2 thoughts on ““On the Tree on the Mountainside”

  1. In reading The Teaching of Buddha, (a book circulated by Japanese Jodo Shin Buddhists) in my copy of The Portable Nietzsche, I happened upon the passage, “On the Tree on the Mountainside.” In Nietzsche’s treatment of his “parable,” I saw the similarity between Lord Buddha sitting under the Bodie Tree, and Nietzsche’s knowledge of it. Quit related to both Buddha and Socrates, I wrote a creative essay, “Into an Eastern Forrest,” before I had read Nietzsche. I compared the two great thinkers of the East and the West, but am pleased to believe that Nietzsche knew of it as well, just has he only hints of having read Poe’s work.

    1. If this kind of connection is interesting to you, you might want to have a look at my wiki, where I index the thematic connections between the things I read. One of the more extensive themes is “Tree and fruit”. https://brain.anomalogue.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Treeandfruit

      I just added the sutta on the Buddha’s enlightenment to the wiki and connected it to the Tree and fruit theme. Also, there are actually some passages from Zarathustra that are even closer to the Buddha’s enlightenment story, which you might want to view. I just connected the most striking one, which could (not necessarily should) be interpreted as a synthesis of Buddhism and Christianity.

      https://brain.anomalogue.com/pmwiki.php?n=Main.Udana1-1

      The password to the wiki is “generalad”.

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