Monkey
Published:
Wukong is born from a stone that miraculously becomes pregnant bathed in nature, and cracks open to birth a stone egg. The wind ‘fructifies’ the stone, developing it into a monkey that then learns to climb and run.
Reminds of Hanuman and Vayu (Wind)
- Wukong and a group of monkeys are playing by a stream, and they decide it would be fun to find its source (symbolic of the religious question: why?). They find a waterfall, and say whoever can jump through will be their king.
- Wukong jumps through, finds a bridge and a stone building with a bunch of stone paraphernalia. He convinces the other monkeys to jump over. They start by fighting over the stone tools in the stone building like brutes (transition from animal hood to manhood?). They award Wukong kingship. After a few hundred years, Wukong becomes upset: he wants to live forever.
- “I hatch no plot, I scheme no scheme; / Fame and shame are one to me. / A simple life prolongs my days.”
- He eventually finds a Patriarch, who names him ‘Aware-of-Vacuity’. Double-entendre here? Vacuous = empty or absentminded
- “…no better than unbaked clay in the kiln.”
- “…like trying to fish the moon out of water.”
- The Patriarch recites the Secret of Long Life to Wukong in private. “…All is comprised in these three, Spirit, Breath, and Soul; / Guard them closely, screen them well; let there be no leak…Even in the midst of fierce flames the Golden Lotus may be planted, / The Five Elements compounded and transposed, and put to new use. / When that is done, be which you please, Buddha or Immortal.”
- After hearing this, Wukong receives Illumination.
- Wukong ends up getting a weapon from the Dragon King, a gold-clasped column made out of a magic iron with which the Milky Way was pounded flat.
- Sun+Wu+Kong = Monkey Awakened to Emptiness
- “‘As your Majesty has stayed away in the upper regions for ten years, we may surely presume that you have had great success there?’ / ‘I’ve been away about a fortnight,’ said Monkey. ‘What do you mean by ten years?’ / ‘In Heaven,’ they said, ‘you did not notice how the time was going. One day in heaven is a year below.’”
- Wukong wreaks havoc on Heaven, and they eventually subdue him thanks to the Buddha, who placed a bet that Wukong couldn’t jump over his hand. Wukong thinks he jumps over it and reaches the end of the world. This ended up being the edge of the hand of the ‘all who holds all in hand’.
He is thus banished and locked in a mountain sealed with the mantra ‘Om Mani Padme Hum’.
- Sacred syllable (eternity, universality) + Jewel (compassion?) + Lotus Flower (wisdom, clarity?) + Enlightenment
Invokes Avalokiteśvara, or in Chinese Guanyin, who is a bodhisattva of compassion and mercy. Guanyin is the one who ends up freeing Wukong from the mountain
“The wearer of my cassock,’ said Kuan-yin, ‘will not be drowned or poisoned or meet wild beasts upon his way. But that is only if he is a good man; if it gets on to the back of a gluttonous, lustful priest, or one who does not keep his vows, or of a layman who destroys scriptures and speaks evil of Buddha, he will rue the day that he saw this cassock.’
To some this cassock costs much gold, to others it costs nothing. Devotion for devotion’s sake: free.
- Tripitaka’s pilgrimage to India for the Buddhist scriptures is underway, set in motion by Guanyi. Monkey is freed from his mountain, under the condition he supports Tripitaka on his way as Tripitaka’s disciple.
The two are stopped by bandits, whose names are: Eye that Sees and Delights; the second, Ear that Hears and is Angry; the third, Nose that Smells and Covets; the fourth, Tongue that Tastes and Desires; the fifth, Mind that Conceives and Lusts; the sixth, Body that Supports and Suffers.”
Symbolic of sensual delusion (mind included).
The Monkey kills the bandits for threatening them. Tripitaka admonishes Monkey for killing sentient beings, and Monkey runs away furiously. Eventually, after given a story by the Dragon Prince about a fellow who fetched the sandal of another from a stream three times, without complaint, and was thus rewarded with imperial victories, Monkey recognizes the value of patience and returns to his Master.
Subtle lesson: killing off the deluding senses is not a solution. Rather, rule over them, recognize their risk of delusion, try to befriend them. Treat them with love. Let love permeate all.
Tripitaka is given a cap by Guanyi, that Wukong hastily puts it on. Tripitaka then recites the prayer Guanyi told him, and it latches on to Wukong’s head and causes a great headache in him—his face turns purple, eyes bulge. Wukong is furious and tries to kill Tripitaka, but the prayer subdues him.
Symbolic of the arrogant monkey within needing to be constrained by faith. Animalistic urges need to be tamed in order to then transcend. The cap is also something like conscience: when we misbehave, there’s this psychic discord that bugs us.
- “The better the pig, the harder to hold.” — Chinese proverb
- You’ve climbed the hill before you’d arrived. No wonder you’re exhausted. Better to meditate on the Presence, taking things as they come with diligence. (personal note)
- “For us who are followers of Buddha compassion is the root, indulgence the gate.”
- On the spell that subdues Monkey: “it sprouted from the heart of the Lord Buddha himself; it was handed down to the Bodhisattva Kuan-yin, and was then taught to our master by the bodhisattva herself. No one else knows it.”
- “The Flood Scripture says, “Earth is the mother of the five elements, Water is the source of the five elements. Without earth we could not be born, but without water we could not grow.”“
- The blank scriptures…
- The bottomless boat… through falling through it Tripitaka is cleansed of his earthly body.
- “It is said ‘The Adept does not reveal himself; if he reveals himself, he is not Adept.’”
- Monkey is awarded Buddhahood by the Buddha. He is named the Buddha Victorious in Strife.
- “‘[The golden fillet] was put upon you,’ said Tripitaka, ‘at a time when you needed to be kept in hand. Now that you are a Buddha, it has vanished of its own accord. Feel your head and you’ll see.’”