'Leap Of Faith In Arthur Waley's Monkey'

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Leap of Faith The novel Monkey is a tale about the Journey to the West, written by Wu Ch’eng-en during the Ming dynasty in China. The folk novel has now been translated by Arthur Waley in 1942. In the story, a monk named Tripitaka is on a journey to India in search of Buddhist scrolls and scriptures with his three disciples Monkey, Pigsy, and Sandy. On their way to salvation, the characters come across many spirits, gods, demons, immortals, and monsters while encountering many challenges in order to reach salvation. Toward the end of their voyage, they are face the ultimate task of detachment from their earthly bodies. The theme of detachment is very prevalent in the novel the Monkey, and is also a key practice in becoming a successful Buddhist. …show more content…

Initially, the only path to cross the water was the Cloud Reach Bridge, which was made of slim tree trunks, no larger than a palm’s width across, almost impossible to cross (Waley, 280). Monkey was confidant and passed over easily; however, the rest of the characters were hesitant refused to cross (Waley, 281). In the middle of arguing about how to get across, they saw a ferry with no bottom. Tripitaka was very weary of the bottomless boat so Monkey threw him aboard without warning. His feet had nothing to rest on and went straight into the water; somehow the ferryman pulled Tripitaka out of the water and back into the ferry (Waley, 281). Once they were all onboard, they noticed their bodies drifting downstream in the water, yet they all made it safely to the other side (Waley, 282). Stepping onto the bottomless boat and watching their bodies float away was a metaphor for their necessary detachment from their earthy selves. Detachment is a central concept in Buddhist philosophy and is viewed as one of the main obstacles to overcome. In order to reach detachment, one has to separate themselves from their own thoughts, desires, and expectations; cleansing their soul from the earthy corruption they have exposed to. This separation allows individuals to rid themselves of fleshy bonds, which then frees their minds from mental and emotional …show more content…

In the 21st century, teenagers are told to choose their career path the moment they graduate from high school, and my life was no different. I soon became attached to the one idea of how my future would turn out. Unfortunately, events occurred that made my dreams impossible; because I was so attached to this single idea, I was left frustrated and mentally suffering. Soon after, I was able to learn how to live in the moment and not dwell on the past or attach to the future. At that time, I did not realize that I was practicing the Buddhist concept of detachment. However, now that I have learned what it truly means to detach, I have become more interested how to practice it in my daily

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