A MANUAL OF BUDDHISM in its Modern Development – R. Spence Hardy. Many sources from the Singhalese translated by him. 1853.

MEMOIR Reverend Robert Spence Hardy (1803-68)

His intimate acquaintance with manuscripts and other not easily accessible literature made Hardy a 1st-rate authority on all questions relating to the subjects he treated in his particular line of research.” Outros livros do autor: On The Connection of the British Government with the Idolatry of Ceylon, 1834; Eastern Monachism, an Account of the Laws of the Order of the Mendicants, 1850.

PREFACE

It has been my simple aim to answer the question What is Budhism as it is now professed by its myriads of votaries?” “with the exception of one brief interval, I have been at a distance from any public library; I have received no assistance from any society, literary or religious, though that assistance has not been unasked” Deve ser por isso, como veremos, que o livro é tão enfadonho!

My previous work, On Eastern Monachism, describes the discipline, rites, and present circumstances of the Budhist priesthood.” “By the perusal of both these works, the student will be prepared to understand the general outline of the system; as, although its literature is elaborate, its elementary principles are few.” Desconfie desse tipo de religião!

The native authors are not studious of method; and it is a formidable task to reduce their materials to order. [muito menos ‘os Gotamas’…]

it must be remembered that this is the 1st attempt to form an analysis of the deeds and doctrines attributed to Gotama.” E foi uma tentativa fracassada, ou então o budismo está ranqueado caso tão mal quanto o espiritismo na hierarquia dos monoteísmos… Lembrando que eu considero o teísmo ou ateísmo sub-seitas do Grande Monoteísmo.

In the ontological terms I have usually adopted the nomenclature of the Rev. D.J. Gogerly, of the Wesleyan Mission in Ceylon. [a seção ‘metafísica’ nada tem de metafísica ou de diferente das outras, como veremos] It is greatly to be regretted that the writings of that gentleman are so limited; as they are an invaluable treasure to the student of Budhism.”

1. THE SYSTEM OF THE UNIVERSE

THE cycles of chronology are reckoned by asankyas; a word that conveys the idea of innumerable, incalculable, from a, negative, and sankya, number, that of which the sum of quantity can be determined.

The number of the years to which the life of man is extended never remains at one stay. It is always on the increase or undergoing a gradual diminution; but it never exceeds an asankya in length, and never diminishes to less than 10 years; [haha] and the progress of the change is so slow as to be imperceptible, except after long intervals of time. A decrease in the age of man is attached by a correspondent deterioration in his stature, intellect, and morals.” Vivemos um quadro peculiar nos últimos séculos: nossa estatura e expectativa de vida só aumentam, mas também diminuem intelecto e moral. De quanto tempo será a infância dum homem que aos 10 anos já está senil? Menos de 2 anos! É necessário imaginar a gravidez dos grandes homens como a de elefantes, e a vida como a da tartaruga marinha.



From the time that man’s age increases from 10 years to an asankya, and again decreases from an asankya to 10 years, is an antah-kalpa. 80 antah-kalpas make a maha-kalpa.” 80 cycles of ascension & fall (Overkill)

The space to which the light of one sun or moon extends is called a sakwala. Each sakwala includes an earth, with its continents, islands and oceans, and a mountain in the center called Maha Meru; as well as a series of hells and heavens, the latter being divided into dewa-lokas and brahma-lokas. The sakwalas are scattered throughout space, in sections of 3 and 3. All the sakwalas in one section touch each other, [diâmetro triangular] and in the space between the 3 is the Lokantarika hell. Each sakwala is surrounded by a circular wall of rock, called the sakwala-gala.

Were a high wall to be erected around the space occupied by 100,000 kelas of sakwalas (each kela being 10,000,000) [= 1 trilhão de <sistemas solares>], reaching to the highest of the heavens, and the whole space filled with mustard seeds, a rishi [sábio, santo, asceta] might take these seeds, and looking towards any of the cardinal points, throw a single seed towards each sakwala, until the whole of the seeds were exhausted; but though there would be no more seeds, there would still be more sakwalas, in the same direction, to which no seed had been thrown, without reckoning the sakwalas in the 3 other points. [Tudo isso os homenzinhos antigos chamavam de grandiosidade!]

The sakwala systems are divided into 3 classes: 1. Wisayak-setra, the systems that appear to Budha. 2. Agnya-setra, the systems, a 100,000 kelas in number, that receive the ordinances of Budha, or to which the exercise of his authority extends. 3. Jammak-setra, the systems, 10,000 in number, [contagem muito mais restrita: no número 2 era 1 trilhão de sistemas, aqueles que Buda ‘governa’; mas ele só pode nascer num perímetro como o do núcleo de um átomo, quer seja, 10 mil] in which a Budha may be born (between the birth in which he becomes a claimant for the Budhaship, or a Bodhisat, and the birth in which he attains the supremacy), or in which the appearance of a Budha is known, and to which the power of pirit, or priestly exorcism, extends.

There are 3 other sections into which each sakwala is divided: 1. Arúpawachara, the lokas, or worlds, in which there is no perceptible form. 2. Rúpawachara, the worlds in which there is form, but no sensual enjoyment. 3. Kámá-wachara, the worlds in which there is form, with sensual enjoyment.”

Satwa-loka: world of sentient being

Awakasa-loka: world of void

Sanskara-loka: material world (trees, rock, etc.)

At the base of each sakwala is the vacuum called Ajatakasa, above which is the Wa-polowa, or world of wind, or air, 960 yojanas in thickness; the world of air supports the Jala-polowa, or world of water, 480,000 yojanas in thickness and immediately above the world of water is the Maha Polowa, or the great earth, 240,00 yojanas in thickness, which is composed of 2 superior strata, viz. the Sala, or Gal-polowa, consisting of hard rock, and the Pas-polowa, consisting of soft mould, each of which is 120,000 yojanas in thickness. The under surface of the earth is composed of a nutritious substance like virgin honey. In the center of the earth is the mountain called Maha Meru, which, from its base to its summit, is 168,000 yojanas in height. On its top is the dewa-loka called Tawutisa, of which Sekra [rei dos devas, espécie de deus – às vezes sinônimo do próprio Indra] is the regent, or chief. Between Maha Meru and the rocks at the extreme circumference of the earth are 7 concentric circles of rocks, each circle diminishing in height as it increases in extent. Between the different circles of rocks there are seas, the waters of which gradually decrease in depth, from Maha Meru to the outermost circle, near which they are only 1 inch. In the waters of these seas there are various species of fish, some of which are many thousands of miles in size.

In each earth there are 4 dwipas, or continents, the inhabitants of which have faces of the same shape as the continent in which they are born.”

1. Uturukurudiwayina (norte)

2. Puyrwawidesa (leste)

3. Aparagodana (oeste)

4. Jambudwipa (sul)

+. Ao centro dos continentes está Maha Meru.

The sakwala in which Gotama appeared is called magul, festive, or joyous, because it is the only one in which a supreme Budha is ever born [4 acima].”

O umbigo de Jambudwipa se chama Bódhi-mandala. “it contains the bodha, or bo-tree, under which Gotama became a Budha.”

In the earlier ages there were 199,00 kingdoms in Jambudwipa; in the middle ages, 84,000 or 63,000 [depending of the time]; and in more recent ages about 100. In the time of Gotama Budha this continent contained 9,6 million towns”

The sun and moon are at regular intervals seized by the asuras Rahu and Ketu; and these periods are called grahanas, or seizures (eclipses).”

6 dewa-lokas (worlds of happiness)

16 brahma-lokas (worlds of tranquillity and unconsciousness) [alguém tem convites?]

8 narakas (places of suffering)

Under the rock Maha Meru is the residence of the asuras.”

The earth, inhabited by men, with the various continents, lokas, and sakwalas connected with it, is subject alternately to destruction and renovation, in a series of revolutions, to which no beginning, no end, can be discovered. Thus it ever was; thus it will be, ever.”

sakwalas and their destructions:

normally, it is destroyed by fire;

each 8 times, it is destroyed by water instead;

each 64 times, it becomes destructed by wind.

Which means that after 7 fire destructions, comes water destruction. And after 7 water destructions, comes, after the other 7 fire destructions of the next cycle, the first wind destruction, replacing the water destruction that should be the 8th of that cycle.”

80

When the destruction is by the agency of fire, from the period at which the fire begins to burn to the time when the destruction is complete, and the fire entirely burnt out, there are 20 antah-kalpas. This period is called a sangwartta-asankya-kalpa.

From the period at which the fire ceases to burn to the falling of the great rain by which the future world is to be formed, there are 20 antah-kalpas. This period is called a sangwarttastayi-asankya-kamlpa.

From the first falling of the seminal rain to the formation of the sun, moon, rocks, oceans, &c., there are 20 antah-kalpas. This period is called a wiwartta-asankya-kalpa.

After the elapse of 20 antah-kalpas more, a great rain begins to fall; and this period is called a wiwarttastayi-asankya-kalpa.”

the 4 cycles of mundane revolution:

1. destruction

2. continuance of destruction

3. formation

4. continuance of formation

When all 4 cycles (asankya-kalpas) happen, we have a maha-kalpa.”

Um Asankya (ou pseudo-eternidade)

100 milênios = 100 mil anos = 1 laksha

100 lakshas = = 100 x 100.000 = 10 milhões de anos = 1 kóti or kela

100 lakshas de kótis = 10 milhões x 10 milhões = 100 trilhões = 10^14 = 1 prakóti

1 koti de prakotis = 10 milhões x 100 trilhões = 10^8 x 10^14 = 10^20 = 1 kótiprakóti

1 koti de kotiprakotis = 1 nahuta = 10^28

1 koti de nahutas = 1 ninnahuta = 10^36

1 koti de ninnahutas = 1 hutanahuta = 10^44

1 koti de hutanahutas = 1 khamba = 10^52

1 koti de khambas = 1 wiskhamba = 10^60

1 koti de wishkhamba = 1 ababa = 10^68

1 koti de ababas = 1 attata = 10^76

1 koti de attatas = 1 ahaha = 10^84

Quanto não custa rir! ahaha!

The system of the universe:

1 koti de ahahas = 1 kumuda = 10^92

1 koti de kumudas = 1 gandhika = 10^100

1 koti de gandhikas = 1 utpala = 10^108

1 koti de utpalas = 1 pundaríka = 10^116

1 koti de pundarikas = 1 paduma = 10^124

1 koti de padumas = 1 katha = 10^132

1 koti de kathas = 1 maha katha = 10^140

1 koti de maha kathas = 1 asankya = 10^148

De modo que asankya não é propriamente incontável ou infinito… Enfim, patafísica horrorosa!

Os Kalpas

Were the surface of the earth to increase in elevation at the rate of 1 inch in a 1,000 years, and the process to continue in the same proportion, the elevation would extend to 28 miles before the antah-kalpa [ciclo de máximo envelhecimento e a volta à menor duração da vida humana, i.e., 10 anos] would be concluded.”

20 antah-kalpas = 1 asankya-kalpa

4 asankya-kalpas = maha-kalpa

To 1 antah-kalpa there are 8 yugas, 4 of which are called utsarppani and 4 arppani. The 4 utsarppani yogas are progressive, and therefore called urdhamukha; but the 4 arppani are retrograde, and are therefore called adhomukha.”

The 4 utsarppani yugas are called kali, dwapara, treta, krita, respectively; the 4 arppani yogas, krita, treta, dwapara and kali.”

In the Kali age a man will be grey when he is 12; and no one will exceed 20 years of life.”Wilson’s Vishnu Purana.

It would be as great a miracle for a supreme Budha to be born in a kali yuga as for a beautiful and sweet-scented lotus to blow amidst the flames of hell.” “It is only in the asunya kalpas that the Budhas appear (…) When one Budha is born in a kalpa, it is called sara; when 2, manda; when 3, wara; when 4, saramanda; and when 5, bhadra. It is only after very long intervals that the bhadra kalpa occurs.”

1 satya yoga = 1,728,000 anos

1 treta = 1,296,000

1 dwapar = 864,000

kali = 432,000

The year 1852 is the 4,936th year of the kali yug, and the 3,892,936th of the kalpa. (…) It has been remarked that these yugs correspond, in number, succession and character with the golden, silver, bronze and iron ages of the Greek and Roman mythologies.”

The brahmanical kalpa, equal to the whole period of the 4 yugs, consists of 4,320,000,000 (4,32bi) of solar years, which is a day of Brahma; and his night has the same duration. 360 of these days and nights compose a year of Brahama, and a 100 of these years constitute his life, which therefore exceeds in length 300,000,000,000 solar years. This system originates in the descending progression of 4, 3, 2 and 1, according to the notion of diminishing virtue in the several ages, applied to a circle of 12,000 divine years, each of which is equal to 360 years of mortals; and 12,000 multiplied by 360 is equal to 4,320,000. [??? – diferença da ordem de 1000] (…) The chronology of Manetho [sacerdote egípcio] appears to have been constructed upon similar principles, as his dynasties are so arranged as to fill up an exact number of Sothaic circles, or periods of the star Sirius, each comprehending 1460 Julian, or 1461 Egyptian years. Cf. Grote, History of Greece.”

