Author: M G Chitkara
Publisher: APH Publishing Corporation
Year: 2000
Language: English
Pages: 680
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8176481890
Description
As part of 21-Volume series, this book points out that centuries pass but the stupa and its legends endure. Because legends and folk tales of divinity are so much more readable than a thousand scriptures though they both signpost a path to that which is everlasting.
Scriptures require the skills of interpreters. Legends need only a mother and a child and a story. Faith follows.
Myth is from the Greek term mythos meaning legend. The history of Buddha is not a myth. Myth is a sacred narrative, from which legends and fairy tales are not always clearly distinguishable. In a common tradition of analysis, myth is above all explanatory is myths. The anthropological study of myth links with psychological, literary, and classical studies, and with political science and sociology. In the latter, myth is often no longer a sacred narrative but, so to say, a whole value-bestowing area of belief.
Mythology relating to Lamaism is fascinating field for exploring the primitive conceptions of life, and the way in which the great forces of nature become deified. IT also shows the gradual growth of legend and idolatry, with its diagrams of the unknown and fetishes. And how Buddhism with its creative touch bodied forth in concrete shape the abstract conceptions of the learned and, while incorporating into its pantheon the local gods of the country, it gave milder meanings to the popular myths and legends.
Sacred space, as a place of crossing over, a tirtha-which means a ford, either as it exists in a permanent or semi-permanent location or as it is set up for the short duration of a ritual ceremony, or as a place to visited : is a microcosm, it is a reflection of the whole. The whole exists within each small space, within each significant fragment, because each of these reproduces the whole. So we see that while ordinary space does not, cannot allow for this.
Everyday time, through ritual, becomes transfigured, consecrated; remembered because repeated and therefore repeatable forever. The periodic recurrence of anything signifies primarily that a mythical time is made present, and then can be used indefinitely.
Contents
Introduction
Myths Illuminate
Legends, Myths & Folklore
Living Power Behind Symbol
Every Religion Has Distinct Mythology
A Revolutionary Concept of Socio-spiritual Engineering
The Pathless Path to Truth
Siddhartha to Buddha
Creation of Universe
Shambhala: A Mythical Land
The Jataka Legend: Some Reflections
Appraisal & Sum up
Bibliography
Index