"But to walk on This Path you must take up the Lyre And learn how to sing as you walk through the fire." T.C.
"But the time will come when we are old and weak, and the underworld is controlled by the King of Hell. When the time comes for us to die, we won't be able to go on living among the Blessed, and our lives will have been in vain." All the monkeys covered their faces and wept as everyone of them thought about death. Suddenly a gibbon jumped out from their ranks and shrieked in a piercing voice. "If your Majesty is thinking so far ahead, this is the beginning of enlightenment. Now of the Five Creatures, there are only three that do not come under the jurisdiction of the King of Hell." "do you know which they are?" asked the Monkey King. "Yes," the ape replied. "They are the Buddhas, the Immortals and the Sages. they are free from the Wheel of Reincarnation. They are not born and they do not die. They are as eternal as Heaven and Earth, as the mountains and the rivers." "Where do they live?" the Monkey King asked. "Only in the human world," the ape replied, "in ancient caves on magic mountains." The monkey King was delighted to hear this. "I shall leave you all tomorrow," he said, "and go down the mountain. If I have to, I'll roam the corners of the oceans and go to the edge of the sky to find these three kinds of beings and discover the secret of eternal youth that will keep us out of the clutches of the King of Hell forever." Goodness! Because of these words he was to learn how to be free from the Wheel of Reincarnation and become the Great Sage Equaling Heaven. All the monkeys clapped with approval and said, "Great! Great! Tomorrow we'll climb all over the mountain and get lots of fruit to give Your Majesty a really big banquet to send you off."
Vol 1, pp 10-11 Journey to the West, Wu Cheng'en, translated by W.J.F. Jenner, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing.
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