The Sakwalas

1,000 sakwalas = 1 sahasri-lokadhatu

10 lacs x sakwalas = 1 madyama-lokadhatu

1,000 kelas x sakwalas = 1 maha-sahasri-lokadhatu

That space is infinite, that the beings inhabiting it are infinite, and that the sakwalas are infinite is known to Budha, and by him alone is it perceived.”

The doctrine of an infinity of world was taught in Greece by Anaximander and Xenophanes, 428 BC, and by Democritus, 361 BC. They taught that there is at all times an infinity of co-existent worlds (world-islands) throughout endless and unbounded space; and that it is as absurd to think there should be only one world in space as that in an extensive field properly cultivated should grow up no more than one single blade of corn. It was the opinion of Democritus that some of these worlds resemble each other, whilst others are entirely dissimilar.”

By the practice of the rite called kasina, to see to the verge of the rocks that bound the sakwala, and then to conclude that the world is finite, i.e., that beyond these rocks there are no other worlds, is the error called antawada. By the practice of the same rite, to see many other sakwalas and then conclude that the world is infinite, is the error called anantawada. To conclude that the world is finite vertically, but infinite horizontally is the error called anantanantawada. To conclude that the world is neither finite nor infinite, is the error called nawantananantawada. These errors are enumerated by Gotama in the Brahama-jala-sutra as being professed by some of the heretics [cortem-lhe a cabeça!] included in the 62 sects that existed in his day.” Ver último capítulo – ou não, já que dá um sono do cacete!

Maha Meru

Tolices sem fim.

Were a stone to fall from the summit it would be 4 months and 15 days in reaching the earth.”

The Rocky Circles

The idea of the 7 concentric circles around Meru, like that of the 7 strings of the lyre of Orpheus, or the 7 steps of the ladder of Zoroaster, was probably suggested by the previous idea of the orbit of the 7 planets, which it is not unreasonable to suppose had its origin in the number of the days of the week, as appointed in the beginning by God. The city of Ecbatana (the Achmetha of Ezra, 6:2, and the Ecbatana of the Apocrypha, supposed to be the present Hamadan) as described by Herodotus, 1:98, might have been erected as the model of sakwala. The Brahmans teach that there are 7 great insular continents, surround severally by great seas. According to the Bhagavata, Priyavrata drove his chariot 7x round the earth and the rust left by the wheels became the beds of the oceans, separating it into 7 dwipas.”

The Oceans

(*) “Thales held the opinion that the earth floats on the ocean, like a great ship; but this was denied by Democritus, who taught that the earth rests upon the air, after the manner of an immense bird, with its wings outspread. The opinion of the Budhists, that the earth is supported by a world of air, is more scientific than that of those Hindus who believe that it is borne upon a turtoise.”

(*) “The mariners of Phoeacia, according to Homer, had ships endowed with consciousness, that required no steersman.” Bom pra eles!

Uturukurudiwayina

(*) “It is supposed that the legends respecting square-faced or square-headed animals (Herod. iv.109) have had their origin in the appearance of the sea-dogs (phocae vitulinae) that inhabit the lakes of Siberia.” Em nada melhor que Plínio, o Velho

(*) “In speaking of the 4 points, the people of India, like the Hebrews, suppose themselves to be looking towards the rising sun. Hence the same word, both in Sanskrit and Hebrew, signifies alike the front, the eastern quarter and aforetime.”

(*) “There is a resemblance, in position and general character, between the inhabitants of Uturukuru and the Hyperboreans. This happy people, dwelling beyond the influence of Boreas, never felt the cold north wind. Their females were delivered without the sense of pain. The songs and dances at their festivals were accompanied by innumerable flocks of swans. They lived to the age of 1,000 years, and yet without any of the usual accompaniments of senility. (…) When tired of their long existence, they leapt, crowned with garlands, from a rock into the sea.¹ This custom of leaping from high rocks occurs, in precisely the same manner, in Scandinavian legends. – Müller’s Dorians. (…) The opinion that the northern regions of the Earth were formerly warm and pleasant has been confirmed by the investigations and discoveries of geologists.”

¹ Meta de vida, digo, de morte.

(*) “According to Zoroaster, in the reign of Jemshid, the ancient sovereign of Iran, men appeared until death to retain the age of 15.”

This tree is 100 yojanas high, and when the people require anything, it is not necessary that they should go to it to receive it, as the tree extends its branches, and gives whatever is desired.”

There is no relationship, as of father, mother or brother. The females are more beautiful than the dewas. There is no rain, and no houses are required. In the whole region, there is no low place or valley.”

As there is no wood of which to form a pyre, [the dead] are taken to the cemetery and there left.”

When the people of this region pass away, they are always born as dewas or as men, and never in any of the 4 hells.”

The Great Forest

(*) “The most northern parts of the earth are always regarded by the natives of India as the highest. This was also the opinion of the Hebrews, and of the ancients generally. Hence the expression to go down, or descend, is frequently used of going to the south. – 1 Sam. 25:1; 30:15.”

E Davi se levantou e desceu ao deserto de Parã.”

E disse-lhe Davi: Poderias, descendo, guiar-me a essa tropa? E disse-lhe: Por Deus jura-me que não me matarás, nem me entregarás na mão de meu senhor, e, descendo, te guiarei a essa tropa.”

(*) “It has been supposed the word Caesar is derived from the Sanskrit kesa, <hair>, and that the future emperor was so called because he had much hair on his head when he was born.” Many things have been supposed…

The Sun, Moon and Planets

O sol é de corais e ouro.

A lua é de cristal (que me faz sonhar) e prata.

O diâmetro e circunferência do sol e da lua

são basicamente equivalentes.

(*) O CLIMA E A LUA:modern science has proved¹ that there is a real connection between the clearness of the atmosphere and the cold produced at night by the radiation of heat from the earth’s surface, which is impeded by the presence of clouds. As the moon-beam is of course brighter when the atmosphere is clear, it has been supposed that this is the cause of the greater degree of cold, instead of its being a correlative effect.”

¹ Suspeitar desse tipo de construção frasal, sobretudo vindo de homens espiritualistas do séc. XIX!

São caracterizadas 3 estações (ao menos no que tange ao volume de chuvas – alto, baixo e mediano).

Durante a estação seca os gnats (mosquitos) não saem de suas casas; são eles que presidem as precipitações.

the dewas of rain, called ABRA; the dewas of dew, called MAHIKA; the dewas of mist, called DHUMA; the dewas of dust, or motes, called RAJA; and the asur[a] RAHU. The regent of the moon descended to take refuge in Gotama Budha, when attacked by Rahu.” Naruto deve ser Buda.

(*) “Nearly all the astronomical works possessed by the Singhalese are translations from the Sanskrit; but many of the statements that are incidentally made upon this subject in their own books differ materially from the systems now considered to be the most popular upon the continent of India. 1. The Jainas maintain that Meru is in the centre of the earth, around which lies Jambudwipa; that the earth is without support, and is continually falling in space (which may have some relation to the fact that ‘the sun, with his planets, is rapidly darting towards a point in the constellation Hercules’, as taught by modern astronomers); and that the moon is 80 yojanas above the sun, beyond which are the planets, at a still greater distance.”

Os 12 signos do zodíaco:

1. Mesha, red ram. 2. Wrashaba, white bull. 3. Mithuna, woman & man, blue skin-colored, holding an iron rod and a lute. 4. Karkkataka, red crab. 5. Singha, red lion. 6. Kanya, virgin, black skin-colored, in a ship, holding a handful of ears of rice and a lamp. 7. Tula, white man, with a pair of scales in his hand. 8. Wraschika, black elk [alce]. 9. Dhanu, figure of a golden color, half-man, half-horse, with a bow in his hand. 10. Makara, marine monster. 11. Kumbha, white man, holding a water-jar. 12. Mina, 2 fishes, looking opposite ways.” Os mais diferentes são capricórnio e escorpião. Um alce negro no lugar do escorpião; uma figura antropomorfa, muito distante de um inseto.

Os 12 meses:

1 Bak 30 dias 55h 32min¹ 7 Wap 29 dias 54h 7min¹

2 Wesak 31 dias 24h 12min² 8 Il 29 dias 30h 24min²

3 Poson 31 dias 36h 38min² 9 Unduwap 29 dias 30h 53min²

4 Aesala 31 dias 28h 12min² 10 Durutu 29 dias 27h 24min²

5 Nikini 31 dias 2h 10min 11 Nawan 29 dias 30h 24min²

6 Binara 30 dias 27h 22min² 12 Medin-dina 30 dias 20h 21min

¹ Não significaria 2 dias a mais? Implicando o mês mais longo do ano sendo Bak, o janeiro deles, com 32 dias. Ou Poson (nota 2), pois seriam 32 dias e ½!

² Não significaria pelo menos 1 dia a mais? O mês mais curto do ano teria pelo menos 30 dias.

O sol tem 12 casas; a lua, 27.

Os 9 planetas (grahas):

1. Rawi, o sol 6. Chandra, a lua

2. Sukra, Vênus 7. Budha, Mercúrio

3. Kuja, Marte 8. Guru, Júpiter

4. Rahu, 1º asur (deus que causa eclipses) 9. Ketu, 2º asur

5. Saeni, Saturno

The Dewa-Lokas and Brahma-Lokas

There are in all 6 dewa-lokas: 1. Chaturmaharajika, in which one day is equal to 50 of the years of men; 30 of these days make a month, and 12 of these months a year; and as the dewas live 500 of these years, their age is equal to 9 million of the years of men. (…)”

(*) “In the rupa[corporal]-brahma-lokas there are no sensual pleasures, and there is no pain, the enjoyments being intellectual, although there is bodily form, resembling in some measure that which St. Paul may mean by ‘a spiritual body’.” Os arupa-brahma-lokas são mundos de existência somente espiritual.

Thus if the ages in the 6 dewa-lokas and 20 brahma-lokas be added together, it will give a total of 231,628 maha kalpas, 12,285,000,000 [quase 13 bilhões] years.” Pelo menos se parece com a idade do universo segundo a física moderna. Ou seja: há fundamento. Místico – mas há.

Newasannyanasannyayatana, o mundo mais próximo do Nirvana.

The Narakas (Os Infernos)

Há 136 mundos do inferno, mas 8 principais. “The walls [between them] are 9 yojanas in thickness, and of so dazzling a brightness that they burst the eyes of those who look at them, even from the distance of 100 yojanas.”

A etimologia do submundo ou sheol, hades, infernum, hell sempre implica um mundo localizado na Terra, embora escondido (normalmente debaixo da terra) – geralmente um abismo, como em annwn do Druidismo celta. Âmago da alma humana.

Under the great bo-tree, at the depth of 100 yojanas, is the roof of Awichi, the flames from which burst forth beyond the walls, and rise to the height of 100 yojanas.”

a- não

-wichi refúgio

O lugar sem refúgio ou escapatória.

(*) “Homer makes the seat of hell as far beneath the deepest pit of earth as the heaven is above the earth.Virgil makes it twice as far. And Milton thrice.”

(*) “Periphlegethon flows into an extensive district burning with fierce fire; where it forms a lake larger than our own sea, boiling with water and mud. From hence it moves in circles round the earth, turbid and muddy.” Phedro

(*) “Volcanic scoriae and lava streams were portions of Periphlegethon itself, portions of the subterranean melted and evermoving mass.” Humbolt, Kosmos

The Periodical Destruction and Renovation of the Universe

YS: “The part where the sacred tree of Budha is to appear is the first spot of earth that is formed, as it is the last spot destroyed at the end of a kalpa.”

A 100,000 years previous to the commencement of this destruction, one of the dewas from a Kamawachara dewa-loka, pitying the condition of the world, appears with disordered hair, eyes streaming with tears, and a form of woe.(*)

(*) This mission of the déwa bears some resemblance to that of Noah, the preacher of righteousness, during the respite of 120 years previous to the deluge. Gen. 6:3; 1 Pet. 3:20; 2 Pet. 2:5.”

Aftter a long period, a 2nd sun appears suddenly in the sky, and by its rays the 11,575 rivers, and the smaller ponds, tanks and other places are dried up, and white sand is formed. § After another long period a 3rd sun appears, that burns up the 5 great rivers.”

The sun still remains in the sky, but there is no living existence connected with it.”

Um quarto sol destrói até o naraka mais profundo.

OS OCEANOS SÃO MAIS FUNDOS QUE OS ÍNFEROS (Muito além de Cássia Eller): “In due time, a 5th sun appears. By means of this sun the waters of the great ocean are dried up to the depth of 100 yojanas, then of 200, and gradually on to 1,000. They are afterwards dried up to the depth of 10,000 yojanas, and the diminution of the water proceeds until it has extended to the depth of 80,000 yojanas; and thus there will be only 4,000 yojanas of water left.”

TUDO EM VÃO, POIS NÃO HÁ OBSERVADORES: “There is at last about the depth of one tala, then of 7 porisas (the height of a man when his hand is held up over his head, or 5 cubits); gradually it diminishes to the height of a man, to the loins, the knees, and the ancle, to as much as would fill the feet marks of cattle, just as the rain does on the surface of the earth in April or October; and finally, out of all the water of the lakes, seas, and oceans, not so much is left as would moisten the end of the finger. § After another long interval, a 6th sun is formed, when the earth and Meru send forth smoke; and there is thicker smoke, and still thicker, in succession.”

