[MD] A formalised Code of Art

[Squonkonguitar at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/10/2006 22:16:18 GMT Standard Time,  
marshalz at charter.net writes:

Mark,

Are you a student of Buddhism or Eastern  Philosophy?

Marsha



Hello Marsha,
I've studied Indian philosophy (Buddhism) at BA and MA level.
 
Nothing the Buddha wrote has been past down to us - there is a gap of  about 
200 years between his death and the formal Pali canon.
Books with titles like, 'What the Buddha said' tell us what was formalised  
from oral transmission of his teaching. The severe repetitious nature of some 
of  his teachings were designed to aid the fidelity of oral transmission, but 
we  don't have any written documents.
The Buddha lived in a culture dominated by very rigid social rituals of  
religious significance, and it was these concrete rituals he attacked with his  
arguments. The Buddha had an audience and he knew what he was doing.
The Buddha is often taken literally when what he is doing is undermining  the 
social codes of his culture through clever word play and imagery. Satire  
plays a large part also.
 
Later thinkers like Nargajuna had to deal with evolutionary developments  
that were not around when the Buddha first taught. Logic and high level  
abstraction are given the Buddha treatment because the project of undermining  
structure with clever argument had already been established.
 
I'm not dismissing the possibility that one may live a life of DQ.
I've never met anyone who does.
I would be suspicious of anyone who claimed they did.
I am convinced however, that art can the job very well indeed, even at  the 
intellectual level.
 
Love,
Mark