Yamabe, Nobuyoshi. "Indian Myth Transformed in a Chinese Apocryphal Text: Two Stories on the Buddha’s Hidden Organ." In India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought, 61-80. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press: 2013.
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Expanding upon his doctoral work [https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/38/] Yamabe examines two narratives in order to argue for Indic influence on the Guan Fo sanmei hai jing 觀佛三昧海經 T643. In the first narrative, a group of prostitutes come to a town where the Buddha is residing and cause havoc. The Buddha agrees to teach them, but they ignore his teachings, jeer at him, and imply that he is impotent. In response he first conjures an elephant with a white lotus reaching the ground between its hind legs, and then a horse-king with an extended organ reaching to its knees. Finally, he shows them his own cosmically magnificent penis, from which ten billion emanation Buddhas appear, each of which is served by ten billion bodhisattvas and a boundless assembly. These ten billion phallic Buddhas reprimand the prostitutes, and the prostitutes consequently all reach various degrees of spiritual attainment. Yamabe sees this emphasis on the Buddha’s organ and virility to be unusual for pre-Tantric Buddhist texts, as well as for Chinese Buddhism, and thus connects this enormous glorification of the male organ to Śaivite linga narratives (although he does not identify an exactly corresponding source), and Indic ithyphallic art. In addition, he connects this narrative in T643 to a passage in the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa 大智度論 T1509. T1509 discusses the Buddha’s hidden male organ, which the text describes as like those of "a well-tamed elephant-treasure and a horse-treasure." The text asks further, "When the bodhisattva attains the supreme awakening, in what situation do the disciples see the mark of the hidden male organ? He shows the mark of the hidden male organ in order to resolve people’s doubt. Other people say: The Buddha magically creates an elephant-treasure and a horse-treasure and, showing them to his disciples, he says: 'The mark of my hidden male organ is like those.” The second narrative tells of a lascivious prostitute who does not respect the Buddha. In response to her disinterest in him, the Buddha emanates three young men, and the woman has sex with one of them. After three days her desire is sated, but the boy will not stop. Her lust turns to pain, the boy eventually dies, and she remains locked in coitus to his decaying body. According to Yamabe, the motif of the corpse sticking to the body also can be traced to Śaivist origin. Additionally, he compares this motif to the Aśokāvadāna, in which Upagupta conjures a wreath of dead bodies which stick to Māra until he converts. According to Yamabe these commonalities mean that the authors of T643 “must have had direct contact with people from western regions who were followers of Shaivite traditions.” At the same time, he adds, these authors “seem to have relied heavily on Chinese Buddhist texts.” In other words, the basic motifs are Indian, but the authors “freely put together elements taken from Chinese Buddhist texts and invent their own stories.” |
61-80 |
Expanding upon his doctoral work [https://dazangthings.nz/cbc/source/38/] Yamabe examines two narratives in order to argue for Indic influence on the Guan Fo sanmei hai jing 觀佛三昧海經 T643. In the first narrative, a group of prostitutes come to a town where the Buddha is residing and cause havoc. The Buddha agrees to teach them, but they ignore his teachings, jeer at him, and imply that he is impotent. In response he first conjures an elephant with a white lotus reaching the ground between its hind legs, and then a horse-king with an extended organ reaching to its knees. Finally, he shows them his own cosmically magnificent penis, from which ten billion emanation Buddhas appear, each of which is served by ten billion bodhisattvas and a boundless assembly. These ten billion phallic Buddhas reprimand the prostitutes, and the prostitutes consequently all reach various degrees of spiritual attainment. Yamabe sees this emphasis on the Buddha’s organ and virility to be unusual for pre-Tantric Buddhist texts, as well as for Chinese Buddhism, and thus connects this enormous glorification of the male organ to Saivite linga narratives (although he does not identify an exactly corresponding source), and Indic ithyphallic art. In addition, he connects this narrative in T643 to a passage in the *Mahaprajnaparamitopadesa 大智度論 T1509. T1509 discusses the Buddha’s hidden male organ, which the text describes as like those of "a well-tamed elephant-treasure and a horse-treasure." The text asks further, "When the bodhisattva attains the supreme awakening, in what situation do the disciples see the mark of the hidden male organ? He shows the mark of the hidden male organ in order to resolve people’s doubt. Other people say: The Buddha magically creates an elephant-treasure and a horse-treasure and, showing them to his disciples, he says: 'The mark of my hidden male organ is like those.” The second narrative tells of a lascivious prostitute who does not respect the Buddha. In response to her disinterest in him, the Buddha emanates three young men, and the woman has sex with one of them. After three days her desire is sated, but the boy will not stop. Her lust turns to pain, the boy eventually dies, and she remains locked in coitus to his decaying body. According to Yamabe, the motif of the corpse sticking to the body also can be traced to Saivist origin. Additionally, he compares this motif to the Asokavadana, in which Upagupta conjures a wreath of dead bodies which stick to Mara until he converts. According to Yamabe these commonalities mean that the authors of T643 “must have had direct contact with people from western regions who were followers of Shaivite traditions.” At the same time, he adds, these authors “seem to have relied heavily on Chinese Buddhist texts.” In other words, the basic motifs are Indian, but the authors “freely put together elements taken from Chinese Buddhist texts and invent their own stories.” T0643; 佛說觀佛三昧海經 T1509; 大智度論 |