Arab poetry, throughout its generations and arts, revolved around Buddha.
Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali)
AJA President, Egypt
One of the teachers of Zen philosophy wrote that Buddha’s disciples gathered around him and waited for him to begin his teachings, but Buddha remained silent. The disciples felt confused. After a long time of waiting, Buddha grabbed a lotus flower and raised it silently, and then returned it in similar silence! None of the disciples understood what was meant. Only the disciple Mahākāśyapa understood the teachings and smiled. Then finally Buddha spoke and said: Mahākāśyapa, the Dharma has been transformed into you.
The Flower Sutra is the primary source of Zen teachings (it was called Dhyana in India, then Chan in China, and then Zen in Japan). Mahākāśyapa was the first Zen teacher, after he understood the Zen Dharma taught by Buddha. Buddha taught various Dharma teachings, whether philosophical, moral, or other Buddhist teachings, but in this sutra the Buddha began to teach the Zen Dharma, and no one understood it except him.
Mahākāśyapa, then it was carried by disciples after him in India, then to China by Bodhidharma, then his six disciples, then to Rinzai, and finally to Japan by Master Eisai and then by Master Dogen. In this sutra, the Buddha remained in a state of silence and did not use words or any system of thought. He certainly remained in a state of complete silence, so in Zen words or thought systems are not dealt with, because words become an obstacle to understanding the truth as it is and so freedom from looking through the filter of words or thoughts is freedom from the false ego, as well Bodhidharma said, “Freedom from words is true liberation.”
Zen is not a complex philosophy like other Buddhist schools. It is, as it is called, “the school of meditation.” In Zen, it does not matter how many sacred texts you have memorized or how much of them you have understood, as much as the depth of your understanding of yourself is at this moment, and the depth of your awareness, here and now. The essence of Zen: “To study the Buddha’s path is to study yourself, to study yourself is to forget yourself, and to forget yourself is to become enlightened in everything.”
But today we chose to search for some words, not silence, poetic words that were inspired by the life of Buddha and illuminated by his message, teachings, and meditation, in Arabic poetry.
We can observe that influence of Buddha starts with inspiration of his life biography, or the contact with his teachings and principles, or a subjective or personal connection between Buddha and others, and finally a kind of attack and criticism for those interested in Buddha or his life.
Egypt
In 1971, the Egyptian General Book Authority, in Cairo, published a collection of poems by the Egyptian poet Ahmed Mukhaymar, in which he discussed the biography of Buddha, which Arab poetry made a symbol of asceticism and a sign of victory over desires. The book says that we approach the shore of Buddha’s longings and carry the lamp that illuminates its paths for us, and helps us to cross its path and see the dimensions in it.
In 1971, the Egyptian General Book Authority, in Cairo, published a collection of poems by the Egyptian poet Ahmed Mukhaymar, in which he discussed the biography of Buddha, which Arab poetry made a symbol of asceticism and a sign of victory over desires
It is as if this is the same as the issue of commitment in its true sense, as the artist is committed to aesthetic knowledge, to the purpose of art, and to achieving its purposes… and in this way he serves the human cause a beneficial service, and has a decisive influence on the development of society, just as Buddha saw that the immortal thirst for truth would end in his departure:
The truth is that the immortality of Buddha calls for Makhimar’s verse:
“He said, ‘Immortality… to the one whose wings embrace his heart… if his longings are true… is joy.'”
“The eternal thirst in the nights
“It’s like the migration of eternity.”
He also wrote:
The worshipers come to Him… as if they were birds… He called them… after thirst… to irrigate.
They crowd at the outskirts of its door… Immortality is the reward of those who worship…
Lebanon
In Lebanon, the poet Shawqi Bezia has a collection of poetry titled (Butterflies for Buddha’s Smile), published by (Dar al-Adab) in Beirut, 2013, and the title is from his main poem “Butterflies for Buddha’s Smiles,” in which Shawqi Bezia released his butterflies to draw inspiration from the legend, in a three-dimensional poem. ; A linguistic dimension, an epic dimension, and a third spiritual dimension as if he was in a meditation session on Buddha’s profound experience in which he tested himself, by erasing the desires of the flesh with the Brahmins, and mysticism before turning towards absolute desires, to reach reconciliation between the body and the spirit:
“In the silence of statues, he sits / while time sleeps on his knees / like a young child, and butterflies play joyfully / in the range of his eternal smile / and where young girls throw their keys into the void / he comes back from time to time / happy memories sing, and the earth extends beneath him / like a table / and he laughs secretly, mockingly/ Like someone who remembers something that happened and mumbles: “What’s the point?”
