I would like to write a fresh article on the concept of beauty with a good and open mind, heart for the propagation of the Sublime teachings of the Buddha. With such my eager ambition, I have to try to write it as possible as to incorporate in the tenth annual magazine of Myanmar Monk-students’ Welfare Association of India. I shall present an article entitled “A Universal Concept of Beauty as propounded by the Buddha”.
If we came in to consideration the Concept of Beauty, according to Buddha, it is clear that His concept of Beauty is not physical. It is obviously ethical and spiritual. It is true that physical beauty is what attracts one first. But why is that the Buddha does not emphasize a premium on it? He expressly says, “Beauty is nothing to me, neither the beauty of the body nor that comes of dress” (Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism by A. K Coomaraswamy, P. 324).
It is clear that the Buddha does not pay attention any importance to physical beauty. What He says about physical beauty can be summarized such following:
Not by skin or fair complexion is a noble one or an ignoble one. By deeds is a noble one or an ignoble one. Therefore, One’s Kamma or actions judge a noble and an ignoble one in the world according to Buddha.
It is not deniable that beauty is a quality that gives us pleasure, first impression of person. Symmetry, harmony and proportion constitute beauty, says Aristotle, as they aesthetically to our sense of seeing. The Buddha, like Plato and other idealist philosophers, is not concerned with the transcendental concept of beauty. Plato believes in a world of “Ideas”. Absolute beauty is also an Idea. All beautiful objects of the world partake of this Idea of beauty and all point to it.
In the Phaedrus and in the Symposium, he proceeds from bodily beauty to Ideal beauty and goes even beyond this beautiful forms, beautiful practices and beautiful ultimately he contemplates “the vast sea of beauty”. Plato’s concept of beauty is metaphysical and ideal, but how can this concept of beauty be applied to human beings whom want to judge as beautiful? No human being is the embodiment of the Idea of beauty as conceived by Plato. The beauty of human should not be judged by his physical looks but it should be judged by his action, by the human qualities that he is endowed with.
A human being may have a perfect figure, symmetry, harmony proportion, but may be cruel and ill nature or cantankerous. Instead of doing good deed to the human society, he may always think of doing harm to it and may even go as far as caring only for himself. The Buddha looks for beauty in human beings. He is not at all concerned with the metaphysical beauty as Plato was.
He does not conceive of beauty itself as a separate entity, different from a beautiful object of beautiful human being and He does not consider him or her as handsome or beautiful due to physical symmetry, harmony and proportion. According to Buddha, beauty for him or her should be considered from the point of an ethical or spiritual concept. And one who has ethically well and has got rid of craving, aversion and ignorance and made his or her mind free from the different kinds of defilements that make him or her ugly, is really beautiful.
Therefore, we can understand why the Buddha does not hold physical beauty in high esteem. Firstly, it arouses passion to the person. Secondly, it makes one proud, conceited and vain- so much so that it belittles those who are not beautiful. It also makes one very selfish. In the present world, people highly value the physical beauty gained by beautifying things such as clothes, jeweler, garlands and sandalwood powder or perfume even plastic surgery etc. But the Buddha would certainly not give any importance to the physical beauty acquired by such means even plastic surgery etc.
Generally speaking, when all limbs of a person are symmetrical and proportionate, when he or she has a certain magnitude, he or she looks beautiful. Our parents also expected fully all limbs of their newly born sons or daughters when they were born in the human world. There is no doubt that symmetry, harmony, of beauty, may be prerequisites for architectural beauty, but as far as human beauty is concerned they are not the essential characteristics according to the Buddha.
Human beauty, unlike architectural beauty, is constantly changing as it is influenced by human emotions. Human beauty does not last and is in a constant state of flux, how can it be valued highly? Indeed, beauty is in the eye of the beholders. It may become in different according to beholders. Let us consider one example. When we see a beautiful flower, there is different view on it. From the point of view of artist, it may be really beautiful flower, but from the point of view of scientist, it is a different view on it. He may research it and destroy it into pieces for his research purpose. At that time, beautiful flower may lose its beauty. According to him, it is not a really beautiful. It may become ugly due to destroying into pieces for his research. So, physical beauty can change when it is influenced by our human emotions.
