Buddhist mythology | Wikipedia audio article
Channel: wikipedia tts
Date: 2018-12-17

This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Buddhist mythology


00:02:13 1 The myth of the Buddha's life
00:02:22 1.1 The life of the Buddha in early texts
00:04:20 1.2 The extended life of the Buddha in Jātakas
00:06:58 1.3 In Vinaya texts
00:08:43 1.4 In post-Ashokan texts
00:12:22 2 Other Indian Buddhist myths
00:12:32 2.1 Past and future Buddhas
00:13:59 2.2 Kings, saints and gods
00:16:40 2.3 Sectarian myths
00:19:56 3 Mahāyāna mythology
00:24:20 4 Forms of myth
00:24:29 4.1 Literature
00:26:08 4.2 Performance
00:27:08 4.3 Art
00:28:30 5 Themes
00:28:39 5.1 Renunciation
00:29:37 5.2 Awakening and final Nirvana
00:31:19 5.3 Geography and Cosmology
00:34:32 5.4 Psychology and virtues
00:35:34 5.5 Kingship and politics
00:39:30 5.6 Manhood and physical prowess
00:42:30 5.7 Women and gender
00:46:15 5.8 Animals
00:47:40 5.9 Extraordinary beings
00:49:27 5.10 Symbols
00:50:36 5.11 Myth and ritual
00:51:57 6 Interpretations of Buddhist myth
00:52:08 6.1 Emic interpretations
00:53:37 6.2 Modern Etic interpretations
00:55:43 7 Mythology in Contemporary Buddhism
00:55:53 7.1 Hagiographies of Buddhist saints
00:57:43 7.2 Contemporary depictions in media
00:58:37 7.3 Buddhist themes in contemporary media
00:59:18 8 See also



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"The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."
- Socrates



SUMMARY
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The Buddhist traditions have created and maintained a vast body of mythological literature. The central myth of Buddhism is the life of the Buddha. This is told in relatively realistic terms in the earliest texts, and was soon elaborated into a complex literary mythology. The chief motif of this story, and the most distinctive feature of Buddhist myth, is the Buddha's renunciation: leaving his home and family for a spiritual quest. Alongside this central myth, the traditions contain large numbers of smaller stories, which are usually supposed to convey an ethical or Buddhist teaching. These include the popular Jātakas, folk tales or legends believed to be past lives of Gautama Buddha. Since these are regarded as episodes in the life of the Buddha, they are treated here as “myth”, rather than distinguishing between myth, legend, and folk-tale.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. This creative mythology continues to this day, and includes film, television, and musical adaptions of Buddhist myths.
Myth has always been an important part of the way Buddhists see themselves and form communities. Attitudes to myths vary, with some people seeing the stories as entirely factual, while others see them as symbolic. In this article, as in scholarly study of mythology generally, the use of the term “myth” does not imply a value or truth judgement. Rather, it refers to the study of sacred stories and their meaning within a community.  
Scholars have long recognized that Buddhism contains one of the world’s great mythologies. TW Rhys Davids said that the Jātakas are “the most reliable, the most complete, and the most ancient collection of folklore now extant in any literature in the world.” CAF Rhys Davids said that the Jātakas are “collectively the greatest epic, in literature, of the Ascent of Man”. Joseph Campbell discussed the life of the Buddha extensively in his The Hero with a Thousand Faces, relying on the later Buddha legends. However, modern examination of Buddhist mythology is rare, and critics have argued that the emphasis on rationality in Buddhist modernism has obscured the role of mythology in Buddhist communities both past and present.