![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
you've thrown your vase away
May. 24th, 2010 02:36 amHad a nice quiet day, even if some bits of cleaning and sorting took longer than expected. The weather continues to be beautiful, and I had windows wide open.
I wish I didn't have to go in to work tomorrow.
---
When the Bodhisattva heard this she said in a furious rage, "How dare that vicious demon turn himself into my double!" With a roar of anger she flung her precious vase into the sea. Monkey was so horrified that his hair stood on end. He rose to his feet, stood below the Bodhisattva's throne, and said, "If the Bodhisattva does not control her temper I'll be blamed for talking out of turn and ruining her conduct. This is terrible. You've thrown your vase away. Had I known you could have done me a big favour and given it to me."
[...]
"Fetch the vase," the Bodhisattva ordered. Monkey went over to pick it up, but he had no more chance of moving it than a dragonfly has of shifting a stone pillar by even a fraction of an inch. Monkey went back to the Bodhisattva, knelt before her, and said, "Bodhisattva, your disciple cannot move it." "All you can do, you ape, is talk," said the Bodhisattva. "If you can't even move a vase how can you hope to subdue demons?" "To be honest, Bodhisattva, I would normally be able to move it, but today I just can't. I think that being beaten by the evil spirit must have weakened me." "It is usually an empty vase," said the Bodhisattva, "but when I threw it into the sea it went round the Three Rivers, the Five Lakes, the Eight Seas, the Four Streams, and all the brooks, springs, pools, and caves to borrow a whole seaful of water. You are nowhere near strong enough to lift a sea up. That is why you can't move it." "Indeed," said Brother Monkey, his hands clasped before him, "your disciple didn't know that."
-- Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en, translated by WJF Jenner
I wish I didn't have to go in to work tomorrow.
---
When the Bodhisattva heard this she said in a furious rage, "How dare that vicious demon turn himself into my double!" With a roar of anger she flung her precious vase into the sea. Monkey was so horrified that his hair stood on end. He rose to his feet, stood below the Bodhisattva's throne, and said, "If the Bodhisattva does not control her temper I'll be blamed for talking out of turn and ruining her conduct. This is terrible. You've thrown your vase away. Had I known you could have done me a big favour and given it to me."
[...]
"Fetch the vase," the Bodhisattva ordered. Monkey went over to pick it up, but he had no more chance of moving it than a dragonfly has of shifting a stone pillar by even a fraction of an inch. Monkey went back to the Bodhisattva, knelt before her, and said, "Bodhisattva, your disciple cannot move it." "All you can do, you ape, is talk," said the Bodhisattva. "If you can't even move a vase how can you hope to subdue demons?" "To be honest, Bodhisattva, I would normally be able to move it, but today I just can't. I think that being beaten by the evil spirit must have weakened me." "It is usually an empty vase," said the Bodhisattva, "but when I threw it into the sea it went round the Three Rivers, the Five Lakes, the Eight Seas, the Four Streams, and all the brooks, springs, pools, and caves to borrow a whole seaful of water. You are nowhere near strong enough to lift a sea up. That is why you can't move it." "Indeed," said Brother Monkey, his hands clasped before him, "your disciple didn't know that."
-- Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en, translated by WJF Jenner
