95. Mahāsudassana-Jātaka – The Splendid King Dies: The Impermanence of All Earthly Glory

 The Empty Throne, Generosity and Peace Beyond the Kingdom – Buddhism, Jung and Gerardo Santo

 

The cover: splendor before silence

The cover introduces the central theme of this video essay: earthly greatness, however magnificent, cannot escape time and impermanence.

The throne, a symbol of power and imagined permanence, becomes a presence destined to remain empty. Splendor is not simply rejected; it is contemplated in its transient nature. Gold, light and shadow evoke a kingdom belonging to memory, while silence suggests a dimension that cannot be possessed.

King Sudassana recalls the story told in the 95th Mahāsudassana Jātaka: a ruler surrounded by immense wealth who eventually understands that no kingdom, city or privilege can accompany a human being beyond death.

The cover thus becomes a threshold: from the fascination of possession to the awareness of its fragility.

The video essay: four movements towards inner freedom

 

The complete video is divided into four parts, accompanied by narration and music. Its structure leads progressively from the fear of loss to generosity, and finally to the silence beyond personal identity.

 

MP4 1 – The House, Possession and the Kingdom

The journey begins in the home of Don Tommaso, a wealthy landowner from Muro Lucano who is approaching death. Surrounded by precious objects, money and signs of his power, he faces a radical question: what can truly belong to a human being?

Gerardo Santo, a twenty-three-year-old craftsman, enters his house without assuming the role of a teacher. His listening and quiet presence begin to crack the illusion of possession.

Wealth, which once seemed to guarantee security, reveals its helplessness before time.

MP4 2 – Loss, the King and the Little Seed

The fear of separation leads Gerardo to tell the story of King Sudassana and the magnificent city of Kusāvatī.

Even a ruler blessed with an extraordinary kingdom must acknowledge that all earthly splendour is destined to fade.

A tiny sesame seed becomes the central symbol of this passage: fragile and small, it contains the possibility of life while remaining subject to transformation.

The story shifts our gaze from outward greatness to an understanding of impermanence.

MP4 3 – The Gift and the Empty Chair

Don Tommaso comes to understand that wealth can acquire a different meaning when transformed into help for others. His final testament becomes an act of generosity: what was once guarded as private property is returned to the community.

But death leaves an empty chair and opens a more difficult discovery for Gerardo.

Even he, despite wishing to do good, may remain attached to an image: that of the virtuous man, recognized and admired for his goodness.

The subtlest renunciation is not merely letting go of material possessions, but also refusing to turn virtue into another form of egoic possession.

MP4 4 – What Continues: Beyond the Throne

The community receives what Don Tommaso has left behind. The mill continues to work, bread is shared and a child plants a seed.

Generosity no longer belongs to a single benefactor: it becomes a relationship that passes between people and continues through time.

Gerardo walks away without seeking recognition. His path does not lead to another throne or to a spiritual image to display. It leads towards an inner space where even the need to be someone can fall silent.

The video concludes with the convergence of three perspectives: Buddhist wisdom, Jungian transformation and apophatic silence.

The symphonic reading: Jātaka, Jung and the apophatic dimension

The three perspectives are not presented as separate interpretations, but as voices that meet and illuminate one another.

The Buddhist perspective

The Mahāsudassana Jātaka reveals the transience of all conditioned existence. Kingdom, wealth, beauty and power cannot provide a permanent dwelling. Generosity and ethical conduct point towards a path that does not depend on accumulation.

The Jungian perspective

Don Tommaso represents the ego identified with possession, prestige and security. Death challenges this identification and reveals the shadow of loss. Gerardo, in turn, encounters a subtler form of attachment: the desire to construct a spiritual identity and to be recognized as a good person.

The process of individuation does not consist in enlarging the ego, but in recognizing its limits and relinquishing its masks.

The apophatic perspective

The empty chair becomes an image of non-possession. It is not occupied by a new ideal figure or replaced by a spiritual certainty. It remains empty.

Apophatic silence points towards a space beyond definitions, beyond the images of the ego and beyond the claim that mystery can be enclosed within a concept.

The overall meaning

The story of Sudassana and the story of Gerardo Santo meet in a shared question: what can continue when everything we have considered ours disappears?

The answer is not a promise of personal permanence. It is a transformation of our relationship with the world.

Possession can become a gift. Loss can become awareness. The desire for recognition can give way to a freer presence.

The seed, the mill, the empty chair and Gerardo's journey become images of a single insight: we are not what we hold on to, nor even the image we construct of ourselves.

The kingdom disappears. The throne remains empty. The gift continues. And silence has no need to reign.