2022.10.11 07:00 - Ashvagosha appreciation

The Guardian for this meeting was Riddle Sideways. The comments are by Riddle Sideways.

Riddle Sideways: good Morning Adams ㋡
Riddle Sideways: this computer is acting slow, laggy, troubled
Adams Rubble: Good morning Riddle :)
Adams Rubble: ohhh, sorry
Riddle Sideways: not your fault
Adams Rubble: no, but I can be sorry for your difficulty
Riddle Sideways: ok, right

Adams Rubble: I came early to make sure i was here
Riddle Sideways: ha
Riddle Sideways: your difficult schedule
Adams Rubble: forgetting things-routine not there any more
Riddle Sideways: for years you had the routine

Adams Rubble: A couple of nights ago I dicovered Ashvagosha's Life of the Buddha
Adams Rubble: it was in a 1900 book called Sacred Writings of the east
Adams Rubble: sitting in one of my bookcases
Adams Rubble: that translation was from a Chinese translation of 420
Adams Rubble: Are you familiar with Ashvaghosa?
Adams Rubble: The Life was an epic poem
Riddle Sideways: no
Adams Rubble: He also wrote one about Nanda and another abbout Sariputra
Adams Rubble: He lived in Kushan and was a spiritual advisor of King Kaniska

Adams Rubble: One of the first Buddhist sculptures was of the Kushan King
Adams Rubble: headless now
Adams Rubble: wearing a dress and boots (side view relief)

Adams Rubble: oh well. The Ashvaghosa story is much different than Thich Nhat hanh's life
Adams Rubble: but it is very much a hero epic
Adams Rubble: very dramatic
Adams Rubble: well the characters act dramatically :)
Adams Rubble: This part of my old book has never been read because I have had to cut pages to read it
Riddle Sideways: a poet and dramatist would write very differently

Adams Rubble: I am finding this exciting
Adams Rubble: the old dusty book from my bookcase
Riddle Sideways: that is exciting when you find an old lost/forgotten/new book right there on the shelf
Riddle Sideways: waiting there for the time to be right for the reading
Adams Rubble: and it becomes relevant
   --BELL--
Riddle Sideways: how many times has that happened to you? The finding of a put away book whose time has come
Adams Rubble: not sure but more than once :)

Adams Rubble: Ashvaghosa may have been the first to write about Buddhism in Sanskrit. The earlier literature was written in Prakit and Pali
Riddle Sideways: also wrote "The Big Book of Buddhism".
Riddle Sideways: love all books titled "The Big Book of ..."
Adams Rubble: :)

Riddle Sideways: back, went off researching Prakrit
Adams Rubble: :)
Adams Rubble: That may have been what the historical Buddha spoke
Riddle Sideways: wondering about sayings transcribed then translated then translated again
Adams Rubble: yes, nicer to get closer

Riddle Sideways: Buddha would probably say things quite simply that were so complex to understand
Riddle Sideways: and a scribe might not have completely understood and a translator might have gone in a different direction
Adams Rubble: not to mention 400-500 years of oral transmision
Riddle Sideways: right, not mentioning that point
Riddle Sideways: That scene in Life of Brian, where the people in the back can't hear, so they keep asking "What did he say"
Adams Rubble: yep
  --BELL--
Adams Rubble: in this case, the storytellers changing things to fit their comprehension
Riddle Sideways: ah, remember it well
Adams Rubble: that's kind of a nice thing about finding different tellings because it shows different understandings
Riddle Sideways: Interesting
Riddle Sideways: comparing the different Understandings
Riddle Sideways: perhaps instead of the original

Riddle Sideways: what if one was never told the original Koan
Adams Rubble: different ways for us to better explore reality
Riddle Sideways: but, heard many understandings
Riddle Sideways: Reality is so hard to look at and See. Need to compare many different understandings

Adams Rubble: there is the gentle loving way of Thich
Adams Rubble: Ashvaghosa's way is harsher is comparison
  --BELL--

Riddle Sideways: BTW - a search of PaB wiki finds no mention of Ashvaghosa. We are discussing a new topic
Adams Rubble: ah ha
Adams Rubble: who knew

Riddle Sideways: and about the bookshelf that this book was 'found on'
Riddle Sideways: is it in a common place?
Riddle Sideways: or a distance storage closet?
Adams Rubble: by my bed
Riddle Sideways: oh! that place of lost books
Adams Rubble: the book was on the top shelf one book from the right
Adams Rubble: one of 3790 books in the main section of the house

Riddle Sideways: am now wondering about looking on bookshelves around this house
Riddle Sideways: a little used balcony room, hard to get to, has a bookshelf of not to be gotten rid of books, but not much for reading stuff
Riddle Sideways: what would be found there?

Adams Rubble: In this case i was wondering whether I had any copies of stories about Buddhas expecting them to be from Pali
Riddle Sideways: oh
Adams Rubble: was not expecting to find one from Sanskrit and certainly not from Kushan
Adams Rubble: Now thinking that Ashvaghosa's Buddha life might have been a source for the art that began about the same time

Adams Rubble: hoping that my experience will not encourage people to hoard books
Riddle Sideways: no
Riddle Sideways: am building a Little Free Library for in front of the house. And thinking about putting random books out
Adams Rubble: nice
Riddle Sideways: was mostly going to put out books that were already read
Riddle Sideways: but, maybe now put out treasures that were being held for passerbys to have
  --BELL--
Riddle Sideways: how would one know which those are

Adams Rubble: Our latest donation request from the our local library for their book sale called for almost new books. Many of my beloved books are old and grubby
Adams Rubble: treasure is in the eye of the beholder
Adams Rubble: frayed, sometimes falling apart-still readable
Adams Rubble: many of my almost new books are lacking in content
Adams Rubble: no surprises

Adams Rubble: thank you for hosting today
Adams Rubble: the Ashvaghosa appreciation session
Riddle Sideways: a pleasure
Adams Rubble: bye :)