7th sun (of a 7th sum), o número cabalístico que não poderia faltar.

Thus the earth and Meru are entirely destroyed, so as to be no more seen.”

Os sóis continuam a queimar. “whirling, roaring, bursting, blasting, thundering, until the work of destruction is perfect.” Um verdadeiro hino do black metal.

dark void” “This destruction is called Tejo-sangwartta.”

Mas essa 1ª destruição é só aquela pelo fogo; há ainda os ciclos de destruição pela água. O que tornaria essa exposição o sonífero perfeito, caso entrássemos no mesmo nível de detalhes…

This rain is so acrid that it dissolves entirely the earth and all things connected with it, after which the body of water thus produced mingles with the water of the Jala-polowa, upon which the earth had previously rested” “This destruction Is called Apo-sangwartta.”

Perdão, eu estava enganado sobre os tipos de destruição: não são 2 que se alternam somente. Há o “apocalipse do vento”…

The dewas are born, through the exercise of the meditative rite called bhawana, in the brahma-lokas that survive the destruction. The beings in the narakas, through the power obtained from their karma, or moral action, are born in the naraka of some other sakwala; or in an akasa, or aerial abode, [era uma casa muito engraçada… não tinha chão…] formed by the same power. There are other beings that by the power of the rite called wayokasina are born in the brahma-lokas”

Previous to the destruction by water, cruelty, or violence, prevails in the world; previous to that by fire, licentiousness; and previous to that by wind, ignorance.” Talvez estejamos na véspera do MMC das 3 destruições!

That immutable power, Brahma, by waking and reposing alternately, revivifies and destroys in eternal succession, the whole assemblage of locomotive and immoveable creatures.”

Código de Manu

(*) “But by the Peripatetics and others a different doctrine was taught. They were of opinion that the world had never been created and could never be destroyed; as they could trace in the universe no seminal principles, they believed it to be ‘fatherless and eternal, destitute of origin, and beyond the influence of fate.’

2. THE VARIOUS ORDERS OF SENTIENT EXISTENCE

He who is now the most degraded of the demons, may one day rule the highest of the heavens; he who is at present seated upon the most honorable of the celestial thrones may one day writhe amidst the agonies of a place of torment; and the worm that we crush under our feet may, in the course of ages, become a supreme Budha.”

5 gati ou condições:

Dewa, divina

Manusya, humana

Preta, monstruosa

Tirisan, dos brutos

Niraya, infernal

O TOPO DA HIERARQUIA HOMENS-DEUSES: “I. The Pase-Budhas are sages of wondrous power, who never appear at the same time as a supreme Budha; yet in the kalpa in which there is no supreme Budha there is no Pase-Budha. They attain to their high state of privilege by their own unaided powers. Their knowledge is limited; but they never fall into any error that would involve the transgression of the precepts. In the 5 gradations of being enumerated by Nagasena, the Pase-Budhas are placed between the rahat and the supreme Budha. Their relative dignity may be learnt from the announcement, that when alms are given to them it produces greater merit by 100x than when given to the rahats. And that when given to the supreme Budhas it produces greater merit by 16x than when given to them. The supreme Budhas reveal the paths leading to nirwana to all beings; but the Pase-Budhas can only obtain nirwana for themselves. [Assim como um suicida consciencioso apenas se mata; o genocida-suicida, mata muitas pessoas consigo.] They cannot release any other being from the miseries of successive existence. They cannot preach the perfect bana, even as the dumb man, though he may have seen a remarkable dream, cannot explain it to others; or as the savage, who enters a city and is sumptuously fed by some respectable citizen who meets with him, is unable, on his return to the forest, to give his fellow-savages an idea of the taste of the food he has eaten, because they are not accustomed to food of the same kind. But although they cannot teach others, they may themselves attain to a perfect acquaintance with the 4 pratisambhidas, or modes of supernatural illumination.” “It is a rule of the priests in Ceylon who belong to the sect of the Amarapuras not to follow the observances of the Pase-Budhas, unless they have received the sanction of Gotama.

II. The 4th [? – perdi alguma coisa?] of the paths leading to nirvana is called arya, or aryahat. The ascetic who has entered this path is called a rahat. He is free from all cleaving to sensuous objects.” As três anteriores seriam: ser o Buda supremo, ser encaminhado pelo Buda supremo e ser o Pase-Buda?

The mind of the rahat is incapable of error upon any subject connected with religious truth”

There are 5 great powers that the rahat possesses: – 1. Irdhi, or the power of working miracles; he can rise into the air, overturn the earth, or arrest the course of the sun. (…)” Já li o bastante sobre esses poderes de X-Men!…

COMPARAÇÃO MÓRBIDA: “as the trunk of the tree remains unmoved in the storm, though the branches may be subject to violent oscilations.” (Para dizer que o rahat não sente tristeza; é um tronco oco!)

This high state of privilege was sometimes received in an instant; as when the ascetic Nigrodha became a rahat whilst his hair was being cut off to prepare him for the reception of the priesthood.”

In the earlier ages of Budhism, the rahatship was attained by females.” Desde então, só queda no nirvaniilismo, digo, machismo…

At his death, the rahat invariably enters nirvana, or ceases to exist. [E não dá no mesmo?] As the cause of reproduction, karma, is destroyed, it is not possible for him to enter upon any other mode of existence”

To make a false profession of the attainment of rahatship is one of the 4 crimes that involve permanent exclusion from the priesthood.” Punição justa aos Malafaias do Oriente…

III. The moment that man loses the aid of induction, and enters the unseen world, his littleness becomes manifest” ???

There is, therefore, no part of heathenism that is less interesting than its description of other worlds” Sou obrigado a concordar. E lembro os leitores, neste ponto, que demarca aproximadamente 1/3 de nosso percurso, que este grande explanador do budismo é na verdade um cristão! Admiro-o, não ironicamente, pela paciência de um supra-Jó! Publicar um livro em matéria tão insossa… que grande asceta involuntário!

The Pase-Budhas and rahats are equally partakers of humanity; but we must now pass on to the consideration of the unearthly and the monstrous.” Autocrítica?!

The devas resemble the saints of the Romanists, or the kindred dii minores of a more ancient faith, as they are beings who were once men but are now reaping the reward of their prowess or virtue. They reside in a place of happiness; but do not possess the higher attributes of divinity. They receive birth by the apparitional form,¹ are subject to various passions, and in size are more than colossal. Their number must be incalculable by the numeration of mortals”

¹ Essa é uma das maiores baboseiras da doutrina búdica. Veremos mais detalhes à frente!

They endeavour to prevent the acquirement of merit by those whom they fear will supplant them in the possession of the various pleasures and dignities they respectively enjoy.” Deuses invejosos… Mas nem estamos falando de Cristianismo ou Judaísmo!!

The grand principles of Budhism would be complete without the existence of any other orders of being beside those that inhabit our earth, and are perceptible to the senses; and it would agree better with the genius of the system pronounced by Gotama to suppose that, like other sceptics, he believed in neither angel nor demon, than to imagine that the accounts of the devas and other supernatural beings we meet with in works called Budhistical were known at its first promulgation.” Matou a charada. Tudo isso faz com que não devamos dar o menor crédito aos praticamentes do budismo que sustentam que sua crença é atéia. É tão atéia quanto um rosário é usado por devotos sem segundos interesses…

All the accounts of his interviews with devas and brahmas, as well as those which represent these agencies as listening to his words and doing him homage must, it is unnecessary to say, have been the product of a more recent age. [E como essas interpolações são chatíssimas!] It is possible that he may have enunciated the mundane system now attributed to him, and have spoken of other worlds, which his disciples peopled with imaginary beings, in deference to vulgar prejudice or from pride of office, making them ancillary to the exaltation of the sage in whose glory they so largely participated. [Todo discípulo é assim: estraga o mestre.] There is the greater reason to believe that this class of legends has been grafted upon Budhism from a foreign source; as nearly the whole of them may be traced to opinions that are common to almost every school that arose among the Hindus in the period that succeeded the age of Gotama. [Pera lá, meu amigo! Acusar a religião da qual o budismo nasceu como seita herética de ter desvirtuado os ensinamentos de Buda… Quando os hindus tinham mais o que fazer durante todos estes séculos! Talvez o budismo seja apenas uma doutrina ruim e autodestrutiva!] We have a similar process in the hagiology of all the ancient churches of Christendom; and in the traditions of the Jews and Mussulmans, which came not from the founders of the systems, but from the perverted imaginations of their followers in after days.” Comparar os hindus com estes seguidores de Paulo de Tarso é um insulto gravíssimo, fique sabendo!

In some instances the names of the devas and brahmas are the same as those we meet with among the records of Brahmanism; but we are not on that account to confound the religion of the Pitakas with that of the Puranas. Budhism knows nothing of an infinite nihility like Brahm; nor of Brahma, the creator, Vishnu, the preserver, or Siva, the destroyer.” Infinite nihility é meu ovo, de onde nascerá um universo cedo o bastante… “The honour that the Budhists who best understand their religion pay to the devas is extremely small. The priests believe themselves to be higher than the most exalted of these celestial agencies. [no hinduísmo passa-se o mesmo, tolinho – os devas são apenas uma metáfora sobre nosso próprio potencial ilimitado de alçarmo-nos ao divino…] There are dewalas (places of worship dedicated to the dewas) in nearly every village in the Singhalese provinces of Ceylon; but there are few instances, if any, in which a temple is dedicated to any dewa who is prominently mentioned in the sacred books of the Budhists; [Xenofobia contra os habitantes do Sri Lanka!] which is an additional proof that the whole system is an unauthorised adjunct, being either engrafted upon Budhism from the practices of the Brahmans, or brought down from the times preceding the introduction of the bana into Ceylon.”

[sobre a criação de deuses que representam a criação de alguma arte,] the native of India would despise rather than reverence the being who is in any way connected with manual exercises, even in their most pleasing beneficial form. The devas are feared rather than loved; and if their aid is asked, it is in sullenness or with ill-concealed contempt. [há controvérsias]

In many of the accounts that are given us of the attempts of the devas to prevent the rishis [sábios hindus] and others from attaining the high rank that their merit would ensure if permitted to go on to its full development, we have a parallel to the envy with which the gods of the Greeks looked upon the advancement of man in those branches of knowledge that they regarded as being exclusively their own heritage. The story of Prometheus was of most terrible import to all who wished to pass beyond the bounds of common mortality; and the lesson it teaches is heard, with more or less distinctness, in almost every tradition of the mythic age.” Sua antropologia comparada deficitária esqueceu de citar o castigo a todos os descendentes de Adão e Eva por quererem provar do fruto da árvore do conhecimento! Mas o senhor é um reverendo, senhor Spence! Seria pedir muito do senhor tamanho nível de integridade!

IV. The inhabitants of the brahma-lokas have attained to a more exalted state than the dewas. In the worlds in which they have sensuous enjoyment, they are brighter and larger than the dewas, have a larger retinue, more extensive riches, and live to a greater age. [E isso é bom, numa religião que exorta o desapego material e a abstinência?] The rupa (the aggregate of the elements that constitute the body) of the Brahmas differs from that of men, and is one peculiar to themselves. They are insensible to heat and cold, and are entirely free from sexual passion. They have attained their present state of exaltation by the exercise of the rite called dhyana;¹ and when the age allotted to them has passed away, they may be born as men, as animals, or in any other world. (…)”

¹ Nenhum rito é necessário ao verdadeiro bramana. Os ritos são o caminho exotérico às benesses do atingimento da verdade do Um (Brahma).

the lord of the 3 worlds, Budha.”

VI. The Garundas have the shape of immense birds, and are represented as being great enemies to the nagas. § “VII. The Nagas (…) have the shape of the spectacle-snake (…) but many actions are attributed to them that can only be done by one possessing the human form. They are demi-gods.” Nunca passou pela sua cabeça que o Gênese retirou seu conto desta mitologia oriental? Uma serpente que fala e que poderia até andar sobre duas patas – pense a respeito!

If their name be derived from the root naga, a mountain, it may have reference to the place of their abode, under Meru.” “it is possible that the mythological nagas may have had their origin in the fears produced by the ravages of the ancient mountaineers. Another name by which they are known, nayas, bears a considerable resemblance to that of the naiades of the Greeks, who also resided in rivers, lakes and streams. As vigilant as a naya who guards a hidden treasure is a common expression, giving to these beings the same office that is borne by the genii of the Arabs. Even in England there is a current opinion that near abbeys and other old places there are treasures watched over by snakes.” Cobrassss sssão perssuasssivas, assim como o gênio da lâmpada das Mil e Uma Noites!

VII. The Yakas are not to be classed with devils, though this is their popular designation. They are beings whose karma has placed them in the situation they now occupy in the scale of existence; but many of their acts might be attributed to the dewas, as many of the acts of the dewas might be attributed to them [???]

their enmity is to be overcome by exorcism, not by sacrifice.”

