Back Again

‘When a man who has been away for a long time and has returned safely from afar, his kinsmen, friends and companion welcome him back’ (Dhp.219). And so it is with me. I have returned from my trip to Europe and will re-commence my blog on the 22nd of this month. I hope you will join me then.

Is A Sheep As Good As A Lamb?

A popular story in the life of the Buddha and retold in Arnold's famous poem concerns the Buddha and the injured lamb. The Buddha came across a shepherd driving a flock of sheep along a road. Trailing behind the rest of the flock was a lamb with an injured foot. The Buddha picked it up and then asked the shepherd where he was taking the animals, and he replied that he was taking them to Rajagaha for a great sacrifice which King Bimbisara was holding. The Buddha carried the lamb all the way to Rajagaha, met the king, preached to him about the futility of sacrifices, the sanctity of life and the importance of kindness to all being, and the king cancelled the sacrifice.
The story is a popular one, especially in Sri Lanka, where it is often depicted on Vesaka cards and occasionally even appears in temple wall paintings. I have heard it being taught in Buddhist Sunday schools and once I attended a kids' art competition where the winning painting was of the Buddha holding a lamb. Certainly it’s a lovely story and the image of a holy person, any holy person, tenderly holding an animals is a particularly poignant one. The question is 'Where does this story come from?' Well, despite pretty much having been incorporated into the Buddha's biography, the earliest version of the story comes from…The Light of Asia. It is an invention of Sir Edwin Arnold. And where did he get it from? Who knows! But I would suspect that when he created it he was very much influenced by the Christian idea of the 'good shepherd' and those popular images of Jesus holding a lamb. That he should graft a Christian concept/image onto a Buddhist narrative to make it more familiar to a Western readership, was very skillful of him. Less laudable is the fact that many traditional Buddhists know so little of their own sacred scriptures that they actually think something written by an Englishmen in just 130 years ago is from those sacred scriptures.
If you would like to read The Light of Asia have a look at
www.ancient-buddhist-texts.net/English-Texts/Light-of-Asia/index.htm

I am very happy to inform you that the whole of my book A Guide to Buddhism A to Z is now on the internet in Serbo-Croatian due to the diligence and dedication of my friend Branko. Please have a look at http://www.yu-budizam.com/adoz/index.html The English is available at www.buddhismatoz.com Anyone want to do it in Hindi, French, Finnish, Spanish or Swahili?

A Lamb To The Slaughter

This is from the fifth canto of Sir Edwin Arnold's famous poem The Light of Asia, which was widely acclaimed for several decades after its publication in 1879. It is appreciated by few people today other than Buddhists. Please read it carefully and tomorrow I will make some comments on it that you may find interesting or surprising.

While the Master spake
Blew down the mount the dust of pattering feet,
White goats and black sheep winding slow their way,
With many a lingering nibble at the tufts,
And wanderings from the path, where water gleamed
Or wild figs hung. But always as they strayed
The herdsman cried, or slung his sling, and kept
The silly crowd still moving to the plain.
A ewe with couplets in the flock there was,
Some hurt had lamed one lamb, which toiled behind
Bleeding, while in the front its fellow skipped,
And the vexed dam hither and thither ran,
Fearful to lose this little one or that;
Which when our Lord did mark, full tenderly
He took the limping lamb upon his neck,
Saying, "Poor woolly mother, be at peace!
Whither thou goest I will bear thy care;
'Twere all as good to ease one beast of grief
As sit and watch the sorrows of the world
In yonder caverns with the priests who pray."
"But," spake he to the herdsmen, "wherefore, friends!
Drive ye the flocks adown under high noon,
Since 'tis at evening that men fold their sheep?"
And answer gave the peasants: "We are sent
To fetch a sacrifice of goats five score,
And five score sheep, the which our Lord the King
Slayeth this night in worship of his gods."
Then said the Master: "I will also go!"
So paced he patiently, bearing the lamb
Beside the herdsmen in the dust and sun,
The wistful ewe low-bleating at his feet.









