Friday, September 19, 2008

TRIBUTE TO THE MONKEY GOD ( SUN WUKONG )





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Also known as SUN-WUKONG, SUN-WU-KONG, SUN-WU-K'UNG, SUN-HOU-ZI, SUN-HOU-TZE, PI-MA-WEN

MONKEY: The infamous irrepressible Monkey King, Trickster God, and Great Sage Equal Of Heaven.

Star of stage, screen and scroll, MONKEY is the true hero of Journey To The West (Xiyou Ji) — the amazing novel of frivolity and profundity written by Wu Cheng'en in the Sixteenth Century. (It's one of China's Four Great Novels, and we highly recommend it to anyone seeking enlightenment or entertainment.)

From the beginning of time, a certain rock on the Mountain of Fruit and Flowers had been soaking up the goodness of nature and QI energy. One day this pregnant rock released a stone egg, and from it hatched a Stone Ape, who solemnly bowed to the Four Corners of the Earth — then jumped off to have fun.

This was MONKEY. He was high-spirited, egotistical and full of mischievous pranks. He was soon having a wonderful time as King of the Apes. But a niggling worry began to gnaw at him — one which would change his life. The Monkey King feared Death.

To find immortality, MONKEY became the disciple of Father Subodhi, a rather dour DAOist sage. The sage, unimpressed with his simian tricks, gave the Monkey King a new title: 'Disciple Aware of Emptiness'. MONKEY was very pleased with this epithet, not realising it referred to the vacuum in his head.

But after much haggling, Father Subodhi uttered the words of Illumination, explained the process of Cloud-Flying — and also revealed the secret of the Seventy-Two Transformations. Which, thought MONKEY, was extremely good value for money.

Returning home to his monkey subjects, he discovered they were under seige by a fearsome monster. Magic tricks were no good — what he needed was a weapon. So he whizzed off to the Dragon King AO-KUANG and cajoled his way into the Treasury. There he found the great Magic Wishing Staff, a huge rod of black iron which Heaven had used to flatten the bed of the Milky Way. It weighed 13,000 pounds but could expand to fill the Universe or shrink to the size of a needle. MONKEY was delighted with this Weapon of Mass Destruction and used it to bludgeon many a demon thereafter.

It wasn't long before reports of MONKEY's tricks started to reach the austere ears of the JADE-EMPEROR. First the DRAGON-KINGS complained of rudeness and theft. Then YEN-LO-WANG, the God of Death, lodged a formal protest. "That intolerable ape has just vandalised my filing system and made monkeys immortal. What are you going to do about it?"

Not wishing to shed needless karma, the JADE-EMPEROR invited MONKEY to Heaven and gave him a job. Without pay, of course. This plan to keep the peace was amazingly successful for an entire day. Then MONKEY discovered that his post as Keeper of the Heavenly Stables was so lowly, even the horse manure ranked higher than him.

Insulted beyond belief, MONKEY ran amok, burst into the JADE-EMPEROR's court and dared to threaten his august person. The Ruler of the Universe sighed, consulted his advisors and bestowed a new title upon him: Great Sage, Equal Of Heaven. "That's much better," said MONKEY, impressed.

But by his very nature the Great Sage was irrepressibly naughty. He just couldn't help it. He gobbled up LAO-ZI's Longevity Pills, stuffed his face with the precious Peaches of Immortality, gatecrashed official parties and made insulting gestures to all and sundry. Finally he left Heaven in disgust, claiming it wasn't good enough for him.

Now the JADE-EMPEROR finally lost his esteemed cool. He sent the Heavenly army to obliterate MONKEY once and for all. Nothing could withstand this mighty force... But the Great Stone Ape — immortal, spiritually illumined and filled with Heavenly essences — was not only indestructable but also pretty handy in a fight. The forces of Heaven made an embarrassing display and slunk off in defeat. There was nothing for it — the Ruler of Heaven called for BUDDHA.

Now BUDDHA, in his infinite wisdom, knew better than to subdue MONKEY by force. Instead he offered him a wager. "If you're so clever, jump off the palm of my hand. If you can do that, I'll take the Emperor in as a lodger and give Heaven to you. But if you can't, I'll expect a full apology and penance."

