The Brahmin & the Philosopher
An Epicurean and a Buddhist both walk into a bar - both lending each other well to one another.
I am sure that in the conquest of Alexander’s there was the cross pollination of East and West, that in his conquering up to the ghanjes he questioned Brahmins at sword point hoping to understand the futility of his arrogance.
In the face of climate and disease, where strings rotted on the bow in moist air and the choice crop of a generation languished under malaria and cholera, leaking their insides as they died of dehydration in the monsoon season, I wonder if he questioned them asking them about the bedrock and limit of Empire? – Alexander has been the only one in 3 thousand years to conquer the pestilent peaks of Afghanistan but he could not conquer that exotic subcontinent, mythical beyond the edge of the known world to him, land of centaurs and giants.
A mystery still to most of us.
In that conquering though, between barbarian and Hellenes, was there not communication and discussion over wine and women of the things that move the heart of men, discussions of yearning and suffering, greed and desire, and would there not have been one lovely monk itching in his orange robe to fix in his compassion the ailing hearts of these would be invaders?
The Buddhas middle way, the 4 noble truths and the eightfold path, has at its root moderation in habit and character, and so as that contact was made, how far would an idea spread? There was not just one Hellene king in Bactria under the rural rustic tutelage of a monk seeking salvation in the lotus flower.
Culture is a rich tapestry, and ideas like spice flow through contact, so where the spices of the subcontinent spread so one must imagine ideas about the core questions that unite us as a race – our belonging, our introspection into ourselves and the world we live in.
When Caesar accidentally burned down the Great Library of Alexandria 4 centuries later, I highly doubt there was not some recording of the teaching of Gotama Buddha, that mysterious philosopher king from the east, and maybe a Greco-Roman or two influenced by them
