The Monkey King

[brian]

This monkey king fable sure sounds interesting enough for me to take a look at... was wondering if there are any English version to it... It is good to see such movies being depicted to promote Buddhism too

[yontenjamyang]

I recently had a discussion with some friends on importance of harmony of any groups, companies or organizations in achieving its goals.
Interestingly, someone then quoted the story Chinese story of "Journey to the West" which I was not familiar with. He said that monk which is based on the Chinese monk Tsuan Chang's mission to journey to the west ie India to collect Buddhist scriptures and in the story he had 3 disciples and a horse (who is considered a disciple). The 3 disciple consisted of the "Monkey King" who is the most senior and most powerful, a pig demon and a shark demon. The monkey king who is very powerful, is sometimes disrespectful to the monk/Guru and he can be controlled by the monk by a metal headband that the Buddha Kuan Yin put on the monkey king. By chanting a mantra the monk can cause the head band to shrink and the monkey king will experience unbearable pain. Anyhow, the point is that the monkey king and the pig demon will always argue and even fight sometimes but in the end there never lose their focus on their Guru's mission to "journey to the west". In the end, there succeeded.

So the moral of the story is that to argue and fight with the intention to fulfill the mission is ok. In any organizations there are bound to be people who disagree. What is important is that there settle on these disagreement and move on to fulfill the goal. Not giving up, work against each other and have the maturity to move on towards the goal is the trait of successful people and organizations.

[brian]

Actually this is a good story to depict the three main enemies of samsara. Hatred, Attachment and Ignorance all depicted in the three students of the monk who went all the way to India to obtain the Sutra for the benefit of many. Would be good to have similar storyline for protectors eh?

[Kim Hyun Jae]

"So the moral of the story is that to argue and fight with the intention to fulfill the mission is ok. In any organizations there are bound to be people who disagree. What is important is that there settle on these disagreement and move on to fulfill the goal. Not giving up, work against each other and have the maturity to move on towards the goal is the trait of successful people and organizations."

The Monkey King story and the Journey to the West has been a legend for so many Asians since we were young. I did not relate watching the Monkey King to our self until I learned Buddhism. Then I can now relate to the "monkey" mind that we have in us. Always in defiance to get what we want in selfish and manipulative ways.

[MoMo]

Just by watching the trailer, I’m sure I wouldn’t want to spend my money on this movie for sure! Nothing beats reading the story from book (Chinese version) and let your imagination takes over to create the scene.
The author’s knowledge in Buddhism that intrigue me was the parts on how Sun WoKong being challenge by the Buddha to leap over the Five-peak mountain he manifested within his palm but ended up being trapped under it.
Here the attitude of Su Wukong represents our arrogant and ego and our five-aggregates symbolize by Five-peak Mountain.
To me, it teaches that without the true path, we might achieve some achievement such as having miraculous power and wealth but still risk of being taken rebirth as an animal in samsara.

[X]

The Journey to the West is my favorite show when I was a kid, really reminds me a lot when I was a kid. I really like it when Sun Wukong do so much to protect the monk Xuanzang, I admire how much effort he put to do that and he really respect Xuanzang. After watching this trailer, I think I still prefer the old version. This version looks fake with all the special effects. But this is just my opinion. People nowadays prefer movies with a lot of special effect that's why this movie Monkey King will be here today. I have to give them a thumbs up for a job well done, Sun Wukong in the movie looks really cool.

[grandmapele]

This is interesting. The travels of a monk with animal pilgrims. Reminds me if the story 'Animal Farm' where animals are depicted instead of humans. Whatever it is, seems that the group of uncommon personalities triumph over all their petty quarrels and disagreements and tricks and whatever to achieve their aim of seeing their long suffering monk arrive at his destination. They emerge at the end of the 'tunnel' to be better than when they started as they did helped each other along the way.

[pinecone]

The Journey to the West was written by Wu Chen-En and is considered to be one of the  great classic novels. The story is about a monk, Xuanzang together with the Monkey King, his guardians Sandy and Pigsy who travel all the way to India to seek Buddha’s scriptures to bring back to China. The principle story consists of all obstacles,  various temptations,  dangerous paths and passages they have to overcome throughout the whole long journey . Despite background differences within themselves, however somehow or rather, they managed to pull things together.  The Journey to the West is regarded as one of the ever green favorite story of all time.