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Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

Rude Awakenings - Forest Sangha Publications

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NotesP R E FA C E“The mindful exert themselves...” Dhammapada, verse 91. [Dhp 91].C H A P T E R 1 : P I L G R I M ’ S W AYThe “four signs” (old age, sickness, death, and the samana) are mentioned by the Buddhaas having been witnessed by his (legendary) predecessor, the Buddha Vipassi. See DighaNikaya, Mahapadana Sutta (sutta 14). [DN ii, 22–29]. There is very little autobiographicalor accurate biographical material concerning the Buddha—especially his early life—in the texts that originated during or soon after his lifetime. Much of the personal historyof the Buddha seems to have been created a few hundred years after his death, when thepatronage of Emperor Ashoka had made “Buddhism” a popular religion. People thenneeded a person to hang the teachings on.The Ganges and Indus river systems were receiving and absorbing invasions of outsidepeoples even before the Aryans. Archaeologists now reckon that not only did a civilizedsociety precede the conquest by the then barbaric Aryans more than 4,000 years ago,but there had also been a previous conquest by the peoples that the Aryans overcame.The statistics on the present-day condition of Bihar state came from Muthiah (1990) andBhargava (1989). The potted history of the Ganges plain came from Moon (1989) andSpear (1978). The names Fa Hsien and Hsuan Tsiang (and similar spellings used by others)are, according to modern transliteration of Chinese, spelled Fa-xien and Xuanzang.C H A P T E R 2 : O V E R T H E B O R D E RThe history of the forest tradition in the West is covered by Batchelor (1995) and also bysome of the books produced by Amaravati <strong>Publications</strong> (see Recommended Reading).An account of the pilgrimage from Sussex to Northumberland made by Nick Scott andAjahn Amaro, written by Ajahn Amaro, was published by Chithurst Monastery in 1985but is now out of print.2 8 9

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