Monkey King
had a ring upon his head
although he it wore much too tight
For centuries confusion reigned
giving pain to those who knew its worth
Enter Monkey King
It was his crowning karma
The Monkey King would loosen up
dance and slay those demons
Monkey King great sage
Equal of heaven
guardian of the sutras
Monkey King magic fighter plays
and sings along that silken road
Sandy Pigsy Tripitaka
Oh Monkey! Yes!
ReplyDeleteHe wore it much too tight?
ReplyDeleteYes Rod a bid odd but legends are and I diverge a little from the legend with a dash of poetic license by surmising that Monkey himself wares his ring (headband) too tight and then add 'much' just to redouble the effect. I do this to make another point that if nothing else it is a Karmic effect of his infamous naughtiness.
DeleteLegend has it, the ring of course was magically fixed onto Monkey's head. He was tricked by a Bodhisattva to control/make sure he doesn't forget his agreed duty to escort the Buddhist monk Tripitaka, together with the famous accompanying Buddhist sutras/texts that would eventually spread Buddhism throughout China.
I also imply Monkey chose to ware the head piece and 'too tight' as a way of reflecting that it was an agreement to ware the ring but once on he couldn't remove it - ensuring he kept his part of the agreement.
Sorry to gas on here but I hope that clarifies things a bit. J