[Buddha-l] Non attached & mindful culinary triumphalism?

[Dan Lusthaus]

> Maybe it would help if we had the Chinese version of the leper's
> finger story. Did it get passed on into China, as did
> Angulimala's story? 

Not that I am aware of. But before we relegate this type of story to fairy tale land, it might be useful to point out that there is a kind of genre to this sort of story, and gruesome and gory tales are especially prominent in jataka literature.

There are other leper stories as well. For instance, in the Dazhidu lun, the Prajnaparamita commentary produced by Kumarajiva attributed to Nagarjuna, in the 12 fascicle (T.25.1509.146b11-19), there is the story of the Crown Prince "Moonlight" (Yueguang Taizi 月光太子), who meets a leper, and vowing to find a cure for him, inquires of various doctors, who prescribe that he give the leper his blood and marrow to drink (and smear over him), which he does.

The explicit moral being 'generosity' even to one's own flesh (breaking one's own bones open to extract the marrow).

Oh, incidentally, the leper is explicitly identified as a 旃陀羅 caṇḍāla in the story.

Dan