Again, we can consider it. It is very short-lived with time and it is in very short moment influenced by emotions such as anger, jealousy etc- quite unlike the beauty of non-living thing. Human emotional Anger, jealousy etc, will make him or her ugly. Nowadays the judges of Beauty in the world selected “Miss Universe or Miss India or Miss Mangala Myanmar etc” in the Beauty Contest. They judge them depend on physical beauty of them. But according to the Buddha,the judges should take into consideration not only the physical beauty but also the qualities of the head and heart of those who take part in the “Beauty Contest”. If she has no gray matter in her head and any generosity and compassion in her heart, how can the physical beauty of a girl be valued and used highly?
In the Rupa Sutta of AnguttaraNikaya, we can find out four kinds of person: a group of person (two percentages of three person) who attracts to the beauty (Rupa-pamana), a group of person (four percentages of five person) who attracts to the nice or good sound (Sadda-pamana), a group of person(nine percentages of ten) who pay attention to the serious practices (Lukha-pamana) and a group of person (one of one hundred thousand (100000) percentages) pay attention to the teaching of the Buddha (Dhamma-pamana).
Any way, the Buddha realized the transitory nature of physical beauty in His intuitive knowledge or insight wisdom. According to Him, physical beauty is ephemeral. It is very transitory. The Buddha has given so many examples to show how physical beauty is in a constant state of flux.
The Buddha also knew well physical beauty attracts people and cause passions and makes them do more harm than good, making them mad, proud and arrogant, hindering them from appreciating the noble values of life like love, charity, kindness, tolerance, sympathy which are noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of the heart, while the intellectual qualities of the mind such as thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are extended to the humanity or to all spheres of life whether individual, social, or political. Swayed by their passion, people go astray and commit many unwholesome actions. Ordinary people are sometimes so overpowered or overwhelmed by the physical beauty that they behave like animals and are a danger to society.
How can there be peace and harmony in society, if there are such persons in it? Physical beauty should not be trusted or valued highly because we know that these are not good qualities to be cultivated to the society. The Buddha says, “Monks, I know and see not of any other single of such power to cause the arising of sensual lust, if not already arise or arisen, to cause it’s more becoming and increase, as the feature of beauty (Subha nimitta).
Physical beauty has its limitations. One who is physically beautiful but who is devoid of intellect becomes boring; devoid of softness, good disposition and human good qualities, becomes repulsive. If physically beautiful person has harmful hatred, great passion, and ignorance, he or she is not attracted to any body. It is for these reasons that in “Beauty Contests” the parameters of who should be regarded as beautiful have changed over the years and qualities of the head and heard of gray matter.
Indeed, physical beauty depends upon your parentage and on the genes that you inherit from your parentages. It also depends on your past Kamma-(action) if you believe in the theory of Kamma and rebirth. It is not in your hands to become physically beautiful however much you try and however much money you spend on beauty aids like massage, baths, creams, lotions or even plastic surgery. Such aids to beauty have tremendous limitations.
The Buddha gives an ethical and spiritual dimension to beauty. According to Him, a man’s acting under the influence of craving, aversion and ignorance or all the thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will hatred and violence which are the result of lack of wisdom-in all spheres of life whether individual, social, or political, is not beautiful. He or she may look physically beautiful due to having symmetry, harmony and proportion, but if he or she has such as craving, aversion and ignorance etc above mentioned, he or she will be like a festering lily which smells “far worse that weeds” as Shakespeare rightly says: “From sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds. Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”
In the same way, the Buddha says in the Dhammapada(verse51): As a beautiful flower that is brilliant of huge but yields no scent, even so it is fruitless for such a one who does not practice the well-spoken word (Dhamma). In many of the Suttas, the Buddha explains His notion of beauty. In Mallika Sutta of AnguttaraNikaya, He shows who is really beautiful. He says that even if a man or woman is physically beautiful, they will not be truly beautiful if they susceptible to anger. He or she still has the negatives of mind, unless he or she purifies his or her mind, he or she cannot be called beautiful.
In the Culakammavibhanga Sutta of MajjhimaNikaya, he makes it clear that displaying anger, hate or bitterness cannot make one beautiful. One may look ugly physically, but if one is not of anger and irritable character and does not display anger, hate or bitterness, he or she is really beautiful according to the Buddha. Thus, anger or hatred or bitterness will make him or her ugly. In the Ajaniya Sutta of AnnguttaraNikaya, the Buddha explains what constitutes real beauty and how a monk is blessed with it. If a monk has morality, if he lives with restraint of the obligations, proficient in the practice of good conduct, seeing danger in trifling faults, he trains himself in the rules by undertaking them. In this way, he has beauty.
