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language" as opposed to everyday language. He assumes that certain aspects of Buddhist teaching are unintelligible unless they are assumed to be symbolic. He cites as an example the attempt by Mara and his daughters to distract Buddha in his meditations. Mara is a personification of unwholesome thoughts. The three names of his daughters are Tantra, Arati, and Rati which Pali terms stand for craving, discontent and desire. The story of Mara and his three daughters represents symbolically the events that occur in the mind of the meditator. As Buddhadasa says this account of Mara symbolizes the arising of distracting thoughts or any mental state opposed to spiritual progress. Similarly he identifies the various hells and heavens of the Buddhist cosmology with states of consciousness. In short, the necessary information for the meditator is there in the unintelligible teaching of the Tri-pitaka, but concealed in symbolic language. The Zen Buddhists use a term koan to refer to a paradoxical expression or question or action of the master. 3. The Purpose of the Twilight Language
Twilight language is a purposely created mode of communication. Its purpose is to seek, to search for, to enquire after the meaning behind the hidden language. In fact, it is a sort of technical language, whose technique is to express in words that which is beyond expression. The purpose of rendering great truths in symbolic, yet simple language is:
1. To prevent the uninitiated from comprehending the hidden
meaning by making them satisfied with the superficial meaning; to preserve the real message intact by making the people sing them in popular folk song forms so that the message may survive beyond any breaks in the line of oral transmission and to facilitate rediscovery at a later time; that is, to ensure against the loss of the precious teaching; to make the message reach anyone who is interested in it without discrimination of sex, or caste;
to camouflage such instructions as may be resented by the orthodox publice; to express the highest experiences of the mind since common parlance is not adequate?; to entice people from orthodox observance and to lure them into the Tantric webR; to use it as a mnemonic device”;
6.
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| SR No. | 007005 |
| Book Title | World of Philosophy |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave |
| Publisher | Shanti Prakashan |
| Publication Year | 2011 |
| Total Pages | 1002 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 30 MB |