Post by David DaltonOn http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/buddhism.html I compare myself
to the Buddha and to the Turquoise Bee. Thus I am also claiming
that those two were similar to one another. Is there any
evidence that the Buddha may have composed poems or songs
after his awakening/enlightenment?
However on that page I say the Buddha's victory over Mara
came at a full moon at the end of a waxing gibbous moon
trial. That may be one interpretation but another is
that the victory came at the end of his seven years of
ascetic years.
I also claim (here) that the incident of the Naga water serpent
sheltering the Buddha may have occurred at last quarter
or during waning crescent. Is there any evidence for that?
I will follow up to this post with the text from that page,
for the benefit of those like me who don't like clicking
on links in newsgroup posts.
Buddhism
The Buddha
The first book I grabbed at the university library (I will try to find
it again later and then would insert the reference here) on The Buddha
listed two different supposed dates for the Buddha's birth. These dates
were 27 years apart. This I suspect is because one date is that of his
actual birth and one is that of his rebirth in a shamanic call or
awakening at age 27, like mine.
My vision was of a blue rose, but in Buddhism the flower most mentioned
is a blue lotus, where in Buddhism the lotus is said to be the flower of
compassion. In any ancient or modern Indian language or Romany, does the
word for rose sound like that for lotus? This would bridge many paths.
Also in the book I grabbed the Buddha's victory over the demon Mara by
meditating against a bodhi tree was described. The release/enlightenment
is supposed to have occurred at full moon and hence the demonic attack
was during waxing gibbous moon. This I relate so far to the North
American native Salmon youth's descent to the underworld, Jesus' psychic
death and/or trial by Satan, Taliesin's time in Arianrhod's prison, and
Krishna's victory over the poison-nippled demon.
Some time after (I suspect 5.5 lunar months) the release at full moon, a
Naga water serpent sheltered the Buddha from a thunderstorm, perhaps on
a mountain (will edit). From this I infer that there was bluish
(water-colour) clear-sky (also maybe no thunderstorm) lightning after
which the Buddha had an inspired creative high. This serpent is the same
as the bronze seprent in the Old Testament, the lightning of
inspiration, which according to Issac Asimov's Guide to the Bible Vol. 2
was personified as the seraphim (i.e., the root of the word seraphim is
related to the lightning).
My early exposure to Buddhism was somewhat limited though I did get a
good mark in final year high school World Religions (and promptly forgot
everything). But one of my favourite SF novels, Roger Zelazny's Lord of
Light was a late teen influence, and drew on Buddhism some.
In the movie Little Buddha, Buddha experiences ascetic years which I
think are like my own low years. His ascetic years end with him reaching
enlightenment (perhaps in a waning crescent high) and being given a rice
bowl by a village woman. I think the village woman is a devi type, like
Radha is (Radha is associated with Krishna and was a strong influence on
Krishna and was creative in her own right). I also think that the rice
bowl could represent employment and could represent the last quarter
moon, when the waning crescent high often begins, or the first quarter
moon, which is close to the druid new moon (sixth morning after new
moon).
And in a February 2003 thread on talk.religion.buddhism someone said
that the Buddha's ascetic years lasted from age 28 to age 35, so seven
years. I think someone later said eight years and I will try to dig that
out later. I expected my own low years to end a while ago but they are
now (March 2005) at nine years and 1.5 months and I expect them to end
soon. Why would I have to go longer? Well, I have a bigger region, and
lifespans are longer today, and I have it easy in that I have the
advantages of modern medicines and computers and libraries and
eyeglasses and contact lenses so could be expected to go longer. However
the same person (who said seven years) said that that in some traditions
Enlightenment was reached at full moon and in other traditions at first
quarter moon, and not at last quarter or waning crescent. But as I say
above, the floating rice bowl in the movie Little Buddha could represent
first quarter moon. Also it could be that as in that movie, with the
Buddha getting release from his wilderness/low/ascetic years when he
gets together with the village woman, that my low years will end when I
get together with a woman.
