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The title might be translated "inspired utterances". The book comprises 80 such utterances, most in verse, each preceded by a narrative giving the context in which the Buddha uttered it. The famous story of the Blind men and an elephant appears in Udana, under Tittha Sutta (Ud. 6.4). [1]
While the language is not identical to what Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the same broad language family as those he might have used and originates from the same conceptual matrix. This language thus reflects the thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture into which he was born, so that its words ...
However, the phrase "twilight language" continues to be used by many Western writers. For example, according to Judith Simmer-Brown : As has often been said, tantric texts are written in "twilight language" ( sandha-bhasa , gongpay-kay ), which, as the Hevajra tantra states, is a "secret language, that great convention of the yoginis , which ...
In SN 48.43, the Buddha declares that the five strengths are the five spiritual faculties and vice versa. He uses the metaphor of a stream passing by a mid-stream island; the island creates two streams, but the streams can also be seen as one and the same. [4]
Different genres comprise the Early Buddhist texts, including prose "suttas" (Skt: sūtra, discourses), monastic rules (), various forms of verse compositions (such as gāthā and udāna), mixed prose and verse works (geya), and also lists (matika) of monastic rules or doctrinal topics.
The language used by this approach is primarily negative, and the Tathagatagarbha genre of sutras can be seen as an attempt to state orthodox Buddhist teachings of dependent origination using positive language instead, to prevent people from being turned away from Buddhism by a false impression of nihilism. In these sutras the perfection of the ...
According to Paul Williams, in Mahāyāna, a Buddha is often seen as "a spiritual king, relating to and caring for the world", rather than simply a teacher who after his death "has completely 'gone beyond' the world and its cares". [65] Buddha Sakyamuni's life and death on earth is then usually understood as a "mere appearance", his death is an ...
Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it is likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardisation. The sangha wandered throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vassa rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely travelled.