They marry, and delight in dances, songs, and other amusements”

in one birth, after he became a candidate of the Budhaship, Gotama was himself a yaka.” Não acredite em deuses que não saibam dançar!

What is the reason, my lord, that many demons are opposed to Budha?”

My lord, there are disciples of Budha who reside in solitary parts of forests, free from noise and tumult, in quiet and retirement, remote from men. In those retired places demons of great power reside, who are opposed to the doctrines of Budha.” Então, talvez, fosse melhor ficar nas cidades!

if any priest or priestess, male or female disciple, fully and perfectly learn this defence, none of the amanusa (not-men), no male or female yaka, etc., will approach him with an evil design, whether walking, standing, sitting, or reclining.” Rev. D.J. Gogerly, Ceylon Friend. Significa que o asceta já se tornou uma bo-tree, ou seja, uma árvore.

X. The Asurs reside under Meru. There were formerly contests carried on between them and the dewas of Tawutisa, but when Manamanawakaya became Sekra, they were finally defeated, and from that time have been kept in subjection.”

The asurs have been compared to the Titans and Giants of the Greeks, as in stature they are immensely greater than any order of being; and as they are connected with eclipses and made war with the dewas, there appears to be some ground for the comparison; it being generally agreed that the giants were personifications of the elements, and that their wars with the gods refer to the throes of the world in its state of chaos.” Dizem que descendemos de gigantes. Isso significa que descendemos verdadeiramente do caos.

XI. The Rakshas resemble the yakas; but they have not, like them, the power to assume any shape that they choose. When appearing to men, they must assume their own proper form. They live principally in the forest of Himala, and feed on the flesh of the dead, whether of beasts or of men.” Personificações do vício da gula.

XIII. The inhabitants of the Narakas endure intense misery; and it was declared by Gotama that those who transgress the precepts will be born in these worlds. To tell the fearfulness of their affliction is difficult; it is like the joining together of all evil things; it is not possible rightly to declare it.” Alguma semelhança com o credo cristão?

The other beings that are introduced as living in different regions and worlds are mere deformities; and are presented before us in all their repulsiveness, without any equivalent to the covering with which the Greeks, in their more cultivated ages, invested beings who in their original shape were equally monstrous.”

The Pase(*)-Budhas

(*) “The word pachcheko, derived from pati-ekan, by permutation of letters contracted into pachcheko and pachche (in Singhalese, pase) signifies severed from unity (with supreme Budhahood): and is a term applied to an inferior being or saint, who is never co-existent with a supreme Budha, as he is only manifested during the period intervening between the nibbana of one and the advent of the succeeding supreme Budha, and attain nibbana without rising to supreme Budhahood.” Turnour, Mahawanso.

It is necessary that he be born of one of the 3 superior castes, as he can belong to no other”

The Dewas

In 1 of our years the devas breathe 216 times, which is 18 times in one of our months, and once in 100 hours. In 100 of our years they eat once.”

The Legend of Lomasa Kasyapa

I am Sekra; if you would become lord of the whole earth you must entreat the rishi Kasyapa, now living in the forest of Himala, to offer a sacrifice of all kinds of animals, from the elephant downwards.”

Primeira recusa

After this Sekra again appeared to the king, and recommended him to send his daughter Chandrawati-dewi to make the same request.”

Segunda recusa – e onde eu mesmo perderia o “jogo”, pois oferecer uma linda princesa já é sacanagem (literalmente)!

At the sight of the princess the rishi forgot the obligations by which he was bound, and was willing to accompany her to the city. On their arrival, the animals were all assembled in the place of sacrifice; but when he lifted up the knife to slay the elephant, the affrighted beast cried out, and all the rest joined in the lamentation. This brought the rishi to his senses; and throwing down the knife, he fled at once to the forest, where he accomplished the requisite amount of merit, and was afterwards born in a brahma-loka. This rishi was the Bodhisat who afterwards became Gotama Budha; [Mas Buda não era infalível? Precisou do grito de um elefante para ‘voltar a si’? Talvez que Buda seja igual o Lula: muito, muito sortudo, segundo os ‘economistas’] as he was under the influence of a temporary madness [paixão!] when he thus resolved upon taking life [away], it is not contrary to the declaration that in every birth he received as a human being he was kind to all sentient existence.” Digamos que Buda praticou o coito interrompido, religiosamente falando!

The Faithful Priest

coming to a place where 4 ways met, [the crooked cross] he was in perplexity as to which was the right path, until the dewa of a neighbouring rock stretched forth a hand, and said In this direction. [Mas os devas não estão sempre dispostos a enganar os ascetas?] Having remained at the wihara [mosteiro] 4 months, he thought of departing on the following morning. But, in the night, as he was walking in the hall of ambulation, he saw a dewa near the steps at the entrance, weeping. (…) ‘Whilst you have remained here, the priests have been at peace with each other; but when you depart, they will again begin to quarrel; therefore I weep.’ The priest, listening, resolved not to leave, and abode there until he attained nirvana.” Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz… Tá difícil, Schopenhauer, tá muito difícil embarcar nesse trem e nesse barco furado!

(…)

Leitura dinâmica em trechos dignos de 1,001 Noites (ou seja: péssimos).

(*) “Brahma put forth in darkness beings emaciate with hunger, of hideous aspects, and with long beards. Those beings hastened to the deity. Such of them as exclaimed, Oh, preserve us! were thence called rakshawas (from raksha, to preserve): others, who cried out, Let us eat, were denominated from that expression yakshas (from yaksha, to eat).Vishnu Purana

3. THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS OF THE EARTH; THEIR FALL FROM PURITY; AND THEIR DIVISION INTO 4 CASTES.

Mais ou menos uma genealogia do racismo, hahaha.

NEARLY all the ancient nations of the world, of whom we have any record, carry back their origin to a period immensely remote; nor is this to be wondered at, when we consider that the traditions of the diluvian age must then have been fresh in the memories of men.”

Nimrod, from whom was ‘the beginning of the kingdom of Babel’, was the great grandson of Noah; and the kingdom of Egypt is supposed to have had its origin from Mizraim, the son of Ham. The founders of these kingdoms, therefore, conversed with men who had seen the flood, and who had been witnesses of the most fearful mundane convulsion that had taken place since the formation of our species. Who, in the days of his childhood, when the mind yearns after information relative to the past, and the strangest fiction is received as sober truth, has ever listened to the tales that none are so ready to tell as the aged, whether grandsire or gammer, without the receiving of impressions which the experience of future years can never entirely obliterate?” “the wildest romance ever heard in our day, from lips all garrulous, must be poor and spiritless when compared with the wondrous revelations that the members of the Noachic family could impart”

simple truth (deluge?) > legend > myth > unlimited chronological cycle

The traditions of the Budhists are in unison with this order of development [judaísmo].”

the whole space was void, like the inside of a drum.”

The monarchs of the brahma-lokas, coming to see whether the lotus was formed that indicated whether a supreme Budha will appear in the same kalpa or not, dispersed the darkness in an instant”

Os 5 Budas

there was no necessity for a sun or a moon. (…) no change of seasons was known; there was no difference between night and day; and there was no diversity of sex. Throughout many ages did the brahmas thus live, in all happiness” etc., etc.

As 4 castas de Brahma eram todas perfeitas. O que não faz rigorosamente sentido algum! Mas está no Vishnu Purana!

A NATA da sociedade.

Somente depois fez-se a luz. Uma estranha gênese…

The whole of the brahmas assembled together; and after expressing to each other their regret for the loss of the privileges they had once enjoyed, they determined upon forming a sun.”

SOL

surya > sura > might

wirya > energy

The name of Sun-day was given to the day upon which this luminary was formed.”

LUA

chanda > channa > thought, determination

Do sol à lua. De Brahma aos chandala.

To this day they gave the name of M[o]onday.”

Upon the 5 subsequent days, they caused the 5 planets to appear in order, viz., Kuja, Budha, Guru, Sekra and Saeni”

O LEITE E O IOGURTE CRIARAM AS RAÇAS! “When the brahmas had been long accustomed to eat the terrene production, their skins became coarse; and the complexion of one was light, whilst that of another was dark. This produced pride and contention, by which the substance was deprived of its delicious flavour, and in time entirely disappeared. But in its stead there arose a kind of fungus, in taste like cream mingled with butter, by subsisting upon which the difference in their complexions was increased, in proportion as the brahmas partook of it with more or less avidity. [o melhor é ser do meio, pois!] In process of time the fungus also disappeared, and was followed by a climbing plant called badalata, after which rice of a superior kind was produced. It was pure as a pearl, and had no outward pellicle.”

O SIGNIFICADO DO ARROZ NO CASAMENTO: “By subsisting upon the rice, the apertures of the body were produced, and the generative powers were developed; which led to passion and sexual intercourse.”

the banished [inferior] brahmas were led to build houses as places of concealment and privacy. They then became too indolent to fetch each meal as it was wanted, and accordingly at one journey brought away as much rice as sufficed for many days.” O arroz era um grão sagrado que crescia da semente à madurez em uma só noite. “By degrees an outer integument was formed upon the grain, then a coarse husk, and at last, when it had been cut down it was not renewed. This loss occasioned the necessity of setting limits to the places where it grew” “some of the brahmas became discontented with what they received as their share; and coveting the property of others, they began to make aggressions, and commit theft.”

O governante foi escolhido por sorteio para ser o protetor dos bons contra os ladrões, maus e corruptos. Sammata, o apontado, o eleito. khettani (terra cultivável), Khattiyo, kshatriya (o administrador da terra cultivável). Notar que o governante desse caso não é um rei ou primeiro-entre-os-brahmas, mas um azarado, subordinado! Vê-se que Brahma em verdade tinha criado apenas uma casta de homem; o texto é que se exprimiu de forma tola ao dizer que “as 4 castas eram iguais” (simplesmente eram uma).

Brahmana, aquele que suprime ou pune. Legislador.

HIERARQUIA QUADRIPARTITE

1. OCIOSOS

2. AGRÔNOMOS OU CULTIVADORES DE PLANTAS (PRIMEIROS POLÍTICOS OU SÍNDICOS!)

3. MANIPULADORES DE DINHEIRO

4. CAÇADORES, HOMICIDAS DE ANIMAIS, FUTURAMENTE OS SERVOS.

There were others again who built habitations, and became skilful in the arts, by which wealth is acquired, on which account they were called wessa; and from them originated the waisyas, or caste of merchants.

Again, there were other brahmas who became addicted to hunting; whence they were called ludda or sudda, and from them came the sudras.

Thus arose the 4 great castes; but all the brahmas were originally of one race, and were all equally illustrious. From each of the 4 castes, certain individuals repaired to the wilderness, and became recluses, on which account they were called sumano, or sramanas, ascetics.” Como que à margem dos degraus da escada.

(*) “A.J. Pott supposes that Xerxes is a compound of the Zend ksathra, king (with the loss of the t) and ksahya, also meaning king, the original form of shah.”

more than 150 millions of people are at the present moment subject to the power of the castes.”

[in the Bible,] before the flood there were hereditary distinctions among mankind, founded upon the same causes whence caste is represented by the Budhists to have had its origin. There was first a disctinction moral and religious; ‘the sons of God’, on the one side; and ‘the daughters of men’, the children of an evil generation, on the other. There was, secondly, a professional distinction. It is said that Abel was ‘a keeper of sheep’, and that Cain was a ‘tiller of the ground’, so that in the 1st human family there was a division of labour; but we have no reason to conclude that this distinction was hereditary in the respective households of Adam and Eve”

A ORIGEM DO REBANHO DE OVELHAS PIAS: “after ‘Cain went out from the presence of the Lord’, his former occupation was continued, as God said unto him: ‘When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.’Gen. 4:12.” Mas se a terra já não dava frutos, qual o sentido? O mais inteligente, até moralmente, na estória de Abel e Caim, seria que o assassino fratricida fosse condenado a desempenhar o ofício do irmão no lugar dele! “Cain (…) abandoned the labour of tillage and ‘builded a cityAh bom. MAS FODEU PARA O HOMEM!

JABAL & JUBAL: “It is said of Jabal, who was of the race of Cain, that he was ‘the father of such as dwell in tents, and such as have cattle’, which would seem to intimate that there was a return, on the part of certain families, to the occupations that were abandoned by the rest of their race. Another individual of the same race, Jubal, is said to be ‘the father of all such as handle the harp and organ’.”

Os “abelardos” não trabalham, só os cainianos! Só rezavam, bancavam os ascetas e, eventualmente, quando o pau endurecia, praticavam a pedofilia!

Gênese 4 é o livro das profissões como um todo.

The most ancient documents that speak decisively of caste are to be found among the Hindus.” O Sudra vem do pé de Brahma, mas o brâmane vem da boca.

Jatimala, or Garland of Classes”

brahma veda, divine sciences

Castas egípcias:

Colchians

Iberians

Medes

Persians

Etrureans

Mais parecem nacionalidades atuais!

Castas mexicanas e peruanas também são citadas.

Wherever tribes are mentioned, in ancient history, before an irresistible change of circumstances led to democratical institutions, there, so far as anything can be discovered of their nature, a difference either of caste or of national descent, is clearly apparent.”

