Scripture and Fiction: an Aesthetic Approach to the Little Pilgrim
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Colby College Digital Commons @ Colby Honors Theses Student Research 2013 Scripture and Fiction: An Aesthetic Approach to The Little Pilgrim Brian Russo Colby College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses Part of the Asian Studies Commons, East Asian Languages and Societies Commons, and the Religion Commons Colby College theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed or downloaded from this site for the purposes of research and scholarship. Reproduction or distribution for commercial purposes is prohibited without written permission of the author. Recommended Citation Russo, Brian, "Scripture and Fiction: An Aesthetic Approach to The Little Pilgrim" (2013). Honors Theses. Paper 702. https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/702 This Honors Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Research at Digital Commons @ Colby. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Colby. Scripture and Fiction: An Aesthetic Approach to The Little Pilgrim Author: Brian Russo Advisor: Nikky Singh Date: 5/20/13 Table of Contents: Preface …………………………………………………………………….. 3 Introduction …………………………………………………………….. 4-7 Chapter I: Scripture & Fiction ……………………………...……….. 8-14 Chapter II: The Fundamentals of Buddhism ……………………… 15-32 Chapter III: Metaphors of Liberation ……………………………... 33-50 Chapter IV: Pedagogy & Paradox …………………………………. 51-63 Chapter V: The Dance of Fiction and Reality……………………… 64-83 Chapter VI: Ethics and Politics of the Bhodhisattva Ideal ……….. 84-88 Conclusion: …………………………………………………………... 89-91 Appendix: Bibliography …………………………………………...... 92-93 The Little Pilgrim Plot Summary ………………………………….. 94-103 The Masters & The Spiritual Achievements Each Exemplifies ... 104-108 2 Preface I first encountered Buddhism when I rode my bicycle to the Mun Su Sah Korean Zen Temple only minutes from my home in Wakefield, Massachusetts. The outside of the Temple appeared to be just another house, yet I soon discovered an intricate Dharma Hall on the inside. I watched monks bow to a golden life-sized Buddha-statue and asked them what motivated their actions when they had finished. I will never forget their response: “We prostrate to acknowledge the Buddha-nature within us.” I was captivated after my first visit and started attending the Sunday service regularly, one Caucasian amidst a sea of forty Koreans sitting on zafus. I began a two-year course that met once a week to learn Buddha’s teachings from International Dharma Instructor Ernest Do. On the day I took refuge in the Buddha and formally became a Buddhist, he gifted me The Little Pilgrim. The Dharma name that Mr. Do chose for me was Sudhana (Child of Wealth), the subject of The Little Pilgrim. I dedicate this thesis to the memory of Mr. Do. Without his guidance and inspiration, this labor of love would not have been possible. I furthered my knowledge of Buddhism during college, majoring in Religious Studies. I concentrated my major in Buddhism, enrolling in classes such as “Religions of China, Japan and Tibet” as well as “A Passage to India: India and the Western Imagination.” I am indebted to my thesis advisor, Nikky Singh for teaching these classes and phenomenally shaping my own aesthetically-minded writing style. Last semester, I lived in a Burmese Monastery in Bodh Gaya, India, the birthplace of Buddhism where Siddhartha Gautama attained Enlightenment underneath the Bodhi tree. I had the opportunity to meditate two hours a day. Now, I return to Ko Un’s India to culminate my journey thus far, as I approach understanding my namesake through scripture and fiction. 3 Introduction The Little Pilgrim is written by Korean author Ko Un and was translated into English by Brother Anthony of Taizé. This text, a fictional rendering of the Gandavyuha Sutra, is an instant classic of contemporary Buddhist literature. The Gandavyuha Sutra comprises one-third of the fifteen hundred page Avatamsaka (Flower Garland) Sutra. The Avatamsaka has been described as the epitome of Buddhist thought, Buddhist sentiment, and Buddhist experience and is popular with all schools of Mahayana Buddhism, in particular, The Pure Land and Zen. The Avatamsaka Sutra is the longest sutra of the Buddhist canon and one of the oldest, dating back nearly 2,000 years. The Avatamsaka contains forty chapters on disparate topics, although the overarching themes are the interdependency of all phenomena and the progression of the Buddhist path to full Enlightenment. The Gandavuha, the Avatamsaka’s penultimate chapter, aesthetically merges the topics of interdependence and attaining Enlightenment in the form of a boy’s quest for awakening. The Little Pilgrim describes the pilgrimage of the Gandavyuha’s protagonist, the youth Sudhana. At the behest of the Bodhisattva Manjushri, he visits fifty-three masters to attain a greater understanding of the nature of reality. My question is: How does Ko Un’s aesthetic approach employ Sudhana to represent the Bodhisattva ideal? In Buddhism the Bodhisattva is a near perfect being. Un utilizes Sudhana as a pedagogical tool to espouse the primacy of experiential insight through which spiritual liberation is attained. My thesis focuses on how Un’s aesthetic approach portrays Sudhana as a Bhodhisattva to teach the reader the ideal way to live. 4 Un’s writing style beckons us to embrace our own personal power to increase the aesthetics of our existence. He is not only concerned about appreciating beauty but on providing an example for how to lead a beautiful existence. Un’s aesthetic approach is fundamentally structured on cultivating wisdom and compassion to understand how one can make the world more beautiful for everyone. His approach relies on an underlying set of Buddhist principles such as suffering, no-self and impermanence that are interwoven within the novel. These principles are espoused by colorful characters that imbue Sudhana with an understanding of the world’s relative illusoriness and its liberating capacity from all unsatisfactoriness. Un's fictional recreation is along the lines of Michel Foucault's ethical-aesthetic approach. Foucault invites the individual to problematize the relationship with the self, reminiscent of how Un demonstrates the faults of creating an ego that causes unsatisfactoriness. Both illustrate techniques to transform oneself into a work of art. In Un’s case, living up to the Bodhisattva ideal is the greatest possible art anyone can undertake to create. Un’s novel engenders an awakening sensibility. Readers are moved to appreciate and respond to complex emotional and aesthetic influences like Sudhana does to better the aesthetics of their existence. Un utilizes the medium of the novel to create his art and teach on the art of existence in return. Art is defined as the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination. In a more technical sense, art “may be defined as the practice of creating perceptible forms expressive of human feelings” (Langer 6). Un’s art evokes a range of human feelings and teaches one how to incorporate them into one’s aesthetic approach. He demonstrates how choices at an individual level can beautify the entire world. “Feeling” means much more than just sensation. It also has an 5 emotional denotation (as we speak of hurting some) as well as an emotional attitude (we say we feel strongly about something). Un depicts feelings in all of these respects in his aesthetic approach employing Sudhana to represent the Bodhisattva ideal. My emotional response to The Little Pilgrim was to travel to India to develop my own aesthetic approach to actualizing the Bodhisattva ideal. My drive to learn was only equaled by my enjoyment, both indispensible qualities on the path of the Bodhisattva. Ko Un is a prolific writer. He has published over 135 volumes, including many volumes of poetry, several works of fiction (predominantly Buddhist fiction), drama, essays and translations from classical Chinese. In Little Pilgrim’s epilogue, Allen Ginsberg called him "a magnificent poet, a combination of Buddhist cognoscente, passionate political libertarian, and naturalist historian.” He was born Ko Un-Tae, in 1933, in what is now North Korea. Un grew up under Imperial Japan's iron grip on the Korean People, which lasted from 1910 until 1945, after which his country was bifurcated into an oppressive Communist government in the North facing an oppressive Capitalist government in the South. The ensuing Korean War emotionally and physically traumatized Un and caused the death of many of his relatives and friends. He suffered a great burden of guilt, lamenting that half of his generation perished while he survived. After the Korean War ended, Ko became a Buddhist monk and spent ten years in Zen meditation, traveling the country begging for alms. In the words of Gary Gach, “The seeds of the [The Little Pilgrim] were planted during Ko Un’s ten-year monastic life … As a mendicant he, like Sudhana, walked across his country. An elder monk suggested he write of Sudhana’s journey. Ko Un went on to become a master and was in charge of the famed Haeinsa Temple. Yet, he grew disillusioned with the self-centeredness he 6 encountered within the order and disrobed” (Un 367). Then, in 1962, he entered into a period of nihilism and headed to the South Sea to commit suicide. In a stroke of serendipity he passed out after drinking heavily and lost the courage to go through with the act. He then traveled Jeju-do Island for three years and founded a charity school. In 1970, he returned to Seoul where he was again plagued by his demons and he attempted suicide for the second time by drinking poison. Then in 1972, the South Korean government attempted to curb democracy by putting forward the Yusin Constitution. Un became very active in the democracy movement and led efforts to improve the political situation in South Korea. Simultaneously, he continued writing prolifically despite being imprisoned four times (1974, 1979, 1980 and 1989).