Five Finger Mountain ---- The Monkey King

Preface -- My Journey to the West

The time has come where the many issues about muliti-cultural, intercultural, cross cultural issues that have come to the surface and over the past forty plus years. From all of the arena of the academia to actual life experience. I have come to the conclusion, the best way to review and to express the variety of the many cultural issues is best to be expressed by one's own experience. Ultimately, it is not only embracing the cultural environment we live in today, which in part or in whole have become transitional and moving -- people moving into different global regions and all are experience a variety of multi-cultural, cross-cultural, intercultural -- some have become transcultural and more over -- this latest and new awareness of "cultural issues" is in many ways most refreshing. Because it is no longer or ever again, to be "monocultural" ever again :) As a matter of fact, the world we live in was never monocultural, we have from day one, our immediate social and cultural environment have been diverse and mulit-cultural with the many different values that are shared under different sets of circumstances. What are today's our cultural values at home or at work? And even within a sect of the religion, say Christianity, have we not the many diverse groups that can go from the Greek Orthodox, to the Roman Catholics, to the protestants and the hundreds of subgroups that have been formed and reformed, or reshaped thoughout history ? All the many of them, under the name of Christians have their different form of worship, or behave ever so differently, but all are under the name of one historical figure named Christ ?

By my count, from a positive note, I guess, when our cutlures or our values are organic, meaning, it is dynamic, it is changing and transformational -- it is very healthy. I think the evolution of men and our ideas, our thinkings are also changing and hope for the better and to become ever more progressive -- and on that note, these changes and evolutions are the new adjustment of the new surrounding that we are moving into, or onto different sets of circumstances -- and these adaptive behavior by my count are healthy for the most part.

Cultures and values is what shapes our behaviors, and by our different way of behaving, individually or collectively have made the many different sets of values and some with distinctions that have made our human cultures diverse, different and at times, the diversity of ours is in harmony, and other times, the changes were also brought on by human conflicts and disharmony and always, with conflicts then come resolution -- often by not so harmonious means.

Books and history had told us the many stories, from fable to mythology and each and every cultural group can tell us about their legends, and again in those legends, most of that being said were all about the many conflicts and then solutions -- some of the stories were told most brilliantly and many were sung to us by songs, by ballads and others by poems as we all have the experiences of the many movies and before that theaters, plays. Time and again, all the stories were being said had revealed much of the values of the past and also, contemporary stories share with us values of today.

My idea of this book is not about sicence nor fictions -- I guess for now, I have yet become a fictional story teller. However, call it fate, chance or by whatsoever sets of circumstances, my life by my own measure has been immensely rich in the multi-cultural sets of settings that I was born into, and was raise and for the most period of my life, whenever I was asked -- "where are you from? " or "where have you been" , I have noticed that often I have to take more than a few minutes to give the questioners of my background. And for the most part, in the muilti-cultural dimensions of lives we live have today, multi-culturalism is no longer of any mystique or even curiosity, in fact, in the coming years -- the world is becoming much more global and much more multi-cultural than we can imagine. The medium and the technologies we have on hand and the communication devices have us all becoming "global" and if not in real context in being multi-cultural, we are already global. I will be addressing much of the differences ab out global and about muilt-cultural, divesity, cross cultural, inter-cultural to a larger extent by the passages of this book or where ever my story telling will take me.

But the real purpose of this writing indeed is for several reasons. First, for my children and for them to have a better understand of me, in fact, this had begun by my daugher's questions and I dare assume, there are many of her school mates, colleagues may have those very similar questions.

Secondly, and maybe more importantly, I have meant to write this book, with its title as my journey to the West -- and then some -- maybe also a journey of my returning from the West to the East, not only in physical terms, but more over, and most important of it all -- is about my personal values, thus, all of that also will reflect the many cultural values I have within me, these values for the most part, have been obtained, absorbed and retained by my life experience, from my journey began with China then heading western wards, by way of Brazil, north America and the rest of the global travel I have taken in all my life. And in this particular journey, as in my adaption of one of the best known Chinese children book, I will again , reemphasize a children 's book, as in my early childhood, what was registered, the very first impression of a character, of a monkey, a human like monkey, almost in every Chinese young men and women will know, a novel, a fable , and a fairly tale, of this monkey - yes, or Monkey King, as he was the king of the monkeys, and from his "daring act" , by his leap of faith, proving to all of the clan of the monkeys, where he had jumped and leaped over and into a waterfall, where with that gamble of faith -- he had found the so called "Waterfall Cave", a fairly land, with all the abudance of fruits and drinks and nectars --- of course, to the favorite of the monkeys. And thus, he has become king of all the monkeys, as being said in that legend.

The beginning of the episode of this story of the monkey, a novel being written in the early part of Ming or even earlier has the many messages, subtle messages --- such as the writer who wrote about not only "individuality" or of individual expression, which many can find that self expression has always been the "air" of most poets, writers in that individual expression of esoteric, in that off the ordinary and with extraordinary "spirit" or "inspirations" that throughout the history of China -- these writers, poets have always such rich individual expression and of or into a "psychological realm" that is above all others-- these form of aspiration has also their own unique forms of individuality, often along with also that certain Dao and Zen/Chan detachment, or better yet, a form of psychological or mental evolution, going above and beyond of the ordinary --. Thus, in this novel so called "The pilgrimage -- or the journey to the West", at first, the story depicts the west bound Buddhist monk, during the first dynasty of Tang, where the story depicts the search for the first Tibetan Buddhist scriptures by the long and arduous journey of this monk, by the emperor has been well known and well written in Chinese history , as almost well known to all Chinese by the introduction of the Buddhist writings into the Tang period of China.