Niebuhr

Müller, Dorians – sobre as castas dos ancestrais dos gregos

The denomination of the 4 Attic or Ionian tribes are supposed to have referred originally to the occupation of those who bore them.” Cf. Grote, História da Grécia (op. cit.)

The descendants of a foreigner remained foreigners to the end of time (…) community of place could no more convert aliens into citizens than it could convert domestic animals into men. (…) but distinctions from race were not of that odious and fantastic character which they have borne in modern times; they implied real differences, often of the most important kind, religious and moral.” Arnold, Thucydides. Ainda não existia algo chamado formação, educação, pedagogia – que lástima!

The number of the Egyptian castes is variously estimated, but in every enumeration the priests are named first, and next to them the military.” Parece que mudanças de casta no Egito eram permitidas e até menos do que raras.

O BOTO & O DRAGÃO: “among the Hindus, a change of caste is as impossible as for the quadruped to become a fish, or the crawling serpent to take unto itself wings and soar towards the sun as an eagle.”

That the Egy. had the power to change their caste is further confirmed by the statement of Herodotus, that the other castes despised the swineherds so much as never to intermarry with them” Ok, tão possível quanto um aristocrata inglês casar com uma mendiga, digamos.

The 3 classes of society that existed among the Saxons were so strongly divided by the laws of caste that no marriage could take place between persons in the different ranks. The severest penalties prohibited intrusion into another rank.

The establishment of caste could not be the work of a moment. For a length of time after the principle began to be manifested, its power would be comparatively trifling and its restrictions few. It would be regarded rather as tending to mutual disadvantage in the social economy, than as necessary or essential. But in India there must have been peculiar circumstances that favoured its development; and when the wearing of the chain had become familiar, the Brahmans rivetted its links most firmly by declaring that its origin was divine, its existence coeval with man, and its character immutable. In other countries there arose institutions that acted as an antagonist to this principle; so that its influence was never paramount, and in time it ceased to exist.

The Brahmans and the Budhists agree as to their estimate of the number of the castes.(*)

(*) In Persia there was a similar division of the human race. <The whole system of Zoraster reposed on a 4-fold division of castes: that of the priests, the warriors, the agriculturists, and the artificers of whatever denomination.> Zend-avesta, 1:141.”

FORÇAÇÃO DE BARRA: “In this light Noah, who in the earlier ages must have been regarded by all mankind with profound reverence, would be represented as adumbrating the Kshatriyas, or the race of the kings; Shem, [Caim?] whose ‘God was blessed’, would be made to represent the Brahmans, or the race of the priests; Japhet, ‘dwelling in the tents of Shem’, would be made to represent the Vaisyas, or the race of the merchants, wandering from place to place, [o judeu atemporal] as was their primitive custom, and taking up their abode in other lands for the purpose of traffic; and Ham, the father of Canaan, ‘cursed’, and ‘the servant of servants unto his brethren’, would be prominently exhibited as the exemplar of the Sudras, the servile race.

When we name the Brahmans as the sacerdotal tribe, we must not regard them as directing their attention to religious duties alone. In the first ages we have no instance of such a restriction. The first priest of whom we read, Melchisedec, was a king regnant. [Mas isso não era no extremo Oriente!] Of the 2nd, Potipherah, we know only his name, title and place of residence; and though he is called a priest, the Chaldee translator renders the word by prince in their idiom. On his appointment as 1st-minister of the king, Joseph was probably admitted into the sacerdotal tribe. Among the Jews, previous to the time of David, the high-priests were generally considered as the rulers of the people, under God as the supreme monarch of Israel; and the Levites appear to have exercised an inferior authority in the provincial towns. There are also instances in after times wherein the king’s ministers, those who were ‘at his hand’, are called priests. 2 Sam. 8:18; 20:23; 1 Reis 4:2; 1 Crôn. 18:17. The priestly office was hereditary after the time of Aaron.”

The high priests of Hephaestos professed to have registers that proved their dignity to have been transmitted through 341 generations, and they had colossal statues of this number of individuals. (Herod. 2, 82)”

(*) “The priests of Egypt resembled, in many aspects, the character given of the ancient Brahmans, inasmuch as they were judges, physicians, and astrologers.”

They were thus the professors of the various branches of science said to have been revealed by the chief Brahma, from whom all the sciences are supposed to be derived, such as astrology, magic, astronomy, etc.”

In the Dasa-brahma-jataka, Gotama is represented as relating the history of a certain noble, Widhura, who in a former age informed Korawya, king of the city of Indupat, in Kuru, that there were 10 kinds of Brahmans.”

1. o médicos ambulantes ou peripatéticos (incluía a função de exorcista);

2. músicos de côrte;

3. “carroceiros”, indivíduos que “pediam esmola” aos reis andando de carruagem – geralmente os reis eram forçados a conceder essa esmola para mantê-los vivos e ociosos;

4. pedintes mais tradicionais, a pé, que batiam de porta em porta e se conservavam tão privados da higiene que viraram verdadeiras árvores, símbolo de que buscavam a purificação espiritual;

5. comerciantes de frutos e mel;

6. agricultores, boieiros, treinadores de aves e proprietários de escravos, todos da mesma categoria – esses davam imensos dotes para suas filhas no himeneu; outrossim, recebiam imensos dotes ao casar um varão;

7. contadores de nekatas, [?] sacrificadores de animais e espécies de açougueiros (vendedores de carne); [No Código de Manu essa função é claramente da terceira casta]

8. oleiros ou vasilheiros, mas diferente dos artesãos também peregrinam para vender sua mercadoria – essa classe também trabalha como guia para pessoas atravessando regiões selvagens;

9. ermitões, vivem da carne de caça de coelhos, iguanas, veados, alguns animais de rio e anfíbios, tartarugas, etc.;

10. os ascéticos propriamente ditos ou ascéticos profissionais (aspirantes a Budas), que iriam às côrtes fazer rituais de bênção aos reis, muito bem-pagos.”

Ressalva: “These are the words of an adversary, or they would lead us to conclude that the ancient Brahmans were something like the Gypsies of Spain and other countries in our own days.”

although there must have been commerce, in the shape of barter, [escambo] during the earliest ages, a considerable period would elapse before the merchant had gained sufficient wealth to cause his occupation to be looked upon as respectable [or calamitous!].”

It is under the character of a wanderer that the ancient merchant is generally represented; he has not only to superintend the sale of his wares, but to accompany them in their transit. Thus is Hebrew the name of the merchant is derived from a root that signifies <to go about, to wander>; in Greek, from transitus; and our own word merchant has a similar signification in the Gothic mergan, to spread.”

By the Singhalese the 3rd caste is generally regarded as being exclusively mercantile, whilst the cultivators form the 1st class of the Sudras. It is said in one of their legends that the 1st merchant was called Wessama, who, having discovered the properties of certain medical productions, afterwards disposed of them for gain.” O Hipócrates lazarento!

It is the more usual course for the cultivators of the soil to be regarded as forming the noblest class of the people, next to those who hold rank as hereditary princes; they are the eupatrids; they form the timocracy; and it is from them the rulers of the State are chosen; as delegates of the king, when the government is monarchical, or as temporary chiefs, when it is an aristocracy. The circumstances of those who reside in the country, whether as proprietors or as labourers, is favourable to the maintenance of respectability of character, as they are exposed to fewer temptations than the merchant, who was necessarily to live in the midst of the luxuries that produce vice. The higher classes among the Greeks were averse to any profession except arms, agriculture, and musical exercises; and the Spartans carried their disdain of all manual occupations so far as to leave even agriculture to the Helots. [ou seja: a segurança alimentar dos espartanos ficava nas mãos dos escravos] The Thracian chiefs also held it disgraceful to cultivate the earth; war and robbery were with them the only paths to honour. On the other hand, the earlier Romans were eminently an agricultural people. (…) But to the Persians, buying and selling appeared to be a mean practice, as they thought it impossible to carry it on without falsehood and cheating; and when Cyrus heard that the Lacedaemonians had a regular market at Sparta, he expressed great contempt for the nation. – Herod. 1:153. When the Lydians revolted against Cyrus, he was advised by Croesus to enforce upon them the wearing of effeminate clothing, the practice of music, and shop-keeping, as by this means they would become women instead of men. [velha anedota conhecida – real ou não, já se tornou algo tão sabido na História Antiga que nem se julga mais necessário citar] Kleon, the tanner, and Hyperbolus, the lamp-maker, are greatly derided by Aristophanes for presuming to engage in politics. [o comediante aristocrata]

The philosophers themselves were not exempt from these prejudices; they supposed that as mechanical arts rendered the body languid, whereby the mind loses its energy, the man who exercises them is unable to fulfil the duties required of him in a free state.”

The ancients, with one mind, esteemed agriculture to be the proper business of the freeman, as well as the school of the soldier. Cato says, the countryman has the fewest evil thoughts. (…) In him the whole stock of the nation is preserved; it changes in cities where foreign merchants and tradesmen are wont to settle, even as those who are natives remove withersoever they are lured by gain. In every country where slavery prevails the freedman seeks his maintenance by occupations of this kind, in which he not unfrequently grows wealthy (…) hence the opinion, that the admitting the artisans to full civic rights is hazardous, and would transform the character of a nation.”

Niebuhr

It therefore appears to be contrary to the analogy presented in other nations, when we see the tribe of merchants in India holding so high a rank” Terceiro em 4 classes não me parece uma posição elevada!

The earliest cause of dissention among the primitive brahmas is said to have arisen from the difference in the colour of their skin. When 2 descendants of an illustrious Brahman became converts to Budhism, Gotama enquired if their change of profession had excited the displeasure of the other Brahmans; and in reply they said it was alleged by their kinsmen, that the Brahmans are ‘the sons of Brahma, sprung from his mouth, pure and fair, while the other castes and sects are sprung from his feet, black and impure’. This statement is in favour of the supposition that the Br. at first confined themselves to some region not far from the place whence the 1st dispersion of mankind commenced, by which the fairness of their complexion was preserved; whilst the other tribes of the Hindus went on towards the south, spreading themselves throughout the entire extent of the peninsula, and penetrating even to Ceylon; by which their complexions would be gradually rendered darker, from their residence under a vertical sun.” Assunção extremamente simplista. “Fairer race” implicaria por um acaso cor da pele, porra?! “hence the proverb Never trust a black Brahman, nor a white Pariah.[!!!]

The Budhist legends agree with revelation in teaching that all men were originally of one race; but with this truth they have mixed up the error that the aborigines of mankind were many. There is also an agreement with the Scriptures, in the statement that men were originally pure, and that they fell from eating a product of the earth.”

There appears to be an intimate connexion between the institutions of caste and the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. Almost in every place where the former has existed we can trace the presence of the latter. Indeed, the custom of caste is so contrary to right reason that its establishment seems to be impossible w/o calling in the aid of some supernatural power to assist in its confirmation. [Engenhosa ligação, mas um ocidental pouco versado em Platão nada sabe das conseqüências sociais deste pensamento tão elevado!] In this respect [ao menos!] there is consistency in the teachings of Gotama; as he rejects caste, and his doctrine on the origin of the intellectual powers, and their extinction at death, is not transmigration. There is caste among the Budhists of Ceylon, but this is contrary to the tenets of the founder of their religion; and their notions on the subject of that which constitutes the ego, the individual man, have been modified in a similar manner; the custom on the one part, and the popular notion on the other, being homogeneous derivations from primitive Budhism.” Seria o budismo a doutrina exotérica do credo esotérico das castas brâmanes?

JUSTIFICATIVA INANE DA EXPLORAÇÃO: “That which gives to caste its real importance, and by which it is exhibited in its most repulsive aspect, is, however, held as firmly by the Budhists as the Brahmans; inasmuch as they teach that the present position of all men is the result of the merit or demerit of former births; a doctrine which, if true, would make the scorn with which the outcast is regarded a natural feeling, as he would be in reality a condemned criminal, undergoing the sentence that has been pronounced against him by a tribunal that cannot err in its decrees. By the Brahman, the Sudra is represented as an object of contempt, because he at first proceeded from the feet of Brahma; but for this statement to have any power, it must be proved [???] that the Sudra was in every previous birth from the beginning of the kalpa, a Sudra; and if the Brahman be honourable on account of having proceeded from the mouth of Br., it must be proved that he has never been any other than a Brahman in all previous generations. Yet it is said by Manu (2:168): ‘A twice-born man, who not having studied the Veda, applies diligent attention to a different and worldly study, soon falls, even when living, to the condition of a Sudra and his descendants after him.’Ou mesmo para a de um proscrito (abaixo dos Sudras).

COMPLACÊNCIA & RESIGNAÇÃO: “In the Sambhuta Jataka [livros budistas] there is an account of 2 low-caste youths who attempted to acquire learning; but for this they were attacked by people of the higher castes, and left for dead. They then went to a distant city, assumed a different dress, that their design might not be frustrated, and passed for Brahmans. [tricksters!] One of them completed his education, but whilst the other was yet at school, a stranger, who was detained all night at the same place on account of a storm, had some hot food placed before him; when, as he seized it too eagerly, his mouth was burnt, and he cried out from pain. The scholar called out to him to put it away quickly, but in so doing he used a low-caste word from forgetfulness, by which his caste was discovered. In the same Jataka, the Sadol, or Chandala, is represented as one who is born in the open air, his parents not being possessed of the smallest hut, where, as he lies among the pots when his mother goes to cut firewood, he is suckled by the bitch along with her own pups. But it was uniformly declared by Gotama that there is no essential difference between the 4 tribes.”

