Garland of the Buddha's Past Lives (Volume 2). Aryashura

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ tad hasati is commonly written as tad dhasati, but we write tadd hasati so that the original initial letter is obvious.

      COMPOUNDS

      We also punctuate the division of compounds (samasa), simply by inserting a thin vertical line between words. There are words where the decision whether to regard them as compounds is arbitrary. Our principle has been to try to guide readers to the correct dictionary entries.

      Exemplar of CSL Style

      Where the Devanagari script reads:

      Others would print:

      We print:

      And in English:

      May Ganesha’s domed forehead protect you! Streaked with vermilion dust, it seems to be emitting the spreading rays of the rising sun to pacify the teeming darkness of obstructions.

      (“Nava·sahasanka and the Serpent Princess” 1.3)

INTRODUCTION

I n this second volume of the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” (Jatakamala), fourteen further stories recount the Buddha’s past lives as a Bodhi·sattva.1 Although there are key thematic continuities with the first volume—in particular the idealized notion of a virtuous renouncer-king, the anti-householder path of the ascetic, and the Bodhi·sattva’s role as a compassionate savior—the division is not entirely an artificial one. Not only does the narrative move on to the third perfection, that of forbearance (ksanti), there are also other shifts in focus as animal stories take precedence and the notion of proper friendship becomes central.

      The Perfection of Forbearance

      The introduction to the first volume of the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” (Meiland 2009) discussed how stories 1–30 appear to be structured around the first three “perfections” (paramita) of giving (dana, stories 1–10), virtue (sila, 11–20), and forbearance (ksanti, 21–30). The last four stories (31–34) do not appear to reflect the fourth perfection of vigor (virya) but instead seem to return to the first three perfections, with stories 33–34 clearly portraying forbearance. According to this analysis, forbearance should therefore be the dominant theme of the present volume (stories 21–34). But, as we shall see, this assumption requires certain qualifications.

      “Forbearance” is portrayed in various ways in the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives” but perhaps the most ________

      paradigmatic tale on the virtue is ‘The Birth-Story of Kshanti·vadin’ (28), in which the Bodhi·sattva is an ascetic called “Preacher of Forbearance” (Kshanti·vadin). Here a violent and drunken king becomes enraged by Kshanti·vadin, whom he wrongly accuses of attempting to seduce his harem. The ascetic’s sermons serve merely to provoke the king further, leading him to mutilate Kshanti·vadin’s body and face. Key to the ascetic’s practice of forbearance is his control over his emotions (particularly anger) in the face of physical and verbal aggression.

      The fine sage felt neither grief nor anger

      when the sharp sword fell on his body.

      For he knew his body’s machinery must end

      and had long practiced forbearance toward people.

      (28.93 [55])

      While such gory depictions may suggest a tendency toward self-mortification or toward the notion of pain as having a purificatory effect, it is important to recognize that pain is usually portrayed negatively in such tales. Indeed it is precisely because the victim does not experience pain that forbearance is demonstrated.

      Despite seeing his body being chopped up,

      his mind stayed firm in undiminished patience.

      He felt no pain but kindness made the saint

      suffer at seeing the king’s fall from morality. (28.94 [56])

      In the “Garland of the Buddha’s Past Lives,” however, forbearance does not merely involve the overcoming of pain or the control of emotions such as anger. It also involves feeling compassion toward an aggressor or toward people _______

      by whom one has been wronged. In ‘The Birth-Story of the Sharabha Deer’ (25), the Bodhi·sattva thus rescues a king from a pit, even though the king had earlier tried to harm him:

      Compassion meant he forgot of him as a foe

      and he shared in the king’s pain instead. (25.20 [8])

This compassionate type of forbearance can take various forms. In ‘The Birth-Story of Kshanti·vadin,’ it involves pitying an aggressor for their violation of morality and for the bad karmic effects they are bound to suffer (see 28.94 [56] above).2 By contrast, in “The Birth-Story of the Elephant’ (30), the Bodhi·sattva’s forbearance involves no aggressor at all. Instead, it rests on his compassionate willingness to sacrifice his body for others in distress.3 The story’s maxim thus states: “If it results in the welfare of others, even pain is esteemed by the virtuous as a gain” (30.1).

      However, while some stories define forbearance in this extended sense of compassion toward an aggressor or self-sacrifice for others, it would be difficult to argue that for-bearance, even under such extended definitions, represents a major theme in every one of the ten stories (21–30) considered to portray the third perfection. The ‘Larger Birth-Story of Bodhi’ (23) and “The Birth-Story of Brahma’ (29) are, for example, far more concerned with the issue of defeating false doctrines than they are with forbearance, although a minor theme of the former story is that the Bodhi·sattva shows compassion toward a king despite his betrayal of their friendship. Similarly, in ‘The Birth-Story of the Goose’ (22), although the protagonists do act compassion- ________

      ately toward a traditional enemy (a hunter), the major focus of the story is not on forbearance but on devotion and the need to develop good friendships and virtue (see especially 22.150 [93]-156 [99]). While one might argue that the protagonists’ preservation of virtue in a testing situation represents a type of forbearance, or that the geese show for-bearance by offering friendship to those who have tried to wrong them, there seems no particular reason why the story should primarily reflect forbearance rather than virtue. It is also noteworthy that the term ksanti (“forbearance”) is never mentioned in the narrative itself, including the epilogue’s discussion of topics covered by the tale. While forbearance is therefore an important theme in stories 21–30, it is not central to all the narratives and the perfection structure appears weaker here than in the first twenty tales.

      Friends, Enemies and Virtuous Company

      Connected to the notion of forbearance is the theme of friendship and its related motifs of gratitude, treachery and proper companionship. In numerous stories, friendship and gratitude are extolled while treachery is criticized. ‘The Birth-Story of the Great Monkey’ (24) offers a typical example, in which a man, inflicted with the karmic punishment of leprosy for betraying the Bodhi·sattva (a monkey), explains to a king the reason for his grotesque appearance: __________________________

      What you see before you is only

      the flower of my betrayal of friendship.

      The СКАЧАТЬ