Supposedly, today is Buddha's Birthday. There is a "belief" that when he was born dragons flew down from heaven and poured out water and "all the flowers on land and water bloomed simultaneously" [writer's almanac]. As a consequence, people celebrate this day by decorating with flowers, carrying flowers to temples ceremonially, and in Japan children pour tea over the heads of statues of Buddha...
It makes me think: maybe we DO need to canonize scriptures--this is likely not an Essential Buddhist belief, is it? Besides, wouldn't he have been born TOO LATE for Dragons? I suspect that is also why some books were excluded from the Christian canon, e.g., because they held accounts of Jesus' acts or teachings that were markedly inconsistent with what was already accepted and known to have happened...odd, divergent accounts needed to be excluded on the basis they could not be credited...So here we see something in Buddhist lore that [and I realize this festival is probably not canonical for them] that maybe should be viewed as outside the Essential beliefs for Buddhists?...
It makes me think: maybe we DO need to canonize scriptures--this is likely not an Essential Buddhist belief, is it? Besides, wouldn't he have been born TOO LATE for Dragons? I suspect that is also why some books were excluded from the Christian canon, e.g., because they held accounts of Jesus' acts or teachings that were markedly inconsistent with what was already accepted and known to have happened...odd, divergent accounts needed to be excluded on the basis they could not be credited...So here we see something in Buddhist lore that [and I realize this festival is probably not canonical for them] that maybe should be viewed as outside the Essential beliefs for Buddhists?...
Comments
But religion comes alive in our cultural lives. It lives in the rituals and practices that we make part of our everyday practice. It occurs to me that the story of Christ's birth has many of the same trappings as that of the Buddha. For example, I have heard a story about a bearded fellow who travels through the sky in a sleigh pulled by reindeer, and delivers presents to children on the night preceding the anniversary of Christ's birth. It is such a compelling story that even in Japan where the rest of Christianity is no part of the culture, children wake up to presents on Christmas day.
So I would say "Never underestimate the transformative power of a good myth."