being for the Ultimate Reality, the Unconditioned.
It’s also worth noting how closely this chapter does
represent the traditional Hindu expression of things; for example,
again from Bk. 5 of the Katha Upanishad: “There is one Ruler,
the Spirit that is in all things, who transforms His own form into
many... He is the Eternal among things that pass away, pure
Consciousness of conscious beings, the ONE who fulfils the
prayers of many.”
CHAPTER 39: THE DUSK OF THE WORLDS
1. Page 309, THE DUSK OF THE WORLDS… The title of
this chapter — ‘Weltendämmerung’ in the original German —
obliquely reflects K.G.’s interest in the philosopher Schopenhauer
and the thought that was influenced by him.
The finale of the great operatic cycle ‘The Ring,’ by Richard
Wagner (who, along with Friedrich Nietzsche, was known to refer to
Schopenhauer as ‘The Master’) is called ‘Götterdämmerung,’ ‘The
Twilight of the Gods’ — the term refers to Ragnarok, the day of doom
in the Norse myths, when the old world and all its inhabitants are
annihilated. Out of the destruction a new world is born, a world
at peace.
Incidentally, it seems that Deussen (so belovèd of K.G.) was
also a disciple of Schopenhauer: his Sixty Upanishads of the Veda is
dedicated: “To the spiritual ancestors of Arthur Schopenhauer,” the
epigraph is a quote from him and he is given a central place in the
Foreword to that volume.
2. Page 309, After he had observed the Brahmā… for five
millions of years… In Buddhist cosmology, the life‐span of beings
gets longer and longer as one ascends into worlds higher than the
human state, just as it gets longer the deeper into the hells one
descends (see Chapter 34, note §6). For example:
A day in the Tāvatimsa heaven = 100 human years; a lifespan,
36,000,000 human years.
A day in the Yāma heaven = 200 human years; a lifespan,
144,000,000 human years.
A day in the Heaven of the Contented = 400 human years;
a lifespan, 576,000,000 human years.
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A day in the Heaven of Those Who Delight in Creating = 800
human years; a lifespan, 2,304,000,000 human years.
A day in the Heaven of Those Who Delight in the Creations
of Others = 1600 human years; a lifespan, 9,216,000,000 human years.
The lifespans of those in the brahmā realms range from a
paltry 83⅓ Great Æons ( Mahā‐kalpa) for the lowest levels of the
Worlds of Form (Rūpa‐loka), to 16,000 Great Æons at its top; the
lives of those in the Formless Realms (Arūpa‐loka) meanwhile, go
from a decent 20,000 Great Æons at its lowest level, to a full 84,000
for those in the most refined realms of all.
Our Hundred‐thousandfold Brahmā would thus expect to
have a life of about 250 Great Æons, or one ‘Incalculable Period’
(Asankheyya kalpa). A passage that mentions these figures for some
of the upper realms is found at §114 of the ‘Book of the Threes,’
A 3.114.
3. Page 311, ‘Upward to heaven’s sublimest light, life
presses — then decays… Once again, like the verse on the
‘Flowers of Paradise’ (see Chapter 30, note §3) this has the look of
an utterance of the Buddha but is not known in this form in the
Pāli scriptures, it is thus likely to be another of K.G.’s creations. In
the Tibetan tradition there is a parallel, however, in a text called ‘The
Treasury of Qualities’:
“Even Brahmā, Indra, Shambhu and the universal monarchs
Have no way to evade the Demon of Death.”
4. Page 312, ‘Where want is, there noise is; but abundance is
tranquil… This phrase comes from the Sutta Nipāta:
Listen to the sound of water.
Listen to the water running through the chasms and the rocks.
It is the minor streams that make a loud noise;
the great waters flow silently.
The hollow resounds and the full is still.
Foolishness is like a half‐filled pot;
the wise man is a lake full of water.
SN 720‐21, Ven H. Saddhatissa trans.
452
It is also reminiscent of:
On hearing the Teachings,
the wise become perfectly purified
like a lake; deep, clear and still…”
Dhp. 82
5. Page 313 as if the God with a hundred giant arms were seek‐
ing the invisible foe who was besetting him… In this reaction, the
deity is handling the situation very differently than King Pasenadi, as
described in the ‘Simile of Mountains,’ at S 3.25.
The Buddha asks the king what he would do if he heard that
from each of the four quarters, “a great mountain, high as the clouds”
was approaching “crushing all living beings”?
The wise king responded: “If such a great peril should
arise… what else should be done but to live by the Dhamma, to live
righteously, and to do wholesome and meritorious deeds.”
“I inform you, great king… ageing and death are rolling in
on you. When ageing and death are rolling in on you, great king,
what should be done?”
King Pasenadi then responds by saying exactly the same as he
did before: “…what else should be done but to live by the Dhamma to
live righteously, and to do wholesome and meritorious deeds.”
(Bhikkhu Bodhi trans.)
CHAPTER 40: IN THE GROVE OF KRISHNA
1. Page 315, Enormous crowds of people… demanded
threateningly that King Udena… In the original sutta it is
King Pasenadi who is appealed to thus by the mob since this
incident is placed in the kingdom of Kosala; the capital city there
was Sāvatthi (see M 86.8, Appendix 3). King Udena was the ruler
of Vamsā, the capital of which was indeed Kosambī.
2. Page 319, King Udena mounted his state elephant, the
celebrated Bhaddavatikā… This was indeed the name of a
famous elephant belonging to King Udena. He used her to elope
with his beloved Princess Vasuladattā, when winning her from
the protection of her father, King Candapajjota.
Bhaddavatikā’s story is mentioned in the prologue to one
of the ‘Birth Stories,’ the Dalhadhamma Jātaka (Jat. §409).
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