sakamuni as scientist—sketches and essays - … · sakamuni as scientist—sketches and essays...

99

Artcolumn _____________________________________________________________ Forma, 21, 99–111, 2006

Sakamuni as Scientist—Sketches and Essays

Ryuji TAKAKI

Graduate School, Kobe Design University, Gakuen-nishimachi, Nishi-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2198, JapanE-mail address: [email protected]

(Received April 25, 2005; Accepted November 11, 2005)

Keywords: Sakamuni, Siddhatta, Hardships, Buddhism Statues, Nirvana, Bodhisattva

Abstract. Sketches of statues of Sakamuni from middle Asia and Japan are presentedalong with essays on the statues and life of Sakamuni. The essays contain impressionsfrom the statues and opinions about the thought and behavior of Sakamuni. They alsocontain a conjecture by the author that Sakamuni had a character of a scientist.

1. Introduction

Sakamuni means a saint of the Saka tribe in northern India and refers to a person,Gotama Siddhatta, born in BC 466 as a prince of the tribe. Senior priests, who saw Siddhattajust after his birth, predicted that he would be a great king or a great spiritual leader of theworld.

He grew to be a clever and attractive man. He married and had a child. However, at theage of 29 he left his family and became a priest. According to a general understanding, hewas motivated by a will to investigate the cause of people’s hardships. After difficulttraining for six years he received enlightenment under a linden tree, and began to leadpeople so that they would become free from various hardships. He had a lot of pupils andmanaged a big school. After his death, his teachings and regulations were confirmed by thepupils, and Buddhism was established.

Statues of Sakamuni appeared much later, in AD 1c. in Gandhara (now in Pakistan)and in Mathura (India). Before that people used to worship bowing some symbols ofSakamuni, such as relief of linden tree or his footprint. Statues in Gandhara were producedby descendants of artists who came from Europe, while those in Mathura were producedby Indian artists who had been working for Hinduism. Among methods of training inBuddhism, meditation has been an important one, probably more important than in otherreligions. This tradition is considered to have given a calm and profound beauty toBuddha’s statues. It would be a reason why many statues are attracting people.

It had been difficult for the present author to draw Sakamuni, until he visited a museumin Sarnath, India, where he encountered a sitting Sakamuni. This Sakamuni was depictedmaking his first lecture just after his enlightenment (see Fig. 6). He looked not like asuperhuman, but a scientist, i.e., a normal person, explaining what he had found. Indeed,

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in establishing his concept of the universe, he relied only on his own experiences and logics.He accepted only what really convinced him. After that encounter, it became easier for theauthor to draw Sakamuni.

This article is written in the form of a dialog with Sakamuni, where the essays arequestions to Sakamuni and the sketches, especially the faces and hands of Sakamuni, arethe responses. Some statues express certain stages of Sakamuni’s life, such as those in theSarnath museum, etc. For other statues, the author assumed some other stages, accordingto his own personal impressions. In the essays, the pronoun “I” is used instead of “theauthor”, and the author’s personal opinions on Buddhism as well as his confessions as aBuddhist are expressed.

In order to make essays more understandable, brief illustrations of terms in Buddhismare given below.

Finally, the author would like to express his cordial thanks to Prof. Y. Watanabe forhis kind suggestion to submit this article for this special issue.

Some important terms in Buddhism:Sakamuni: a saint of the Saka tribe, i.e., Gotama Siddhatta.Buddha: a person with enlightenment. Buddha existed also in other religions in India.Tathagata (NYORAI): a complete person who finished all stages of training.Bodhisattva: a person nearing enlightenment. He/she makes efforts in saving poor people.Samsara (RINNE): metempsychosis, rebirth to the next life.

Fig. 1. Dream of Maya, mother of Siddhatta, where white elephant came into her body. She became pregnantof Siddhatta after the dream (copyright belongs to R. Takaki).