So entered they the city side by side,
The herdsmen and the Prince, what time the sun
Gilded slow Sona's distant stream, and threw
Long shadows down the street and through the gate
Where the King's men kept watch. But when these saw
Our Lord bearing the lamb, the guards stood back,
The market-people drew their wains aside,
In the bazaar buyers and sellers stayed
The war of tongues to gaze on that mild face;
The smith, with lifted hammer in his hand,
Forgot to strike; the weaver left his web,
The scribe his scroll, the money-changer lost
His count of cowries; from the unmatched rice
Shiva's white bull fed free; the wasted milk
Ran o'er the Iota while the milkers watched
The passage of our Lord moving so meek,
With yet so beautiful a majesty.
Then some one told the King, "There cometh here
A holy hermit, bringing down the flock
Which thou didst bid to crown the sacrifice."
The King stood in his hall of offering,
On either hand the white-robed Brahmans ranged
Muttered their mantras, feeding still the fire
Which roared upon the midmost altar. There
From scented woods flickered bright tongues of flame,
Hissing and curling as they licked the gifts
Of ghee and spices and the Soma juice,
The joy of Indra. Round about the pile
A slow, thick, scarlet streamlet smoked and ran,
Sucked by the sand, but ever rolling down,
The blood of bleating victims. One such lay,
A spotted goat, long-horned, its head bound back
With munja grass; at its stretched throat the knife
Pressed by a priest, who murmured, "This, dread gods,
Of many yajnas cometh as the crown
From Bimbasara: take ye joy to see
The spirited blood, and pleasure in the scent
Of rich flesh roasting 'mid the fragrant flames;
Let the King's sins be laid upon this goat,
And let the fire consume them burning it,
For now I strike."
But Buddha softly said,
"Let him not strike, great King!" and therewith loosed
The victim's bonds, none staying him, so great
His presence was. Then, craving leave, he spake
Of life, which all can take but none can give,
Life, which all creatures love and strive to keep,
Wonderful, dear and pleasant unto each,
Even to the meanest; yea, a boon to all
Where pity is, for pity makes the world
Soft to the weak and noble for the strong.
Unto the dumb lips of his flock he lent
Sad pleading words, showing how man, who prays
For mercy to the gods, is merciless,
Being as god to those; albeit all life
Is linked and kin, and what we slay have given
Meek tribute of the milk and wool, and set
Fast trust upon the hands which murder them.
Also he spake of what the holy books
Do surely teach, how that at death some sink
To bird and beast, and these rise up to man
In wanderings of the spark which grows purged flame.
So were the sacrifice new sin, if so
The fated passage of a soul be stayed.
Nor, spake he, shall one wash his spirit clean
By blood; nor gladden gods, being good, with blood;
Nor bribe them, being evil; nay, nor lay
Upon the brow of innocent bound beasts
One hair's weight of that answer all must give
For all things done amiss or wrongfully,
Alone, each for himself, reckoning with that
The fixed arithmetic of the universe,
Which meteth good for good and ill for ill,
Measure for measure, unto deeds, words, thoughts;
Watchful, aware, implacable, unmoved;
Making all futures fruits of all the pasts.
Thus spake he, breathing words so piteous
With such high lordliness of ruth and right,
The priests drew back their garments o'er the hands
Crimsoned with slaughter, and the King came near,
Standing with clasped palms reverencing Buddh;
While still our Lord went on, teaching how fair
This earth were if all living things be linked
In friendliness and common use of foods,
Bloodless and pure; the golden grain, bright fruits,
Sweet herbs which grow for all, the waters wan,
Sufficient drinks and meats. Which when these heard,
The might of gentleness so conquered them,
The priests themselves scattered their altar-flames
And flung away the steel of sacrifice;
And through the land next day passed a decree
Proclaimed by criers, and in this wise graved
On rock and column: "Thus the King's will is: --
There hath been slaughter for the sacrifice
And slaying for the meat, but henceforth none
Shall spill the blood of life nor taste of flesh,
Seeing that knowledge grows, and life is one,
And mercy cometh to the merciful."
So ran the edict, and from those days forth
Sweet peace hath spread between all living kind,
Man and the beasts which serve him, and the birds,
On all those banks of Ganga where our Lord
Taught with his saintly pity and soft speech

Europe's Native Buddhists

The Kalmaks are a group of Mongol people who make up the largest ethnic group (53%) in the Republic of Kalmykia, a part of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The majority of Kalmaks are Tibetan Buddhists of the Galupa sect and is thus are Europe's only native Buddhists.

