Monkey Magic
Originally published on Medium Nov 16, 2024
As a child, I watched a TV program called Monkey. It was a Japanese TV series dubbed over in English voices using fake Japanese accents. It was loosely based on the Chinese story called Journey to the West.
It had a boy priest, Tripitaka, acted by a woman and a horse that was a dragon but could change into a human. What's not to love about that!
Monkey was outrageous, out-spoken, wild, proud and loved to fight demons. He declared himself "Great Sage, Equal of Heaven" and flew on a cloud which he summoned with a fancy hand signal. He would sometimes challenge a giant female representation of the Buddha but was always outwitted.
In one episode Buddha makes a bet with Monkey to fly to the end of the universe. He thinks "no problem", flies for a long time until he gets to five pillars he thinks mark the end of the universe. He writes "Monkey was here" on the pillars and pisses on one of them. When he returns the Buddha shows him that the five pillars were her fingers and that he never left her hand. It was funny and irreverent but profound all at once.
Monkey created an army of fighting ninja clones by plucking a single hair from his head and doing some magic. He fought with a magic staff acquired from a Dragon King. The English dubbing was not a proper translation and contained plenty of sexual innuendo. The fighting staff could grow bigger and smaller, so the dialogue where Monkey first gets the staff is basically a series of dick jokes.
Tripitaka, the boy priest, was sometimes very preachy and annoying but he was gentle and wise also. He often suppressed Monkey by means of a prayer that caused the gold band around Monkey's head to constrict and give Monkey a painful headache. They traveled with two other companions and the aforementioned horse. There was Sandy, a dopey, philosophical fish spirit and Pigsy a greedy, lecherous pig spirit.
The group traveled through various villages where they encountered all manner of powerful demons along the way that were often redeemed though compassion and understanding from Tripitaka, usually after a good old fight with Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy. The demons were shown to be quite human and relatively harmless.
Monkey helped changed my ideas about demons from being scary, unchanging evil entities that existed outside myself to more internal, metaphorical and changeable entities worthy of compassion and understanding.
Monkey introduced me to Buddhist concepts and especially to the idea that "With our thoughts, we make the world". The opening theme that began every episode was a beautiful metaphor. This metaphor still comes to my mind after all these years.
Tathagata Buddha, the Father Buddha, said, 'With our thoughts we make the world'.
Monkey was simplistic, low budget, low tech and probably inaccurate to the original story, but it was fun, thoughtful and a joy to watch. It was so important to me in the way that it helped me to expand and develop my mind in new directions.
Monkey has since been rebooted and while the new version is ok, it seems to have done away with the Buddhist teaching and the heart of the older show.
I feel very fortunate to have had this Monkey in my life. I'll end my story with the beautiful lyrics to the closing song Gandhara by the Japanese band Godiego.
A long time ago when men were all babes
There was a land of the free
Fantasy and dreams
Were it's untouched wealth
And goodness and love were real
Each man desires to reach Gandhara
His very own utopia
In the striving, in the seeking soul
Man can see Gandhara
In Gandhara, Gandhara
They say it was in India
Gandhara, Gandhara
The place of light Gandhara
Though long ago and far
Beyond the winding road
Always beyond every bend
A beautiful land still waits for the few
Who make it to the very end
Each man desires to reach Gandhara
His very own utopia
In the striving, in the seeking soul
Man can see Gandhara
(*) In Gandhara, Gandhara
They say it was in India
Gandhara, Gandhara
The place of light Gandhara
- Repeat