Sakamuni as Scientist—Sketches and Essays 101

Nirvana (NEHAN): to go to the ultimate world free from rebirth. It often means the deathof Sakamuni.Damma: truth and law in the universe and human society.Mendicancy: to beg for food by priests. They were forbidden to earn money or produce foodthemselves.Asceticism: difficult and painful training, a tradition in Hinduism

2. Sakamuni before Becoming Priest

Dear Sakamuni,This statue looks like a faithful imitation of you before becoming a priest (Fig. 2). You

had a majestic appearance and a handsome face. You were excellent both mentally andphysically. You had a beautiful wife, a lovely child and a satisfactory life. Moreover, as aprince you were destined to be the next king.

Why did you leave your family and society at the age of 29? According to theliterature’s, you had opportunities to meet miserable people out of the castle, who weresuffering from pains of old age, disease and death, and began to consider seriously aboutthis social situation. However, can it be enough reason to leave your family? Did you havea special reason?

Buddhism textbooks tell us nothing about this mystery. I can do nothing other than justguess your situation at that time. At present, I will accept the beautiful and formal opinionthat you became a priest in order to free people from their hardships. Maitreya Bodhisattvais believed to play a role of meditating on how to save people for so long a time of about5.6 billion years. Did this role reflect your motivation at that moment?

Despite its mystery, your decision produced dramatic consequences, driving worldhistory, forming Asian cultures and leading me to become a Buddhist. I must thank you forit.

3. Sakamuni in Asceticism

Dear Sakamuni,After leaving the castle, you learned from philosophical leaders of India. Since you

mastered their teachings immediately, you realized that you must follow your own way togo ahead. Your phrase, “go alone by yourself like a horn of a rhinoceros”, which is recordedin Sutta Nipata, an old textbook kept in Sri Lanka, was an expression of your feeling at thattime, wasn’t it?

However, what a figure you must have had (Fig. 3)! A severe asceticism, with only onegrain of rice, one grain of wheat and one grain of bean per day! When you touched yourbelly, fingers could extend also to your back. Probably, you were at a point nearing death.I think you could stand it because of your strong body. I might even speculate that you triedto have virtual experiences of people’s pains of old age, disease and death. However, thesepains must be different from those which you experienced, because the former catch usdefinitely, even if we try to run away from them.

I hear that you practiced meditation in the graveyard. The graveyard at that time wasa place in the forest for leaving dead bodies. In the daytime, you must have watched

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decaying dead bodies. In the night you must have been annoyed by mosquitoes and rats, andalso by terrible sounds of animals in complete darkness biting bones of dead bodies.Because you survived this hell, your teachings must have been surely impressive.

4. Sakamuni in Meditation

Dear Sakamuni,After you realized the uselessness of asceticism, you came back to your village.

Eventually, a lady named Sujata saw you with a miserable body but with a majesticatmosphere, and gave you a bowl of rice cooked with milk. This nutritious food must have

Fig. 2. Maitreya Bodhisattva, found at Gandhara, Pakistan, AD 2–3c. Lahore Museum (copyright belongs to R.Takaki).


been absorbed rapidly into your body. At that instant, you caught a hint for enlightenment.Your experience reminds me of the story of Dr. Faust in the novel of Goethe. Faust, whohad sold his soul to Satan, was saved by the devotion of an innocent lady, Gretchen. It isconvincing that Goethe, being fond of women, created this story. However, there seems tobe a common tendency in Eastern and Western worlds that men with worries are saved bypure ladies.

After recovery, you got into meditation for a new system of gaining wisdom. You gaveup popular methods for enlightenment, asceticism or reading of Veda (classical textbooksof Indian mythology). In other words, you were challenged to discover a new paradigm.

This sitting statue (Fig. 4), carved on a big rock in the old city of Polonnaruwa, is lovedby people of Sri Lanka along with a lying Buddha next to this statue (see Fig. 10). I do notknow any other statue with a better expression of a profound mental state. When I visitedthis place, people in the neighborhood said that this is the most beautiful place in this

Fig. 3. Sakamuni in asceticism, produced in Gandhara, Pakistan, AD 2c. Lahore Museum (copyright belongsto R. Takaki).

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country.In Sri Lanka, people greet one another by saying “Ayubovan” (long life to you) and

joining their palms. This gesture is a form which we take when we pray to Buddha. It maybe a reason why they have mild faces. Buddhism must be surviving in their hearts.

