Shoring Up Fragments Against Our Ruin: Quotations and Allusions
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Eliot taps into Buddhist teachings to relate the fire sermon to the modern state of despair. The title of section three, “[[“The Fire Sermon” Annotations|The Fire Sermon]],” alludes to Buddha’s teachings regarding the burning of passions and vices. Buddha preaches and declares the burning of sensory body parts, leading his disciples, the Bhikkus, to be liberated from their passions. Eliot borrows this idea and distorts it. Beyond the title itself, the fire sermon remains an underlying message in the text, blanketing every scene and narrative shift. | Eliot taps into Buddhist teachings to relate the fire sermon to the modern state of despair. The title of section three, “[[“The Fire Sermon” Annotations|The Fire Sermon]],” alludes to Buddha’s teachings regarding the burning of passions and vices. Buddha preaches and declares the burning of sensory body parts, leading his disciples, the Bhikkus, to be liberated from their passions. Eliot borrows this idea and distorts it. Beyond the title itself, the fire sermon remains an underlying message in the text, blanketing every scene and narrative shift. | ||
| − | The incorporation of Buddha’s sermon | + | The incorporation of Buddha’s sermon offers a plethora of interpretations, however. The implication of relevancy to historical philosophies is present, to be sure, but the text virtually inverts Buddhist thought. While the sermon was a more positive outlook of freedom from worldly emotions, Eliot adopts a negative lens through which he views modern London. Burning, and begging for God to “pluck” him out, one of the narrators within the text associates the modern feeling of hopelessness and agony, emotions blazing powerfully as the aftermath of the war, to the sermon. |
==THE WASTE LAND== | ==THE WASTE LAND== | ||