The nomadic Kalmyks migrated from Central Asia to in the 17th century but this soon brought them into contact with the easterly expanding Russian Empire. Much of their history since then has been a struggle against the Russian desire to eliminate them. Eventually Russia conquered the Kalmyks and began a relentless campaign eliminate their identity. As has often been the case, Christianization was the first step in this process. Kalmyk chiefs were given official recognition, land and salaries if they converted to Russian Orthodoxy, and some did. Later, German and Russian immigrants were given the most fertile land, pushing the Kalmyks onto the least productive areas and improvising them. Despite this, most Kalmyks retained their faith and contact with religious centers in Tibet continued. But with the coming of communism the Kalmyks were to face their most testing times. The population was decimated by forced collectivizing and the subsequent famine, all supposed 'kulaks' were shot, then in the late 1930's all monasteries and shrines were razed and all monks murdered or driven into exile. The Nazis invaded the Kalmyk lands during WW II. and when they were driven out, Stalin accused the Kalmyks of being collaborators and in the middle of the winter of 1943 the entire population was deported to Siberia. It is estimated that a third of the population died during the deportation and of the survivors another two thirds perished in the subsequent hardships. The Kalmyk Oblast was divided amongst other regions, all Kalmyk names were changed to Russian ones and in effect the Kalmyks, their culture and their very existence disappeared. In 1957 the dispirited and broken remnants of the Kalmyks were allowed to return to their traditional homeland only to find themselves strangers there. Buddhism and all expressions of Kalmyk culture and identity were still firmly suppressed. This long martyrdom ended in 1990 with the collapse of the USSR and the establishment of the Republic of Kalmykia. But reestablishment of Buddhism had been slow, hardly surprising. During the early Soviet period Kalmyks who were able to fled to Europe and those in Belgrade built the first Buddhist temple in Europe outside Russia in 1929. A few Kalmyks managed to escape in the 1930 and eventually settled in Philadelphia in the US, one of these being the famous Geshe Wangyal. A boy born into the Kalmyk community in 1970's was later recognized at Telo Rimpoche, the senior Kalmyk lama. He underwent a proper Buddhist training and when the Soviet Union collapsed returned to Kalmykia. However, he could not speak the language and soon tired of being 'special', finally returning to the US and marrying. He has recently renewed his interest in Dhamma and in his people. The greatest threats to the Dhamma amongst the Kalmyks is an almost complete absence of teaching monks and the presence of evangelical Christian missionaries. However, the Kalmyks have survived worse than this before. Hopefully they can survive the new challenges.
The bottom picture shows the Belgrade temple.

Circle Of Light

A halo (byamappadha or pabhamandala) is a ring of light believed to appear around the head of particularly saintly people. Ancient and modern depictions of the Buddha often show him with a halo although the Tipitaka never mentions him having one. However, it does say at the time he attained enlightenment rays (ramsi) of blue, yellow, red, white, orange light emanated from his body (Vin.I,25). The flag (pataka or dhaja) now widely used to represent Buddhism and has been flown widely in different places around the world over the last few days, was designed by the American Buddhist Henry Olcott in the 1880's, as a part of his efforts to unite the Buddhists of Sri Lanka in their struggle against foreign missionaries. The flag is rectangular, with six vertical bars - blue, yellow, red, white, orange and finally a combination of all five. These stripes represent the coloured rays that emanated from the Buddha's body when he attained enlightenment.
It is interesting to note that in the hours before his passing his skin became extraordinarily clear and bright (D.II,134). This transfiguration as it is called, is also supposed to have happened to Jesus just before his arrest.

Vesakha Contemplation

Too soon had the Blessed One passed away! Too soon has the Happy One ceased! Too soon has the Light of the World gone out! (D.II)

Vesakha Blessings To All My Readers

Concerning those things not heard before vision arose, knowledge arose, understanding arose, wisdom arose, light arose (Vin.I,10).