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26 EASTERN HORIZON | FACE TO FACE

The life of the Buddha is found in various sources quite funny too. Once he commented that a person who
– Mahāvastu, Lalitavistara, Buddhacharita, has strong determination while lacking understanding
Abhiniṣkramana Sūtra, etc. What is the common is like a man who thinks he can get milk by tugging the
theme in all these sources compared to what you cow’s horn. I find this very funny. It’s similar to that
wrote based on the early Pāli scriptures? famous Charlie Chaplin skip where he puts the bucket
under the cow’s udders and then uses the cow’s tail like
st
By around the 1 century CE most of the stories about a pump handle thinking it will get him milk.
the Buddha that we are all familiar with had become
widely known, accepted and retold again and again In the story of the Buddha’s life, there is both legend
although with more elaborations added as time went and fact tangled together. How did you navigate
by. And in a sense this is understandable because between legend, storytelling, myth and the findings
most of these stories were wonderful – in fact, those of recent scholarship in this book?
such as the one about Prince Siddhartha saving a
swan from Devadatta are amongst the loveliest stories No biography of Isaac Newton includes the story about
ever told. They communicate Buddhist values in a him sitting under an apple tree and having an apple
highly appealing way, they were rendered into poetic fall on his head. It’s a delightful, a whimsical way of
verse, illustrated in wall paintings, and understood by explaining how he came across the idea of gravity, but
everyone. The information about the Buddha from the it never happened. Similarly, we are told the Buddha
Tipiṭaka which I have used, tells us about his character, flew from one place to another, had flames coming out
his disposition, his ordinary behavior, his habits, his of his body or chatted with gods, but these things never
debating and teaching style, etc. – details which are happened so I have not included them. But many of the
hardly ever given attention. prosaic and typically human things the Buddha did as
found in the Pāli Tipiṭaka – him sneezing or suffering
Of the Buddha’s many virtues, habits and behaviors from wind in the stomach, having his back massaged
you found, was there one that appealed to you most? or washing his feet before entering a building, telling

someone not to interrupt him while he’s speaking -
Yes, I think it was his humor. I can’t help thinking how show that there is a stratum in the Tipiṭaka in which a
much the unsmiling seriousness of some modern day real human being with a distinct personality is being
Buddhists contrasts with the Buddha’s attitude. His depicted. I simply shifted focus from the miraculous
talks and sermons are full of clever and humorous puns to the prosaic. However, I took into account that some
although which unfortunately are difficult to translate of the miracles attributed to the Buddha were almost
from Pāli into English. None of them would make you certainly not meant to be taken literally but had a
roar with laughter but they would have raised a smile didactic purpose.
on those who heard them. Some of his similes can be