Heroic Journey: The Bridge of Death (video)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Monty Python, "Holy Grail"

Avian (Garuda) guards on the temple of Emerald Buddha, Thailand (Zennn/flickr.com)

Monty Python's Flying Circus comes to the Bridge of Death (Holy Grail)

Devi (Travis Charest/michaelmay.us)

When a heroine/hero is on a heroic journey, the road is treacherous. One must stay in possession of one's wits. There are rivers to ford, bridges to cross, and tricky questions to answer.

Every moment is imperiled. We teeter on the edge of ruin. We are staring into the gaping chasm... and loving it, of course. Just so those brave European Crusaders conquering and enslaving the world.

Warrior (cronesmagicalcrafts)

Camelot was comfortable, but not so the forays into the territories of "enemies" the Knights Templar Crusaders made. Their avarice and religious fanaticism, motivated more by greed for personal glory and riches than favor with their tribal Jewish God now co-opted to a nominal "Christian" one in Greco-Roman form.
 
Coming to a bridge at the end of life is not unusual. There is the River Styx to cross, the Cerberus to navigate, and in Asian mythology the idea of a very fragile rope bridge which can bear no extra weight -- and, bad karma being very heavy, it frequently gives way.

Asian deva watcher, Burma (Dondoc-foto/flickr)

What is "bad" karma, then, and how do we avoid accruing it? Any word, thought, or physical deed motivated by greed, hatred/fear, or delusion is demeritorious. Not all desires are ethical issues compromising one's virtue. There are wishes for good, for liberation, for helping others, for wisdom, for compassion, and so on. Not all aversion is misplaced. There is an aversion to harm, to coarse and harsh things, to base and destructive habits. 

All delusion is harmful, though not knowing somethings at some times (and being at peace with that) can be a relief, a respite, an opportunity to strengthen our mettle and grow prior to having to deal with the raw truth, which itself is not bad. Truth is good. But our deluded reactions to it, our misunderstanding of it, lead us to harm. If we knew more, we would hurt less -- in the long run. Every single step does not get easier along the rocky and narrow road.

Garuda guards close up Emerald Buddha temple, Thailand (Zennn/flickr.com)

  

Euro deva (Joe Temmel/flickr)

What is "good" karma that lightens us for "crossing over" at death? The three opposite categories: nongreed, nonhatred, and nondelusion or, taken at their broadest, the categories of unselfishness, compassion, and wisdom. How can we not be selfish in this selfish world? 

 

Wisdom helps. If we begin to grapple with the idea that things, ultimately, are impersonal, it is easier to let go. Giving externally while clinging internally is painful and likely to strengthen our ego as the "great giver." Giving rooted in wisdom is likely to foster more wisdom and a joy of release, of letting go, of being unburdened. That wisdom is a beginning. It culminates in the first stage of enlightenment with the arising of the insight (vipassana) that the ego -- the essence of any "thing" -- was a flawed view of reality, not a reality.
 

When we begin to see that IT IS NOT REALITY but the illusions, the fantasies, the hallucinations we are enduring that are the problem, we see that the truth is the answer. Let's ESCAPE to reality.

• Escape to Reality (Ananda Pereira, BPS)

The Monkey King literature (video)

Stephan David, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; A.C. Yu, "Journey to the West" (Hsi Yu Chi)

 

The story of Monkey was written hundreds of years ago, sometime in the middle of the sixteenth century, by a Chinese author and satirist, based on an ancient Chinese legend called "The Monkey King." 

 

Its original name was Hsi Yu Chi ("Record of the Journey to the West," Saiyuki or Suy Yuw Gey in Japanese). The full story is enormous, comparable in size to the Bible. There are various English translations, both full-length and abridged. Full-length versions are usually translated as "Journey to the West," while abridged versions usually have "Monkey King" or at least "Monkey" in the title.

(Col. Angus) Episode 1: The Monkey King, Zhang Jizhong

Monkey King

The novel is a fictionalized account of the legendary pilgrimage to the "holy land," India, by the Buddhist monk Xuanzang. It is loosely based on source material from the historic text Great Tang Records on the Western Regions and traditional folk tales. The monk traveled to the "Western Regions" during the Tang Dynasty, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras). Guanyin (Kwan Yin Bodhisattva), on instruction from the Buddha Amitabha, gives this task to the monk and his three protectors in the form of disciples -- namely Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing -- together with a dragon (naga) prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse. These four characters have agreed to help Xuanzang as atonement for past unskillful karma. More

 

What is the Monkey King literature?

Amazon.com

The Monkey (abridged version)

Anthony C. Yu’s translation of The Journey to the West, initially published in 1983, introduced English-speaking audiences to the classic Chinese novel in its entirety for the first time.

Written in the sixteenth century, The Journey to the West tells the story of the14-year pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang, one of China’s most famous spiritual heroes, and his three supernatural disciples, in search of Buddhist scriptures.

 

Throughout his journey, Xuanzang fights "demons" (yakkhas, asuras) who wish to eat him, communes with spirits (devas, pretas), and traverses a land riddled with a multitude of obstacles, both real and fantastical. An adventure rich with danger and excitement, this seminal work of the Chinese literary canon is by turns allegory, satire, and fantasy.

 

With over a 100 chapters written in both prose and poetry, The Journey to the West has always been a complicated and difficult text to render in English while preserving the lyricism of its language and the content of its plot. 

 

But Yu has successfully taken on the task, and in this new edition he has made his translations even more accurate and accessible. The explanatory notes are updated and augmented, and Yu has added new material to his introduction, based on his original research as well as on the newest literary criticism and scholarship on Chinese religious traditions. He has also modernized the transliterations included in each volume, using the now-standard Hanyu Pinyin romanization system. 

Perhaps most important, Yu has made changes to the translation itself in order to make it as precise as possible. One of the great works of Chinese literature, The Journey to the West is not only invaluable to scholars of Eastern religion and literature, but in Yu’s elegant rendering, it is also a delight for any reader.

• "Journey To The West" (Univ. of Chicago Press), Anthony C. Yu [4 volumes].
• [new] Revised Edition (2013) [new]
• On 21 December 2012, a revised edition of the four volumes of "Journey To The West" was published by Univ. of Chicago Press.
• On February 15, 2013 they were published in the UK, and on April 5, 2013, the Kindle editions were released.