HK stock market is closed today because Buddha’s Birthday. So, you know, many happy returns Siddhartha Gautama in whichever life you’re living right now.
HK stock market is closed today because Buddha’s Birthday. So, you know, many happy returns Siddhartha Gautama in whichever life you’re living right now.
I thought the point of Buddhism was that returns aren’t happy and it’s non-return that’s ideal. 🙂
Well I don’t suppose he was jugged eared & gormless enough to want to be reincarnated as a Tampax.
“So, you know, many happy returns Siddhartha Gautama in whichever life you’re living right now.”
He’s not living in any life whatsoever, according to the Pali canon. The orthodox view is that he abandoned the forces that would lead to any rebirth, so upon his death (which is commemorated on the same day as his birth and enlightenment – the fifth full moon of the year) he became completely liberated from existence.
Isn’t the slightest criticism fat-shaming? Can you really get that shape with a vegan, near-starvation, diet? Some depictions have children crawling over him – isn’t that a bit Rolf-and-Jimmy?
As a youngster I enjoyed reading Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light which placed an interesting spin in those events.
I can’t believe it’s not Buddha.
Some depictions have children crawling over him – isn’t that a bit Rolf-and-Jimmy?
Yes and everyone agrees that Rolf and Jimmy were wrong, disgusting, a disgrace taking place before our own eyes which was somehow ignored (lessons will be learned).
Confusingly when it comes to drag queens in schools, libraries and other well-documented gatherings similar behaviour becomes OK and only a transphobe would claim see any obvious warning signs. Maybe the lessons haven’t been learned?
Our first born, who am living in HK, sent us a WhatsApp on Thursday informing us that thanks to Buddha he had a long weekend.
@Arthur: the point of Buddhism … isn’t “Every man for himself”.
Good film, wasn’t it?
On Buddhism & eastern philosophies & religions in general: When they can feed their children & not have them starving to death in the streets, they might be worth paying attention to.
A Buddhist goes up to the hotdog seller and says, “Make me one with everything.”
I always chuckle at the notion that anyone would know the birthday of a chap born long ago, particularly if he was a baby of little or no importance. Frexample Jesus.
Leftiepedia claims that not even the century of Buddha’s birth is known.
Hell, various European medieval royal children have unknown birth dates.
dearieme:
“I always chuckle at the notion that anyone would know the birthday of a chap born long ago, particularly if he was a baby of little or no importance. Frexample Jesus.”
It’s not the actual birth date they are celebrating. It’s the fifth (“Vesakha”) full moon of the year. That day is, in the canonical literature, also the day on which the Buddha became enlightened, and also died. The Chinese have then moved this date around a bit (full moon was on the 5th of this month!) so it’s really just a celebration in general thanksgiving and recognition.
“In the canonical literature”: oh dear, is that equivalent to the rubbish attributed to “Christian tradition” or “the Church fathers” i.e. stuff made up long after the time of the events concerned?
Leftiepedia: Buddha was born “c. 563 BCE or 480 BCE”. So nobody will know when he died either.
“No written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or from the one or two centuries thereafter.”
So, a chap becomes widely important long after his death and so people fill up the gaps in their knowledge of him with invention. And centuries later it may be hard to tell which bits are true, which false. (Well, except for obvious rubbish such as the nativity yarns in Matthew and Luke.)
I remember once reading that more was claimed to be known about the childhood of Mohammed the later the texts were written. I infer that this is likely to be a feature of all human societies.
dearieme:
No, the Canon here has a more precise definition, being that which was recorded at the First Buddhist Council and preserved in the Pali language. The equivalent of the Christian “Church fathers” would be known as “commentaries” within Buddhism.
Of course, there can be no independent evidence of dates, but – as with Christianity- that is beside the point here. Presumably, if people want to collectively celebrate something, they need to agree on a calendar date.