[Buddha-l] Another One Bites the Dust

[Joy Vriens]

Hi Jo,

True, I left out the ascetics of other faiths who were jealous of the 
Buddha's success and who would have encouraged her to do so, but isn't 
that simply the basic conspiracy theory? This Cincamanavika certainly 
seemed to know a lot of ascetics, Buddhist or otherwise. One may wonder 
what was the nature of the relationship between this obviously non 
virtuous woman hanging around viharas and all these ascetics? And you 
are right, why didn't anything happen to those who had the idea of 
conspiring against the Buddhist sangha? The Buddhist ascetics and the 
ascetics of other faiths (plural) do make me think of guilds (Schopen) 
who were in competition with each other and try to attack the others' 
reputation and to compromise each other by any means (what happens in 
the media is nothing new IMO). But as a group or a guild they don't seem 
to be accountable. They come up with the idea, bribe a person, and that 
person gets the full load of karma? At least judging by the story. Where 
is karma when one needs it? How come groups/corporates go free? Is it 
because of corporate law or guild law? All is fair in business between 
guilds?  Don't we need to update and re-molarize moralistic folklore a 
bit? :-)

Instead of an innocent/defenseless woman Cincamanavika may well have 
been the local prostitute. The end of the story could even be an 
indication for her being lynched by the mob. "Some of them spat on her 
and drove her out. She ran as fast as she could, and when she had gone 
some distance the earth cracked and fissured and she was swallowed up." 
She is obviously demonized in the story, and that is how "demons" come 
to their end. The earth cracking and fissuring and swallowing her up is 
where the story crosses over to the myth, because the real end is too 
horrible to be told... That's another reading à la Girard ;-)

Yes these stories are moralistic folklore, but unfortunately they are 
more popular (even with well educated Westerners) than solid Buddhism. 
Don't we all love gossip, speculation and conspiracy theories? I know I do!

Joy

Le 05/03/2013 16:22, Jo a écrit :
> However, Joy, you left out of this account the perpetrator who bribed her to
> do it. So you can add to your 'take' on this story that she was obviously a
> poor defenseless woman, else she'd not be bribable.
> But along with the sexism of the day, she gets the punishment, not the man
> who inveigled her into doing it.
> I prefer to view such stories as moralistic folklore.
>