There are several instances in the Pali Nikaya where the Buddha reveals His attitude towards the Beauty. Once, a famous Abhirupananda known as Janapadakalyani, was very proud of her perfect figure and would not go to the Buddha. In this instance, what the Buddha says about her beautiful figure is that it is diseased, impure and rotten. He instructed her to develop the concentration of mind to mediate on the unpleasant. Soon after later, she came to realize the ephemeral nature of her beauty. Therefore, she will not be burn with the fire of sensual desire about her beauty, and will become cool and calm for her life without brining fire of lust with regard to her beauty.
Addhakasi was a sex worker, very proud of her beautiful figure. Her pride grew more and more as many townspeople had fixed her price highly and made her beyond the reach of ordinary people. But very soon she came to realize the transitory of nature of her beauty. Vimala, a city-courtesan, was also proud of her perfect form. She felt intoxicated the bloom of her beauty. Intoxicated by her good and fair complexion, her beautiful figure and fame, she felt proud of her youth and despised other women. By ornamentation and decoration, she enhanced her beauty. But when she realized the true nature of her physical beauty, which is subject to Time’s scythe (i.e. devouring its beauty), she developed non-attachment and applied herself assiduously to attain ineffable Nibbana.
Khema, a queen consort of the king Bimbisara of Magadha kingdom, was also very proud of her beauty and she would not visit the Buddha because He talked about beauty in disparaging terms. Once, she went to the Buddha and saw a beautiful celestial nymph waiting or attending upon Him. That nymph was far more beautiful than she. As soon as she saw the beauty of celestial nymph, her pride was reduced or humbled. But not only this, the Buddha with his supernormal power showed her that even celestial beauty also passes from youth to old age. As a result, beautiful celestial nymph came to have broken teeth, gray hair and face full of wrinkles. She realized that if celestial beauty were so transitory, what to speak of her worldly physical beauty. With such realization, she regarded her beautiful body as vile, a foul seat of disease and corruption.
Ambapali once, famous prostitute, was the embodiment of perfect beauty. The description of her beauty from top to toe is very powerfully given by Ambapali herself in her Gathas as following:
Her hair was so glossy and black. The curls of her hair looked like the down of bee. It was very fragrant, as fragrant as a casket of perfumes. Her eye-brows looked as beautiful as the crescent nicely painted by the artists, her eyes shone brilliantly like jewels long and black, her nose was delicate or subtle and pointed, her teeth is sparkling white and looked as beautiful as the colour of the plantain-bud or she has pearly white teeth. Her voice was sweet like that of a cuckoo, her neck was as polished as a conch-shell, her arms were round cylindrical, her hands with golden rings in the fingers were beautiful, her breasts were beautiful- swelling, close together and lofty-her body was beautiful like a well-polished sheet of gold, her thighs were like the trunks of elephant and so on, but old age changed them altogether. With this great change, she came to realize the nature of physical beauty. She is disenchanted and disillusioned her wasted charms. So, leaving aside all her pride and conceit and thoroughly realizing the vanity of physical allure and charm, she is convinced of the truth that the Buddha teaches her, and develops non-attachment, and becomes cool and quenched.
When we take consideration the concept of the Beauty, the Buddha finds nothing glorious in physical beauty. It is very clear that physical beauty arouses passion, persuades people to enjoin sensual and sensuous pleasures and makes them mad and burning to commit rape or other kinds of sexual misconduct, and is thought to be a very effective snare to entrap young men. But those who see through this physical beauty with wisdom are not tempted by it. This is clear from this example that a courtesan says to Sundarasamudda. She is very beautiful, attractive, charming. Speaking softly and sweetly and with a smile she says to him: You are young to have gone forth. Abide in speaking; enjoin human sensual pleasure, but high-minded Sundarasamudda does not even reply to the courtesan’s proposal.
Once, the Buddha says to a quite beautiful lady named Magandhi in disparaging terms “I do not want to touch body of beautiful Magandhi even with my feet. The Buddha says that this body is encased in skin, and full of impurities, from the soles of the feet up to from crowns of the head down. Once, a Punna Their’s description of body is graphically terrifying and nauseating- effect on us. If what is inside were to come out we would always have to guard ourselves from crows and dogs (See the Gathas of Punna Their).