5. Sakamuni Looking Ahead

Dear Sakamuni,I can not suppress my feeling that this statue expresses your figure at the very instant

of enlightenment (Fig. 5).What kind of features do people show when they have solved a difficult problem, for

example, upon solving a mathematical problem or finding a key for treasure hunting?

Fig. 4. Sakamuni in meditation, in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, AD 12c (copyright belongs to R. Takaki).


Probably, eyes are open wide watching ahead, the mouth is open or sometimes shut, thebody is stiff and still. When you had found how people suffer from pains of various kinds,you must have taken a posture like this statue.

I cannot comprehend easily how great your finding was. You denied Samsara (rebirthto the next life) and denied the existence of spirits separated from bodies. You insisted thattraining is just for life in this world and not for the next, and also that people can freethemselves from hardships by giving up desires and not sticking to fixed ideas. This is theessence of damma, the truth and law. I would sympathize with your conclusion, becauseit seems to be induced from observations just as in modern science.

According to the present scientific knowledge, desire and sticking to fixed idea wouldbe an endless excitation of neurons. Pleasure would be no more than a transmission of

Fig. 5. Sakamuni, looking ahead. Gandhara, Pakistan, ca. AD 1c. Lahore Museum (copyright belongs to R.Takaki).

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signals from sensors. If we can consider this to be true, we can stay calm in any situation.Is this the essence of your finding, and does it correspond to your phrase “a real object isinevitably a vanity”? In any case, your finding gave the orientation for philosophies inEastern cultures.

6. Sakamuni in his First Lecture

Dear Sakamuni,Just after you acquired the truth, you hesitated to explain it to people, because it had

a meaning too profound for them to understand. Then, Brahman, the highest god inHinduism, came and persuaded you to lead people. It is interesting to know that Buddhism

Fig. 6. Sakamuni in his first lecture. India, AD 5–6c. Sarnath Museum (copyright belongs to R. Takaki).


was closely related to the Hindu culture and that Brahman cooperated with you. You wentto Sarnath, where a lot of priests were gathering, and gave your first lecture to fivecolleagues and dears lying in the back. This statue expresses you in that lecture (Fig. 6).You were an energetic instructor 35 years of age, and had a strong will to lead people. Yourvigor can be perceived well from your nicely shaped waist.

By the way, did you not have a strong tension at your shoulders? I can understand itwell, because anyone feels a tension in his first lecture; I did so when I made my first lecturein the university.

Your colleagues, who had been looking down on you for giving up asceticism,immediately decided to become your pupils. It is rather funny that they understood yourteaching, which you had considered very difficult to follow. I suspect that you wereemitting a kind of aura around you.

7. Sakamuni with Mercy

Dear Sakamuni,You had a lot of pupils following the five colleagues. In particular, excellent priests

of another new religion, Sariputta and Moggarana joined with their 250 pupils. Sariputtaappears in a famous Buddhist textbook “Prajnaparamita Hrdaya Sutra” (meaning “Textbookfor the Essence of Wisdom”). He worked diligently as a manager of your school. You mighthave had a firm self-confidence by getting them.

This statue seems to show that you could become relaxed because of your success (Fig.7). It might be too much to say (but I can not suppress myself to say) that you now haveenough mental capacity to look at people with mercy like a helpful university professor.

At the same time you began to bear a new load to maintain your school, in contradictionto your initial desire to leave society. However, since you made up your mind to becomea teacher, you would not be able to escape from it.

Many Buddhist statues have eyes looking slightly downwards. Priests were forbiddento kill animals, even insects on the earth. Thus, they always had to look down when theywere walking. Therefore, the posture with eyes directed downwards became the standardone. However, this eye direction is considered to have produced an unexpected result.When people saw Sakamuni statues in temples, they would feel that the statues werelooking down at them, and they would be very glad.

8. Sakamuni with Beautiful Face

Dear Sakamuni,You, expressed in this statue head (Fig. 8), are beautiful; excessively beautiful I would

say. While you were talking to your pupils and people in general people on human morals,some of ladies (or even some of men) might have had a desire to kiss to your lips.

