In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Buddhaand#8217;s Creativity,and#8221; Vishavapani looks behind the veils of history, legend and the texts themselves to conjur a vivid, felt image of the Buddhaand#8217;s personality. From the talk and#8220;The Buddhaand#8217;s Personalityand#8221; given during the launch of and#8216;Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened Oneand#8217;.
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
The Buddha’s Creativity
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. [music] Buddha, as well as being humorous, is intensely creative. Sometimes people, scholars argue that the texts of the Pali Canon are written by sort of committees of monks in later years who are wanting to put forward some kind of doctrinal orthodoxy. Well, there are texts that are written like that, they're called the Ali-Dharma, and they read in a certain way, they're very, very technical and very dark, extremely dark, genuinely dark. But in the Pali Canon, in the discourses, you have metaphors, similes, and parables, some of which have a quite extraordinary degree of creativity. And that creativity and originality is only apparent sometimes when you know a little bit about the context. But the Buddha describes the mind as a fire, the mind as water, the mind as a house, the mind as a mass of foam floating down the Ganges, the mind as a bubble on the surface of the water, a mirage, a dawn, an illusion at the crossroads created by a travelling magician. The Buddha, we think of as the silent sage, who didn't like to say much. In fact, you have a torrent of poetry, of metaphor, of images. The Buddha puts things in so many different ways. He has a vision of reality, that's very clear. And then he finds an abundance of ways of expressing them. And I don't think commitment has come up with that creativity. He stretched the language, and he opened up the ways of thinking that his contemporaries had, the myths that they had, he gave a new meaning. So one of the little myths that the Buddha's retelling of the myth that I really like is the story of Vepiciti, Lord of the Arseus. The Arseus are sort of demons or titans, and they are like the titans and gods of Greek mythology. The Arseus and the Davas are always fighting in Indian mythology. So there was Vepiciti, the Lord of the Arseus, bound, neck, hand and foot. Vepiciti is the king of the Arseus, and he's been captured in battle. And he's been given a very particular, incredibly subtle punishment. There was Vepiciti, the Lord of the Arseus, bound, neck, hand and foot. When the thought occurred to him, the Davas, the people who imprisoned him, are in the right, and the Arseus are in the wrong. I'm now going over to the city of the Davas. Then he viewed himself as freed from that five-fold bond. In other words, when he thinks these people have imprisoned me, they're great. Then his shackles drop off. But when he thinks the Arseus are in the right, and the Davas are in the wrong, I will go over to the city of the Arseus. Then he viewed himself as bound with the five-fold bond. So in other words, when he gets angry with the gods, then the shackles reappear. Now in that, that's like an image out of Kafka or something, isn't it? And the Buddha's point about it is that this is exactly what we do to ourselves. When we think in a certain way, then the shackles appear. When we think in a different way, the shackles disappear. The mind-forged manacles. That's a phrase from Blake, if you don't know. So, yes, a committee didn't come up with that little story. That was some kind of genius, some kind of literary genius. And it takes us into the intricacy of the Buddha's mind, a very intricate intelligence, able to bring that out. He's a silent sage, but he's also the master of language. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]