Hence, the powerful rationality of Buddha’s philosophy gives the vivid image its balance, especially in the eloquence of a poet like Shawqi Bezi’, who delved a lot into myths and meditated before writing his poetry collection in which his butterflies fly according to their own rhythm.
Jordan
In Jordan, the poetess Nabila Al-Khatib (1962) wrote a poem entitled ‘Buddha’s Head’, and here she invokes Buddha’s asceticism, making him a Palestinian who was hit by the enemy in the land of prophecies, and wonders who will uphold his values after him, the land of figs and olives, in reference to his homeland, Palestine.
These are paradoxes. Buddha…and a martyr who breathed his last on the soil of the land of prophecies:
“He was as calm as ever / and the traveling gleam in the eyes arose / The worried world is concerned with redressing Buddha / Buddha… O symbol of nobility and dignity, if they destroy you / who will take care of you yet? Your face in the land of figs and olives, those sacrifices? / Who will turn away the grievances from Buddha… and sprinkle the face of this universe with the law? / And to whom will I consecrate after this day, O Buddha, my offerings? / And to whom will I drink after your death the abundance that has flowed through my veins? / It has become soothed what has been drained/ The doctor’s shirt is a faded field / his ribs shook and his weak breath diminished / as if he were an army that retreated in retreat before the end of the battle and they took flight… / the heart is weaker than the echo of a distant dream / nothing remains of his blood / except a delicious wind / sweat oozed from his vein and no one paid attention to it / everyone is busy with Buddha / Excuse me, Buddha.. I will denounce as long as I live / so how could Buddha’s cover be torn like this simply like a Bosnian girl who became without family or shelter? / How do you gouge out a Buddha’s eye? / How did Buddha’s head fall like a children’s stone into the dust? / Indeed, Buddha.. / I see a time when deer howl / while wolves bleat…”
In Jordan, the poetess Nabila Al-Khatib (1962) wrote a poem entitled ‘Buddha’s Head’, and here she invokes Buddha’s asceticism, making him a Palestinian who was hit by the enemy in the land of prophecies, and wonders who will uphold his values after him, the land of figs and olives, in reference to his homeland, Palestine.
Saudi Arabia
In Saudi Arabia, the inspiration was different, as Saud bin Ibrahim Al-Shuraim, one of the imams of the Grand Mosque and with a PhD in comparative jurisprudence from Umm Al-Qura University, wrote a traditional poem denouncing the world’s interest in and influence over the demolition of the Buddha statues in Bamyan, Afghanistan, while they did not give interest to children who suffered from wars in that country: “You write about the statues whose likes have passed the time and whose likes have passed the time and whose likes have passed the time and which revive the dead and awaken the ignorant / have become Afghans life is a captivity, children are orphaned and women are bereaved / they have become poverty-stricken throughout all their homes and hunger covers its people in humble cloth / they have folded their bellies out of patience, and they may have lost food. / And they saw in Muslims ignorance, so they swallowed belittlement and omission / until when Buddha touched them and wailed, their mouths opened and gossiped.”
Diaspora, Canada
In a poem entitled “Imitating Buddha”, the poet Osama Al-Khawad writes from Monterey, California: “They saw the “enlightened” Buddha, imitating Zoroaster, and Christ, and Gandhi, and Teresa, and Noor Muhammad, and Al-Khidr, and Moses, and the jewels of spirit”.
Iraq
It is interesting to see the critic Ahmed Al-Kinani, who wrote that there are comparisons drawn between the lassos created by Abu Al-Ala Al-Maarri, and the quatrains formulated by Omar Khayyam, “their origin is the intellectual commonalities between the Arab poet and the Persian poet and their view of existence and the universe to a long extent that moved them far from the religious necessities to which they belong, or this is how they are understood from the literary heritage transmitted from them.
