There’s an old Chinese myth that used to just sound like a bedtime story to me. Now it feels like my biography.
The Monkey King.
A trickster. A genius. A warrior.
Faster than lightning. Stronger than the gods.
Restless. Unstoppable.
Utterly ungovernable.
And then, he’s trapped.
Beneath a mountain, for 500 years.
Not by another warrior.
Not by force.
But by his own ego.
Are you trapped?
Maybe even by your own EGO…
🪞I Was Him.
For most of my life, I was the Monkey King.
- Always moving faster than the rest.
- Outsmarting problems before they fully formed.
- Creating systems, winning games, leading people, yet never still.
- Addicted to progress.
- Afraid of irrelevance.
I wore brilliance like armour.
Speed like status.
Productivity like proof of my worth.
I could outthink almost any situation.
But I couldn’t outthink this:
Why, if I was winning, did I still feel so restless?
So unseen?
So unable to stop?
🪨 The Mountain I Couldn’t Outrun
In the myth, the Monkey King thinks he’s above everything.
He disrespects the heavens. Mocks the divine.
And so, the Buddha places a single palm on him,
And pins him under a mountain.
Not to punish him.
But to still him.
To remind him:
Power without humility is chaos.
Freedom without presence is slavery.
That mountain was my awakening.
For me, it wasn’t a palm from the sky.
It was the moment I realised that success wasn’t saving me.
That no matter how smart I became, how much I systemised, built, scaled…
I still hadn’t come home to myself.
And like the Monkey King,
I had to sit.
And remember.
🧘 The Ego’s Favourite Lie: “You’re Not Done Yet”
The ego doesn’t need you to be evil.
It just needs you to stay in motion.
- “Keep going.”
- “Build more.”
- “Prove yourself again.”
- “One more offer. One more win. Then you can rest.”
It sounds like ambition.
But it’s avoidance.
It avoids stillness.
Because in stillness, you meet the truth.
And the truth is this:
I didn’t need to become more.
I needed to become less.
Less driven by fear.
Less seduced by validation.
Less intoxicated by momentum.
👑 The Return of the Real King
When the Monkey King finally surrenders, something wild happens:
He isn’t destroyed.
He’s transformed.
He becomes a disciplined warrior of spirit.
No longer powered by ego, but by service.
No longer fighting to be seen, but choosing to see.
That, to me, is the real journey of masculinity.
Not to dominate.
Not to outbuild others.
But to dissolve the false crown,
and return to the quiet throne.
🧠 What I Had to Accept (That Changed Everything)
- That I am love.
- That my speed was fear in disguise.
- That leadership doesn’t mean being the smartest in the room, just the most present.
- That there’s no system that will save me from feeling.
- That real power is silent.
That the King lives not above others, but within me.
🕊 Final Words to the Monkey Kings Reading This
If you’re still running… Still building…
Still swinging from branch to branch chasing peace,
I see you. I honour your strength.
But I also ask:
What would happen if you sat still?
If you stopped performing?
If you let yourself be met?
Not as the genius.
Not as the system builder.
Not as the coach, the dad, the leader…
But as the man beneath the mask.
Because I promise you this:
You’re not here to prove you’re a king.
You’re here to remember you always were.
Let the mountain still you. Not to punish,
But to free you.
The Monkey served.
The King has returned.
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