There are more than 100 classes of the Brahmanical caste, each of which has a different name. There appears to be a greater leaning towards caste in Ceylon than in any other Budhistical country, which in part may have arisen from the circumstance that their recent monarchs were of Malabar extraction.”

In Nepal, where Budhism is yet [?] professed, the original inhabitants were all of one caste, or had no caste; but their descendants, in the course of time, became divided into many castes, according to the trades or professions that they followed; but even now we are told that in Nepal caste is merely a popular usage, w/o the sanction of religion, and altogether a very different thing from caste, properly so called. In Tibet and Burma, both of which are Budhistical countries, caste is unknown. In China there are clans, resembling those of the Scottish Highlanders; but this institution differs from caste, and has many features that are peculiar to this singular race.”

[Castes] defy all government; it robs the state of the best energies of many of its most able subjects; it scowls at all innovation; there can be no change, no improvement, wherever it ensconces in its strength” Hoje existe uma casta mundial chamada bilionários.

At an early period after the establishment of Christianity in India by Europeans, it was deemed necessary to institute rules for the guidance of native converts in relation to caste. At the synod of Diamper, in 1599, it was declared that ‘it would rejoice the synod to see the superstitious and absurd customs of the heathen Malabars of the better sort not mixing with the lower, and having no correspondence or communication with those that have but touched any of them, totally abolished among the Christians of this bishopric’; but as many of the Christians resided under heathen princes, it was considered that in these circumstances the customs might be observed lawfully, and w/o scruple. Where these impediments did not exist, as ‘there is no distinction of persons with God, who is Lord of all’, ‘the synod doth command that all that shall be guilty of forbearing to touch such, or having touched them shall wash themselves, to be severely punished as superstitious followers of the heathen customs, and commands the preachers and confessors to admonish them thereof in their sermons and confessions’.” Hm, e aí, e depois, o que aconteceu? Por um acaso algum brâmane em sã consciência se converteria ao cristianismo? James Hough, History of Christianity in India.

Aqui acaba virtualmente qualquer interesse cultural deste livro!

4. THE BUDHAS WHO PRECEDED GOTAMA

The Budhas appear after intervals regularly recurring, in a series that knows neither beginning nor end.” “The whole of the 24 Budhas who preceded Gotama were Kshatriyas, with the exception of the 3 last, Brahmans.”

A VERDADE DO BILHETE: “According to Major Forbes, Kakusanda became a Budha B.C. 3101; Konagamana, B.C. 2099; and Kasyapa, B.C. 1014.” “the Maha Bhadra kalpa of the Budhists [would be] the same as the Kali yug of the Brahmans; but neither of these ideas can be made to agree with the system as it is received in Ceylon.”

The beings who will in due course become Budhas are called Bodhisat.”

I. The era of resolution;

II. The era of expression;

III. The era of nomination.

We have little information of the innumerable Budhas who have appeared in past ages, until we come to the 24 who immediately preceded Gotama; and even their history consists of little more than names and correlative incidents.”

The era of Resolution

The kalpa in which we now live is called Maha Bhadra.”

By virtue of this act may I hereafter become a Budha; and as this is sidharttha oil [of white mustard-seed], may my name in that birth be Sidharttha.”

The era of Expression

During the whole of these ages, in which 387,000 Budhas appeared, Gotama Bodhisat expressed his wish to become a Budha. This was the period called wakpranidhana.” Ridículo.

The era of Nomination; including the History of the Budhas who preceded Gotama

Depreende-se da história dos Budas pretéritos que é muito mais fácil se tornar um nascendo filho de rei! Se você, plebeu, ou chandala, ficar triste com as notícias, console-se: em breve reencarnará como a pessoa certa!

he reigned 10,000 years before he became an ascetic … he exercised asceticism, previous to the reception of the Budhaship … he lived 100,000 years” Dez vezes mais que a “humanidade”.

This long period of remediless ignorance was succeeded by the Maha-bhadra kalpa [período da grande excelência, mostrando que, quando quer, cada fé pode ser tão etnocêntrica quanto a da Europa branca], in which 5 Budhas are to appear; Kakusenda, Konagamana, Kasyapa, Gotama and Maitri. The first 4 have already appeared; and Maitri will be the next Budha who will arive to bless the world.”

NENHUM INTERESSE PARA O ASPIRANTE À INSERÇÃO NA FÉ (QUE ALIÁS É DESINTERESSANTE EM SI!): “Kakusanda remained a laic for the space of 4,000 years, and had an establishment of 30,000 females, but Rochani was his principal queen. At the birth of his son Uttara he left the palace in a chariot drawn by 6 horses, and after performing the necessary rites of asceticism for the space of 8 months, he received the rice-cakes from Wajirendraya, and the kusagrass from Gunasubhadra; and at the root of the tree called sirisa, or mara, he attained the power of a supreme Budha.”

5. GÓTAMA BÓDHISAT: HIS VIRTUES AND STATES OF BEING

Numa quantidade infinita de tempo, toda invidualidade humana passível de existência seria não só todas as demais individualidades humanas como também todas as demais existências animais, vegetais, se é que não outras mais! Por conseguinte, venerar Buda é puro egoísmo. Veneração de nosso ego transcendental.

It is thought that myriads of ages previous to his reception of the Budhaship, he might have become a rahat, and therefore ceased to exist; but that of his own free will, he forewent the privilege, and threw himself into the stream of successive existence, for the benefit of the 3 worlds.” Eu não acredito que em minha reencarnação como Arthur Schopenhauer fui capaz de me prescrever a mim mesmo no século XXI este livro! E ademais Buda é contraditório: tendo alcançado a aniquilação total, ele volta para perpassar todos os sofrimentos para atingir… o nirvana. Absurdo em estado bruto.

the Singhalese Pansiya-anas-jataka-pota, or the Book of the 550 Births, was compiled.”

The work known by this title is a Pali commentary on one of the 15 books belonging to the 5th section of the Sutra Pitaka, or Discourses of Budha, and forms no part therefore of the sacred code; but according to a decision that the comments are of equal authority with the text, it is regarded as of indisputable authority. There is a Singhalese translation of the greater part of it, which is exceedingly popular, not on account of the peculiar doctrines of Budhism contained in it, for these are but incidentally referred to, but from its being a collection of amusing stories which they believe to be unquestionably true. [Mais um livro ruim de estorietas amadas pelo vulgo, como Arabian Nights!] The copy of the Pali comment now before me is written on olas 29 inches long, having 9 lines on a page, and occupies 1,000 leaves or 2,000 pages. The text itself is very scarce; my copy was made from one in the possession of the late chief priest of the Matura district, Bowilla; it contains 340 pages of 9 lines each, written on olas 23 inches long. It is named Jataka Gatha or Birth Stanzas, although a large proportion of them has no reference to any birth, being general maxims or miscellaneous observations.” Rev. D.J. Gogerly, 1838, descrevendo informações absolutamente inúteis.

98% DE NOSSA LITERATURA É MENTIROSA (E CONSIDERO AQUI A PROSA FICCIONAL E OS VERSOS POÉTICOS COMO VERDADES); AS RELIGIÕES, TANTO QUANTO AS GERAÇÕES DE HOMENS, SE SUCEDEM NO TEMPO E NO ESPAÇO ENCHARCANDO O MUNDO COM NOVAS, SEMPRE NOVAS, MENTIRAS ORGULHOSAS: “Not a few of the fables that pass under the name of Aesop are here to be found; and the schoolboy is little aware, as he reads of the wit of the fox or the cunning of the monkey, that these animals become, in the course of ages, the teacher of the 3 worlds, Budha.”

Each Jataka begins with the formula yata-giya-dawasa– era uma vez

CADA UM PUXA A SARDINHA PARA O QUE LHE CONVÉM, E NINGUÉM TEM A PALAVRA FINAL: “The Hindu collection of fables, called the Hitopadesa, is well known. The Jataka-pota bears a considerable resemblance to those parts of the Talmud that are described as consisting of ‘aphorisms and moral sentiments, illustrated by similes and parables, and also by narratives, sometimes real and sometimes fictitious’.” Que código moral apresentaria narrativas ou aforismos tão diferentes um do outro? Nem mesmo seitas da senda da mão esquerda! “Etimologia (origem da palavra senda). Do latim semita, -ae.” (dicio.com.br/senda)

MIL E UM RONCOS EM RELATOS ENFADONHOS: “One tale, after the usual manner of eastern compositions, presents the opportunity for the introduction of several other stories that are only slightly dependent upon the principal narrative. The Singhalese will listen the night through to recitations from this work, w/o any apparent weariness; and a great number of the Jatakas are familiar even to the women.” Esses “bichos”, de acordo com sociedades patriarcais!

O Jataka esta dividido em 9 livros modernos: “The Sujata Jataka [o 1º de todos] is here translated in full, with its introduction; but in the other Jatakas the introduction is omitted, and the narrative much abridged. The 1st Jataka recorded in the original text is the Apanaka [que é com efeito o 2º]; and the last, the Wessantara [9º].”

The virtues and Privileges of the Bodhisat

FAIXA BRANCA, FAIXA CINZA E FAIXA PRETA DO JUDÔ DA VIRTUDE: “There are 10 primary virtues, called paramitas (…) each (…) divided into 3 degrees, ordinary, upa (superior) and paramartha (pre-eminent), (…) [resulting in] 30 paramitas”

JESUITISMO OU ASSISISMO: “3. In the Chulla Suttasoma, and other similar births, he abandoned vast treasures of gold and silver, and numberless slaves, cattle, buffaloes, and other sources of wealth, and thus fulfilled the naiskrama-paramita, which requires retirement from the world.”

“…the giving of that which involves the loss of life, as the head upon which the royal crown has been placed, or the body, to feed lions, tigers, yakas, and rakshas, is the pre-eminent dana.” !?!?!?

Because of his merit, he might always be born in a dewa or brahma-loka, but as in these places he cannot further the purposes of his great intention he prefers being born in the world of men. Other beings must remain the appointed time in these worlds, there being no dangers or accidents by which their departure can be hastened; but as the Bodhisat cannot there perform the paramitas, he has the power to depart at his pleasure. For this purpose he lies down upon a couch, and resolves upon being born in this world (…) This kind of death [after his resolve] is called adhimukti

Teria Togashi se inspirado no credo budista para divisar seu sistema nen? “There are some who excel in purity, and in them wisdom is less evident; others who excel in wisdom, and in them purity is less evident; and others excel in determined courage, and in them purity and wisdom are less apparent.” “After the assurance of the Budhaship has been received, were the Bodhisat to give the most valuable alms everyday during many ages to hasten its reception, no effect of this kind would be produced.” “When there is rice that is accustomed to ripen in 3, 4 or 5 months, no labour of the husbandman can accelerate the period of the harvest, however often he may water it, or whatever pains he may take” Péssima analogia.

* * *

Os 8 tresloucados pré-requisitos do atingimento do status de Buda:

1. ser um humano, e não dewa (o budismo é também uma doutrina ‘blasfema’, falando de todas as outras religiões conhecidas, em que o homem pode mais que deus).

2. ser homem, não mulher (esse era assaz previsível…).

3. estar destinado ao rahat (lembrando que o rahat é já o asceta que atingiu a perfeição em seu modo de vida meritório).

4. deve fazer em algum momento um ritual dedicado ao Buda Supremo, ritual este que por sua vez exige a fé firme e sincera e não apenas o cumprimento da liturgia. (Outra SUPREMA contradição do credo: o Buda Supremo conhecido é só um, Gotama, mas é intuitivo, dados os elementos da doutrina já explanados, que existe potencial para INFINITOS BUDAS SUPREMOS ao longo de uma infinidade de anos e eras e mesmo de mundos de reencarnação. Não contraditório per se, mas paradoxal no sentido de que, ad infinitum, até mesmo o Buda Supremo torna-se algo banal como os Budas menores, que também se tornam banais como qualquer outra existência. A longo prazo, “tudo é indiferente”, mas assim mesmo algumas almas predestinadas sempre se tornam SUPERBUDAS.)

5. deve viver como um asceta (o número 3 indica a apetência a ser asceta; o número 5, a conversão ascética propriamente dita).

6. praticar as virtudes incansavelmente, recebendo de alguém de hierarquia superior no sistema budista a confirmação de que está destinado a ser Buda.

7. deve ter fé na ausência de defeitos de virtude na pessoa deste Buda que o orienta (nº 6), [apesar de ser de hierarquia superior!] e sobretudo fé em que tem a mesma capacidade de atingir a impecabilidade meritória. Em síntese, nesta etapa o candidato a Buda confirma a si mesmo.

8. o exercício diuturno da determinação de ser Buda, ainda que lhe fosse dito que sofreria o tormento do inferno por inúmeras existências para obter este grau.

