INTERPRETATIONS OF THE BUDDHA QUOTE. Thank you friends for your enlightening comments on the buddha quote ” To light a candle is to cast a shadow” They are all reproduced here in order of appearance only. My interpretation is the final one… hey… final as in last in appearance :):):):) sarita singh said… | 2:01 | 16/Jan/09 PM|  |  |
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it means that the area covered by darkness gets reduced……wisdom that enlightens minds and makes one aware of his/her ignorance…the shadows of the mind! | Lissome Lady said… | 8:02 PM | 16/Jan/09 | | | | | Interesting. Light and shadow, darkness and light, black and white, ignorance and enlightenment, good and evil are inescapable opposites that are a part of one another and of life. If you light a candle you will cast a shadow. They are inseperable. To desire only light without shadow, to call for virute without knowing vice is to chase a myth. They bear one another out like two sides of a coin, if you split them then you break the mould and you cease to exist as a whole. therefore must we? can we? shun all knowledge of vice and evil as unnecessary? A deep question indeed. If we didnt know evil, how would we recognise the good? If there was nothing to compare could we even have a definition at all? Would we value good if there wasnt the constant challenge and temptaion of the bad? What is virute without vice? :)) The paradox of paradoxes here. | | Think Tank said… | 11:29 PM | 16/Jan/09 | | | | What immediately comes to my mind is… (1) Everything in the world is relative. If we make a particular place lighted, then we make some other place appear less lighted also. E.g. each person being rich means he is rich relative to some other person who is now poorer to him. So our attempt should be to make the whole light up and not only parts, in all senses. (2) When we light a candle, the candle burns and is consumed in order to spread the light. In order to spread light, someone has to get consumed. Similarly, all the honest and pure souls in this world who are making this world a better place by their good work, are in some terms consuming themselves to make this happen. Remember the early age at which Swami Vivekananda died? Plus, the sacrifices done by great men and women like Gandhiji or even Dr. Kalam make our world a better place Ok, I will stop before I write a thousand words  Very nice to see that you observed it and stopped at this quote Regards, (Rahul) |
| Vaidehi S said… | 2:47 PM | 17/Jan/09 | | | | | Hmmm… lets see. To my understanding, that means both good and bad exist in this world. In other words, they are the two sides of the same coin. But how a person comprehends largely depends on his or her perspective. For some reason, the statement doesn”t sound right to me. I don”t know what Buddha had in mind when he made this statement. Let me know if there is an explanation associated with this. | |
| kavya anjali said… | 2:59 PM | 17/Jan/09 | | | | | here candle is the symbol of lightening and brightness……. candles are the positive and good symbol and the shadows are the symbol of negative associated with it ….whenever the candles are lighted though shadow exist but me may or may not see it …..SIMILARLY IS CASE FOR LIFE WHAT WE FIND AND SEE BRIGHTENING AND BENEFITING FOR US MAY HAVE SOME NEGATIVES ASSOCIATE D WITH IT WHICH WE OMIT ………IT IS NOT ALWAYS AS TRUE AS WE THINK ABOUT THE ALLURES OF THE WORLD …THESE WORDS MIGHT HAVE BEEN SAID SO THAT WE CAN STOP RUNNING BEHIND FACADES OF LIFE | |
| Kanaka Banerjee said… | 7:22 PM | 18/Jan/09 | | | | “To light a candle is to cast a shadow”Most of Buddhas sayings revolve around desire. One that i remember, desire is the cause of all sin. I think this is similar. As we desire for more (the lighting of a candle signifies prosperity), there will always be a shadow. (The shadow stands for some amount of sin or wrong doing) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ | I have been guided by all of the above interpretations in order to arrive at mine. So credit for this interpretation if any is due to all my friends as listed above. Everything is hazy before a candle is lit. The act of lighting a candle brings forth brightness and in turn, casts a clearly demarcated shadow. Thus when you light a candle you gain the ability to see the brightly lit, as well as the shadow that is cast, instead of what was earlier all hazy. What Buddha probably meant by this quote is that when you light a candle of enlightenment in your mind, you gain the ability to differentiate between the brightness of good and the shadow of bad, just as a candle when lit, transforms general haziness into clearly demarcated, brightness and shadow. Lighting the candle of enlightenment only gives one the ability to differentiate. What one does thereafter is a different issue. Thus enlightenment alone is not enough to dispel evil, it only gives you the ability to judge the good and the bad. Actually dispelling evil can be done only through your actions. |
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Posted in Philosophy.
