I need to talk with Buddha
Demigod as I am,
Sweet wine is the one I so love.
Boundless Deity as I am,
me staggers to and fro in my drunk,
You laugh at seeing me walk to and fro,
They laugh at seeing me ambulate back and forth.
Asuras and Devas, Nargas and Garudas, Man between Man,
I am making war, you are waging war, and they are doing war.
For what purpose, why spirits of mortality be so proud?
When I chant this song for the Messiah in my stupefied gnosis,
So clear, with dazzling light, I visualize my Lord.
My footsteps no matter swaying left or right,
Always they are towards only to Him, Heaven.
I need to talk with Buddha
About the beauty of the Ocean.
King of Angels: This was a really frightening experience, my son. Paharada, now joined by his titanic troops, was now driving his chariot back to the Ocean, the home of these demi-gods. Asura warriors were hailing Paharada for their victory for arresting me. In his great delight, Pararada in his arrogant voice began to sing a song that was queer, unheard before, and so strident to my ears.
Was he molesting me as a war captive? All over and above, I was thrilled up to my erector pillae to hear the term “Buddha”, the Awakened One. This unprecedented sound that pronounced "Buddha" was more vibrating in my defeated heart than the present fact that my loser's life was in their hands.
War prisoner, Marga: Paharada, what are you speaking about? To whom you take refuge in and become so arrogant like this. What do you mean by Buddha, the awakened one?
Paharada: Marga, didn’t you hear about that? Or are you so dumb or deaf or blind? Absolutely, you have been out of your mind in your passion for chasing love, having an illusion that love is an elixir for curing tediousness of your immortal life.
Mortals are worshiping you, shrilling so powerless and capabilityless in their agony, and yelling out to your help for driving away countless problems inflicting upon them. Instead of trying to illuminate ignorant eyes of the mortals, you yourself have been incorrigibly addictive to your passionate love, just a fiend dope merely acting for your better nerves. You are even unaware of such famous prophecy that Buddha, the Awakened One will be coming to our Kama world in another 100,000 years.
War prisoner, Marga: Mortals always do prophecy. But we immortal devas always act with rationality. It sounds like that this guy is sure to be amazingly great as a very wise man like you, Paharada, is to bow him.
Paharada it sounds like that you are mocking me as an irresponsible person for not taking care for the problems of the mortals, of the human world. The human problems are vicious, endless and countless. Is this rational of Marga to intervene these imbroglios that are unentangable in their eternal nature, Paharada? In fact, I am not a neglectful person as you think. As a rational person, what I need to do is trying to find out what is the root of the causation of these problems.
O’ Paharada, a garden of flowers is infected in their ground. The flowers die day after day and the whole garden is now withering away. In your compassion, it does make sense of you in trying episodically to put Solu-Cortex into one single flower after another for saving their lives while the root of the problem is spreading underneath, devouring the whole binge. I am not a smart hero for doing that.
Paharada, I agree with you that the inability to resolve those painful human problems is rooted in human eyes themselves that are overwhelmed by their ignorance, so that they can’t see the solutions justly and fairly. And my question here is what kinds of causations give rise to those ignorant eyes. In what ways, these ignorant eyes can be made crystal clear to envision a solution of fairness and justice.
Paharada, don’t think Marga as just a fiend dope for his passionate love. For those hundreds of years, I was mourning over the atrocious wars prevailing among human kingdoms. I was crying for the numerous murders and seething hatred breeding among garudas and dragons who are my own deva citizens. My dreams are full of sighs for many nights why we devas and you asuras are making these tricky battles against one another who were actually brothers born by the same grandparents. Why should the spirits of mortality be so proud in their short lives that are just as like as momentary foams playing upon the roaring Ocean?
Paharada, I have approached the famous sages of nargas (dragons), asking this question, “why in this kama realm, no matter it is mankind, devakind, garudakind, or nargakind, in their conscience, they want to love one another, they want to understand one another, they want to forgive one another. Despite their apparent original conscience, they see one another with seething eyes, they make quarrels against one another in their brawl, and they kill one another in their own justification. Why such kinds of paradoxical evils are spewing endlessly from this purely clean pristine human nature. Why this purely clean aboriginal human nature, is eventually to be named as “human nature is essentially evil”.
I have approached the famous sages of garudas, asking the same question. I have approached many wise men in human realm, asking the same question. In fact, the greatest pieces of literature arisen from the realm of human beings are a mix of my inspiration and human creativity in our inquest together in finding the solution to this question. Paharada, without the evolution of thought, nothing can be changed. Without the revolution of the conventional wisdom, everything will be the same no matter you are so good-hearted and so courageous to bear against these endless human problems.