Perhaps the pessimistic view of life and the most severe symptoms of it, and thus the denial of alternatives in the other world, is the prominent feature of these comparisons, but something new emerges in studies of the poetic influence of the Khayyam’s Quatrains, and there is a mature interpretation that sees the bright side in Khayyam’s warning about this world. And the call to seize the opportunity of the present moment and live in it, and this is a secret that no one who looks at the tip of his nose understands. How, when spiritual trainers today are working to understand and teach people the practice of stopping thinking about the past and the future and focusing on the present moment and enjoying it, because the mind does not stop thinking about the past and the future and forgetting about the present.
In the moment, you are sitting now and are either thinking about something past or about something to come, such as committing to an appointment. Both thoughts spoil the immediate moment for you and prevent you from enjoying it. The focus began on special sports and specific rituals that help seize and enjoy the present moment, even if it requires the use of worship rituals belonging to Buddha and others to achieve that goal. If the Buddhist influence is in this sense, then the quatrains exude a Buddhist fragrance without the slightest doubt.”
However, what is even more exciting in this theoretical connection between Al-Ma’arri, Khayyam, and Buddha is the linking of a form of Arabic poetry to the image of Buddha and the heritage of Buddhists.
This type of poetry called Buddhism may have its origins in Buddhist literature,” but how did it reach southern Iraq? “It is most likely that it was transmitted through merchants who were moving between India and Basra, and so on, between the philosophies of asceticism.
The Iraqi researcher Nadir Al-Khazraji mentioned, under the title The Movement of Buddhism Poetry between Aboudah and Buddha, that popular Arabic poetry does not differ from classical poetry in the multiplicity of its poetic purposes, nor in its forms and terms. It is like traditional Arabic poetry, but the word used is the local colloquial language, not what distinguishes popular poetry is that its sweetness when heard is greater than when reading.
Al-Khazraji chose the book “Diwan al-Buddhiya,” which consists of four parts, each part of which is composed of three verbs. The first three parts, the second, and the third, adhere to alliteration, and the fourth part must end with a yā’. Stressed, open, concomitant with a consonant “ha.” And Buddhism, as the Iraqi historian Thamer bin Abdul Hussein Al-Amiri says in his book “Rural Singers and the Phases of Iraqi Buddhism”: An example of Buddhism is the saying of the master of contemporary Husseini poetry, Hajj Jaber bin Jalil Al-Kadhimi:
From your groove, the daughters of the branch rose
Luxury and your customs, the most loving and ardent
I want to squeeze the grapes of your lips and roses
Put out your fire that is raging with it
There are many opinions regarding the origin of the word “Buddhism.” What is the relationship between Buddhist poetry and the Indian sage Buddha, the founder of Buddhist religion around the year (566-486 BC).
The answer came through an idea that fermented and flourished in the mind of the investigator, Dr. Al-Karbasi, where: “We memorized it and it came to our mind from the verbal correspondence between the two names, and as a result we conducted research and exploration. We also suspected that this color of poetry was something that was sung in their religious rituals,” and the journey had ended. Research and exploration: “They have four-part poetic verses that they chant in their religious rituals” that are completely similar to Buddhist poetry, which encouraged the investigator to contact the cultural attachés of the embassies of a number of countries with a heavy Buddhist presence, and he also contacted the chief priest of the Buddhist temple in London (Dr. Medagama Vajiragnana After a series of literary deliberations, investigation and comparison conducted by the researcher Al-Karbasi, he noticed that there are commonalities between the poetic texts circulated by Buddhism and Buddhist poetry, which are: the unification of the number of parts, the unification of the rhymes of the first three parts, the ending of the fourth part with “yeh”, and the unity in the use of the type of activators and “man”.
All of this concluded with: “This type of poetry called Buddhism may have its origins in Buddhist literature,” but how did it reach southern Iraq? “It is most likely that it was transmitted through merchants who were moving between India and Basra, and so on, between the philosophies of asceticism.”
The silence of wisdom, and the connection of myth to reality. Arab poetry, throughout its generations and arts, revolved around Buddha. He thought and expressed, and it was contemplation. The poem was waiting to shine, just as history was waiting for verification.
Read: Ashraf Aboul-Yazid: I Consider Myself a Builder of Cultural Bridges
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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Ashraf Dali) is an eminent writer, journalist, poet, novelist and travelogue writer of Egypt. He is author of over three dozen books.
