[Buddha-l] Vimalakirti

[Joy Vriens]

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 8:30 AM, Dan Lusthaus <vasubandhu at earthlink.net>wrote:


> Why bring up Vimalakirti, that overly eloquent, offensive loudmouth who,
> for
> some strange reason, is only remembered for the one moment when he actually
> shut up (and only then because he was invited to do so)? Are you suggesting
> something?
>
> Ah! I am not your senso but haven't you properly heard Vimalakirti's
> deafening silence then? When was he actually silent?
>
The only moment his silence becomes manifest (a nimitta) you call him
silent? What is silence?

I love the Vimalakirtinirdesa. It reads like a Molière play. It's a play,
it's theater. How would you render silence on the scene? I would surround it
with noise. A bit like Haydn's Drumstroke Symphonie (Nr. 94 G-Dur, "mit dem
Paukenschlag" for the pedants on this list), but then the other way round.

The answer was already in the joke, but if you insist and at the risk of
spoiling it.
"Do you know the joke about Vimalakirti, the deeply introverted practitioner
and the autist?"
They didn't know who was who.

Joy