내년 1월, 국제포교사회 주관으로 있을 자타카 암송대회 초등학교 1~4학년용 대본 및 녹음 파일 입니다. 법회에 이용해 보시길 바라는 마음에 올립니다.

The Monkey King and the Water Demon

원숭이 왕과 물귀신

 

Once upon a time, far away in a deep forest, there was a nation of 80,000 monkeys. The king was unusually large not only in body but also in mind. After all, he was the Enlightening Being.

One day, he advised his monkey nation, "My subjects, there are poisonous fruits, and ponds possessed by demons in this forest. If you see any unknown fruit or pond, do not eat or drink until you ask me first." Paying close attention to their wise king, all the monkeys agreed to follow his advice.

Later on, they came to an unknown pond. Despite being thirsty, no one would drink without first asking their king. The monkey king examined the footprints of the animals that had gone into the water and saw that no one had come out again! So he realized this pond must be possessed by a water demon and told the 80,000 monkeys not to go into it.

The water demon saw that none of the monkeys went into the water to drink. He rose out of the pond, taking the shape of a frightening monster with a big blue belly, a white face with bulging green eyes, and red claws.

The monkey king said to the monster, "Are you the water demon who owns this pond? Do you eat whoever goes into the water?" He grinned, dripping saliva from his hairy chin. "Yes, I do, including even birds. I will enjoy eating you, the biggest monkey, first of all."

But the monkey king, the former Bodhisattva, with the well-trained mind remained calm. In the past, the monkey king had practiced goodness and trained his mind with such effort and attention, that he had developed very fine qualities of mind. This is why he was said to be 'large in mind', not because he simply had a 'big brain'. He 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 using bamboo shoots as straws! And you will not be able to touch us!"

Of course, anyone who has seen bamboo knows there is a knot between each section, so it is impossible to sip through more than one section. And, any one section is too small, so the demon could grab and gobble the monkey up when one section was used for a straw.

The Enlightening Being was able to produce a very unlikely event, a miracle. First, he took a young bamboo shoot, made the knots disappear by blowing through it, and used it to sip water from the pond. Amazing as it may sound, he waved his hand and all the bamboo growing around that one pond lost their knots. They became a new kind of bamboo.

Then, all his 80,000 followers picked bamboo shoots and easily drank their fill from the pond. The water demon could not believe his green eyes. Grumbling to himself, he slid back under the surface, leaving only gurgling bubbles behind.