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Running Head: Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

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Year

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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

A chariot is defined as a type of carriage which controlled and driven by a charioteer. They are

usually using the horses to provide rapid energetic to move. The Buddhist simile of chariot and

Plato’s chariot analogy are examined as below.

The Buddhist simile of chariot basically takes as back to Siddhartha, Buddha himself and talks

about him as a spectator who is standing on the shore line and he is always considered to be the

enlightened one that explains why his statues appear in different dimensions in the whole of Asia

(Macmillan, 2014). The simile states or argues that mental attitude from a much higher mode of

thinking and reasoning is realized after one has gone through training and illumination or

enlightenment is taken to be a Buddhist term for the understanding of this realization.

The demolition of the four dimensions is always on a negative line of experience that is

sense to the lucent understanding and that of Buddha’s Fulton. If the demolition activity is

considered singular, illumination becomes radical and challenging but however, if the insight

gives way to the truth, it is always affirmed (Chaffee, 2016). Basing on the Buddhist simile,

death and decay are done away with but not the life and is simply because it is through the

illumination that the life can be restored back to its initial creativeness and also its freedom. A

quick example, the simile of mirror elaborates that the attitudes of the Buddhist on universal

conception is passive and also lacks a strong energetic inspirations, as a result, it betrays the

fact of ignorance on the side of a critic of the human and personal life of the Buddha. This was

devoted for a period of forty nine years of peace in order to promote the spiritual wellbeing of

the people in general.

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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

There are a number of Buddhists who believe in rebirth when someone dies and this is

in a sense that people continue to exist in either one form or another after they die and all

living things have the potentiality of growing in spirit and as a result of that, Buddhists are very

careful not to kill any living thing under the sun. The monks and nuns are expected to be poor

and dedicate their entire life to the teachings of Buddha and they must also beg for food and

money in order for them to learn humility.

In addition to that, the critic never noticed the unusual work of the missionaries for

instance, the Buddha’s disciples or followers in relation to their intellectual activities in which in

a long run grew into the Mahayanists school of the Buddhism. Basing on the Buddhist simile,

the passivity in the illumination or enlightenment is understood and explained as being merely

apparent and usually this enlightenment is brought about by continuous spiritual work which is

on a positive set of mind, there is also a hidden reservoir of a number of possibilities (Bhikkhu,

2018). To add to that, its union is where the entire world of multi curiosity is stuck. The

Buddhist simile also emphasizes that whenever enlightenment is present , unity is always

there.in addition, the simile is also attached to the immense expansion of the ocean shows the

heavenly bodies shining.

While Plato’s chariot analogy takes us on how he explains the nature of the human soul.

He explained that the chariot is being pulled by two winged horses, one horse representing the

mortal and the other for the immortal. In his description, the mortal horse is as a crooked

lumbering animal that is put together in a dark color, grey eyes and red complexibility and

needs to be whipped. Plato continues to describe the immortal horse as one which is noble and
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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

game, which is cleanly made with a white color and black eyes which is a follower of true glory

and does not need to be whipped but instead guided by words.

On the other hand, the driver’s seat is the charioteer who is challenged by reining these

steeds, harnessing them to move the vehicle with strength. The charioteer’s destination is the

ridge of heaven which will lead to the reforms of wisdom, truth and justice among others. This

keeps the chariot in flight (continuous).

He further emphasizes that, in case the charioteer beholds the forms, he will get to go

to another revolution in the heavens but in case he fails to pilot the chariot, it is obvious that

the horses will collide and the chariot will end up on earth and in the same way the horses will

lose their wings, their souls will then be embodied in human flesh. The level at which the souls

fall determines how they will be embodied basing on the truth it amount of truth in beheld

while still in heaven, it also determines the period it will take for the horses to grow their wings

again to fly.

