SuttaCentral
I’m just now watching a gameplay of Black Myth: Wukong.
It’s based on the chinese classic Journey to the West which tells the (greatly fictional) story of Xuanzang, the famed chinese translator.
However, in the story (and in game), Xuanzang beats the living crap out of his opponents with his mighty staff instead of spreading Dhamma.
On one hand, I enjoy seeing Buddha figurines in video games, on the other hand… it does feel a bit wrong. 
I guess it’s an ancient folktale though after all.
Ahem. It’s not Xuanzang. It’s another monkey which is trying to follow in Wu kong’s footsteps.
Oh, I see, sorry. That makes a little more sense. 
After escorting his master Tang Sanzang and retrieving the Buddhist scriptures in a perilous pilgrimage to the West, Sun Wukong ascends to Buddhahood. However, he ultimately rejects life in the Celestial Court and chooses to revel in the simple joys of life on Mount Huaguo instead. The Court grows mistrustful of his choice to forgo the life above and sends an army led by Erlang Shen to force him to submit to the Court. Sun Wukong duels Erlang Shen, but he is incapacitated by the circlet that binds him to the Court and is sealed in stone on the mountain. Before he is sealed, Sun Wukong is severed from his six senses, each corresponding to one of six relics scattered across the mortal realm. Over the next few centuries, the monkeys of the mountain would send out young warriors to recover the relics in order to revive Sun Wukong. One such monkey, referred to as the Destined One, sets out on his quest to find the relics.
Inaccuracy: it’s not that easy to become Buddha in the first place. Enlightened ones has no desire even for simple joys of life on Mount Huaguo.
The 6 senses corresponding to the 6 relics the players have to find is one of the strong dhammic components in the game.
If the Destined One did not regain Sun Wukong’s memories from Erlang Shen, the Old Monkey puts the circlet on the Destined One. If the Destined One has Sun Wukong’s memories, he does not wear the circlet. The latter ending provides the “Freed Mind” relic, signifying a Sun Wukong who is not bound to the Court.
This breaking out of cycle is one core of the spirit of Buddhism.
… reminds me of my son saying, ‘I can’t do it mum’, then going on to explain every time he replays an open world and/or open ending game, he ends up with the exact same story outcomes coz he can’t bring himself to chose the ‘bad’ choices/ actions and change it up a little coz he feels guilty even tho he knows they are just electronic characters without feelings.
I play 1 or 2 games a year ( over a span of a few days to a week) and he once got me to play Mass Effect and I ended up with all the same choices he had made twice - the guilt is real
A post was merged into an existing topic: Buddhism vs Superheroes
It seems many didnt realise that the journey to the west story was written by taiost to ridicule humiliate buddhism . Inside the stories , it says :
“道也者，本安中国，反来求证西方。忘本参禅，妄求佛果，空费了草鞋，不知寻个什么? ”
the meaning is ,
“The Tao is originally in China, but you seek the truth in the West . You forget your origin and practice Zen, and vainly seek Buddhahood. You have wasted your straw sandals . What are you looking for ?”
Actually , there were at least 14 version , 7 from Ming dynasty , 7 from Qing dynasty . The earliest version was also pirated copy .
Sun wu kong first master was Master Bodhi whom in the beginning taught him Tao saying
玄玄玄，道最玄，莫把金丹做等闲，不遇真人传至道，空言口困舌头干。
Mysteriously profound , mysteriously profound , the Tao is the most mysterious . Don’t take the elixir lightly . If you don’t meet an immortal to teach you the Tao , your words will be useless even your mouth dries up .
You can include me among those who did not know that! That’s fascinating.
The original Journey to the west, or one of the versions I read at least, contains quite a number of taoism in it.
Inaccuracies would include the Buddha still alive able to subdue Sun Wukong.
The details on some monks having greed for robes causing their monastery to be burned eventually is quite accurate in terms of monastic limiting senses so much that greed goes to even robes.
The metaphor of Sun Wu kong is anger, The pig is lust, the water demon is delusion matches with their personality. The monk is described as too timid sometimes, for even after having faced and overcame so many demons, he still cried at the latter stage of the journey when bad things happens. It’s also have a lot of good practice on his part to not give in to many seductions by women along the way.
