[Buddha-l] Meditating Buddha

[Stefan Detrez]

 Richard,


Of course, there may be all sorts of answers to the latter question --
> and any simple answer is bound to be reductionistic. But here's a
> thought that might go some distance toward answering your original
> question. If one reads the depictions of Buddhas (whether in suttas or
> in images) as not simply concerned with what we would call
> *description*, but also with what we would call *prescription*, then
> the problem you've raised dissolves. These depictions may have been
> created to offer Buddhists -- most of whom are not perfectly awakened
> beings -- models of exemplary conduct. If this is right, then the
> depictions do not simply aim to chart what Buddhas do (or did), but
> what a Buddhist should do if he or she wishes to become (like) a
> Buddha.


I'm not very convinced by this answer, namely, that we should understand his
behaviour as prescriptive. If we would find him not meditating, and we would
understand this to be as prescriptive, we would get two prescriptions that
are contradictory. But then again, that the Buddha would be just sitting
around is not very ennobling either. If we would understand all of his
behaviour as prescriptive, I suppose we would all have to be endowed with
flatulence or get angry with Devadatta. Maybe some criterion is necessary to
know what is meant as prescriptive and what as descriptive.
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