The Monkey King laughed to himself. He could travel thousands of miles in a single leap. The bet was on. BUDDHA stretched out his hand and MONKEY jumped...

Several thousand miles later, the Great Sage landed in a desolate plain with great columns reaching up the sky. "These must be the Five Pillars of Wisdom at the end of the Universe", he thought. "That BUDDHA is just plain stupid to make such a silly bet." And, to show his disrespect, he pissed all over the nearest pillar and jumped back to claim his reward.

"Is the Emperor packing his bags yet?" asked MONKEY as he landed. The Holy One raised a sublime eyebrow. "I don't know why you're grinning," he said, "you've been on my palm the whole time. Look." An astonished MONKEY rubbed his eyes and stared at the five familiar-looking pink pillars of BUDDHA's hand. Then he smelt the stench of monkey pee and trembled. The next thing he knew, he was lying on the ground with a mountain on top of him.

And there he stayed for five hundred long years, being fed molten copper and iron pills by an attendent demon while the moss grew in his ears. By the time GUAN-YIN came along, the Great Sage Equal of Heaven was a thoroughly humble creature.

As told in Journey To The West, GUAN-YIN enlisted MONKEY as chief disciple of the young Buddhist monk TRIPITAKA. Together with SANDY and PIGSY, he protected the boy on his quest to India, battling demons and righting wrongs along the way. His natural monkey trickery now had a holy purpose which he unleashed with much enthusiasm — and his uncontrollable ego was kept firmly in place by a little device of GUAN-YIN's devising: a head-band made of gold.

The unsuspecting Great Sage was not prepared for the terrible torture of the Headache Sutra! Whenever MONKEY misbehaved, TRIPITAKA recited the Sutra and the golden fillet squeezed until his very eyeballs felt like bursting. Try as he might, he could not remove it. There was no defense except submission, and pretty soon MONKEY was the most humble disciple the world has ever known. Usually.

After many many many many adventures, the travellers fulfilled their quest. MONKEY was rewarded for all his efforts with the title 'Buddha Victorious Against Disaster' and finally made his peace with Heaven. We don't know what the Great Sage gets up to nowadays, but presumably he keeps himself occupied.





TRIPITAKA



ALSO KNOWN AS 'XUAN ZANG', 'SAN ZANG' 'HSUAN TSANG'

TRIPITAKA: The famous Tang Dynasty Buddhist monk who travelled to India to fetch scriptures in the company of MONKEY, PIGSY and SANDY.

Although Buddhism had achieved a foothold in China, knowledge of its more profound mysteries was scarce. The minor (Little Vehicle) Scriptures were constantly consulted, but these were pretty tame and hardly anything to get excited about. Only the Big Vehicle Scriptures could truly save the damned.

BUDDHA was well aware of this little problem, and asked GUAN-YIN to help. "I have three full baskets of Scripture on Earth, waiting at the Temple of the Thunderclap for someone to collect them," he said. "Could you find a pilgrim to travel the hundred thousand leagues from China to India and back?"

"Of course," he mused thoughtfully, "I could just transport them there myself in an instant, but the Chinese people just wouldn't appreciate it."

So GUAN-YIN travelled down to Earth, looking for a humble and pious Chinese monk. Preferably one with stout legs. And a young priest named Xuan Zang seemed to fit the bill perfectly, so with a modest display of holy fireworks, GUAN-YIN persuaded the Emperor to send him on the quest.

In honor of his mission, Xuan adopted the name TRIPITAKA (which means 'Three Baskets' in Sanskrit). And off he went on the dangerous and incredibly long journey to India, taking only a horse, a change of underwear and a golden begging bowl.

Now TRIPITAKA, being young and foolish, was probably the least likely hero imaginable. When faced with danger he was liable to fiddle with joss sticks and burst into tears. Luckily GUAN-YIN had provided backup in the form of MONKEY, PIGSY and SANDY. They were not a well-knit team, and argued constantly, but in the course of time TRIPITAKA's disciples became used to his silly human ways and fought tooth and nail to protect him.

