[Buddha-l] Re: Disciple Count

[Richard P. Hayes]

On Thu, 2005-06-23 at 11:07 +1000, Kate wrote:

> The problem with numbers used in Asian writings is that often they have 
> symbolic meanings. 

True. I have heard 84,000 explanations for why 108 is a sacred number in
India. The one I like best is because it was a sacred number in Babylon.
The Babylonians loved squares and cubes, and they were fascinated by 2
squared times 3 cubed (4x27). 

I am intrigued by the fact that the World Parliament of Religions opened
on September 11, 1893, exactly 108 years before September 11, 2001. The
earlier of these two events was called an event that rang the death
knell of religious fanaticism. The second seems to have signified the
resurrection of the corpse of religious fanaticism, which is alive and
well and soon coming to a planet near you. But I digress.

> Then, of course, they could mean that the Buddha had 1250 disciples and that 
> he taught for 45 years.

A Buddhist text with a straightforward message? Not very likely. No, I
think we have to rule out that literal interpretation as far-fetched in
the extreme. Much more likely is that the figures are a numerological
prediction of something really important, such as the birth of
Nostradamus or the date (on the Mayan calendar) when the Hopi elders
would spot the fire-breathing iron buffalo running past the mesas on the
backs of two iron snakes, which signifies the end of history, preceded
by five years, six months and seven days of Republican hegemony.

-- 
Richard Hayes
http://www.unm.edu/~rhayes