milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

A monkey wanders into the Bar, picking its teeth and singing loudly in Chinese. Picking its teeth with its feet, because it's walking on its hands.

The monkey is wearing a bright saffron robe, and waving a short metal baton around with his tail.

Na Mo A Mi Tuo Fo
Ba Ni Chi De Gei Wo
Wo Shi Yi Ge Hou Zi
Ni Yao Gei Wo Chi Shi?

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"I have mastered the seventy-two transformations," Monkey brags off-handedly. He cocks his head, bird-like. "You should smite something."

Raven grins.

"I cannot number my transformations in so orderly a fashion. I forget too many of them."

He blinks.

"Smiting is a thing I am trying not to do, of late. Save for metaphorically."

Monkey tries cocking his head on the other side. "Why?"

"To prove that I can, I think. Mostly."

Raven shrugs.

"Though I may eventually travel elsewhere, for a time. It is good to keep busy. And there are those who deserve a cleansing death."

He blinks.

The monkeyraven does a little hopping dance on his scaly feet. "They put a crown on me to stop me smiting people," he says woefully. "If I still was able to, I would not be proving anything."

"It is a pity, perhaps, that the crown holds you. I am too fond of choice, perhaps."

He smiles.

"Though maybe it serves your eventual story? It is difficult to tell, perhaps."

"I do not know about stories. It is a punishment, because I bested all the powers of the Heavens." He pecks at the table. "The eternally merciful bodhisattva, is kind of a bitch."

Raven blinks.

"That is not a contradiction in terms? Or is the contradiction the point? Either way, it is, perhaps, moderately unpleasant."

"She would say I deserve it," Monkey says shiftily. "And that it is for my own good."

He pecks again. "The crown prevents me from committing sins and binds me to the service of a great Buddhist monk. They think I will be converted and saved by gradual erosion."

Raven tilts his head.

"This is possible, perhaps. But as with all things, which I am sure she knows--the crown will come off, and you will have to choose."

He blinks.

"Forcing change, I have found, does not work so well. Perhaps she thinks you will come to like it?"

"That is the idea," he says glumly. "But only the Buddha dao will grant me true immortality, and I have sought that all my days , since I knew of death and rebirth."

"I do not think--" and here Raven's voice is hesitant--"I do not think one can gain such immortality when that is the goal. The desire for it defeats the purpose of it, perhaps."

He blinks.

"Or so I have seen, I think."

"Mysticism," Monkey says sourly. "What is the Buddha? Five pounds of flax."

Raven snorts.

"Practicality, really. Those who crave immortality never know what to do with it. Except the ones that do, of course."

He blinks.

"Is he really? That is interesting. I have heard that God is a sponge. Though I do not understand, if this is so, why he is not more effective at cleaning up messes."

"Because...

mysticism," Monkey says grumpily. "I knew what to do with immortality. I ate and drank and fought and laughed. But the immortality I have now is not true immortality; not the escape from the wheel of death and rebirth the Buddha promises."

Raven blinks.

"Why do you want to escape the wheel? It is boring, out there."

"All life within the wheel of samsara leads inevitably to suffering, because all things that bring joy will pass away in time, leaving us sadder than we were before. Desire leads always to suffering." This is in the nature of a recitation.

Raven looks puzzled.

"But sorrow also passes. Every coin must have two sides."

He blinks.

"It is a thing I do not understand, perhaps."

"You should ask the Buddha." Monkey shrugs, with wings.

"It is possible we have different paradigms. We would speak at cross purposes. But should we meet, I will try to understand something."

"Tripitaka says, if you meet the Buddha in the road, you must kill him," Monkey says dubiously.

"Then I will not meet the Buddha. I will call him Frederick, instead."

Headcock. "I think that is either very Zen or very silly. We have to ask Tripitaka."

Raven blinks.

"It cannot be both?"

"Tripitaka doesn't think so." Bitterness!