Buddha not a Prince?

Exploring the Dhamma, as understood from the perspective of the ancient Pali commentaries.
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PsychedelicSunSet
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by PsychedelicSunSet »

happylotus1 wrote: There is nothing in these characteristics that make any person looks like alien or extraterrestrial. Certainly,any person with these physical qualities bears a majestic figure.
Toes and fingers finely webbed,
Hands reaching below the knees.
Golden-hued body,
Ten foot aura around him,
Forty teeth,
White ūrṇā curl that emits light between eyebrows.
All of the above are things that would make one look a bit odd, in my opinion.


:anjali:
Metta
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TheNoBSBuddhist
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Location: Loch Lomond, via the High AND Low road....

Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by TheNoBSBuddhist »

Yes... I have to say if I was a Police Artist trying to draw a person form that description.... well....I'm not sure whether we'd be looking for a human at all....
Level feet
Thousand-spoked wheel sign on feet
Long, slender fingers
Pliant hands and feet
Toes and fingers finely webbed
Full-sized heels
Arched insteps
Thighs like a royal stag
Hands reaching below the knees
Well-retracted male organ
Height and stretch of arms equal
Every hair-root dark colored
Body hair graceful and curly
Golden-hued body
Ten-foot aura around him
Soft, smooth skin
Soles, palms, shoulders, and crown of head well-rounded
Area below armpits well-filled
Lion-shaped body
Body erect and upright
Full, round shoulders
Forty teeth
Teeth white, even, and close
Four canine teeth pure white
Jaw like a lion

Saliva that improves the taste of all food
Tongue long and broad
Voice deep and resonant
Eyes deep blue
Eyelashes like a royal bull
White ūrṇā curl that emits light between eyebrows
Fleshy protuberance on the crown of the head
:namaste:

You will not be punished FOR your 'emotions'; you will be punished BY your 'emotions'.



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Pay attention, simplify, and (Meditation instruction in a nutshell) "Mind - the Gap."
‘Absit invidia verbo’ - may ill-will be absent from the word. And mindful of that, if I don't respond, this may be why....
Phena
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by Phena »

PsychedelicSunSet wrote:All of the above are things that would make one look a bit odd, in my opinion.
Yes, the 32 marks makes the Buddha sound like a cross between a lion, a bull and some other entity. It's pretty funny actually when you try to imagine his actual form as described by the 32 marks. However, if this is not hagiography at work, maybe the Buddha was not actually of this earth :o
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happylotus1
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by happylotus1 »

The eighty minor characteristics are:

