Inner and outer meaning

The Journey to the West is an esoteric work, like the Bible, the Koran, Egyptian writings or the Hindu epic the Mahabharata, the Sumerian epic Gilgamesh or the Odyssey by Homer. Every esoteric work has an inner meaning and an outer meaning. The outer meaning is the story of the adventures of the characters. The inner meaning is always related to the cultivation of a spiritual path, the control of the worldly, lower self, and the principles of awakening to the realization of the Divine Present.

Higher esoteric ideas are coded to protect the knowledge from being lost in the tide of time and humanity.
They are coded through symbol, sign, idiom, analogy, metaphor,
and parable to protect esoteric knowledge from the profane.
-- Alexander Horn

When you read Holy Scripture, perceive its hidden meanings,
for whatever was written in past times was written for our instruction.
-- Mark the Ascetic, The Philokalia

The hidden meaning of the teachings of all Esoteric Traditions is to instruct the noviciate to achieve Divine presence, a state of awareness in which the Higher Self within one is awake and in a state of unity, in contrast to the state of plurality of the lower self. This state of Divine presence has been given many names throughout history, for example, the Lord; Allah; Jehovah; the Tao; the Beloved in Sufi literature; The Sun God Ra in Egypt; the Buddhist state of Nirvana; Amidha Buddha`s Pure land; the Garden of Eden and the Sabbath of the Judeo-Christian tradition; the Third Eye of Eastern traditions; Brahman in Hinduism; the state of Satori in Japanese Zen Buddhism; and in modern times Real I, as opposed to the many 'I's of worldly, mechanical life.

The name "Allah" means divine presence.
-- Ibn Arabi

Behold, the Lord is within this vessel of my body.
-- Kabir

Reaching divine presence is the art of being aware of oneself in one’s own environment. The effort to reach divine presence is often symbolized as a journey, a path or the way.

Make the divine presence your destination.
-- Al-Ghazzali

All along the journey I've been helping the good and fighting against the evil. What you don't realize is that the master
is fated to have these troubles.
-- Journey to the West

One who seeks to purify his heart can scarcely find a path
to travel toward that goal, but that his Enemy lies
in ambush for him to cut his journey short.
-- Ibn Abbad of Ronda

In the above image, the lower self is trying to kill the effort to be present, which happens many times in Journey to the West. The monk has six fingers on one hand and four on the other, symbolizing tools for being present.

The Four Kinds of Life and Six Paths are all explained.
-- Journey to the West

However, the monk is not disturbed by the lower self trying to distract him from the effort to be present. In the lower left image, the lower self has succesfully disturbed the effort to be present.

Blessed be the LORD my strength,
which teacheth my hands to war,
and my fingers to fight.
-- The Bible, Psalms 144:1

The King has sprung up to heaven on the fingers of the god, lord of the ladder.
-- Egyptian Pyramid Texts

The five fingers perform a single task.
-- Jalaluddin Rumi

Show us the hand of God,
that hath dismiss'd us from our stewardship.
-- Shakespeare, Richard II

I will lift up my hands
unto thy commandments.
-- The Bible, Psalms 119:48

It will seem strange to many people when I say that prehistoric Egypt was Christian
many thousands of years before the birth of Christ.
-- Gurdjieff