Thanks Pilgrim!pilgrim wrote: 29 . ??no idea??
This picture is often seen here in local Temples... any self refexions in the suttas?
Thanks Pilgrim!pilgrim wrote: 29 . ??no idea??
Though much of it comes from these Suttas:pilgrim wrote: 9. Siddhatta sees the four sights ( according to commentaries, not sutta)
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"I had three palaces: one for the cold season, one for the hot season, one for the rainy season. During the four months of the rainy season I was entertained in the rainy-season palace by minstrels without a single man among them, and I did not once come down from the palace. Whereas the servants, workers, & retainers in other people's homes are fed meals of lentil soup & broken rice, in my father's home the servants, workers, & retainers were fed wheat, rice, and meat.
"Even though I was endowed with such fortune, such total refinement, the thought occurred to me: 'When an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, himself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged, he is horrified, humiliated, & disgusted, oblivious to himself that he too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. If I — who am subject to aging, not beyond aging — were to be horrified, humiliated, & disgusted on seeing another person who is aged, that would not be fitting for me.' As I noticed this, the [typical] young person's intoxication with youth entirely dropped away.
"I, too, monks, before my Awakening, when I was an unawakened bodhisatta, being subject myself to birth, sought what was likewise subject to birth. Being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, I sought [happiness in] what was likewise subject to illness... death... sorrow... defilement. The thought occurred to me, 'Why do I, being subject myself to birth, seek what is likewise subject to birth? Being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, why do I seek what is likewise subject to illness... death... sorrow... defilement? What if I, being subject myself to birth, seeing the drawbacks of birth, were to seek the unborn, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding? What if I, being subject myself to aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, seeing the drawbacks of aging... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, were to seek the aging-less, illness-less, deathless, sorrow-less,, unexcelled rest from the yoke: Unbinding?'
Yes, the next portion of the Sutta doesn't mention wife, son, or secrecy:pilgrim wrote: 11.He takes a last look at his wife and son Rahula before leaving the palace secretly ( according to commentaries, not sutta)
Mike"So, at a later time, while still young, a black-haired young man endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life — and while my parents, unwilling, were crying with tears streaming down their faces — I shaved off my hair & beard, put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness.
They aren't to my taste either. To me they look like an attempt to "Krishna-ize" the Buddha. I'm surprised that they didn't try to depict him holding a flute while they were at it... These pictures look more similar to Hindu art than to Buddhist art to me.Ben wrote: Not really to my taste.
I have heard that on one occasion the Blessed One....on emerging from seclusion in the late afternoon, sat warming his back in the western sun. Then Ven. Ananda went to the Blessed One and, on arrival, having bowed down to the Blessed One, massaged the Blessed One's limbs with his hand and said, "It's amazing, lord. It's astounding, how the Blessed One's complexion is no longer so clear & bright; his limbs are flabby & wrinkled; his back, bent forward; there's a discernible change in his faculties — the faculty of the eye, the faculty of the ear, the faculty of the nose, the faculty of the tongue, the faculty of the body.""That's the way it is, Ananda. When young, one is subject to aging; when healthy, subject to illness; when alive, subject to death. The complexion is no longer so clear & bright; the limbs are flabby & wrinkled; the back, bent forward; there's a discernible change in the faculties.
Ven Analayo has just published "Genesis of Bodhisattva Ideal" and he compares this sutta with its Chinese parallel that is missing this episode.“I am supreme in the world, I am the highest in the world, I am the first in the world; this is my last birth, there will be no further existence.".
The Pāli version records a declaration made by the newly born bodhisattva on this occasion, in which he proclaims his superiority in the world and his transcendence of future existences, a declaration absent from the Madhyama-āgama parallel.
...
Thus the mere ability of an infant to speak at birth was in itself not necessarily seen in a positive light. Besides, according to the Pāli Jātaka collection already in two previous existences the bodhisattva was able to speak right after being born.69 Since these instances are not explicitly reckoned as marvels, in the present case the marvel would be the content of his proclamation.
The Madhyama-āgama version differs from the Acchariyabbhutadhammasutta in as much as it only records the seven steps, without any proclamation made at all.70 Nakamura (1980/1999: 18) is probably right when he concludes that “the verse claimed to have been proclaimed by the Buddha at his birth was composed very late.”71....
When considered from the perspective of the didactic function of the Acchariyabbhutadhamma-sutta, the proclamation made by the bodhisattva Gautama may at first have come into being as just another facet in the overall scheme of exalting the Buddha. Yet, this particular marvel has consequences that originally may have been neither intended nor foreseen.
The significance of this proclamation emerges once it is compared with the passages examined in the first part of the present chapter. These passages invariably indicate that the bodhisattva was not yet awakened, anabhisambuddho,
which holds true even in the case of those versions that do not employ the term bodhisattva. Thus, from the perspective of this general consensus among early Buddhist discourses, the bodhisattva would have been able to make the claim that “this is my last birth, there will be no further existence” only once he had become a Buddha. .....
On considering these formulations, it seems safe to conclude that when these descriptions of the Buddha’s awakening came into being, the idea had not yet arisen that already at his birth he knew that this was going to be his last birth. In other words, the proclamation made by the infant bodhisattva in the Acchariyabbhutadhamma-sutta involves a clear shift of a claim, originally made after awakening, to the time when the bodhisattva Gautama had just been born.77
Hi Luke. The Suttas did talk about the Buddha's height.Luke wrote:They aren't to my taste either. To me they look like an attempt to "Krishna-ize" the Buddha. I'm surprised that they didn't try to depict him holding a flute while they were at it... These pictures look more similar to Hindu art than to Buddhist art to me.Ben wrote: Not really to my taste.
Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings already spread the light of wisdom--no extra physical light is needed! And the Buddha wore a robe of very ordinary cloth--not one of super soft flowing silk!
These pictures also make Buddha look like a giant. I don't know the sutras ever talk about Buddha's height, but I don't think he was 8 feet tall!