[Buddha-l] Aged people or senior monks?

[Richard Hayes]

On Aug 8, 2011, at 14:17, Artur Karp <karp at uw.edu.pl> wrote:

> Except that we want to see in this particular ruler a deeply
> compassionate humanist, who wouldn't hesitate to part with some of his gold to just better the life of his elderly subjects.

It would be pleasant to see the jolly old king caring for the elderly, just as it would be pleasant to see Gotama the ascetic as a radical social reformer determined to ban caste and achieve gender equality. Some would even like to see a vegan Gotama eschewing meat, honey, wool, milk and such unseemly vegetables as leeks and garlic. This is where ideology and political taste trump historical probability. 

And yet, the older I get the less I care about historical accuracy. The way Gotama and the genocidal kings who admired him most probably really were fails to inspire me. Who needs heroes who are human, all too human? The radical firebrand socialist buddha who cared for the disenfranchised and downtrodden needn't have existed to fill me with admiration. Existence, I fear, is terribly overrated as a virtue. So I say do what all generations have done with the edicts carved in stone: make up a meaning that appeals to you and don't change it until you need some other translation to inspire you. 

Richard