There is another point of view from which the Buddha describes physical beauty. Like all objects of the world, this body is in flames and every part of it also is in flames. They are burning and burning with fires of craving, aversion and ignorance. When people came to realize this nature with his or her higher wisdom and intuitive knowledge all scales of from their eyes fall and instead of being attracted by transitory objects they develop non- attachment towards them.
The Buddha finds nothing much importance in physical beauty. In most cases, it is a very effective snare, which causes to commit rape or other kinds of sexual misconduct, entraps men and women, taking them to their doom and destruction. What do men generally see in a woman’s form and figure? They see in it the five strands of sensual pleasure like sights, sounds, tastes, smells and things to touch. In one of Suttas of AnnguttaraNikaya, the Buddha says” that monks, I know of no other single from by which a man’s heart is as enslaved as it is by that of a woman. A man’s heart is enslaved by the form, sound, scent, savour and touch of a woman. In the same way, monks, I know of no other single form, sound sent, savour and touch of a man.
From this observation of the Buddha it is clear that attraction to man or woman’s body is fraught with danger. These five strands of sensual pleasures make great passion him or her. This is what physical beauty leads to ordinary people. Therefore, men and women become ensnared in the five strands of sensual pleasures. Beautiful woman has been regarded as a veritable snare of Mara. His physical beauty produces only passion. But Khema is no exception. Mara –evil one, in the form of a young man, says to her “you are young and beautiful, I am also young and in my prime. Come Khema, let us delight ourselves with five-fold music.”
Mara also tries to tempt Upacala with these words: why do you not approve birth? One, who is born, enjoins sensuous pleasure. Enjoin the delights of sensuous pleasures.” That physical beauty prompts one to commit rape is clear from what Mara says to Uppalavanna: Going up to a tree with well-flowered top, you stand alone at the foot of the tree, you have not ever any compassion. He says her beauty.
Mara, once said Subha Jivakambavanika’s beauty. Mara asked her to take delight in carnal pleasures with him. He further said that her eyes were like the bud of a blue lotus, spotless, like gold. She has long eyelashes. She was of pure gaze. So her beautiful eyes captivated him. But she replied him with negatives.
We have seen women who are ravishingly lovely and may be called beautiful- by the standard of connoisseurs. Their shape, colour, surface or texture and complexion were perfect, yet they may really not beautiful because either they were empty or had some corruption if one could see them through their spiritual emptiness or ugliness. Any way, the concept of beauty as propounded by the Buddha can be regarded as “A Universal Concept of Beauty.” If he or she has qualities like love, compassion, tolerance, sympathy, if he or she is free from anger, and other defilements, he or she is really beautiful, although he or she may not have external symmetry harmony and proportion.
The Buddha says that an individual is capable of attaining ethical and spiritual beauty by walking on the path of Sila(morality), Samadhi- concentration and Panna-wisdom. He can extirpate or eradicate all ugly mental defilements, which make him ugly. Achieving ethical and spiritual beauty is in one’s own hands, but for being physically beautiful one has to depend on parentage and on a conducive to social atmosphere to live life fully and harmoniously.
No universal theory of physical beauty can be propounded in as mush as perceptions differ from country to country, from reign to reign, from race to race. There may be one type of look desirable to black people and another type of beauty desired by white people. We cannot deny that every body has its own beauty. The kinds of eyes, ears, nose, neck, arms, hips, waist, thighs, lips, teeth, face and hair were regarded as beautiful in one country or some race. On the other hands, they will not be regarded as beautiful all over the world. A dove-eyed girl or lotus-eyed girl is regarded as beautiful in India. But it is not true and beautiful girls for the black and Orientate races in other countries.
Every race has its own concept of physical beauty. A fair complexion is an important criterion of physical beauty among the ancient Aryan races but how can it be applied to Africans? Thus, the Buddha has give a theory of beauty which is universal, by ethicizing the concept of beauty and making it more a matter of inside than of outside.
In conclusion, he or she who wants to be beautiful, according to the Buddha, should drive out all defilements which make him or her ugly and cultivate exemplary qualities like love compassion tolerance and sympathy that best of men or women by.
May you be beautiful in the way of the Buddha!
May all beings be happy and peaceful as Sitagu moon or Sitagu moonlight!
May the sublime Dhamma prevail in its pristine purity in the world!
Note- this article was published by the Myanmar Monk-students’ Welfare Association of India as a tenth annual issue in 2009.
