How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"You are…?" asked the other, in an unexpected baritone.
"One who teaches the way of liberation," he replied.
"The Buddha?"
"I have been called such."
"Tathagatha?"
"This name, too, have I been given." (3.48-53)
Once again, Sam refuses to commit to a name because it doesn't really answer the question of who he is. Philosophically, it's pretty interesting, but we'd probably think twice before inviting Sam to a fancy dress party.
Quote #5
"The real Buddha was named by us Sugata," replied the other. "Before that, he was known as Rild."
"Rild!" Yama chuckled. "You are trying to tell me that he was more than an executioner whom you talked out of doing his job?" (3.407-408)
Yeah, Yama, that's what he's telling you. Also, it's interesting to note that Sam seems to have the ability to see into a person's true self. Not even Rild was aware that he'd become a Buddha, but Sam knew. What do you think grants him this insight? Or is he just naming names like everybody else?
Quote #6
"Because you really have only one body-image, which is electrical as well as chemical in nature. It begins immediately to modify its new physiological environment. The new body has much about it which it treats rather like a disease, attempting to cure it into being the old body." (3.471)
Lord of Light is technically found in the science fiction section of the book story, so between all this philosophical mumbo-jumbo, Zelazny had to give a shout-out to a plausible scientific explanation for self.