The four travellers (plus horse) negotiated their way through eighty-one disasters and many exciting adventures before arriving, many years later, at the Temple of the Thunderclap. Achieving enlightenment, TRIPITAKA passed into Buddhist Heaven with much ceremonial hoo-hah and prepared to fulfill his mission. So he was somewhat disconcerted when ANANDA and KASYAPA tried to fob him off with blank scrolls.

BUDDHA was somewhat peeved. "Such knowledge is infinitely precious, and not to be given away lightly. Everything has its price, even in Heaven," he said. "Give them your golden begging bowl as payment and we'll call it a deal. Although," he added, "to be perfectly honest, those blank scrolls are actually far more illuminating than the real ones."

Convincing BUDDHA that the Chinese people would much prefer scriptures with writing on, TRIPITAKA handed over his bowl, collected five thousand and forty-eight precious scrolls and headed back to China, taking the illuminated Buddhist Express which got him there in double-quick time.

And so at last his mission was fulfilled. He now takes his place in Buddhist Heaven and is known as the 'Buddha of Precocious Merit'.




PIGSY
also known as zhu bajie

PIGSY: A Pig Spirit, ex-Marshall of the Hosts of Heaven, and one of TRIPITAKA's disciples.

As told in Journey To The West, the Marshall was by nature a sensual spirit, lusting after angels and stuffing his face with food at every opportunity. Being a good general, his indiscretions were generally overlooked, until one day he guzzled too much peach wine and misbehaved with CHANG-O, Goddess of the Moon.

His drunken advances were very unwelcome to the chaste Goddess. She raised such a fuss that armed guards grabbed the drunken Captain and hauled him off to the JADE-EMPEROR. Punishment was swift, and the Marshall found himself kicked out of Heaven.

Landing on Earth, he discovered he'd been turned into a monstrously ugly pig spirit, complete with snout, curly tail and boar-like tusks. This was supposed to teach him a lesson. But it didn't work. His lustful nature multiplied and soon he was revelling in troughs and chasing pretty ladies for all he was worth.

Then along came GUAN-YIN, who offered him salvation — provided he become a Buddhist and help protect the young monk TRIPITAKA. The ex-Marshall of the Heavenly Hosts reluctantly agreed, and adopted the name of PIGSY.

In the company of MONKEY and SANDY, PIGSY travelled to India, carrying TRIPITAKA's baggage and fighting demons along the way. His lustful nature caused many embarrassments, and he fell pray to many of MONKEY's little jokes.

Finally their quest was fulfilled and PIGSY achieved enlightenment. Arriving at Buddhist Heaven, he was rewarded with the title Cleaner of the Holy Altar. That sounds like a very menial job for an ex-Marshall of the Heavenly Hosts, but as BUDDHA explained, thousands of worshippers send offerings to that altar every day.

So now PIGSY gets all the best pickings — and even his enormous appetite is satisfied.


sandy
also known as Sha Wujing

Sandy - large

SANDY: A Fish Spirit, ex-Marshall of Heaven and disciple of TRIPITAKA.

As told in Journey To The West, he was once the official in charge of Heavenly banners and ceremonial drapes. One day he accidentally broke the JADE-EMPEROR's favorite crystal dish. As punishment, he was chucked out of Heaven, transformed into an Earth-bound fish spirit, tormented with flying swords and generally made extremely miserable.

Life wasn't easy for fish spirits in those days, particularly ones as monstrous and ugly as him. SANDY barely scraped a living in the River of Sands by munching the flesh of the occasional passing peasant. He became morose, philosophical and a frightful pessimist.

A chance to redeem himself came when GUAN-YIN, looking for heroic candidates to assist TRIPITAKA, persuaded him to become a Buddhist. He embraced the faith and adopted the name Sandy Monk. Then it was adventures all the way to India in the company of MONKEY and PIGSY.

SANDY's special jobs were leading the horse, which he did with much devotion, and fighting demons, which he did with much complaint. When at last the quest was over, he achieved enlightenment and was rewarded the title 'Golden Bodied Arhat'. He now spends his time in Buddhist Heaven practising austerities.



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