All right, you've read the Phaedo - Socrates was halfway to Buddhism on his deathbed (philosophy as a means of "getting off the earth" - ghosts were perhaps men who were too attached to this existence) - so you've been wondering, why didn't the Buddhists take Greece by storm?
A few weeks ago, one of my relatives accidentally offended a customer. She showed she understood his order by flashing the "OK" sign. Only this customer was just off the boat from Greece, and in his native country, that sign means "You are an a*****e." The symbolism is straightforwardly geometrical, as befits the people of Euclid.
Well, when Mrs. W. and I visited the ancient Thai capital at Ayutthaya, we found a museum with many Buddha images, displaying the various appropriate mudras, including the one for "preaching." And, well, you've guessed already:
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