Buddha in Catholic's saints list?
Ananda
The Christian world is crowded. Effectively, a New Testament text (Hebrews
12:1) says that we are in a huge and cosmic stadium, "surrounded by a great
cloud of witnesses, the saints, all of them alive to God and our companions,
seeing how we 'run the race'".
A curious fact in the official list of saints of the Catholic Church is the
cryptic presence of one who is perhaps the greatest Indian saintly figure of
all time: Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, the 'Awakened One'.
His presence in the Catholic book of saints is hidden under the name of
Saint Josaphat.
Surely, he is not in the Christian calendar because the Church explicitly
acknowledges the saintliness of the founder of Buddhism; only Christians are
included in the liturgical list of saints.
The Buddha is there because of the story of 'Barlaam and Josaphat', an
ancient version, probably originating in Tamil Nadu, of the renunciation of
the Bodhisattva or Bodhisat. The story, incorporated in the Lalitavistara,
travelled from India to Central Asia and hence into Arabic literature where
the Manichaean Bodisaf became Yudasaf (perhaps because of a confusion in the
written vernacular initial), and hence into Georgian literature and to Greek
and Latin writings where the name took the form of Josaphat, and hence to
the vernaculars of all Europe.
In the late sixteenth century the popes had the ancient official book of
saints or martyrology revised. It was published by Pope Gregory XIII in
1584. Cardinal Baronius, who had a leading part in the revision,
incorporated in the book the legend of the Indian prince converted by the
monk Barlaam and turned into a Christian!
The monk Barlaam was an addition to the original story introduced somewhere
during its long journey to the West. Baronius was keen on purifying the
martyrology of apocryphal legends but accepted this story on the authority
of the writings of St John Damascene (c. 657-749 CE) who often mentioned the
two ascetics.
The entry in the martyrology, 27 November, reads, 'In the Indies, bordering
upon Persia, Saints Barlaam and Josaphat, of whose wondrous deeds St John
Damascene has written'. After the enormous modern research on this story, St
Josaphat is likely to be dropped from the martyrology in the next revision -
a pity!
At the moment the Buddha is still officially, even if cryptonoymously,
celebrated in the Catholic Church. [INDIAN EXPRESS]
Extracted from 'Christianity in India: Two Thousand Years of Faith', by
Leonard Fernando and G. Gispert-Sauch, Viking 2004
Ananda
By Glenn McNatt
The Buddhist middle path is the inspiration
United States - Some artworks manage to tell you more than you want to know,
while others sneak up on you and invite you to fill in the blanks.
It is the latter sort that is on view in French artist Francoise Issaly's
elegant show at Gallery International.
Issaly, who was in Baltimore last week to attend the show's opening, is a
student of Middle Way Buddhism, a form of Buddhism that, as its name
suggests, eschews all extremes.
"Inspired by the Buddhist philosophy of the middle path as well as other
mystical traditions, I create visual spaces where realities overlap each
other," she has written. "I try to express a certain difficulty in ... the
in-between, the oscillation, the wavering."
The in-between spaces Issaly creates are formed by groups of paintings
arranged in grids like a collage. Each panel represents part of a larger
image that extends across the whole grid, but some of the panels seem to be
missing, which gives the works an irregular, asymmetrical shape.
In Issaly's Petite Configuration XIII, for example, six square paintings of
seemingly abstract forms resolve themselves in a densely layered composite
image of plants, flowers and trees. The paintings are arranged in a grid of
two parallel groups of three squares each that together form a vertical
rectangle.
The two halves of the larger rectangle appear out of sync with each other,
however. Rather than line up symmetrically, they are displaced by the height
of one square, so that the right side of the rectangle seems to rise above
its boundary while the left side sinks below it.
Yet the composite image formed by the squares seems to line up perfectly.
The effect is a picture that seems both complete and incomplete. The eye
continually wants to "fill in the blanks" by imagining additional squares in
the parts of the grid that are "missing."
In principle, Issaly's grids can be square, rectangular or even circular --
the show includes examples of each. What they all have in common is a very
noticeable asymmetry or irregularity that the mind subliminally wants to
"correct."
So the artist in her understated way draws us into her project and makes the
viewer an active participant in the creative process rather than a passive
spectator. Yet each work is characterized by great economy of means.
Issaly also creates sculpture, though none are on view in this show. Still,
the paintings alone are quite effective as an introduction to the work of
this most intriguing artist.
The show runs through Feb. 26. The gallery is at 523 N. Charles St. Hours
are noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Call 410-230-0561. [SUN ART CRITIC VIA
BALTIMORE SUN]
Tad Perry
news:cuhd4b$j8k$1...@reader01.singnet.com.sg...
That's interesting, Ananda. It gets even more interesting the degree to
which the Buddha pervades the Christian religion, when one sweeps away the
curtain of ignorance that surrounds things. First, Christ often refers to
the Buddha. He likes to use a phrase similar to "King of the World." He also
speaks of a Second Coming, but it is not his own second coming to which he
refers. Nearly all of his central teaching is verbatim to the Buddha's own
teaching.
Plus there is my strong suspicion that stories of King Solomon are Hebrew
myths based on distant rumblings of one King Shakyamun.
tvp
Ananda
"Tad Perry" <tadp...@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:C9idnWyDZPF...@comcast.com...
Most cultures/religions are interlink. For example the Chinese characters I
believe, comes from the ancient egyptian hieroglphic characters. Strange
that even the angle of egyptian's angle of death, a human figure with dog
head is also the angle of death for the Chinese forklore.
>
Julian Love God
Life at each moment encompasses
the body and mind and the self and
environment of all sentient beings in
the Ten Worlds as well as all insentient
beings in the three thousand realms,
including plants, sky, earth, and even
the minutest particles of dust. Life at
each moment permeates the entire
realm of phenomena and is revealed in
all phenomena. To be awakened to this
principle is itself the mutually inclusive
relationship of life at each moment
and all phenomena.
Nichiren
http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Nichiren/wnd/concord/pages.view/3.html
Julian Love God
Sun Lotus
Julian Love God
Nhật Liên Đại sư, giáo tổ Nhật Liên tông.
Julian Love God
the body and mind and the self and
environment of all sentient beings in
the Ten Worlds as well as all insentient
beings in the three thousand realms,
including plants, sky, earth, and even
the minutest particles of dust. Life at
each moment permeates the entire
realm of phenomena and is revealed in
all phenomena. To be awakened to this
principle is itself the mutually inclusive
relationship of life at each moment
and all phenomena.
Nichiren
Sun Lotus
Nhật Liên Đại sư, giáo tổ Nhật Liên tông.
http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Nichiren/wnd/concord/pages.vi...