climb and run, this monkey also bowed to the four quarters, while two beams of golden light flashed from his eyes to reach even the Palace of the Polestar” (fig. 4) (Wu & Yu, 2012, p. 101).

Therefore, both shine their lights in the four cardinal directions.

Fig. 3 – Baby Buddha producing a radiant splendor upon his birth (larger version). Artist unknown. Found on this article. Fig. 4 – Bright beams of light shine from Wukong’s eyes as he bows to the four directions (larger version). From the Japanese children’s book Son Goku (1939). 

Sources:

Beal, S. (Trans.). (1883). The Fo-sho-hing-tsan-king: A Life of Buddha by Asvaghosha Bodhisattva. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/foshohingtsankin00asva/mode/2up

Xuanzang (2016). The Great Tang Dynasty Record of the Western Regions (2nd ed., R. Li, trans.). California: BDK America, Inc. (Original work published 1996)

Someone aware of my recently-finished catalog of Sun Wukong's powers and skills indirectly requested that I make a list of powers from Fengshen yanyi (封神演義, c. 1620).

But I don't have the mental energy for it. Plus, I am not as familiar with the book as I am JTTW. I'll pass the torch onto someone else ... COUGH @ryin-silverfish COUGH.