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1. The Physiognomy of Virtue
- University of Hawai'i Press
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3 c h a p t e r on e The Physiognomy of Virtue Behold the shining Buddha’s body, Adorned with its marks! Who would not aspire to that awakening, Brought to perfection by cognition? —Ajâtaùatrukauk¼tyavinodanâ-sûtra1 Bodily Perfection in the Mainstream Tradition For the ancients—and, I suspect, lingering just under the radar of our collective contemporary conscience—bodily perfection was only the most obvious sign of moral superiority, a plenitude in the soul “radiating youth, vigor, and beauty.”2 The formula “beauty is only skin deep” in our modern parlance attempts to undermine this physiognomy of virtue at the same time it betrays its hold. The classical Indian world also formulated an essential connection between bodily and moral attainment. Brahmanical writers, especially in dharmaùâstra literature , regularly saw bodily appearance as an indicator of character and virtue.3 All of our hagiographies are agreed that the Buddha’s extraordinary status was both cognitive and somatic. The circumstances of his conception, gestation, and birth were miraculous, and the newly born Buddha-to-be was already marked by auspicious signs read by a local soothsayer.4 These signs, traditionally listed as the thirty-two marks of a superhuman (mahâpuru½a-lak½a»a), are said to endow both a buddha-to-be and a universal monarch, and they are known to our purportedly earliest texts.5 Canonical sources such as the Lakkha»a-sutta attempt to explain how each of the marks is the karmic result of particular virtues practiced during former lives.6 Thus we learn that by his being a dispeller of fear and a provider of protection and shelter, the soles of the Buddha’s feet were marked by wheels with a thousand spokes; as a dispenser of the Dharma, he acquired ankles placed high on the calf; by his former religious inquiries, he acquired delicate skin 4 Asceticism and the Glorification of the Buddha’s Body on which no dust could adhere; and so on with regard to his acquisition of goldencolored skin, retracted penis, rounded shoulders, and deep blue eyes.7 The thirty-two marks of the mahâpuru½a received considerable scholarly attention quite early on. Already in 1852 Burnouf contributed a lengthy discussion as an appendix to his translation of the Saddharmapu»³arîka-sûtra, in part to further demonstrate that such physical features on the Buddha attest to his Indian origin and not, as some held still in the early nineteenth century, to his African origin!8 Senart, in his Essai sur la légende du Buddha, also has a long discussion on the mahâpuru½a-lak½a»a, here to advance the thesis that the Buddhist conception of the superhuman is essentially that of Puru½a Nârâya»a, as seen in such brahmanical sources as the Mahâbhârata.9 There has been surprising little speculation on the nature and origin of these marks outside of art historical circles since, even though we are at a loss in many cases to understand why these signs, a number of which strike the modern reader as odd in the extreme, are emblematic of bodily perfection.10 The ability to perceive the marks on the Buddha’s body was, in some texts, a special trait of certain sages. We learn in the Brahmâyu-sutta (Majjhimanik âya, no. 91) that a brahmin named Brahmâyu, who was versed in the three Vedas, in their auxiliary sciences, and in reading the marks of a superhuman, sent his pupil Uttara to determine if the recluse Gotama was in fact a sage of the highest caliber as was reported of him: “Dear Uttara, the thirty-two marks of a superhuman have been handed down in our own hymns; the Great Man, endowed with these, has only two destinies—no other.”11 Uttara sets out to see the Buddha with his own eyes, to determine if he is endowed with the thirtytwo marks that distinguish a complete and perfectly enlightened sage. Seeing the Buddha endowed with most of the marks, he remains in doubt about two: whether his penis is enclosed in a sheath and whether his tongue is truly long. Given the necessities of discretion, the Buddha reveals his sheathed penis to Uttara’s mind using his supernormal powers. Next the Buddha extends his tongue, licking both ears, his nostrils, and covering the whole of his forehead with it.12 Convinced, Uttara returns to his teacher Brahm...