[Buddha-l] on anicca, Omar Khayyam style

[Christopher Fynn]

Buddhism & Persian poetry:

"The many Buddhist references in the Persian literature of the period
also provide evidence of this Islamic-Buddhist cultural contact.
Persian poetry, for example, often used the simile for palaces that
they were “as beautiful as a Nowbahar (Nava Vihara).” Further, at Nava
Vihara and Bamiyan, Buddha images, particularly of Maitreya, the
future Buddha, had moon discs behind their heads. This led to the
poetic depiction of pure beauty as someone having “the moon-shaped
face of a Buddha.” Thus, eleventh-century Persian poems, such as Varqe
and Golshah by Ayyuqi, use the word bot with a positive connotation
for “Buddha,” not with its second, derogatory meaning as “idol.” It
implies the ideal of asexual beauty in both men and women. Such
references indicate that either Buddhist monasteries and images were
present in these Iranian cultural areas at least through the early
Mongol period in the thirteenth century or, at minimum, that a strong
Buddhist legacy remained for centuries among the Buddhist converts
there to Islam"


<http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/study/history_buddhism/buddhism_central_asia/history_afghanistan_buddhism.html>



On 12/02/2012, Jo <jkirk at spro.net> wrote:
> Even though I am so precious
>
> And beautiful, like a crystal, or a tulip,
>
> Or a pine tree so green and tall--
>
> I cannot understand why the creator
>
> Made me so precious, yet
>
> After all that work, the potter breaks me down
>
> And finishes me off.
>
>
>
> (The term potter translates literally as 'jug maker')
>
>
>
> (I guess if one imbibes the way Omar did, one does tend to
>
> overrate one's beauty. But language aside, he knew we are
>
> all self-attached. This reminds me of the oft-stated Tibetan
>
> Buddhist phrase, a human life is precious.)
>
> Edited, so to speak, from a translation of the original by an
>
> Iranian friend.
>
> Joanna
>
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