Bertolt Brecht’s Interpretation of “the Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House

8/16/2019 Bertolt Brecht’s Interpretation of “the Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House

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What does democracy look like?

Democracy is a way of life yet to be lived.

Bertolt Brecht’s interpretation of

“The Buddha’s Parable of the

Burning House.”

(hps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/011.jpg)

Bertolt Brecht (hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht)‘spoem, “The Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House,” relates aparable of the Buddha’s, found in the Lotus Sutra

(hp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Sutra), to not fearing thechanges which a revolution would involve.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brechthttps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/011.jpghttps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/011.jpghttps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/011.jpghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Sutrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brechthttps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/011.jpghttps://whatdoesdemocracylooklike.wordpress.com/


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Guatama the Buddha taughtThe doctrine of greed’s wheel to which we are bound, andadvisedThat we shed all craving and thusUndesiring enter the nothingness that he called Nirvana.Then one day his pupils asked him:“What is it like, this nothingness, Master? Every one of us

wouldShed all craving, as you advise, but tell usWhether this nothingness which then we shall enterIs perhaps like being at one with all creation,When you lie in water, your body weightless, at noon,Unthinking almost, lazily lie in the water, or drowseHardly knowing now that you straighten the blanket,Going down fast –whether this nothingness, then,Is a happy one of this kind, a pleasant nothingness, or

Whether this nothingness of yours is more nothing, cold,senseless and void.”Long the Buddha was silent, then said nonchalantly:“There is no answer to your question.”But in the evening, when they had gone,The Buddha still sat under the bread‑fruit tree and to theothers,To those who had not asked, addressed this parable:“Lately I saw a house. It was burning. The flameLicked at its roof. I went up close and observedThat there were people still inside. I entered the doorway andcalledOut to them that the roof was ablaze, so exhorting themTo leave at once. But those peopleSeemed in no hurry. One of them,While the heat was already scorching his eyebrows,Asked me what it was like outside, whether there wasAnother house for them, and more of this kind. Withoutanswering

I went out again. These people here, I thought,Must burn to death before they stop asking questions.And truly friends,Whoever does not yet feel such heat in the floor that he’llgladlyExchange it for any other, rather than stay, to that manI have nothing to say.” So Gautama the Buddha.But we too, no longer concerned with the art of submission,Rather with that of non‑submission, and offering

Various proposals of an earthly nature, and beseeching menTo shake off their human tormentors, we too believe that tothoseWho in face of the rising bomber squadrons of Capital go onasking too long


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How we propose to do this, and how we envisage that,And what will become of their savings and Sunday trousersafter a revolutionWe have nothing much to say.

This was published in 1949 in “Kalendergeschichten”, a collectionof stories and poems which Brecht had wrien while in exile

during the war. In English, “Tales from the Calendar ,” translated byIvonne Kapp and Michael Hamburger, London: Methuen, 1961.

JULY 11, 2011 DARCYMCCLARE BERTOLT

BRECHT, BUDDHA, BUDDHISM, DEMOCRACY, GERMANPOETRY, GLOBALIZATION, KALENDERGESCHICHTEN,

LOTUS SUTRA, MAHAYANA BUDDHISM, POETRY,RELIGION, REVOLUTION, TALES FROM THE CALENDAR

4 thoughts on “Bertolt Brecht’s

interpretation of “The Buddha’s

Parable of the Burning House.””

1. Moderator says:This is one of the best I’ve ever heard of. This is the realitywhich helps us to live in this society. For some people,however much we try to make them understand theimpending danger, they cannot perceive it until finally greatharm is done to them eventually get perished..

REPLY

APRIL 24, 2012 AT 2:54 PM2. kvar för matavfall says:Howdy! We read your web site everynight, soon after Wewater this indoor plants

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REPLY NOVEMBER 24, 2013 AT 10:52 AM

Darcy McClare says:Great! Thanks!

REPLY NOVEMBER 24, 2013 AT 2:05 PM

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Bertolt Brecht’s Interpretation of “the Buddha’s Parable of the Burning House

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