In the movie, during the ascetic years I think, Buddha faces the demon
Mara in the image of a double of Buddha. This I think could have one
meaning that Buddha experienced homosexual thoughts when he was normally
heterosexual. I too have experienced these homosexual tests which I
think were manifested as a distortion in front of my third eye and which
I could brush aside. I have not experienced these tests recently and it
is now May 2001 and I am definitely heterosexual. (It is now March 2005
and these distortions have not occurred in the last few years, and are
not the same as my being attracted to the I estimate 1 in 5000 people
who are a transgendered spiritual bif in male form such that they look
like a bif at a distance but not up close and I thus would not get
involved with one, and such rare attraction is not enough to qualify me
as bisexual.)
Also, from Wikipedia page on Maya_(mother_of_Buddha) :
"In Buddhist tradition Maya died soon after the birth of Buddha,
generally said to be seven days afterwards, and came to life again in a
Buddhist heaven, a pattern that is said to be followed in the births of
all Buddhas."
In my case my mother died of a heart attack, thought to be related to
her systemic lupus erythematosus, when I was about 1.5 years old. She
died in front of me when she was washing me, but of course I don't
remember it.
Also note that in my first mental health ward hospitalization, in
September 1991 after my sun stare/naked thorn hill climb/blue rose
vision during late waning crescent moon, there were two psychiatric
nurses named Maya. One was dark-haired and about my then age (27) and I
didn't see a lot of her. The other was radiant and silver-haired and I
saw more of her, and she sometimes would take me for a walk to a nearby
artificial waterfall.
The Turquoise Bee
The Turquoise Bee, one of the Dalai Lamas, may also have been a parallel
to me. In fall 1995 I went to the Book Warehouse on 4th Avenue in
Vancouver and bought a copy of The Turquoise Bee: The Lovesongs of the
Sixth Dalai Lama, HarperSanFrancisco (a division of HarperCollins
Publishers, New York), ISBN 0-06-250310-3. But later on I noted that
even though I had bought it in late 1995, there was an error in the book
saying it was Copyright 1998. So briefly I thought maybe the book was a
spoof but there seems to be other information around on the man so I am
sure it is not a spoof but just an error in the book.
The first parallel of The Turquoise Bee with me is his name. The name
indicates to me that he had a turquoise rose vision, and my blue rose
vision was not too far off from turquoise in colour.
The second parallel comes in one of his poems, which is
The dragon-demon's thorns
Should be neither feared nor ignored
Without hesitation
I'll pick the sweet sugar apple in front.
Now the thorns in that I interpret as being like the thorns in my naked
thorn hill climb, and the sweet sugar apple in front I interpret as the
throbbing sun of my sun stare just before the naked thorn hill climb.
With the linkage of his name to the blue rose vision, that means there
is some indication of all three of the sun stare, thorn hill climb, and
blue rose vision for him.
Also like me he was into live music in pubs late at night and linked
eroticism and mysticism. (But I don't think, unlike what the book says,
that he was successful in love unil later in life.)
However this short book says he was successful young and died at the age
of 23, though in one paragraph it says there are legends he did not die
at Kunganor Lake but in various versions vanished in a great fog, went
to live as a mountain yogi and sheepherder, was a beggar in Lhasa, was
spotted in a crowd in the court of the Seventh Dalai Lama, or went on a
pilgrimage to India and spent forty years in missionary work among the
Mongols. I think maybe he became a travelling musician with his lover,
and that he was not successful (except academically, like me) until he
was a good bit older than 23, though I have to research that.
Now this is a short book and I think there are longer compilations of
his writing and also longer books about him and I will check the
university library soon for such, and if there are none perhaps order
one, plus do some more web research
Future plans for this section
This will be edited more soon after some more web and library research
on my part, and I welcome contributions from you and if I receive any
would reference you and your sources. Also I do plan to read not just
biographical info on the Buddha but also eventually some of his
writings/theories.
Up: Back to parallels page
--
David Dalton ***@nfld.com http://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
http://www.nfld.com/~dalton/nf.html Newfoundland&Labrador Music & Travel
"And now the angry morning; Gives the early signs of warning
You must face alone the plans you make; Decisions they will try to break" SMcL