Your school began to accept female priests, the first in the world to do so. You had beenhesitating to accept them, but finally decided to do so owing to their strong wishes.However, new problems came out because of that. Some people might have come to yousimply being fascinated by your features without much thought. I heard that a female priestbecame pregnant through contact with a male priest and aborted the baby secretly in a toilet.

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Thus, you decided to remove the lower parts of toilet walls. Oh! I can imagine well yourworries. You were motivated to become a priest by the pains associated with old age,disease and death. You were able to overcome them, but this kind of problem might havebeen more difficult.

You said that we should not stick to apparent shapes of objects and humans. It wouldmean, based on my field, physics, that even beautiful shapes are no more than ensemblesof materials. However, it is really an ironical fact, if your school became popular partlybecause of your excellent appearance.

9. Sakamuni with Perfect Personality

Dear Sakamuni,You visited many places and talked with a lot of people on how they should live. Now,

you are a great spiritual leader of the whole of India. I feel a personality in perfection fromthis sitting statue of you (Fig. 9). You acquired a dignified presence with a massive body

Fig. 7. Sakamuni with mercy. Hadda, Afganistan, AD 3–4c. (Copyright belong to R. Takaki)


Fig. 8. Beautiful Buddha. Hadda, Afganistan, AD 3–4c. Guimet Museum (copyright belongs to R. Takaki).

and a thick waist.You have fins between fingers. I heard that these fins play a role in scooping up

miserable people. By the way, I have once seen a person with such fins, a girl swimmer whowon a gold medal in the Olympics. I do not know whether her fins developed throughtraining or she became strong because of these fins. How about your case?

Since your school became popular, kings and rich people wanted to invite you and yourpupils to dinner. It became a status symbol for those people. It means also that you had morechances than ever to eat good food. Usually, when we have many such chances, we tend towant a better life. However, you were free from such a desire. Every time you ate tasty food,you must have confirmed the vanity of a luxurious life.

In the last stage of your life, you called yourself “tathagata”, which means a completeperson who finished all stages of training. Statues of tathagata including those of you havemassive bodies. I would suspect that all the good food made you mentally complete. If thatwas the case, I envy you very much.

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10. Sakamuni in Nirvana

Dear Sakamuni,You devoted yourself in saving people for 45 years until you were 80 years old. It is

a surprising fact that you could do that without becoming ill, being depressed in difficultiesor being tired of tension. You continued to be looked up to by people and your pupils allday long for so many years! I think this is the greates miracle among those of religiousleaders.

According to an old textbook kept in Sri Lanka, “Maha Pari Nibbhana Suttanta”,which includes a story of your last one year, you showed a mysterious behavior beforedeath. When you told the state of your body condition to Ahnanda, your pupil, he was notaware of the critical situation and he did not say, “Please live long and lead us”. You becameangry with it, and declared that you had three months left in your life. When a blacksmith,Chunda, served food to you and your pupils, you ate only mushroom cooking among manydishes and ordered that the leftovers be thrown on the earth. After the dinner, you wereattacked by a pain in the stomach.

Fig. 9. Sakamuni with personality in perfection. AD 13c. Murooji-temple, Japan (copyright belongs to R.Takaki).


Fig. 10. Sakamuni in nirvana. Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka, AD 12c (copyright belongs to R. Takaki).

This story is very confusing. It seems to me that you were like an old man who insiststhat he dies because of his becoming a burden. However, this story does not appear in mosttextbooks of Chinese translation. According to a recent theory, Sakamuni ate the same foodas that of his pupils. I prefer this new theory.

This lying statue carved on a big rock in Polonnaruwa, Sri Lanka (Fig. 10), expressesyou with slightly open eyes and thinking of something. What are you thinking of? Are youtrying to perceive the sign of death filling your body with all of your senses, as scientistsmight do? You observed decaying human bodies in graveyards before enlightenment. Areyou comparing your case with theirs?

Your motivation in becoming a priest was your wish to ease people’s pains of old age,disease and death. Your teaching was based on these pains, while you had no experienceon them. Now, having experienced them, are you trying to confirm that your teaching wascorrect?

You are going beyond to nirvana (the ultimate world without rebirth) while leaving mewith mysteries.

Dear Sakamuni, Farewell!

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