Buddhist mythology
[1] Buddhist mythology is maintained in texts, but these have always existed alongside oral traditions of storytelling, as well as creative retellings of myths as drama or artworks.
As noted by scholars such as Thomas Rhys Davids, the earliest texts of Buddhism (such as the Nikāyas and Āgamas) do not present a single coherent and systematic biography of the Buddha.
Bhikkhu Sujato has shown that the events of the Buddha's life in the early texts fulfill almost all the stages of Campbell's Hero's Journey, despite the fact that they are not arranged as a coherent narrative.
These later works also show a much greater emphasis on the miraculous and extraordinary character of the Buddha, as they depict him more like a godlike being in contrast to the earlier texts.
Various figures other than the Buddha appear in these myths, including Buddhist kings, important monastics and saints, as well as heavenly beings or gods (devas).
Such sectarian myths also typically include an account of how the Dharma triumphed over primitive and violent religious cults, especially human or animal sacrifice in worship of yakkhas.
[41] The Sarvāstivādins located their origins in the time of Ashoka, claiming to be the true Dharma that spread to Kashmir when Buddhism in the Middle Country had become corrupt.
The Mahāyānists needed to address the fact that their texts were unknown in the initial period of Buddhism, and developed stories such as that they had been hidden in the realm of the nagas (snake-like supernatural beings) until people wise enough to understand them were born.
For example, the Pali text called the Bodhivamsa describes the bringing of a cutting from the Bodhi tree to Sri Lanka, while the Thūpavaṃsa tells the story of the Mahathupa ('Great Stupa') at Anuradhapura.
[45] In one version of the myth translated by Ronald M. Davidson, it states that during the Buddha's time, nobody was ready for tantra on earth, so it was taught in Tusita heaven.
Some of these beings, such as Tara, Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri and Vajrapani, while not yet Buddhas, have developed extraordinary godlike powers by reaching the highest bodhisattva level.
[48] Other bodhisattvas are depicted as being still in the process of developing their skill in means (upaya) such as Sudhana of the Gaṇḍavyūha Sutra, and thus their stories serve as spiritual bildungsroman.
Biographies of the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna for example, depict him as a great brahmin sorcerer with powerful magics who made himself and his friends invisible once to enter a palace and violate the women.
[56] Another very popular example of East Asian Buddhist myth is contained in one of China's classical novels, Journey to the West, which developed around stories of the Chinese monk Xuanzang and his travels to India.
Drawing on the already elaborate literary heritage of Indian Buddhism, Aśvaghoṣa employed a huge vocabulary and complex poetic methods to create sophisticated texts for the enjoyment of an educated class.
This tradition remains active in Southeast Asian countries today, where Jātakas tales are performed in theater, dance and recitations during certain special occasions like during Buddhist holidays.
She, as an elder deity, has borne witness to the bodhisattva's heroic deeds in the countless past lives as depicted in the Jātakas, and testifies to this fact, dispelling the forces of darkness.
Buddhist cosmology has an expansive view of time and space, with multiple world systems (lokāḥ) divided into different planes of existence (dhātus) which go back countless eons (kalpas).
If he remains in the home, he will become a righteous universal emperor or "wheel turning monarch" (Pali: Cakkavatti; Sanskrit: Cakravartin), while if he chooses the way of renunciation he will become a Buddha.
In his translation of the Mahājanaka Jātaka, for example, the ending was changed so that the bodhisattva no longer renounced the throne, but remained and educated his people in preserving the environment.
This text tells the tale of the revered King Duṭṭhagaminī who expelled the Tamil invaders and felt remorse for killing, a violation of the most fundamental Buddhist precept.
"[77] The depictions of his ascetic training as well as his victory over the temptations of Mara and his final awakening are also often described as a result of his manly effort in a heroic battle.
Another story from the Vimalakirti sutra has a goddess transform Sariputra into a woman to prove that gender is merely an empty conceptual construction with no real basis.
[87] These negative attitudes towards women continue to influence contemporary Buddhist cultures, where it is widely believed that birth as a woman is due to bad karma.
Worship of the tooth relic is ultimately derived from the closing passages of the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta, which tell of the distribution of the Buddha's physical remains after his cremation.
Although the Vinaya texts describing ordination depict it as a simple, almost bureaucratic, procedure, some Buddhist cultures have rituals in which they dress the candidate up like a prince and parade him through the streets in a reenactment of the renunciation of the Buddha.
As a result, many contemporary forms of Buddhism influenced by Buddhist modernism rarely pay much attention to myth or tend to downplay their importance, seeing them as later "accretions" or "distortions".
These stories typically draw on basic elements of the hero's journey as exemplified in the Buddha's life: special signs in youth, renunciation, struggle, awakening, teaching, and establishing a legacy.
[102] It established many of the standard features of such biographies: accounts of struggles with sexual temptation, meeting with tigers and ghosts in the forest, and exciting tales of psychic or meditative prowess.
"Journey to the West"), also known by its English title 'Monkey', was a Japanese TV series that told the story of the pilgrimage of Xuan Zang to the India to retrieve the Buddhist sutras.