The charioteer stands for a man’s reasoning while the two horses (dark and white) stand

for his appetite and spiritedness respectively. Plato also emphasized that the best part of

reasoning is usually weak in human beings that they cannot govern and control the brood of

beasts within them, this leaves flattering them as the only away to lean (Peter, 1995). After

understanding the two (Plato and Buddha), a clear comparison can now be made to determine

their similarities and differences as elaborated below. Plato and Buddha both have a common

idea in the importance of justice. Buddha believes in rebirth and that after death humans can
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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

live again and Plato also shows desires in hopes of spiritual rebirth. They both have similar and

relating assumptions as they to try to develop sense on the reality of the world.

According to the above concept, both Buddhism and Platonism view knowledge as the

way to wholeness and being ignorant as a leading cause divisions amongst the men of the

world. Platonism view skeptics as good meaning that there are some things that the men of the

world can never know about and this fact cannot make anything to be true when we decide to

act like we knew what we don’t know and the applies to Buddha’s teachings (Noa, 2005). Both

Buddha and Plato saw ethics as a good thing but not something which you can reduce to a fine

level. You will get confused at some point. Some of the differences are; Buddha considers god

to be emptiness while Plato describes god as a transcendent being that is supreme.

Plato’s concern is more on meanings and codes to deal with truth and morals while

Buddha’s main concern is on attaining the outer world by studying and mastering the world.

Buddha’s view is that there is no transcendent ideal in things while Plato views truth and

beauty as tools for supremacy (Mark, 2007). Plato vies that all things relate back to the

wholeness in an objective way for example, he will, lament that there is objective right and

wrong due to the fact that our body is like a machine that needs a right fuel to function well

and this is human nature as per his teachings, but however, Buddha looks at this in a different

away, he does not assume this but instead laments that bodies are never the same.

Buddha’s conclusions are that there is no soul and yet on the other hand Plato

emphasizes that there is an eternal soul for every human being (Whitaker, 2016). Plato’s main

emphases is based on what soul really is and its ability not to die and where it goes but Buddha
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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

disagrees that there is no permanent creature like nature rather he puts his focus more on

what can certainly be obtained from carrying out a careful analysis. Buddha’s philosophy is

more down to earth while Plato’s is developed more on how the world is so imperfect from the

original one. The teachings of Plato elaborate that there was not more than the burning of a

soul after one has died also breaking it into fire, this is an assumption that it is valueless. On the

other hand, Buddha looked at things in a different way because he believed in life after death,

this meant that the soul had to undergo for the things done when still embodied.
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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

References

Chaffee “2016” The philosopher’s way: Thinking critically about profound ideas

Albahari, Miri, 2006. Analytical Buddhism, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

–––, 2014. ‘Insight Knowledge of No Self in Buddhism: An Epistemic Analysis,’ Philosophers’

Imprint, 14(1), 

Anālayo, Bhikkhu. 2018. Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current research, Cambridge, MA:

Wisdom.

Collins, Stephen, 1982. Selfless Persons, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Gethin, Rupert, 1998. The Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gombrich, Richard F., 1996. How Buddhism Began, London: Athlone.

–––, 2009. What the Buddha Thought, London: Equinox.

Gowans, Christopher, 2003. Philosophy of the Buddha, London: Routledge.

Harvey, Peter, 1995. The Selfless Mind, Richmond, UK: Curzon.

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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

Jayatilleke, K.N., 1963. Early Buddhist Theory of Knowledge, London: George Allen and

Unwin.

Rahula, Walpola, 1967. What the Buddha Taught, 2nd ed., London: Unwin.

Ronkin, Noa, 2005. Early Buddhist Metaphysics, London: Routledge.

Ruegg, David Seyfort, 1977. ‘The Uses of the Four Positions of the Catuṣkoṭi and the Problem

of the Description of Reality in Mahāyāna Buddhism,’ Journal of Indian Philosophy, 5: 1–71.

Siderits, Mark, 2007. Buddhism As Philosophy, Indianapolis: Hackett.

Smith, Douglass and Justin Whitaker, 2016. ‘Reading the Buddha as a

Philosopher,’ Philosophy East and West, 66: 515–538.

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Buddha and Plato Simile of Chariot

References