428
inclined toward the Self, it is clear from the history of ethics that autobiography and
all progress toward self-improvement relies, however grudgingly, on the recognition
of other life-forms.
We are part of a biological whole, whether we like it or not; believe in it or not.
The rogue has a muddied biography, although life for most is unfair and truncated
enough that the solitary sphere of activity might die out prior to realizing that others
have meaning; that our actions have never been independent of the actions of others.
As Oscar Wilde suggested, all of our diaries, passions, quotable remarks, could have
come from anyone else. Even from a Buddha.
Indeed, as with every charismatic historical figure, the spotlight casts an enormous burden. The shadows of the highest peaks are a deafening roar within silence
(Fig. 47.1).
47.2 Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment
The theme of Gautama Buddha (Sakyamuni, fifth to fourth century BCE) emerging
from a mountain cave after 6 years of solitude and austerities (Shih-chia ch’u-shan)
took on especial significance in the Ch’an School of Buddhism during the Northern
Song dynasty in China (960–1127). The theme, which would carry over for many
centuries in both China and then Japan—continuing to do so in any number of relevant guises—is termed Shussan no Shaka in Japan, where scores of copies of the
original Chinese paintings were executed as part of the Zen (principally Rinzai)
attraction to this profound storyline. There is Buddha standing weary, perplexed,
windblown and in tatters (either enlightened or not yet enlightened) before the
mountain habitat of his years-long retreat.
3
This great juncture in his life is first suggested in a document from the second
century CE. Namely, that even by then, nearly 500–700 years after Gautama’s death
and reincarnation, there existed a belief that the Buddha (Sakyamuni after Shakya,
the sixth-century BC Ancient Vedic Kingdom—now in Nepal—where he was born)
had retreated for 6 years into a mountain wilderness, a period of deep meditation
that would change the course of his life, and to some extent of humanity’s. The
3 See,”Shussan Shaka In Sung And Yüan Painting,” By Helmut Brinker, Ars Orientalis, Vol. 9, 1973,
Freer Gallery of Art Fiftieth Anniversary Volume (1973), pp. 21–40, Published by: Freer Gallery of
Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629268, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629268?seq=31#metadata_
info_tab_contents; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liang_Kai-Shakyamuni_Emerging_
from_the_Mountains.jpg,
http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-liang-kai-sakyamuni.
php; ca. 1201-04, and signed Yüch’ien t’u-hua Liang K’ai, “Painter-in-Attendance” at the Imperial
Academy of Hang-chou during the Chia-t’ai era. See Brinker, p. 30. The painting is infinitely richer
in respect to the actual portrait of the Buddha, and details of the landscape, compared, for example
with the contemporaneous Shussan Shaka by Ma Lin; or of the same period K o
zanji workshop, or
later anonymous ink monochrome Kano School handscrolls after the same motif; See Brinker,
plates 1-7, and 9.
47 Sakya Coming Out of His Mountain Retreat
inclined toward the Self, it is clear from the history of ethics that autobiography and
all progress toward self-improvement relies, however grudgingly, on the recognition
of other life-forms.
We are part of a biological whole, whether we like it or not; believe in it or not.
The rogue has a muddied biography, although life for most is unfair and truncated
enough that the solitary sphere of activity might die out prior to realizing that others
have meaning; that our actions have never been independent of the actions of others.
As Oscar Wilde suggested, all of our diaries, passions, quotable remarks, could have
come from anyone else. Even from a Buddha.
Indeed, as with every charismatic historical figure, the spotlight casts an enormous burden. The shadows of the highest peaks are a deafening roar within silence
(Fig. 47.1).
47.2 Gautama Buddha’s Enlightenment
The theme of Gautama Buddha (Sakyamuni, fifth to fourth century BCE) emerging
from a mountain cave after 6 years of solitude and austerities (Shih-chia ch’u-shan)
took on especial significance in the Ch’an School of Buddhism during the Northern
Song dynasty in China (960–1127). The theme, which would carry over for many
centuries in both China and then Japan—continuing to do so in any number of relevant guises—is termed Shussan no Shaka in Japan, where scores of copies of the
original Chinese paintings were executed as part of the Zen (principally Rinzai)
attraction to this profound storyline. There is Buddha standing weary, perplexed,
windblown and in tatters (either enlightened or not yet enlightened) before the
mountain habitat of his years-long retreat.
3
This great juncture in his life is first suggested in a document from the second
century CE. Namely, that even by then, nearly 500–700 years after Gautama’s death
and reincarnation, there existed a belief that the Buddha (Sakyamuni after Shakya,
the sixth-century BC Ancient Vedic Kingdom—now in Nepal—where he was born)
had retreated for 6 years into a mountain wilderness, a period of deep meditation
that would change the course of his life, and to some extent of humanity’s. The
3 See,”Shussan Shaka In Sung And Yüan Painting,” By Helmut Brinker, Ars Orientalis, Vol. 9, 1973,
Freer Gallery of Art Fiftieth Anniversary Volume (1973), pp. 21–40, Published by: Freer Gallery of
Art, The Smithsonian Institution and Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan,
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629268, https://www.jstor.org/stable/4629268?seq=31#metadata_
info_tab_contents; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liang_Kai-Shakyamuni_Emerging_
from_the_Mountains.jpg,
http://www.chinaonlinemuseum.com/painting-liang-kai-sakyamuni.
php; ca. 1201-04, and signed Yüch’ien t’u-hua Liang K’ai, “Painter-in-Attendance” at the Imperial
Academy of Hang-chou during the Chia-t’ai era. See Brinker, p. 30. The painting is infinitely richer
in respect to the actual portrait of the Buddha, and details of the landscape, compared, for example
with the contemporaneous Shussan Shaka by Ma Lin; or of the same period K o
zanji workshop, or
later anonymous ink monochrome Kano School handscrolls after the same motif; See Brinker,
plates 1-7, and 9.
47 Sakya Coming Out of His Mountain Retreat