The common virtues in life are introspective, versatility, contentment and patience. These virtues can be found from the famous Chinese folktale, Journey to The West. Throughout my research, I can relate the characters with the virtues- XuangZhang (Buddhist Monk) -introspective, Sun Wukong (Monkey God)- versatility, Zhu Bajie (Pigsy)- contentment and Sha WuJing- patience.
The objective of this project is to relate Journey to The West with the 21st century context using metaphors.
Introspective
A major source of unhappiness in our lives is our inability to practice introspection, and to identify the nature and causes of our emotion through self-reflection. From the character of XuangZhang in Journey to the West, we can see an example of introspection in him. XuangZhang often goes into meditation to reflect about his life and search for the truth in human hearts. Without introspection, humans might be living with self-deception.
Versatility
Versatility is all about being open to new ideas or skills, taking the initiative to build on those new concepts, and having an optimistic attitude toward your own ability and the potential task of new challenges. Sun Wukong, the character of Journey to the West has the wonderous ability to transform himself in different situation called the “72 transformations”. Wukong’s primary weapon is the golden rod and it is considered as one of the heavenly treasures. Most of us possessed with a modern version of his weapon (Smartphone) in our hands. This modern weapon has fast connection to everyone around us just like Wukong has a close network with the gods. The next time you see this weapon, consider the wonders you can perform.
Contentment
Contentment means embracing a sense of satisfaction and sufficiency. It allows us to take satisfaction in what we have and what we are, even life’s simplest offerings. From the character Pigsy (Zhu BaJie) in the story, we can sense that he is always full of lust and greed for the worldly goods. He is always not contented with the things he had and wish for more. Although contentment is influenced by external circumstances, it is an internal attitude and can be refined regardless of our situation. By practicing contentment in our life, it will free us from envy and longing in which will make us generous with our kindness and offerings to the society.
Patience
Patience is very crucial in life because there are so many things that take time for us to develop and experience in a positive way. We would always want things to be done or satisfy our needs and requests immediately but that is not always the way it works. It takes time to build anything of any significance in life. From the character of Journey to the West, Sha WuJing is considered by his fellow peers as being slow and dumb, but what we do not see is his patience and determination. There are many things in life that needs patience to overcome. In today’s context, the ever-improving processors are diminishing our ability to appreciate the beauty of patience.
