Among the heroes in the pantheon of Chinese mythology, the Monkey King takes a prominent position. Monkey King originated from the novel Journey to the West, in which he, together with an anthropomorphic pig (Chinese=豬八戒) and a fallen-from-grace celestial general (Chinese=沙悟淨), accompanied the monk Tang Sanzang’s (Chinese=唐三藏) journey to the west in search of Buddhist sutras to be brought back to China and be translated. While his three companions are fictional, Tang Sanzang, the monk, is a historical figure. After his seventeen-year journey, he returned with “over six hundred Mahayana and Hinayana texts, seven statues of the Buddha, and more than a hundred sarira relics.”
Indeed, Monk Tang Sanzang made an immense contribution to the spread and understanding of Buddhism in China. For his efforts, the Emperor awarded him the last name Tang, the name of the dynasty that then existed.
The mythological Monkey King was said to have been born from a rock and acquired supernatural powers through the practice of Taoism. Believing himself to be so powerful, he rebelled against the celestial king with the hope of dethroning him so he could become the next celestial king himself. Indeed, he was so powerful that he wreaked havoc in the celestial palace as he attacked. In his despair, the celestial king sought help from Buddha.
So, Buddha confronted the Monkey King and said, “I am Buddha. I understand that you are wreaking havoc in the celestial palace. Why are you so arrogant and overbearing?” The Monkey King has no idea who Buddha is, pays no attention to what Buddha says, and boasts, “I am Monkey King. I am powerful, and l like to sit on the celestial throne for a while.” Upon hearing what the Money King said, Buddha smiled gently, extended his arm toward Monkey King, opened his hand, and challenged him, “I will make you a bet. If you can fly far enough to escape my hand, I will ask the celestial king to step down so you can take over his place. How about that?” Upon hearing Buddha, Monkey King jumps onto Buddha’s palm and retorts, “In that case, I am sure to win. Make sure not to cheat after I accomplish the task.”
Immediately after saying that, Monkey King somersaulted from Buddha’s palm and started to somersault, somersault, and somersault. After somersaulting for so long, the monkey king was sure he was far enough to be out of Buddha’s hand. He looked around and found five skin-colored pillars nearby. He was convinced these pillars supported the celestial kingdom and marked its territory. He pulled out a hair and blew gently on it, thus transforming it into a brush. With the brush, the Monkey King wrote the following on the third pillar, “The Great Celestial-King-Equalling Sage traveled here (Chinese=齊天大聖到此一游),” in case Buddha did not believe in his ability. Before leaving, he marked the territory further by urinating around the first pillar after ensuring no one was nearby.
Feeling satisfied, the Monkey King flew back to Buddha and said to him, “I win. Tell the celestial king to abdicate so I can take over his throne.” Again, Buddha smiles gently and says, “What are you saying? You have not somersaulted out of my palm yet. If you do not believe me, turn around and look.” Confused, the Monkey King turned around to take a look. Sure enough, on the palm of Buddha’s middle finger is written, “The Great Celestial-King-Equalling Sage traveled here.” There is also the smell of urine around Buddha’s thumb. Surprised, the Monkey King could not believe what he saw as he wondered, “I am sure I wrote the words on the celestial pillars; why do they appear on Buddha’s fingers? I don’t believe it. I am going to take another look at it,” and tried to somersault away.
However, Buddha did not want to give the Monkey King another chance to cheat. He closed his hand around Money King and forced him to the ground. Furthermore, Buddha formed his fingers like the five mountain peaks and restrained the Monkey King under the mountain. There, Monkey King stayed for five hundred years until monk Tang Sanzang saved him by asking him to accompany him on his journey west.
Monkey King is said to have learned from many immortals. One of his teachers is Subhuti (Chinese=須菩提), one of the ten principles of Buddha. Subhuti gave the Monkey King his best-known name, Wu Kong (Chinese=悟空), meaning “Awaken to Emptiness.” Herein lies the moral of the story.
First, one must understand the importance of “Emptiness” in Buddhism. Emptiness refers to Citta, the quiescent mentality of the Ultimate Reality that permeates the cosmos. The significance of “Awakening to Emptiness” lies in its association with enlightenment, a potential that all humans possess but few recognize or utilize.
By naming him “Awaken to Emptiness,” Subhuti wants his student to understand that he has the innate potential to be more powerful than he knows. He wants his student to calm his restless mind so he can realize his full potential. The Monkey King’s mind is so disquieted and thinks himself already so mighty, being able to somersault for so long and far, that he desires to be the celestial king so much that he wreaks havoc in the celestial kingdom. However, he does not yet understand that his arrogance prevents him from realizing his potential to become like the Buddha. To be like Buddha, he must first calm his mind, understand the limits of his prowess, relinquish his arrogance, and be willing to improve to realize his true potential.
The moral of Monkey King’s story also applies to humanity’s understanding of reality. Throughout history, humanity has relied on word-based knowledge to learn, transmit, and understand the world it experiences. Buddha, however, teaches that word-based knowledge only allows humans to know how things in the world relate; it is insufficient for them to comprehend what the world truly is. Only when humans understand things as they are can they be liberated from their existential suffering resulting from their delusional misunderstanding of reality.
However, understanding how things stand in themselves requires direct perception, which makes it possible to perceive the true nature of reality directly to understand it. Furthermore, Buddha teaches that while the ability to perceive directly the true nature of reality is inherent in all human beings, humans rarely ever utilize it.
As the Monkey King has not yet realized the full scope of his potential, humans have yet to develop their innate ability to understand the true nature of reality. Indeed, only when they successfully learn and practice direct perception can they realize what Buddha realized upon his enlightenment.
What applies to humanity also applies to the scientific method. Like humans, the scientific method relies on word-based knowledge to investigate the world. However, to the extent that the scientific method does not involve direct perception, inquiry into mysteries like “What Exists?” is impossible with it. Scientists, of course, have the potential to practice direct perception personally until they are enlightened to understand what the world is really like.” Enlightenment is challenging, but the potential is innate. Of course, short of being enlightened, they can learn from Buddha.
With the help of a fascinating discussion on the topic “How Do We Know What We Know” between the host of Closer to Truth, Dr. Lawrence Kuhn, and the world-renowned philosopher, Dr. Menachem Fisch, the Epistemology Category will discuss the limits and scope of human knowledge and why only directly perceiving the empirical facts of nature can lead to the proper understanding of how things stand in themselves.
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