Sutacaralankara (Research Scholar)
Department of Buddhist Studies
Nalanda University,(India)
If we came in to consideration the Concept of Beauty, according to Buddha, it is clear that His concept of Beauty is not physical. It is obviously ethical and spiritual. It is true that physical beauty is what attracts one first. But why is that the Buddha does not emphasize a premium on it? He expressly says, “Beauty is nothing to me, neither the beauty of the body nor that comes of dress” (Buddha and the Gospel of Buddhism by A. K Coomaraswamy, P. 324).
It is clear that the Buddha does not pay attention any importance to physical beauty. What He says about physical beauty can be summarized such following:
Not by skin or fair complexion is a noble one or an ignoble one. By deeds is a noble one or an ignoble one. Therefore, One’s Kamma or actions judge a noble and an ignoble one in the world according to Buddha.
It is not deniable that beauty is a quality that gives us pleasure, first impression of person. Symmetry, harmony and proportion constitute beauty, says Aristotle, as they aesthetically to our sense of seeing. The Buddha, like Plato and other idealist philosophers, is not concerned with the transcendental concept of beauty. Plato believes in a world of “Ideas”. Absolute beauty is also an Idea. All beautiful objects of the world partake of this Idea of beauty and all point to it.
In the Phaedrus and in the Symposium, he proceeds from bodily beauty to Ideal beauty and goes even beyond this beautiful forms, beautiful practices and beautiful ultimately he contemplates “the vast sea of beauty”. Plato’s concept of beauty is metaphysical and ideal, but how can this concept of beauty be applied to human beings whom want to judge as beautiful? No human being is the embodiment of the Idea of beauty as conceived by Plato. The beauty of human should not be judged by his physical looks but it should be judged by his action, by the human qualities that he is endowed with.
A human being may have a perfect figure, symmetry, harmony proportion, but may be cruel and ill nature or cantankerous. Instead of doing good deed to the human society, he may always think of doing harm to it and may even go as far as caring only for himself. The Buddha looks for beauty in human beings. He is not at all concerned with the metaphysical beauty as Plato was.
He does not conceive of beauty itself as a separate entity, different from a beautiful object of beautiful human being and He does not consider him or her as handsome or beautiful due to physical symmetry, harmony and proportion. According to Buddha, beauty for him or her should be considered from the point of an ethical or spiritual concept. And one who has ethically well and has got rid of craving, aversion and ignorance and made his or her mind free from the different kinds of defilements that make him or her ugly, is really beautiful.
Therefore, we can understand why the Buddha does not hold physical beauty in high esteem. Firstly, it arouses passion to the person. Secondly, it makes one proud, conceited and vain- so much so that it belittles those who are not beautiful. It also makes one very selfish. In the present world, people highly value the physical beauty gained by beautifying things such as clothes, jeweler, garlands and sandalwood powder or perfume even plastic surgery etc. But the Buddha would certainly not give any importance to the physical beauty acquired by such means even plastic surgery etc.
Generally speaking, when all limbs of a person are symmetrical and proportionate, when he or she has a certain magnitude, he or she looks beautiful. Our parents also expected fully all limbs of their newly born sons or daughters when they were born in the human world. There is no doubt that symmetry, harmony, of beauty, may be prerequisites for architectural beauty, but as far as human beauty is concerned they are not the essential characteristics according to the Buddha.
Human beauty, unlike architectural beauty, is constantly changing as it is influenced by human emotions. Human beauty does not last and is in a constant state of flux, how can it be valued highly? Indeed, beauty is in the eye of the beholders. It may become in different according to beholders. Let us consider one example. When we see a beautiful flower, there is different view on it. From the point of view of artist, it may be really beautiful flower, but from the point of view of scientist, it is a different view on it. He may research it and destroy it into pieces for his research purpose. At that time, beautiful flower may lose its beauty. According to him, it is not a really beautiful. It may become ugly due to destroying into pieces for his research. So, physical beauty can change when it is influenced by our human emotions.
Again, we can consider it. It is very short-lived with time and it is in very short moment influenced by emotions such as anger, jealousy etc- quite unlike the beauty of non-living thing. Human emotional Anger, jealousy etc, will make him or her ugly. Nowadays the judges of Beauty in the world selected “Miss Universe or Miss India or Miss Mangala Myanmar etc” in the Beauty Contest. They judge them depend on physical beauty of them. But according to the Buddha,the judges should take into consideration not only the physical beauty but also the qualities of the head and heart of those who take part in the “Beauty Contest”. If she has no gray matter in her head and any generosity and compassion in her heart, how can the physical beauty of a girl be valued and used highly?
