Abstract :
It is a common supposition that to understand a philosophical writing,
knowledge of the philosophical sources on which it draws suffices. Yet,
abstract subtleties are often suitably dressed in poetic comparisons,
whose threads are spun from a different source. While the body of logical
argument appeals to the intellect, the dress of literary tropes allures the
emotions. Philosophy is not simply mathematics, for it involves a sentiment,
which in Mahāyāna Buddhism means susceptibility to its religious
ethos embodied in its path, bodhicitta, and bodhisattvas. Through
Candrakīrti’s comparison of buddhas and bodhisattvas to the king of
geese, I shall here examine the use of similes and metaphors in Indian
Buddhist philosophical writing. The analysis illustrates the subtle influence
that popular narratives eulogizing the deeds of saints had on such
texts, and proposes to revisit philosophical texts as literary works.