O’ forthcoming Buddha, if I were to survive from this war imprisonment, I would also need to talk with you for asking this question. I have made this same inquest with many sages in the realm of the Karma world, but nobody has been able to give me a satisfactory answer, yet. May the coming of the Awakened One be for the end of wars between us, Asuras and devas, Nargas and garudas, and men who are holding malicious attitude towards one another. May the Ocean be as charming with beauty as before, may the earth be as lovely with evergreen peace as usual, when the term, “malice”, has never been heard in long, long ancient past.
Paharada: I wish so, Marga. This meaningless war between us needs to be ended, soon. I will talk with Buddha about the beauty of the Ocean for my boundless liberation and inspiration for the others. You will talk with Buddha about your question of malice for sake of ending the root problems of mankind and our devakind.
(N.B: The hopes of two warlords actually happened in the future. The talk between Buddha and Paharada became the Paharada Sutra that describes eight excellent and wonderful things in the great Ocean and Sasana. Buddha explained to Paharada, just as the great ocean has only one taste that is the taste of salt, the purpose of numerous teachings and moral disciplines of Buddhism also gives the single taste that is the taste of liberation. The main concept of practice for liberation as Buddha mentioned was gradual approach, confessing that human knowledge is not perfect enough to be able to abruptly gain enlightenment. *The concept is the same as the piecemeal approach in the widely accepted scientific revolution theory. Also it is the same as foundation of social engineering concept in Karl Popper’s Open Society and its enemies that leads to dazzling enlightenment of modern social sciences*
http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:boLq1ccQdbkJ:www.metta.lk/english/8things.htm+paharada&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us&client=firefox-a
The talk between Buddha and Marga later became known as the Sakha sutra, describing jealousy and discrimination (Eitha and Mizzariya) first as the roots of human problems and Buddha also expounded what are the methodologies to eliminate these devilish thoughts. The Sakha Sutra seems to be maintained exclusively by the Theravada School of Burma and no translation into English is found by this author. If chances are available, this author will try for translating it)
By the way, Marga, what I think is, actually, you, Sakha had been very acquainted to this great sage. You were the bulwark for his spiritual path in his last life before. Don’t you remember the hermit who even donated his children, even his beloved wife right away to the people whom he has not ever known?
War prisoner, Marga: My God! Vessantara! A completely irrational dude! Will he become the Awakened One, Buddha?
(To be cont., the debate between Paharada and the war prisoner, Marga- “rationality vs irrationality”. Another mathematical paradox will appear in one next episode)
5 comments:
Interesting sequel to the story!
Here's another socio-logic paradox... the rational terminates in a finite death, the irrational lives on in infinity.
Truths in mundane mathematics?
Here it is... Sakkapanha Sutta by Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, translated by Bikkhu Pesala ...
http://www.triplegem.plus.com/sakka1.htm
Sakka Sutta, Buddha was then 80. Marga was one hundred thousands years old. Both were near the end of their lives. The difference was Buddha was the same peaceful as usual. Marga was extremely bewildered, for he was forced to renounce all his golden yore, going to get into a realm of the unknown, a realm he couldn’t imagine, nobody can imagine as well, the unseen Ocean of Death.
Marga, the heaven warlord at his rotten old age, became craven at his encounter with the Lord of Death, reminds me of Allan Edgar Pole’s Raven.
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!—
Whether Tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,
Desolate, yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted—
On this home by Horror haunted—tell me truly, I implore—
Is there—is there balm in Gilead?—tell me—tell me, I implore!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil!—prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us—by that God we both adore—
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
“Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting—
“Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore!
Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul has spoken!
Leave my loneliness unbroken!—quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!”
Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore.”
And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;
And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor
Shall be lifted—nevermore!”
Marga was recklessly demanding, as usual he is attempting his best to grasp every possible trace of hope, trying to embody any shadow as his last chance.
All the answers from Raven are the same, “never more”. No more angel maiden, no more angel balm in this desert. Yet, dying Marga was shrieking. He tried to see it should be just a dream. However, he had dreamed so long for one hundred thousand years, still not enough.
May all beings be able to wake up from those tedious dreams.
Rinzen
Thanks Ko Sumedha for his help for the link to Sakha Sutta.
I read it over and I was fully unsatisfied at the translation of U Aye Maung, one of the best known scholars in our Burmese Buddhism. The current translation doesn’t rove up the ground deeply enough to get the real luminous treasure of Buddha’s enlightenment.
The translation was done under Ne Win’s socialism and could be biased, like the translation of mizzariya as meanness, perhaps a hidden intent with the legitimate moral support for nationalization and appropriations on individual property by the government, accusing the owners as "devil-spirited with avaricious meanness".
But this prediction is an extreme example. More probably, U Aye Maung was merely not apt in his technical selection of vocabularies and he was, perhaps not that familiar with the foundation of Western thinking and human right concepts.
Your Dharma friend,
Burmakin
Oh... thanks for the clarification. Yes, it was translated by U Aye Maung, not Bikkhu Pesala (who was the editor of the publication). Apologies for my error. This is the only English translation of the sutta that I can find at this moment.
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