In the Rupa Sutta of AnguttaraNikaya, we can find out four kinds of person: a group of person (two percentages of three person) who attracts to the beauty (Rupa-pamana), a group of person (four percentages of five person) who attracts to the nice or good sound (Sadda-pamana), a group of person(nine percentages of ten) who pay attention to the serious practices (Lukha-pamana) and a group of person (one of one hundred thousand (100000) percentages) pay attention to the teaching of the Buddha (Dhamma-pamana).
Any way, the Buddha realized the transitory nature of physical beauty in His intuitive knowledge or insight wisdom. According to Him, physical beauty is ephemeral. It is very transitory. The Buddha has given so many examples to show how physical beauty is in a constant state of flux.
The Buddha also knew well physical beauty attracts people and cause passions and makes them do more harm than good, making them mad, proud and arrogant, hindering them from appreciating the noble values of life like love, charity, kindness, tolerance, sympathy which are noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of the heart, while the intellectual qualities of the mind such as thoughts of selfless renunciation or detachment, thoughts of love and thoughts of non-violence, which are extended to the humanity or to all spheres of life whether individual, social, or political. Swayed by their passion, people go astray and commit many unwholesome actions. Ordinary people are sometimes so overpowered or overwhelmed by the physical beauty that they behave like animals and are a danger to society.
How can there be peace and harmony in society, if there are such persons in it? Physical beauty should not be trusted or valued highly because we know that these are not good qualities to be cultivated to the society. The Buddha says, “Monks, I know and see not of any other single of such power to cause the arising of sensual lust, if not already arise or arisen, to cause it’s more becoming and increase, as the feature of beauty (Subha nimitta).
Physical beauty has its limitations. One who is physically beautiful but who is devoid of intellect becomes boring; devoid of softness, good disposition and human good qualities, becomes repulsive. If physically beautiful person has harmful hatred, great passion, and ignorance, he or she is not attracted to any body. It is for these reasons that in “Beauty Contests” the parameters of who should be regarded as beautiful have changed over the years and qualities of the head and heard of gray matter.
Indeed, physical beauty depends upon your parentage and on the genes that you inherit from your parentages. It also depends on your past Kamma-(action) if you believe in the theory of Kamma and rebirth. It is not in your hands to become physically beautiful however much you try and however much money you spend on beauty aids like massage, baths, creams, lotions or even plastic surgery. Such aids to beauty have tremendous limitations.
The Buddha gives an ethical and spiritual dimension to beauty. According to Him, a man’s acting under the influence of craving, aversion and ignorance or all the thoughts of selfish desire, ill-will hatred and violence which are the result of lack of wisdom-in all spheres of life whether individual, social, or political, is not beautiful. He or she may look physically beautiful due to having symmetry, harmony and proportion, but if he or she has such as craving, aversion and ignorance etc above mentioned, he or she will be like a festering lily which smells “far worse that weeds” as Shakespeare rightly says: “From sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds. Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”
In the same way, the Buddha says in the Dhammapada(verse51): As a beautiful flower that is brilliant of huge but yields no scent, even so it is fruitless for such a one who does not practice the well-spoken word (Dhamma). In many of the Suttas, the Buddha explains His notion of beauty. In Mallika Sutta of AnguttaraNikaya, He shows who is really beautiful. He says that even if a man or woman is physically beautiful, they will not be truly beautiful if they susceptible to anger. He or she still has the negatives of mind, unless he or she purifies his or her mind, he or she cannot be called beautiful.
In the Culakammavibhanga Sutta of MajjhimaNikaya, he makes it clear that displaying anger, hate or bitterness cannot make one beautiful. One may look ugly physically, but if one is not of anger and irritable character and does not display anger, hate or bitterness, he or she is really beautiful according to the Buddha. Thus, anger or hatred or bitterness will make him or her ugly. In the Ajaniya Sutta of AnnguttaraNikaya, the Buddha explains what constitutes real beauty and how a monk is blessed with it. If a monk has morality, if he lives with restraint of the obligations, proficient in the practice of good conduct, seeing danger in trifling faults, he trains himself in the rules by undertaking them. In this way, he has beauty.
