Several years back I stumbled upon a set of gory Indian comentarial literature focusing (from memory) on karma. Does anyone know a source for this? I read some of this online but found it too gory to continue. However I think I need to read these commentaries if they are still available.
An example of the text would be a story about a man and wife whose young adult son dies. Hearbroken, they scheme to conduct a ritual to bring him back from the dead. So they hire a slave in order to make a human sacrifice as part of the ritual. The slave himself is morally flawless and doesn't know that he is to be sacrificed. The couple performs the ritual and the son does return from the dead. But his body has been decomposing and he doesn't retain his full mental faculties. In the end the karmic destinies of each of the people involved is explained.
Does the above ring a bell? I was shocked when I read this as an adult although I had been aware of similar Buddhist commentarial literature as a teenager (between Hawaii and Maryland I was fortunate to find excellent Buddhist sources at the time). This genre could be criticized as only a Buddha can understand karmic entanglements. However I do not exclude the possibility that the work may have been a more adult part of the Jataka tales.
Thanks!
Kirt
Gory comentarial literature
Gory comentarial literature
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Re: Gory comentarial literature
Its not jataka.
I read a story about a Tibetan sorcerer who needed a steady stream of students to maintain his immortality. He would drug them and then trap them in his cave. There was a row of disciples each in a further state of weakness and decomposition. Their putrid fluid was his nectar. Very powerful story that invokes a revulsion for samsara at the same time as it denigrates non-Buddhist shamans—which could be a clue as to period.
I read a story about a Tibetan sorcerer who needed a steady stream of students to maintain his immortality. He would drug them and then trap them in his cave. There was a row of disciples each in a further state of weakness and decomposition. Their putrid fluid was his nectar. Very powerful story that invokes a revulsion for samsara at the same time as it denigrates non-Buddhist shamans—which could be a clue as to period.
People will know nothing and everything
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
Remember nothing and everything
Think nothing and everything
Do nothing and everything
- Machig Labdron
Re: Gory comentarial literature
This doesn't answer your question, but interestingly I remember this story from the Alfred Hitchcock TV show in 1965. That version was called "The Monkey's Paw". It's stuck with me all these years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey's_Paw
Where now is my mind engaged? - Shantideva
Re: Gory comentarial literature
The Ressurection Stone.kirtu wrote: An example of the text would be a story about a man and wife whose young adult son dies. Hearbroken, they scheme to conduct a ritual to bring him back from the dead. So they hire a slave in order to make a human sacrifice as part of the ritual. The slave himself is morally flawless and doesn't know that he is to be sacrificed. The couple performs the ritual and the son does return from the dead. But his body has been decomposing and he doesn't retain his full mental faculties. In the end the karmic destinies of each of the people involved is explained.
Does the above ring a bell?
Kirt
Kevin
Re: Gory comentarial literature
Virgo, what is The Resurrection Stone?Virgo wrote: The Ressurection Stone.
The story I quoted really comes from some Indian Buddhist commentarial source. I read it but decided it was too medieval and bizarre for me at the time (much of it seemed like one horrific story after another mostly dealing with karma).
Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Re: Gory comentarial literature
That is interesting. I had long forgotten this story.Jeff H wrote:This doesn't answer your question, but interestingly I remember this story from the Alfred Hitchcock TV show in 1965. That version was called "The Monkey's Paw". It's stuck with me all these years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monkey's_Paw
Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”
"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
Re: Gory comentarial literature
kirtu wrote:Virgo, what is The Resurrection Stone?Virgo wrote: The Ressurection Stone.
Kirt
Kevin
- Losal Samten
- Posts: 1591
- Joined: Mon Mar 24, 2014 4:05 pm
Re: Gory comentarial literature
I only know of The Prince and the Zombie in terms of Buddhism, but I don't think it's your book.
http://en.calameo.com/read/000039257f4a061fd0604
Apparently stories about such vetalas are popular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikramadi ... ry_legends
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baital_Pachisi
http://en.calameo.com/read/000039257f4a061fd0604
Apparently stories about such vetalas are popular.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikramadi ... ry_legends
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baital_Pachisi
Lacking mindfulness, we commit every wrong. - Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
འ༔ ཨ༔ ཧ༔ ཤ༔ ས༔ མ༔
ཨོཾ་ཧ་ནུ་པྷ་ཤ་བྷ་ར་ཧེ་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ།།
ཨཱོཾ་མ་ཏྲི་མུ་ཡེ་སལེ་འདུ།།
Re: Gory comentarial literature
Sounds like a Jataka.
I've been reading Jatakas to my son for bed time stories. These days he tells me, "No Jatakas. Read Big Digger! I want Pete the Cat!". Probably all for the best because some of the Jatakas are very gory. It entertains me, and as long as he doesn't really understand, I figure my droning voice does the trick and puts him to sleep. Many of the stories are out and out horror, and many others have very serious and macabre themes. Fits right in with the nightly news - suggests, humans have been horrible for a long, long time.
I recently read one about a king who is tricked into eating human flesh and then develops an insatiable appetite. He's finally driven out of the kingdom because so many people are going missing and he's discovered. He's finally driven into the deep forest, culminating in a scene where he has 100 kings strung up in the trees, awaiting being eaten. Its like one of those Roman descriptions of German forest shrines where the Teutonic tribes did their human sacrifices.
If you want these sorts of stories, read the Jatakas - and not the collections edited for young audiences. Those tend to be just variations on Aesop's fables.
Also, if you want meditation literature on decomposing bodies, check out Vasubhandhu's Abhidharmaabsakosyam.
I've been reading Jatakas to my son for bed time stories. These days he tells me, "No Jatakas. Read Big Digger! I want Pete the Cat!". Probably all for the best because some of the Jatakas are very gory. It entertains me, and as long as he doesn't really understand, I figure my droning voice does the trick and puts him to sleep. Many of the stories are out and out horror, and many others have very serious and macabre themes. Fits right in with the nightly news - suggests, humans have been horrible for a long, long time.
I recently read one about a king who is tricked into eating human flesh and then develops an insatiable appetite. He's finally driven out of the kingdom because so many people are going missing and he's discovered. He's finally driven into the deep forest, culminating in a scene where he has 100 kings strung up in the trees, awaiting being eaten. Its like one of those Roman descriptions of German forest shrines where the Teutonic tribes did their human sacrifices.
If you want these sorts of stories, read the Jatakas - and not the collections edited for young audiences. Those tend to be just variations on Aesop's fables.
Also, if you want meditation literature on decomposing bodies, check out Vasubhandhu's Abhidharmaabsakosyam.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
Re: Gory comentarial literature
Other way around, demonstrably so,Queequeg wrote:
If you want these sorts of stories, read the Jatakas - and not the collections edited for young audiences. Those tend to be just variations on Aesop's fables.