Buddhist poetry
The first examples of Buddhist poetry can be found in traditional scriptures such as the Dhammapada, according to which, Siddhārtha Gautama (the founder of Buddhism), upon his reaching enlightenment, proclaimed: Anekajātisaṁsāraṁ, sandhāvissaṁ anibbisaṁ;
Gahakāraka diṭṭhosi, puna gehaṁ na kāhasi; Sabbā te phāsukā bhaggā, gahakūṭaṁ visaṅkhataṁ; Visaṅkhāragataṁ cittaṁ, taṇhānaṁ khayamajjhagā.
An additional collection of scriptures concerning the role and abilities of women in the early Sangha is found in the fifth division of the Samyutta Nikaya, known as the Bhikkhunī-Saṃyutta "Nun's discourse".
Several Buddhist authors specialized in mixed verse-prose compositions, often re-telling traditional stories about the Buddha's previous births (jātaka).
Haribhaṭṭa's collection includes a concise version of the life story of Śākyamuni Buddha; he describes Māra's dejection after understanding the Buddha's victory and superiority in the following verse: evam ukte 'tha śākyendre 'dhomukhaḥ kusumāyudhaḥ hato 'ham iti kāṣṭhena viṣasāda mahīṃ likhan After the Lord of the Śākyas had said this, the Flower-Arrows god, face downcast, thinking "I am undone", sank down, writing on the earth with a stick.
The patron of the great Chinese monk Xuanzang composed the Nāgānanda,[21] an outstanding drama based on the traditional story of Jīmūtavāhana, prince of the Vidyādharas.
While perfectly at ease within the conventions of court poetry, including the depiction of love and attraction, Harṣadeva's Nāgānanda is suffused with Buddhist reflections on compassion and on the futility of hatred, and on impermanence and the inevitability of death.
The following words are spoken by a brave Nāga boy to his mother, who is suffering from extreme sorrow as her child will soon be sacrificed to the voracious bird Garuḍa: kroḍīkaroti prathamaṃ yadā jātam anityatā dhātrīva jananī paścāt tadā śokasya kaḥ kramaḥ Impermanence embraces the new-born, like a midwife, first, and the mother, afterwards: what proper place is there for sorrow?
Ārya Śāntideva's "Entrance into the practice of the Bodhisattvas" (Bodhicaryāvatāra) [25] partly resembles a collection of good sayings, yet in many ways defies classification.
These letters exemplify the friendly and respectful relationship between Buddhist masters and their patrons, who received advice on a number of different topics, both worldly and supramundane.
Mātr̥ceṭa's verses use accessible language, with strong echoes from different types of Buddhist literature, and transmit a sense of great devotion all the more highlighted by the poet's restrained and measured diction: samyaksaṃbodhibījasya cittaratnasya tasya te tvam eva vīra sārajño dūre tasyetaro janaḥ[29] Seed of perfect awakening, gem of your mind: you, hero, know its essence, others – are far.
Two notable works on Sanskrit poetry are the Chandoratnākara of Ratnākaraśānti [30] and the Vr̥ttamālāstuti of Jñānaśrīmitra,[31] by two great contemporary Vikramaśīla masters who were active on several intellectual fronts and well-known exponents of Yogācāra thought.
A simple example, for the śaraṇa meter: prasīda bhagavan vilokaya manāk jaḍaṁ janam imam tvadekaśaraṇam[32] Be well-disposed, Bhagavat!
Sanskrit meters and poetic conventions were more broadly very influential throughout South-East Asia even in respect to vernacular languages (Thai, Burmese, etc.
Notable are the "Songs of Practice" (Caryāgīti [33]), written in Apabhraṁśa rather than Sanskrit, and including among their authors the "Great Accomplished Ones" (mahāsiddha), such as Saraha, Śāntipā, and many others.
Among the most famous poets who wrote shakkyōka are: Saigyō; Jakuren; Kamo no Chōmei; Fujiwara no Shunzei; Jien; Nōin; Dōgen, Ton'a, etc.
One of the most famous collections of Japanese tanka of the Kamakura period, the Hyakunin Isshu contains several shakkyōka, for instance Poem 95, by Jien (also anthologized in the Senzai Wakashū: 巻十七, 雑中, No.
おほけなく うき世の民に おほふかな わがたつそまに 墨染の袖 Unworthy though I am, I cast my black robe of a monk Upon this suffering world, Living here On the Mount of Timber.
renga shichiken 連歌七賢) of the Muromachi period,[47] Sōgi, and still later, Matsuo Bashō, Kobayashi Issa, among many others, carried on the tradition of Buddhist poetry with their compositions.
[48] The nostalgic feeling of the ancient capital, Nara – interspersed with the scent of chrysanthemums (symbol of Japanese monarchy) and the old Buddha statues – captures well the aesthetic ideals of sabi and yūgen in this famous haiku.
Buddhas, emperors, passage of time, the ethereal beauty of flowers that presents itself obliquely, i.e., appealing to scent rather than sight – all suggest that the poet sought to use language as a medium of condensed imagery to map an immediate experience, whose richness can only be read in the blanks.
Issa Here the poet uses the image of evanescence of our world, the dewdrop – one of the classical allegories of the Buddhist teaching – to express grief caused by the death of his daughter.
In theory, Buddhism teaches its followers to regard all the vicissitudes of life as transitory and ephemeral, akin to magic apparitions without substance or dewdrops soon to evaporate under the sun.
[49] As Japan reached the era of industrialized modernity, many of the poets of the Meiji period started to experiment with the European styles of poetic composition.
His Ame ni mo Makezu (雨ニモマケズ), known to practically every Japanese today,[50] takes its theme (Chapter 14: Peaceful and Joyous Deeds / Jp.
Originally written in man'yōgana and attributed to Kūkai, this Buddhist poem contains every kana precisely once, and is learned in Japanese primary schools mainly for this reason.