There are some persons who, on hearing of the afflictions of the Bodhisat, might suppose that his sufferings are excessive; but in reality his enjoyment preponderates.” O Buda mais-nietzschiano-que-schopenhaueriano? “Were a kalpa to be divided into 8 parts, to other beings there is enjoyment in 7 parts; and in one part suffering; [quanto otimismo!] but to the Bodhisat there is enjoyment throughout the whole of the 8 parts.”

He is never born as any kind of vermin; he is never a louse, bug, ant or worm; all other beings receive these births, but the Bodhisat is never born less than a snipe;¹ nor is he born as a serpent or as any other animal of a similar species.” E qual a relevância disso para a moral búdica?

¹ “Any of various long-billed shorebirds of the family Scolopacidae, especially the widely distributed species Gallinago gallinago.”

He is never born blind, dumb, deaf, a cripple or leprous. He is never born as a female. He is never born as one of a doubtful sex.” etc., etc., etc.

INTERESSANTE ALEGORIA ARQUETÍPICA: “The unwise merchant listened to the words of the yaka, [lembrando, demônio disfarçado de gente] and breaking the water vessels so that not a particle of water was left, he drove on. But they did not meet with anything like the appearance of water; the men became exhausted from thirst; and when evening came, they untied the wagons and placed them in a circle, fastening the oxen to the wheels; there was no water for the oxen to drink of for the men to prepare their rice; exhausted, they threw themselves down here and there, and fell asleep. When the night was about half over, the demons came from their city, slew the oxen and men, and devoured them, leaving at their departure nothing but their bones. Thus, through the folly of the merchant, all these beings came to destruction; their bones were scattered abroad; and the 500 wagons were left in the path, full of goods.

About a month and a half after the departure of the unwise merchant, Bodhisat [em uma de suas reencarnações] commenced his journey, after l[e]ading his 500 wagons with goods, and by degrees came to the beginning of the desert. Here he filled his large jars with water, and when the people were encamped, he called them together by beat of drum, and said, ‘No one is allowed to touch even a drop of water without permission from me; there are poisonous trees in this desert; therefore let no one eat any leaf, fruit or flower that he has not been accustomed to before, without my consent.’ After giving this advice, he entered the desert, along with his wagons. When he had arrived at about the middle, the yaka, in the same manner as in the former instance, appeared in the path; but Bodhisat knew him, and reflected, ‘There is no water in this desert; it is on this account that it has received its name of waterless; this person has fearless, red eyes; his shadow does not appear; without doubt, the unwise merchant who preceded me has thrown away his water, so that the men have become exhausted, and then been devoured; this demon knows not my superior wisdom, nor my readiness in expedients.’

My lord, these people say that the verge of a green forest appears in the distance; from thence the rains are constant; they are adorned with lotus flowers, and carry red and white water flowers in their hands; they are eating the roots of water plants; and their garments are dripping with wet; it will be better, therefore, to throw away our water, that we may lighten our wagons, and proceed more quickly.’

Did you ever hear from anyone that there is either lake or pond in this desert?’

We never heard of any such thing; is it not called the Waterless Desert?’ [ótimo nome!]

The men we saw told us that the verge of a green forest, where the rains are constant, appears in the distance. Now to what distance does the rainy wind extend?’

It blows about a yojana.’

Well, has anyone of you all felt this wind?’

No, sir.’

How far may the rain-cloud be seen?’

About a yojana.’

Has anyone of you all seen it?’

No, sir.’

To what distance does the lightning appear?’

About a yojana.’

Has any one of you all seen its flash?’

No, sir.’

How far can the sound of the thunder be heard?’

We have not heard it, sir.’

Good people, these are not men; they are demons; they wish us to throw away our water, that when we are exhausted they may devour us; the unwise merchant who preceded us, will have thrown away his water and been destroyed; the 500 wagons will be left in the road, full of goods, and we shall find them; do not throw away a single drop of water, but drive on with all haste.’ Além de escapar à tentação do deserto, enriqueceu! Benjamin Franklin ficaria encantado!

On their arrival at the place of merchandise, Bodhisat sold his goods at a high price, and the whole company returned in safety to their own city.”

The followers of the reasoner came to a great destruction; whilst the followers of the non-reasoner (who has an intuitive perception of the truth) were preserved from the demon, went in safety to the place at which they wished to arrive and then with great satisfaction returned in safety”

One day, when at the house of a carpenter, whose head was bald, like a copper porringer, a mosquito alighted thereon; and the carpenter called to his son, who was near, to drive it away. The son, taking a sharp axe for this purpose, aimed a blow at the insect, but split his father’s head in two, and killed him. On seeing what was done, Bodhisat said that an enemy was better than a foolish relative or friend.”

O LEÃO E O CHACAL: Uma história de amizade no reino animal.

Wessantara … This son was the Bodhisat who in the next birth but one became Gotama Budha. From the moment he was born … he could speak”

The prince enquired why she had come at an improper hour, when she said that she had been troubled by a dream, in which a black man came and cut off her 2 arms and plucked out her heart. Wessantara rejoiced to hear her dream, as he saw that the time for fulfilling the paramitas had come”

After the brahman had partaken of some fruits that were set before him, Wessantara enquired why he had come; and he replied that he had come to ask the gift of his 2 children. On hearing this request, the prince told him that he was the best friend he had yet met with, as others had asked only the elephant or the chariot; but that their mother was thus absent, and as it would be right for her to see them before their departure, he would have to remain until the next day. The brahman said that he could not stay so long; and that if he did not receive the children now he must go away without them. Wessantara then informed him that if he took them to his royal parents, he would be rewarded with many gifts; but he replied that if he were to take them to the city it would cost him his life, when it became known in what way he had received them, [as slaves] and that the prince must decide whether he would give up the children or not. Jaliya and Krishnajina, on hearing this conversation, fled away in extreme terror, and hid themselves under the leaves of a lotus growing in a pond near their dwelling.

By this time Wessantara had resolved upon giving his children to the brahman without any further delay; but when he called them they did not make their appearance.”

The brahman may take me; I am willing to become his servant; I cannot remain here and listen to my father’s cries’

as Wessantara reflected that if he did not give up his children he could not become a Budha, and would be unable to release sentient beings from the miseries of repeated existence, he called them to the pansal, and pouring water on the hands of the brahman, delivered them to him, saying, ‘May I by this become the all-knowing!’Aonde não chega o fanatismo!

Wessantara made no reply, and as Jaliya was asking him why he was silent, Jujaka approached bleeding, and looking like an executioner who had just been taking the life of some criminal. The children trembled with fear when they saw him. Unable to retain them both, as Kirshnajina ran away when he seized Jaliya, and the sister when he seized her brother, he tied them together by a with [corda de vime], and began to drive them along with a stick, beating them as they went. Looking at their father, they told him to see the blood streaming down their backs, and to consider the pain they endured.”

If my children have to suffer this before my eyes, what will they not have to endure when they are at a distance. How can they pass over hills, thorns, and stones? When they are hungry, who will feed them? When their feet are swollen, who will give them relief? When the cold wind chills them, who will administer unto them comfort? How will the mother who has borne them in her bosom grieve when she returns at night, and finds that they are gone?’ Thus thinking, he resolved to drive away the brahman, and receive them again.

O super-indeciso.

Ye well-known dewas, and ye animals with whom we have sported, let our mother know the manner in which we thus pass along the road!’

The prince now informed her that he had given them away in alms to an aged brahman, that the pre-requisites of the Budhaship might be fulfilled. Then Madri-dewi replied, ‘The Budhaship is more excellent than a 100,000 children!’ and rejoicing in the reward that was to be obtained from this gift, wished that it might be extended to all the beings in the world.”

Wessantara, on seeing him, asked why he had come, and he replied, ‘I am now old and powerless; I have no one to assist me; I have therefore come to receive the princess as my slave.’ The prince looked in the face of Madri-dewi; and she, knowing his thoughts, expressed her willingness to comply with the wish that had been expressed; whereupon he delivered her to the supposed brahman, that the gift might assist in the reception of the Budhaship. When the brahman received her, he said, ‘The princess now belongs to me; that which belongs to another, you have not the right to give away; therefore keep her for me until I shall return.’ Then, assuming his own form, Sekra informed Wessantara that all the dewas and brahmas had rejoiced in the gifts he had offered; and assuring him that he would most certainly attain the Budhaship, he informed him that in 7 days his relatives would come to him, together with his children, and that he would again receive the kingdom.”

When Sanda [pai de Wessantara, rei] found that they were his grandchildren, he placed the boy upon one knee, and the girl upon the other, greatly rejoicing, and ordered many presents to be given to the brahman, who, however, from eating too much, died at midnight. The next day his body was burnt upon a costly pyre.”

When the prince perceived that among the elephants was the animal he had given to the king of Kalinga he felt ashamed, as it had been presented in alms; when told, however, that it had been returned by the people, as there was now plenty in the land, he was satisfied.”

Wessantara and the princess again received the kingdom; and after reigning in conformity with the 10 precepts of kings, he was reborn in the dewa-loka called Tusita.”

the dewa Sekra became the priest Anurudha” Poderia não ser este? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C5%9Aakra_(Buddhism) Mas este livro possui inúmeras divergências de grafias, então não apostaria, neste momento. Creio que sejam as mesmas figuras. “Kirshnajina became the priestess Upphala”

6. THE ANCESTORS OF GOTAMA BUDHA

Maha Sammata, the first monarch of the world. Several of the names, and some of the events, are met with in the Puranas of the Brahmans, but it is not possible to reconcile one order of statement with the other; and it would appear that the Budhist historians have introduced races, and invented names, that they may invest their venerated sage with all the honors of heraldry, in addition to the attributes of divinity.”

The chakrawartii is a universal emperor. There are never 2 persons invested with this office at one time. The grammatical etymology is, He who abides in, or rules over, an extensive territory, called a chakra. (Vishnu Purana)”

The ancient Egyptians had a king who reigned 3 myriads of years; but even this period is nothing to an asankya. Satyavarta, the first of the solar race of princes among the Hindus, reigned the whole of the satya-yug, or 1,728,000 years. Berosus informs us that the first 10 kings of Chaldaea reigned 120 sari, the sarus being a period of 3600 years. Thus the 10 kings give 432,000 years, the same extend as a kali-yug.” “From the time the untruth was told, the dewas ceased to be guardians of the kings, and 4 princes were appointed in their place. (…) the Ganawara.” “This was the first murder committed in the world. The evil that came upon these kings was a warning to their successors, so that they pursued a different course”

The Jews have a tradition that Abraham was the first man who ever turned grey. His beard became grey when Isaac attained the age of manhood, that he might be distinguished from his son, who exactly resembled his father.” Hahaha.

Os 29 primeiros reis eram supremos e cheios de luz, blá-blá-blá…

The Maha-sammata-wansa was now lost, and the Makhadewa race commenced. There were 84,000 princes of this race (…) The last of these kings, Kalaranjanaka, did not become an ascetic, as his predecessors had done, and the Makhadewa race ceased.” “The last of these kings was Okkaka II.” “The last of these princes had a son called Amba, or Okkaka III.”

These women are witches, and have overcome my better judgement by their wiles”

At this time, the Bodhisat who afterwards became Gotama Budha was the ascetic Kapila, and resided in a forest, near a lake”

The eldest sister was therefore appointed as the queen-mother, and each of the brothers took one of the other sisters as his wife.”

7. THE THE LEGENDARY LIFE OF GOTAMA BUDHA

unless a boldness of divination, liable as it is to abuse, be permitted, all researches into the earlier history of nations must be abandoned.”

Niebuhr, nas únicas sábias palavras desse resumo e compêndio insosso de mentiras

and a gifted critic may one day arise, who, by his discriminating skill, will be enabled to arrange every subject under one or other of these 4 classes – the pure fiction, the uncertain, the probable and the established fact. In the mean time, we must be content with the legend in its received version, with all the accumulations it has gathered in successive ages.” Puro detrito “histórico”.

Com efeito, tudo é baboseira ilegível!

Well, Kantaka, you must assist me tonight, that by your aid I may be enabled to release all sentient beings from the perils of existence, and he then mounted upon his back.”

If I receive as much food as a sesamum seed in size, it would be sufficient; I require nothing more than a pepper pod, or a small fruit; with only this I can still live.”

The prince has endeavoured to become Budha, but has failed in the attempt; he is now dead.”

8. THE DIGNITY, VIRTUES AND POWERS OF BUDHA

(…)

9. THE ONTHOLOGY OF BUDHISM

We have now done with the ancient legend, and its supernatural accompaniments.” Já não era tempo! Começa agora um CURSO INTENSIVÃO de budismo (o que o livro deveria ter se dedicado a ser pelo menos 400 páginas atrás!!). Como veremos, entretanto, a expectativa de que fosse um bom material foi vã!

9.1 PREFÁCIO DO “CURSO”

OS SEIS KHANDAS

1. Os cinco Khandas ou partes do Khanda

2. O corpo organizado ou rupan (a alma no sentido laico, pseudo-alma no budismo)

3. Sensação ou wedana (con-tato)

4. Percepção ou sannya (subordinada à sensação)

5. Discriminação ou sankharo (subordinada à sensação)

6. Consciência ou winyana (subordinada ao corpo organizado)

62 seitas heterodoxas do budismo (hmmmm…)

Seitas “voltadas para o passado” (18):

4 seitas: reconhecem a eternidade da existência mediante a reminiscência ou “indução”.