He has beautiful fingers and toes.
He has well-proportioned fingers and toes.
He has tube-shaped fingers and toes.
His fingernails and toenails have a rosy tint.
His fingernails and toenails are slightly upturned at the tip.
His fingernails and toenails are smooth and rounded without ridges.
His ankles and wrists are rounded and undented.
His feet are of equal length.
He has a beautiful gait, like that of a king-elephant.
He has a stately gait, like that of a king-lion.
He has a beautiful gait, like that of a swan.
He has a majestic gait, like that of a royal ox.
His right foot leads when walking.
His knees have no protruding kneecaps.
He has the demeanor of a great man.
His navel is without blemish.
He has a deep-shaped abdomen.
He has clockwise marks on the abdomen.
His thighs are rounded like banana sheaves.
His two arms are shaped like an elephant's trunk.
The lines on the palms of his hands have a rosy tint.
His skin is thick or thin as it should be.
His skin is unwrinkled.
His body is spotless and without lumps.
His body is unblemished above and below.
His body is absolutely free of impurities.
He has the strength of 1,000 crore elephants or 100,000 crore men.
He has a protruding nose.
His nose is well proportioned.
His upper and lower lips are equal in size and have a rosy tint.
His teeth are unblemished and with no plaque.
His teeth are long like polished conches.
His teeth are smooth and without ridges.
His five sense-organs are unblemished.
His four canine teeth are crystal and rounded.
His face is long and beautiful.
His cheeks are radiant.
The lines on his palms are deep.
The lines on his palms are long.
The lines on his palms are straight.
The lines on his palms have a rosy tint.
His body emanates a halo of light extending around him for two meters.
His cheek cavities are fully rounded and smooth.
His eyelids are well proportioned.
The five nerves of his eyes are unblemished.
The tips of his bodily hair are neither curved nor bent.
He has a rounded tongue.
His tongue is soft and has a rosy-tint.
His ears are long like lotus petals.
His earholes are beautifully rounded.
His sinews and tendons don't stick out.
His sinews and tendons are deeply embedded in the flesh.
His topknot is like a crown.
His forehead is well-proportioned in length and breadth.
His forehead is rounded and beautiful.
His eyebrows are arched like a bow.
The hair of his eyebrows is fine.
The hair of his eyebrows lies flat.
He has large brows.
His brows reach the outward corner of his eyes.
His skin is fine throughout his body.
His whole body has abundant signs of good fortune.
His body is always radiant.
His body is always refreshed like a lotus flower.
His body is exquisitely sensitive to touch.
His body has the scent of sandalwood.
His body hair is consistent in length.
He has fine bodily hair.
His breath is always fine.
His mouth always has a beautiful smile.
His mouth has the scent of a lotus flower.
His hair has the colour of a dark shadow.
His hair is strongly scented.
His hair has the scent of a white lotus.
He has curled hair.
His hair does not turn grey.
He has fine hair.
His hair is untangled.
His hair has long curls. (Buddha may be interpreted as being bald)
He has a topknot as if crowned with a royal flower garland.
I guess what's referring here is not a direct comparison but is like a simile to show the characteristics in fullest and broadest measure.
A householder or householder's son, hearing the Dhamma, gains conviction in the Tathāgata and reflects: 'Household life is confining, a dusty path. The life gone forth is like the open air. It is not easy living at home to practice the holy life totally perfect, totally pure, like a polished shell. What if I were to shave off my hair & beard, put on the ochre robes, and go forth from the household life into homelessness?
pegembara
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by pegembara »

I always thought this phrase is suggestive that the Buddha's father was not a king?
"I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, and I was sitting in the cool shade of a rose-apple tree, then — quite secluded from sensuality, secluded from unskillful mental qualities — I entered & remained in the first jhana: rapture & pleasure born from seclusion, accompanied by directed thought & evaluation.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
And what is right speech? Abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter: This is called right speech.
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James the Giant
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by James the Giant »

pegembara wrote:I always thought this phrase is suggestive that the Buddha's father was not a king?
"I thought: 'I recall once, when my father the Sakyan was working, .

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
I seem to remember back in those times the king or whoever was the leader of the city, had to plough the first field, or the first furrow, as part of the start-of-ploughing-season ceremony.
I think that's what Sid's dad was doing. Not actual farm work.
Then,
saturated with joy,
you will put an end to suffering and stress.
SN 9.11
Eightfolder
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Re: Buddha not a Prince?

Post by Eightfolder »

I like the story about the fortune teller who told Siddartha's father that he was meant to be a leader or a prophet. Of course we all know how the story ended. Not unlike the young Sigmund Freud whose mother took the baby to meet the friends and neighbors in their Jewish ghetto and an old peasant women with a gleam in her eye said something to the effect (paraphrased) ' he is going to be a great man' and ...well some wouldn't call him great but he certainly became very famous!

Funny how those early childhood messages (with adults encouraging the message) turn into self fulifilling prophecy. I don't think things were so different back in Sid's day. All that stuff under the bodhi tree at the age of 35 or so was just the fruition of a long and productive search. Very similar to what occurs in the process of self-analysis and/or primal or regression therapy. Many of us probably agree Buddha didn't really sit there having flashbacks of previous lives.....rather flashbacks of early childhood.

Its a great story!

:clap:
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