There are several instances in the Pali Nikaya where the Buddha reveals His attitude towards the Beauty. Once, a famous Abhirupananda known as Janapadakalyani, was very proud of her perfect figure and would not go to the Buddha. In this instance, what the Buddha says about her beautiful figure is that it is diseased, impure and rotten. He instructed her to develop the concentration of mind to mediate on the unpleasant. Soon after later, she came to realize the ephemeral nature of her beauty. Therefore, she will not be burn with the fire of sensual desire about her beauty, and will become cool and calm for her life without brining fire of lust with regard to her beauty.
Addhakasi was a sex worker, very proud of her beautiful figure. Her pride grew more and more as many townspeople had fixed her price highly and made her beyond the reach of ordinary people. But very soon she came to realize the transitory of nature of her beauty. Vimala, a city-courtesan, was also proud of her perfect form. She felt intoxicated the bloom of her beauty. Intoxicated by her good and fair complexion, her beautiful figure and fame, she felt proud of her youth and despised other women. By ornamentation and decoration, she enhanced her beauty. But when she realized the true nature of her physical beauty, which is subject to Time’s scythe (i.e. devouring its beauty), she developed non-attachment and applied herself assiduously to attain ineffable Nibbana.
Khema, a queen consort of the king Bimbisara of Magadha kingdom, was also very proud of her beauty and she would not visit the Buddha because He talked about beauty in disparaging terms. Once, she went to the Buddha and saw a beautiful celestial nymph waiting or attending upon Him. That nymph was far more beautiful than she. As soon as she saw the beauty of celestial nymph, her pride was reduced or humbled. But not only this, the Buddha with his supernormal power showed her that even celestial beauty also passes from youth to old age. As a result, beautiful celestial nymph came to have broken teeth, gray hair and face full of wrinkles. She realized that if celestial beauty were so transitory, what to speak of her worldly physical beauty. With such realization, she regarded her beautiful body as vile, a foul seat of disease and corruption.
Ambapali once, famous prostitute, was the embodiment of perfect beauty. The description of her beauty from top to toe is very powerfully given by Ambapali herself in her Gathas as following:
Her hair was so glossy and black. The curls of her hair looked like the down of bee. It was very fragrant, as fragrant as a casket of perfumes. Her eye-brows looked as beautiful as the crescent nicely painted by the artists, her eyes shone brilliantly like jewels long and black, her nose was delicate or subtle and pointed, her teeth is sparkling white and looked as beautiful as the colour of the plantain-bud or she has pearly white teeth. Her voice was sweet like that of a cuckoo, her neck was as polished as a conch-shell, her arms were round cylindrical, her hands with golden rings in the fingers were beautiful, her breasts were beautiful- swelling, close together and lofty-her body was beautiful like a well-polished sheet of gold, her thighs were like the trunks of elephant and so on, but old age changed them altogether. With this great change, she came to realize the nature of physical beauty. She is disenchanted and disillusioned her wasted charms. So, leaving aside all her pride and conceit and thoroughly realizing the vanity of physical allure and charm, she is convinced of the truth that the Buddha teaches her, and develops non-attachment, and becomes cool and quenched.
When we take consideration the concept of the Beauty, the Buddha finds nothing glorious in physical beauty. It is very clear that physical beauty arouses passion, persuades people to enjoin sensual and sensuous pleasures and makes them mad and burning to commit rape or other kinds of sexual misconduct, and is thought to be a very effective snare to entrap young men. But those who see through this physical beauty with wisdom are not tempted by it. This is clear from this example that a courtesan says to Sundarasamudda. She is very beautiful, attractive, charming. Speaking softly and sweetly and with a smile she says to him: You are young to have gone forth. Abide in speaking; enjoin human sensual pleasure, but high-minded Sundarasamudda does not even reply to the courtesan’s proposal.
Once, the Buddha says to a quite beautiful lady named Magandhi in disparaging terms “I do not want to touch body of beautiful Magandhi even with my feet. The Buddha says that this body is encased in skin, and full of impurities, from the soles of the feet up to from crowns of the head down. Once, a Punna Their’s description of body is graphically terrifying and nauseating- effect on us. If what is inside were to come out we would always have to guard ourselves from crows and dogs (See the Gathas of Punna Their).
