The Lord of the Heavens: An evening star came forward and
said that Sun Wu Kung, the stone ape, had the purest powers of heaven and earth
and sun and moon. He said to let him be forgiven for his sin and if he
oversteps again then he shall be punished. The ape then went up to heaven. At
the gates, he was denied entrance, but again the star came and spoke for him. I
really enjoyed this story because it talks of the ape being in trouble. Most of
the other stories, he is the King and no one questions him.
Laotzse: It started off with some fairies being sent to the
Great Saint by Queen Mother. Again in this story the ape was looking for
eternal life. This time it was through wine nectar of the peach garden. I think
I see a reoccurring theme throughout some of these stories and it is that the
ape is constantly looking for eternal life.
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| A photo of Laozi. Photo source: Wikipedia |
The Destiny of Sun Wu Kung: Sun Wu Kung wants to be the
leader of the heavens now. Buddha said that if the ape could jump out of his
hand, then he would go to the heavens and beg that he become the leader. He
thought he had jumped out of his hand, but in reality he hadn’t. Buddha had
shown him how little he really was. I have enjoyed all of the stories in this
unit because of this troublesome ape.
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