By Basant Pandey
– January 20, 2009
simple… when there’’s no light, there’’s no shadow!
Very nice post
hmmm… If I say something here, you won”t like it. Because of my name.
I think, Basant, Lissome’’s earlier comments are more near the truth. Throughtout his teachings, Budha had been against the series of opposities - good-bad, right-wrong, light-shadow, love-hate, life-death He is for ”beyond” and for the golden mean, the middle path. Instead of love, his teachings advocate compassion, which has no opposite.
Thanks again. Iwould like to add that comments are always welcome by me. and if they r critical in nature, then its icing on the cake for me.So please feel free to comment on my writings whenever u visit the iland.
Basant, there seems to be some thing amiss in my softwares due to which iam unable to access my Guest book. I thank u for the time u have taken to leave comments for me. But i would request u to please copy the same in my last post in the comments column. And i shall revert back after reading the same.
Good one Basant…
Hello, I would like to add : Achche Karm Ke liye prayas karna bhi Mahan Karya hai. “To light a candle to caste a shadow” Dimag ki Batti jalane ke liye Guru Ke Pass Jana, Aur Usse pahile Achche Guru ki talash karna bhi Karm Hai. —- Jaise “Light a Candle we need a Match stick and Match box.” Agar Tili bhigi hai ya Match box bhiga arthat Guru - Karm ke liye motivate na karpaye To “Candle will not lit.” - I agree with Think tank “Shadow is illusion” . Jaise Mombatti Andhere me Roshni se Rasta dikhati hai vaise hi Eis andheri me karm rupi prakash se Gyan ki jyoti Guru Dikhata hai. What I meant by “this” saying of Lord Buddha. .. Thanks.
Part of the prayer in most Hindu schools, so I assumed you would know. It is just the Sanskrit of what you have expressed as your closing piece on shadow and light. From Untruth (asat) to truth (sat); from darkness (tamas) to light (jyoti) from death (mrityu) to everlasting life (amrit) and therefore to peace(shanti) This is but the translation. The philosophy is deep and profound and can bear the rigour of a dozen blogs or more.
Essentially it is what you have said re: the enlightenment of the mind and the ability to see both the darkness and the light. That is true enlightenment. The Miltonic claim “cloistered virtue” is no virtue. 
The ability to see is the ability to know, reflect, understand, judge and make a choice and that alone is a good choice - an informed one as opposed to an indoctrinated or conditioned one. Again when you know, you will find compassion because the nature of true knowing goes beyond the cerebral, to feelings and action. 
hi…nice one….but a second tht ….it implies that knowledge brings about pain tooo…. like the four truths did for lord Buddha…. & in another context i would say, knowledge can be missused as well,for negetive purposes….just my thoughts.
Asatoma sat gamaya, tamasoma jyotir gamaya, mrityurma amritam gamaya…… om shanti shanti shanti….
anaadi ki khopadi me itani unchi bat kanaha ghusti hai,
“”"The act of lighting a candle brings forth brightness and in turn, casts a clearly demarcated shadow. “”" Shadow is illusion! There is no existance of shadow in absolute! Shadow is just the absence of too much of illumination. It doesn”t make it bad or wrong or negative. In absolute, there is no shadow and and very similarly, in absolute there is no existance of bad or evil.
“”"What Buddha probably meant by this quote is that when you light a candle of enlightenment in your mind, you gain the ability to differentiate between the brightness of good and the shadow of bad, just as a candle when lit, transforms general haziness into clearly demarcated, brightness and shadow.”"” Now what I don”t understand is, how come “evil” comes into the picture? Is the shadow bad or evil? How??? Just because it is dark?