Journal directory listing - Volume 64 (2019) - Journal of NTNU【64(2)】September
Directory
Metamorphosis Myth as Reflected in Dharma Mirror
Author: Hui-Fen Hsu（Applied English Department, National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Assistant Professor）
Vol.&No.：Vol. 64 , No. 2
Date：September 2019
Pages：45-68
DOI：10.6210/JNTNU.201909_64(2).0003
Abstract：
In Greco-Roman myths of metamorphosis, humans become other forms of being such as animals, plants and natural objects. The legends of the Narcissus flower, Laurel tree, and Arethusa spring involve the dissipation and alteration of human subjectivity and the fusing of human minds with nature. While the fantastic transformation in these tales was meant to explain natural phenomena, it can be interpreted as the reflection of psychological states instead of ontological reality. The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of metamorphosis myths from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy, whose central concern is suffering and cessation of suffering. Metamorphosis implicates universal suffering and the yearning for liberation. Activated by ignorance, transformation points to the potential of liberation through the mingling of separate egos with the large whole. The contents of this study are divided into two parts: karma and interbeing. The first part illustrates the karmic law that reigns in the three tales. The existence of the flower, tree and spring has no inherent essence but gets involved in the causal nexus. The second part explores interbeing in metamorphosis, which dissolves the boundary of life and death as well as self and other. After the transformation, the isolated selfhood is expanded to an all-encompassing life system, evoking today’s ecological consciousness. Dharma sheds a different light on metamorphosis myths, transcending the literal death and doom to the universal truth of human life and reconstituting their significance for the modern world.
Keywords：Dharma, interbeing, karma, metamorphosis myth
《Full Text》
References：
- Arsić, Branka. Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016).
- Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (New York, NY: Dutton, 1979).
- Bingenheimer, Marcus. Studies in Āgama Literature (Taipei, Taiwan: Shin Wen Feng, 2011).
- Campbell, Joseph. The Power of Myth: With Bill Moyers, ed. Betty Sue Flowers (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1988).
- Carson, Anne. Grief Lessons (New York, NY: New York Review Books Classics, 2006).
» More
- Arsić, Branka. Bird Relics: Grief and Vitalism in Thoreau (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2016).
- Bateson, Gregory. Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (New York, NY: Dutton, 1979).
- Bingenheimer, Marcus. Studies in Āgama Literature (Taipei, Taiwan: Shin Wen Feng, 2011).
- Campbell, Joseph. The Power of Myth: With Bill Moyers, ed. Betty Sue Flowers (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1988).
- Carson, Anne. Grief Lessons (New York, NY: New York Review Books Classics, 2006).
- Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism (New York, NY: Harper, 1964).
- Coward, Harold. Jung and Eastern Thought (New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1985).
- DeSilva, Padmasiri. “Buddhist Environmental Ethics,” in Dharma Gaia: A Harvest of Essays in Buddhism and Ecology, ed. A. H. Badiner (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1990), 14-19.
- Elman, Benjamin A. “Nietzsche and Buddhism,” Journal of the History of Ideas, 44.4 (1983): 671-686. doi:10.2307/2709223
- Henning, Daniel. A Manual for Buddhism and Deep Ecology (Bangkok, Thailand: World Buddhist University, 2002).
- Humphreys, Christmas. Buddhism: An Introduction and Guide (London, UK: Penguin, 1990).
- Huxley, Aldous. Island (London, UK: Vintage, 1962).
- Jung, Carl Gustav. The Archetype and the Collective Unconscious, trans. Richard F.C. Hull (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959).
- Kalupahana, David. J. Nāgārjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way (New York, NY: State University of New York Press, 1986).
- Kaufmann, Walter, ed. The Portable Nietzsche (New York, NY: Viking Press, 1976).
- Keown, Damien. Dictionary of Buddhism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2003).
- Macy, Joanna. World as Lover, World as Self (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991).
- McMahan, David L. The Making of Buddhist Modernism (New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2008). doi:10.1093/acprof.oso/978095183276.001.0001
- Muller, A. Charles “Introduction,” The Diamond Sutra, trans. A. Charles Muller. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from http://www.acmuller.net/bud-canon/diamond_sutra.html
- Muir, John. My First Summer in the Sierra (San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club Books, 1988).
- Nāgārjuna. The Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way: Nāgārjuna’s Mulamadhyamakakarika, trans. Jay Garfield (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1995).
- Nhat Hanh, Thich. The Heart of Understanding: Commentaries on the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, ed. Peter Levitt (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1988).
- ─ . “The Sun in My Heart,” in Dharma Rain: Sources of Buddhist Environmentalism, eds. Stephanie Kaza and Kenneth Kraft (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 2000), 83-91.
- Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy and The Genealogy of Morals, trans. Francis Golffing (New York, NY: Doubleday Anchor Books, 1956).
- ─ . The Will to Power, trans. Walter Kaufmann and R. J. Hollingdale (New York, NY: Vintage, 1967).
- Ovid. Metamorphoses, trans. Brookes More. Retrieved February 12, 2017, from http://www.perseus. tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0029%3Abook%3D1%3Acard% 3D452
- Sheng Yen. The Sword of Wisdom (New York, NY: Dharma Drum Publications, 2002).
- Siderits, Mark and Shoryu Katsura. Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publication, 2013).
- Thanissaro Bhikkhu. The Roots of Buddhist Romanticism. Retrieved October 13, 2017, from http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/thanissaro/rootsofbuddhistromanticism.html
- The Diamond Sutra, trans. Edward Conze. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://www.buddhistische-gesellschaft-berlin.de/downloads/diamantsutraconze.pdf
- The Heart Sutra, trans. Edward Conze. Retrieved July 22, 2014, from http://kr.buddhism.org/zen/sutras/conze.htm
- Trungpa, Chogyam. The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation (Boston, MA: Shambhala, 1976).
- Wordsworth, William. “The Daffodils,” in A Concise Treasury of Great Poems, ed. Louis Untermeyer (New York, NY: Pocket Books, 1975), 209-210.