Beneath the legends, everything is a lie. To find the truth, all you have to do is listen.
[What the world says] Atop Mount Ling, the Tathagata’s keen eyes can distinguish demons from the righteous. Beneath the golden bowl, the Six-Eared Macaque is brought to justice, and the true and false are separated. From then on, the journey west proceeds without further trouble, the Victorious Fighting Buddha takes his rightful place, and the case is closed.
[But] Was the discarded body truly the end of a delusion born of misplaced devotion? Did those six ears, able to hear the Three Realms and perceive all things, hear nothing but the tolling of their own death knell?
[The story begins with “birth”] He is not Sun Wukong. He is the Six-Eared Macaque. Born from primordial chaos, he listens to all things in the silence. He can hear the whispers and inner demons of every living being, steal the laws governing heaven and earth, revisit secrets of the past, and glimpse fragments of the future. More than that, he can… alter the threads of cause and effect! “Skilled at listening, able to discern reason, know what came before and what comes after, and understand all things.” This is no tool for imitating others, but the ultimate power with which he tears apart false scriptures and seeks the meaning of his own existence!
