[Buddha-l] Nakedness

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

Joy Vriens schreef:
> I am currently reading Madeleine Biardeau's Mahabharata (which btw she thinks was written in reaction to the rise of Buddhism) and learn with interest about Gautama's description of a bhiksu (his term for a sannyaasin) in his dharmasutra. Similarities with Buddhist bhiksus are quite striking, but so is one of the differences: they were naked or wore a simple loincloth. And I just wondered whether one of the reasons of Buddhism's "success" in the West wasn't the fact that Buddhist bhiksus were more or less decently clothed. At least their outfit isn't not that different from that of our own familiar ancient greek philosophers. I am almost sure that they have been taken more seriously because of their non-nudity by e.g. Victorian academics. Would the protestant creators of protestant Buddhism have been taken as much with Buddhism as they did? But I also expect that even nowadays someone like the Dalai-Lama would have been less popular, or - if popular for the wrong reasons- ta!
>  ken less seriously in the West if he gave his teaching naked or "dressed" in a loincloth. Would he have been invited to oecumenic gatherings? I am always amazed at the Buddha's impressive premonitions. He also made the right choice of uniform to allow the future spread of Buddhism in more puritan countries. I thought it was nice to share this thought with you. 
>
> Joy
>   
Don't believe everything you read. I think it's not very likely that all 
bhiksus were always naked. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the 
Dharmasutra prescriptive and not descriptive?The split up of the Jains 
in Digamabaras and Swetambaras was no accident. Besides you cannot 
wander in the Himalayas just naked, we cannot all be like the Dutch 
iceman (who came to his abilities through rage and despair of seeing his 
wife being crunched by an avalanche). I think these bhiksus were a 
fairly irregulair bunch like today. But clothes come in handy if you 
have to wander through towns begging for food.
I doubt if the succes of Buddhism is due to fashonable dresses, perhaps 
Schopenhauer and Blavatsky had more influence.


Erik


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