But this particular novel, a fairly tale like novel, almost totally fable like novel, by adding to the many more dangerous and adventurous elements into this journey by this Tang monk had added much more the delightful features and embellishment of this novel, retelling by this writer with added overt and also covert cultural and personal elements by the characterization of the Monkey. This Monkey or Monkey King became one of the four "ghost" or "fairly" characters to the entire Westward journey by this pious, religious monk, often symbolizes the total fragile, almost pathetic, but devoted, religious, missioned bound monk, characterized almost entirely by the Confucian values of obedience, filial obligation toward his mission and abide by the mandate of the emperor, with total focus of his search for the Tibetan scriptures. His devoutness and his purity of a man, however frail --- and in that "holiness" of his mission, he was blessed by the sympathy of the dieties, and one in particular was the goddess of mercy, or Guanyin -- or as to see and to hear -goddess. Thus, by the contrast of his human and monastic sort of meekness, the gods or the dieties had granted the monk of his very powerful consort and escorts. His four disciples in his entourage, consist first the most dexterous and powerful character -- the Monkey, the main character of the entire novel and also the most colorful and dexterous, resourceful and once was known as the "Best of best of all heavenly warriors" or "The invincible Monkey". Where the legend was also told, by his magical birth, the monkey was born out of a rock, and the rock was cultivated by the ages of wind, rain and celestial ages to have it crystallized into a certain "saintliness" and at the right time and the right hour, by the strike of a lightning -- out come this "stone monkey". Thus, all of these unusual and magical phenomenon surrounding the many events of this monkey, The many unusual signs - (The author was ever so clever to have severed the traditional Chinese cultural and family link, where he had the monkey born out of a rock -- thus, no ancestral bagage ) They monkey was already used to be the king of all monkeys and in his journey from almost "bestial" ghostlings like personal journey , as in the first part of the novel -- how this money had managed to have obtained the status and his cultural and "educational" transformation, from monkey and ape like creature to become then men, and in that transition, and by his mischievousness, he had not only warred and battled against the deities of heaven, his attainment into immortality, not based on virtue, but by his super intelligence, talent and his self acquired "magical" skills -- he came so close to have defeated the entire power elites of all the heavenly deities and have them all humiliated, degraded and almost subjugated. The entire novel, or at least, for almost half of the novel had dedicated to the "character formation" of the monkey. Whose personally development and his own formation into becoming known to both the world of the "demons" (or monsters, basically, most of them were all one time saints and fairies who have one way or another might have committed "sins" , from gluttony to lust, or greed) and then they have been casted into the lower strata of the universe, between the human tier and the heavenly tier -and this monkey by his own merit, his personal inquisitiveness and intelligence, who was an avid learner, inquirer, and forever curious, he who was bored by being the King of all the monkeys, has decided to leave the land of the monkeys, and to head toward the land of the "people", where through the many arduous journey, who had tried to hid his monkey tails, dressed as human -- and who had seek the masters of all magical and ballistic and martial arts ---and eventually, he had found one of the well hidden Buddha master and where he was housed and hosted by this master who had taught the monkey all the marvelous warring and protective skills, where the monkey has been able to ride with the cloud, and with a somersault - he can travel some 18,000 league in seconds, where he could have pulled off his own hair, with a whiff, all the hair become the replica of himself and thus, became all the many warriors and fighters as skillful as himself. Again, the early departure was due to the Monkey's own vanity, by showing off the many skills that was prohibited by the master himself. Through out of the entire story of this pilgrimage, the many characters of the Monkey had shown also basically the many human hesitation, reluctance and all the many flaws of our own character, totally well expressed by the many intransigence well expressed by the Monkey. The Monkey had all his combative victories over the heavenly deities and their warring troops. the Monkey had stolen the potion where he had gained "immortality", in other words, he could not be killed or destroyed by the ordinary punishment by all of the gods and he had challenged each and every one of them, or the entire hierarchy of the gods and goddesses --- in that marvelous mixture of the deities in the novel, mixing in the gods from both the Daoist sect, as well from the Buddhist --- and not until the rise of the Buddha himself, or Sikamuni --- at this last of the monkey's last mischievous act, challenging the ultimate supreme power of all the legend of gods -- Buddha had enlarged himself so immensely, reaching the height of sky or heaven, extending his palm -- as into a palatial platform and have asked the Monkey to leap over into his palm ----- And the Monkey had reach the top of the palm by one of his best known somersault -- with his ever present of arrogance, he had insulted the supreme deity -- not only had he tried to belittle the great Buddha, he had gone as far as to have himself relieved first, by urinating toward the front of the giant size palm of the Buddha, he then leaped to the back of the palm where he had defecated. At that juncture - the forever kind Buddha had turned to become incensed -- and with a flip of his giant size palm --- he had the monkey buried until the hill to be called - The Mountain of the five fingers. And with that gesture, the Buddha had warned of the Monkey "On account of your bestial arrogance, you will be buried under this moutain for up to five thousand years, or until that certain time, by the arrival of this kind monk of Tang dynastry, he will be the only one who will be able to lift the spell and the curse I have on you by removing this cursive signed ribbon".