There is another point of view from which the Buddha describes physical beauty. Like all objects of the world, this body is in flames and every part of it also is in flames. They are burning and burning with fires of craving, aversion and ignorance. When people came to realize this nature with his or her higher wisdom and intuitive knowledge all scales of from their eyes fall and instead of being attracted by transitory objects they develop non- attachment towards them.
The Buddha finds nothing much importance in physical beauty. In most cases, it is a very effective snare, which causes to commit rape or other kinds of sexual misconduct, entraps men and women, taking them to their doom and destruction. What do men generally see in a woman’s form and figure? They see in it the five strands of sensual pleasure like sights, sounds, tastes, smells and things to touch. In one of Suttas of AnnguttaraNikaya, the Buddha says” that monks, I know of no other single from by which a man’s heart is as enslaved as it is by that of a woman. A man’s heart is enslaved by the form, sound, scent, savour and touch of a woman. In the same way, monks, I know of no other single form, sound sent, savour and touch of a man.
From this observation of the Buddha it is clear that attraction to man or woman’s body is fraught with danger. These five strands of sensual pleasures make great passion him or her. This is what physical beauty leads to ordinary people. Therefore, men and women become ensnared in the five strands of sensual pleasures. Beautiful woman has been regarded as a veritable snare of Mara. His physical beauty produces only passion. But Khema is no exception. Mara –evil one, in the form of a young man, says to her “you are young and beautiful, I am also young and in my prime. Come Khema, let us delight ourselves with five-fold music.”
Mara also tries to tempt Upacala with these words: why do you not approve birth? One, who is born, enjoins sensuous pleasure. Enjoin the delights of sensuous pleasures.” That physical beauty prompts one to commit rape is clear from what Mara says to Uppalavanna: Going up to a tree with well-flowered top, you stand alone at the foot of the tree, you have not ever any compassion. He says her beauty.
Mara, once said Subha Jivakambavanika’s beauty. Mara asked her to take delight in carnal pleasures with him. He further said that her eyes were like the bud of a blue lotus, spotless, like gold. She has long eyelashes. She was of pure gaze. So her beautiful eyes captivated him. But she replied him with negatives.
We have seen women who are ravishingly lovely and may be called beautiful- by the standard of connoisseurs. Their shape, colour, surface or texture and complexion were perfect, yet they may really not beautiful because either they were empty or had some corruption if one could see them through their spiritual emptiness or ugliness. Any way, the concept of beauty as propounded by the Buddha can be regarded as “A Universal Concept of Beauty.” If he or she has qualities like love, compassion, tolerance, sympathy, if he or she is free from anger, and other defilements, he or she is really beautiful, although he or she may not have external symmetry harmony and proportion.
The Buddha says that an individual is capable of attaining ethical and spiritual beauty by walking on the path of Sila(morality), Samadhi- concentration and Panna-wisdom. He can extirpate or eradicate all ugly mental defilements, which make him ugly. Achieving ethical and spiritual beauty is in one’s own hands, but for being physically beautiful one has to depend on parentage and on a conducive to social atmosphere to live life fully and harmoniously.
No universal theory of physical beauty can be propounded in as mush as perceptions differ from country to country, from reign to reign, from race to race. There may be one type of look desirable to black people and another type of beauty desired by white people. We cannot deny that every body has its own beauty. The kinds of eyes, ears, nose, neck, arms, hips, waist, thighs, lips, teeth, face and hair were regarded as beautiful in one country or some race. On the other hands, they will not be regarded as beautiful all over the world. A dove-eyed girl or lotus-eyed girl is regarded as beautiful in India. But it is not true and beautiful girls for the black and Orientate races in other countries.
Every race has its own concept of physical beauty. A fair complexion is an important criterion of physical beauty among the ancient Aryan races but how can it be applied to Africans? Thus, the Buddha has give a theory of beauty which is universal, by ethicizing the concept of beauty and making it more a matter of inside than of outside.
In conclusion, he or she who wants to be beautiful, according to the Buddha, should drive out all defilements which make him or her ugly and cultivate exemplary qualities like love compassion tolerance and sympathy that best of men or women by.
May you be beautiful in the way of the Buddha!
May all beings be happy and peaceful as Sitagu moon or Sitagu moonlight!
May the sublime Dhamma prevail in its pristine purity in the world!
Note- this article was published by the Myanmar Monk-students’ Welfare Association of India as a tenth annual issue in 2009.
Sutacaralankara (Research Scholar)
Department of Buddhist Studies
Nalanda University,(India)
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