The Monkey King and
The Water Demon
[Attentiveness]
Once upon a time, far away in a
deep forest, lived a troop of 80,000 monkeys. They had a
king who was unusually large, one
who was as big as a fawn. He was not only huge in size, he was also ‘broad in
mind’. He was, after all, the Bodhisattva. One day, he addressed his monkey
citizens: “My subjects, there are poisonous fruits in this deep forest, and
ponds possessed by demons. If you see any unusual fruit or a pond you have not
come across before, do not eat or drink until you have asked me.” Paying close
attention to their wise king, all the monkeys agreed to follow his advice.
Later on, they came to an unknown
pond. Even though they were all worn out and thirsty
from foraging, no one dared to
take a drink without first asking the monkey king. So they
sat in the trees and on the
ground around the pond. When he arrived, the monkey king asked: “Did any of you
drink the water?” “No, your Majesty, we followed your instructions,” they
replied. “Well done,” he said. Then he walked along the bank around the pond.
He examined the footprints of the animals that had gone into the water, and saw
that none came out again! He realised this pond must be possessed by a water
demon. He said to his subjects: “This pond is possessed by a water demon. Do
not touch the pond’s water.”
After a while, the water demon
emerged from the centre of the pond when he realised none of the monkeys went
into the water for a drink. He looked frightening with his enormous blue belly,
deadly pale face, bulging green eyes, and blood red claws and feet. “Why are
you just sitting around? Come into the pond and drink at once!” he cajoled.
“Are you the water demon who owns this pond?” asked the monkey king. “Yes, I
am,” replied the monster. “Do you eat all beings who enter the water?” asked
the king. “Yes, I do. Even birds who drink from this pond,” he answered. “When
you are dehydrated and are forced to drink, I will savour eating you, the
biggest monkey of all!” he leered, saliva dripping down his hairy chin.
But the monkey king was not a bit
ruffled. He remained calm and coolly said: “I will not let you eat me or a
single one of my followers. And yet, we will drink all the water we want!”
“Impossible! How will you do that?” grunted the water demon. “Simple. All
80,000 of us will drink using bamboo shoots as straws. And you will not be able
to touch us!” Of course, anyone who has seen bamboo knows this can be pretty
difficult. Bamboo grows in sections, one after another, with a knot in between.
If any of the section was too short, the demon could grab the monkey, pull him
under and gobble him up. But to sip through more than one section of the bamboo
was impossible because of the knots. But the monkey king in our story was a
very special one. Having practised mindfulness, wholesome traits and virtuous
conduct, he had developed very fine qualities of the mind. Because of the fine
mental qualities the Bodhisattva had, he created a miracle. He took a young
bamboo shoot, blew through it and the knots disappeared! He used it to sip
water from the pond. Next, incredible as it may sound, he waved his hand and
all the bamboo which grew around the pond lost all their knots, and became a
new kind of bamboo. Using these bamboo, all 80,000 monkeys drank happily from
the pond. The water demon
was stunned. He could not believe
his eyes. Grumbling to himself, he slid back into the waters, leaving only
gurgling bubbles behind.
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