It really is quite episodic.
Journey to the West is a mishmash of all sorts of things. The style of poetry mixed with prose and soaring metaphysical gobbledegook is almost a sort of satire on Buddhist literature (which is mainly Mahayana texts in the Chinese mind of the Ming dynasty when the book was written). Mainly, it’s an entertaining romp not intended to be taken seriously.
There’s an academic who has a blog dedicated to researching the history and literary background of Journey to the West. The Monkey King character became a sort of demigod in Chinese folk religion with temples and alters dedicated to him. It’s a fascinating little window into Chinese culture that Westerners generally know nothing about because it isn’t high (and dry) philosophy.
I feel the same way about seeing Buddha statues used as lawn ornaments.
That’s why a game like this has been interesting, to showcase such a cultural artifact to a western (gamer) audience.
It’s already one of the highest selling games. 
So it’s kind of a nice bit of advertisement…
Hmmm,
I have seen these everywhere for years, and just thought they resembled an overweight, far eastern, happy guy, covered in bird droppings. (The pigeons and starlings seem to love sitting on him)
Garden centres stock thousands of them. Just down the road from ‘Amaravati Buddhist Monastery’, is a garden centre with loads of them in!
It was only when someone in the family put one in their garden, that I decided to look up this ‘happy guy’.
Which alternatively introduced me to Buddhism, something I never knew anything about before.
I guess no one especially in this forum knows that what it means sun wu kong learned the 72 type of polymorphic transformations ?! Or why sun wu kong was trapped beneath the Five Elements Mountain (五行山) for 500 years ?!
Shapeshifting, basically like Beast Boy’s powers.
Is this a serious question, or have you never seen any accurate adaptions of journey to the west before? Sun Wu Kong lost to the Buddha, and the Buddha hand became that mountain. 5 referring to 5 fingers.
Of course, as mentioned above, it’s not possible as Buddha already done parinibbāna. This scene right here in the journey to the west contributed to a lot of chinese people misunderstanding Buddha as the highest God living in some sort of heaven called Nibbāna.
PS. ok I see you know chinese, so it’s just question to others. I am not no one.
Hi bhante , it doesnt mean something disrespect . It just mean majority get it wrong .
Just say most might not know.
It’s also a bit unfair to say get it wrong when it’s just not within the sphere of knowledge.
If you pick up a copy of Anthony Yu’s translation, he discusses the influences on the story in the introduction. It does appear to be a Daoist writer, from a branch called Quanzhen that incorporated a great deal of Buddhism. I doubt that the purpose of the story was the “humiliate” Buddhism, but it’s not a Buddhist writer. He also covers the earlier versions that circulated before it was finalized in 1592. It was like alot of ancient literature: More of an evolving tradition of storytelling than the work of a single person.
Emptiness is presented in the nama of the monkey (Sun Wukong 孫 悟 空 “monkey/grandson (孫) awakened by the emptiness (悟 空)”). Does the story mention the Heart Sutra (or any other Chinese Mahayana emptiness sutras)?
Hi , Vanakam ! 
So , the question is the Hidden meaning of the writer and not the outward stories you get . How many transformation in buddhism was mentioned in the suttas according to your understanding . Why do you think the writer say 72 type of transformation ? And not 15 , 18, 27 , 34 , 40 , 65 etc or some other number ? Have these question ever come across your mind ? Another thing is , the 5 fingers is not the actual meaning of the writer but the 5 elements . And why the sun wu kong was pinned down for 500 years and not 340 , 460 , 650 , 700 , 900 etc etc ? Well , fyi according to its hidden meaning the 5 elements is part of taiost training in mastering the elements of transformation before one are able to attain to another level .
Now , above i mentioned that the writer portrayed saying the originally Tao already in China was the Truth but still people misled by buddhism chasing the Truth in the west ie India . Anyway , you may agree or disagree but the many stories does directly or indirectly ridicules belittles or humiliating buddhism .