4 seitas: alguns seres são eternos e alguns vivem apenas em mutabilidade (transcendência x mundanidade).

4 seitas: o mundo é finito ou infinito ou infinito “lateralmente” mas não “perpendicularmente” ou é de natureza indeterminável. (urgh!)

1 seita: os céticos e os em erro (rá!)

5 seitas: o mundo não possui uma causa primeira, pois na existência pregressa do Ser no mundo de Brahma não há consciência.

Seitas “voltadas para o futuro” (44):

16 seitas: existe a vida após a morte, com consciência, seja material, imaterial ou um estado híbrido ou “nenhum dos dois”, finita ou indefinidamente extensa, ou uma mistura de ambos (finita e infinita), ou nenhuma.

8 seitas: existe apenas insciência após a morte.

8 seitas: existe um estágio intermediário entre a consciência e a inconsciência.

7 seitas: a morte é aniquilação.

5 seitas: existe um caminho para a felicidade suprema. (?!)

Nenhuma das 62 seitas possui a verdade.” Ó!

Não pode haver, de acordo com o budismo, um processo como a transmigração, no sentido usual do termo.”

A mente oriental muito sofreu por sua inclinação pela analogia e pela metáfora.”

O que é o homem? São os olhos o homem? É evidente que nem os olhos, nem os pés, nem o coração, nem outra nomenclatura de partes do corpo são o homem. SILOGISMO: Logo, não há homem. Homem é um nome. MAS eles esquecem que, diferente duma carroça e suas rodas, que só estão conectadas espacialmente, há um mistério não esclarecido entre os membros do corpo e o corpo (…) um nexo da vitalidade

paticha samuppada, ou causas da existência continuada.

Três tópicos do vocabulário búdico:

I. ignorância (awidya)

II. apego a objetos existentes (upadana)

III. mérito e demérito (karma)(*)

(*) Escopo claramente mais restrito que no hinduísmo.

Como adveio a ignorância?”

Como a cadeia da existência foi forjada?”

O karma primário não deve ser discutido.”

O relato bramânico da origem da ignorância é mais inteligível, embora não mais satisfatório (do que a remissão a uma desconhecida causa primeira).”

Segundo o Vishnu Purana, Brahma tentou criar o universo 9 vezes. Na primeira, criou apenas o amovível e ignorante. Tendo aprendido com seu erro, repetiu a operação 8 vezes, cada vez obtendo maior sucesso. Awidya é o próprio Brahma.

O mundo é um ovo da noite”

Demócrito

mus araneus: mesmo conceito provindo do Egito.

O erro, no budismo, se concentra num só ponto: se os seres vivos não reproduzem (abominam a ignorância), não existe upadana a longo prazo. Essa sentença resume toda esta filosofia de vida. O que a existência faz diante do budismo? Pois upadana sempre vence. O mundo não acaba. A Europa não acaba. Budismo é epifenômeno insignificante de upadana. Nirvana nada mais é que o reconhecimento do mal absoluto, e a fraqueza diante dele. Além disso, o budismo é uma criação do último homem: antinatural, uma blasfêmia contra a natureza. A revolta da razão.

O nascimento espectral: quando um gênio destoante nasce, impossível de explicar logicamente. Exemplo: eu em minha família sou um nascimento espectral. Não estou ligado ao mérito-demérito daquela árvore, sou indiferente a ela, fenômeno novo, “absurdo”, porém predito e necessário.

Este conceito fabuloso e todo-poderoso chamado karma é mera abstração. É dito que é achinteyya, sem consciência. É uma potência criadora e cega, como a terra fértil.”

O karma age como uma doença hereditária; seu mal pode estar latente por gerações [de renascimentos], e de repente irromper com violência descontrolada.”

O budista, no sentido correto, portanto, está fadado a morrer sem esperança. [no status de sua próxima vida]”

O karma será destino até que deixe de regular a moral no universo, ponto de viragem em que a coletividade senciente “o vence”. E no entanto nunca se falou em salvação coletiva universal, como é impossível que reproduções aconteçam (no fundo: cada um que cuide do seu cu, digo, de seu pênis e de sua vagina). O budismo não é revolucionário, é apenas egóico como todo cisma.

MAU SINAL: “Não tenho conhecimento de nenhuma teoria ou sistema com que o budismo concorde. Nem qualquer teoria moderna, salvo a de Johan Gottlieb Fichte, quem ensinou: o arranjo dos sentimentos morais e as relações, a ordem moral do universo, é Deus.’

Cometas surgem como os peixes, por generatio spontanea

Kepler

Zeus vs. Moirae

Enquanto o budismo declara o karma como sendo o poder supremo que controla o universo, ele é um sistema ateu. Ignora a existência de uma divindade pessoal e inteligente. Reconhece que há um governo moral do mundo; mas honra o livro em vez do legislador; e adora o cetro em vez do rei.”

9.2 KHANDAS (INÍCIO DO CURSO P.D.) [agora não! agora não! agora sim? agora sim!]

9.2.1 Os cinco khandas

Todos os seres são causados, mas é impossível descobrir a causa do ser.”

9.2.2 O corpo organizado

Mais futilidades pseudometafísicas… “O corpo organizado está dividido em 28 partes ou setores. 1. terra; 2. água; 3. fogo; 4. vento; 5. olho [!]. 6. ouvido; 7. nariz. 8. língua. 9 o ‘corpo’. 10. a aparência externa. 11. o som. 12. o cheiro. 13. o gosto. 14. a substância, ou seja, aquilo sensível ao toque. 15. o feminin. 16 o masculino. 17. o coração. 18. a vitalidade. 19. o espao. 20. a comunicação silenciosa. 21. a faculdade da fala. 22. a leveza. 23. a elasticidade. 24. a adaptação. 25. a agregação. 26. a duração. 27. a decadência. 28. a impermanência.”

1. terra. dividida em 20. O cabelo da cabeça é terra, a carne é terra, o cabelo do corpo é terra, bem como as unhas, os dentes, a pele, as veias, os ossos, a medula, os rins, o coração (físico), o fígado, o abdôme (intestino, estômago), o baço, os pulmões, as fezes, o cérebro.

2. água. 12. bile, fleuma, pus, sangue, suor, gordura, lágrimas, soro ou sangue, saliva, muco, lubrificação das juntas, urina.

3. fogo. 4. fogo da vida, fogo da tristeza, fogo da enfermidade e fogo do estômago que queima a comida (hahaha!). Gotama não era tão bem-dotado intelectualmente se demorou tantos kali-yugas para fazer um sisteminha tão mequetrefe…

4. vento ou ar. 6. o sopro que ascende; o sopro que descende; o sopro da respiração; o sopro excretório (esse pessoal tem mesmo fixação por isso!), outro sopro relacionado aos intestinos (???) e o sopro total, regulador do movimento. Causa secundária da ação, em conjunto com hita, a mente.

5 a 9. os cinco órgãos dos sentidos (e lá vamos nós de novo!). prasada-rupas.

Khandas que são conectados a algum objeto sensível, ou por esse objeto são nutridos, são chamados aharaja; aqueles conectados às faculdades mentais (abstratas) não podem ser divididos, e são chamados chittaja.”

17. coração, a sede do pensamento. A causa da mano-winyana (consciência).

18. vitalidade. o princípio da vida. O karma atua sobre o corpo organizado para produzir a essência da existência. Interliga todos os rupa-khandas.

19. espaço. 9 aberturas, buracos ou não-preenchimentos no corpo (vazios inerentes à vida). já comentado.

22. a leveza pode ser kaya (corporal) ou chitta (mental).

o coração possui wastu, substância; mas não dwara, apertura, ou uma ‘porta’, como o olho; alguns [dos 28 atributos] não têm substância nem abertura, por ser invisíveis. (…) os ekaja, procedentes de uma causa; os dwija, procedentes de duas causas ou mais.”

9.2.3 Sensação

(…)

9.2.4 Percepção

(…)

9.2.5 Discriminação

55 categorias, dentre as quais as faculdades morais.

1. Phassa, o que Kant poderia chamar de apercepção (percepção a-conceituada).

2. wedana; explicado como sensação, então não sabemos por que não está no tópico anterior. No entanto, pode incluir “sensações” mais elaboradas, como a “felicidade” no sentido filosófico, além da “gratificação” por comer uma boa comida (sensação inferior).

3. sannya, percepção – reflexão sobre a percepção das formas, seria mais bem-dito.

4. chetana, pensamento – considerada a faculdade mais ágil das 55. A explicação, entretanto, parece muito mais a de reflexo ou de instinto, no lugar de reflexão, o que aliás explicaria sua enumeração como ágil, quase instantânea. Capacidade incessante, está sempre alerta, nunca sofre interrupções.

se não houvera partilha do pensamento o ofício do professor seria em vão”

16 formas da produção do pensar: reflexão, incluindo reminiscências; instrução de outrem; consciência (memória); satisfação (?); aversão; verossimilhança; separação/análise; diálogo; signos; impressões; números (os dois últimos poderiam ser linguagem – separação muito incompetente); instrução; meditação; mediante livros; vizinhança (proximidade geográfica!); hábito. Enfim, uma grande porcaria de “análise”…

5. manaskara, a reflexão reiterada.

7. individualidade

8. atenção

9. exame e obtenção da certeza (análogo à lógica aristotélica)

10. resolução

11. alegria

12. determinação

13. firmeza

15. ética

19. afeição

34. compaixão

39. cobiça

44. falta de vergonha

50. preguiça [que isso, afinal, os pecados capitais?]

9.2.6 Consciência

89 categorias. Chega! Não quero mais esses catálogos e inventários inúteis!

9.2.7 Identidade; Individualidade; e Retribuição Moral.

(Assim como os elementos da existência são incluídos dentre os 5 khandas, é evidente que o budismo não reconhece a existência de um espírito ou alma; e essa asserção não é feita gratuitamente, sem a autoridade adequada, provinda de fontes adicionais [ao próprio Buda], principalmente das Perguntas de Milinda.)”

Milinda x Nagasena

NAGASENA: Eu sou chamado Nagasena por meus pais e pelos gurus e pelos outros; mas Nagasena não é uma existência, um ser, um homem.

REI MILINDA: Então quem recebe seus sacrifícios? Quem pratica os preceitos? Se alguém matara Nagasena, este alguém não seria então apontado como assassino? Você não foi ensinado, nem se tornou sacerdote brâmane? Quem é Nagasena? O que é Nagasena? São os dentes Nagasena? Pele, carne, coração ou sangue são Nagasena? Seu semblante é Nagasena? São os 5 sentidos Nagasena? Tirando-se os 5 sentidos, o que sobra é Nagasena?

NAGASENA: Não para todas as perguntas.

MILINDA: Disse inverdades.

NAGASENA: Vossa Majestade veio a pé ou em carroça?

MILINDA: Em carroça.

NAGASENA: O que é uma carroça? É o ornamento que cobre a carroça? As rodas, o raio das rodas? (…)

MILINDA: A carroça é só um som, um nome. Ao dizer que veio transportado por uma carroça, Vossa Majestade mentiu.”

Oratória manjada…

(Mediante uma interrupção da narrativa de Nagasena, um fragmento da obra chamada Amawatura explicará seu argumento relativo ao Eu, o self.)”

Trechos extremamente aborrecidos…

9.2.8 Reprodução

Devas, pretas and the beings in hell are born by the apparitional birth, not from the womb”

blablablá…

9.2.9 Karma

O autor disse que percorreria a ontologia do budismo, mas continua contando apenas diálogos lendários e insípidos.

9. THE ETHICS OF BUDHISM

Quem sabe não é agora que esse livro preste alguma serventia…

Brincadeira! Muito longe disso…

Enumera os pecados humanos. Ceticismo, ingerir drogas e adultério aparecem igualados ao homicídio. zZzZzZz.

Texto ininteligível e sem alma. Para mim significa apenas ceticismo moral extremo, a.k.a., niilismo.

Whosoever will, may come to the cross, and be made happy. The stream that issues therefrom ‘cleanses from all sin’. This doctrine may be, as in the days of its first manifestation, ‘unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness’, but unto all who are willing to test its truthfulness, it will prove to be ‘the power of God and the wisdom of God’.” Ótimo! Nada como terminar o livro com um pouco de xenofobia!

the now myriad-worshipped Budha will not have a single votary; and Jesus of Nazareth, ‘who over all, God blessed for ever’, will be the life, and the blessedness, and the glory of universal man.” Portanto, não custa lembrar, o livro foi escrito por um cristão entusiasta! Mas ele está errado: nem Buda, nem Cristo… Ninguém!

NOTA PÓSTUMA OU NÃO-DIRETAMENTE CONECTADA COM A LEITURA

Consta de pesquisa na matéria na internet que o budismo Mahayana, ainda que esotérico, contradiz muito do afirmado neste manual do séc. XIX: “[o Mahayana] defende que todas as pessoas são possuidoras da felicidade absoluta, o estado de buda (iluminação).” O que é o mesmo que dizer nada e tudo ao mesmo tempo.