I think Davies is being cynical about the Buddah. The Buddah lived a long long time ago and Davies contempt for his teachings is evident when he says "in the land of idiot boys" as though his followers were immature idiots. "Cat" is not literally a cat, but a cat in the sense of a "cool cat" or hip person who had something to say that others bought into at the time, like those who followed the Buddah. He is a phenomenal cat because the Buddah became a phenomenon. "No one bothered him as he sat content in his tree..." He is just observing life like the Buddah. The Buddah was fat also and Davies attributes this not to some romanticised ideal of great prosperity due to an enlightened state, but simply because he loved to eat and "that's how he wanted to stay". This is actually a clever dig at the tenent of Buddism that adopts a complacent accepting "live and let live" attitude. By gorging himself because he wanted to, he was practicing Buddism. The lyric that points me to this interpretation most is that "he had flown to old Hong Kong and learned the meaning of life and the sea and the sky beyond". This is what Siddhartha (the actual name of the Buddah) did. As he traveled through life, he obtained enlightenment, a state of all knowing, or Nirvana. Davies is cynical of all so called leaders, like John Lennon was of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi(Sexy Sadie). So what did this "phenomenal cat" do with his newfound enlightenment? He ate himself through eternity. This is another reference to Buddism...the attainment of eternal life. Davie's message? The Buddah traveled and became enlightened so he could eat through the eternity of never ending life! Lesson here...there is no right path....Buddism, Taoism, christianity...they are all created by humans and therefore tied to human wants and needs, like food in this case. For a nice comparison, read Davies lyric to "Big Sky". Here he clearly explains that the big sky is just that.. a big sky, and there is no heaven, so he is comforted when he thinks that his problems are insignificant to a universe that is ambivalent.
I think Davies is being cynical about the Buddah. The Buddah lived a long long time ago and Davies contempt for his teachings is evident when he says "in the land of idiot boys" as though his followers were immature idiots. "Cat" is not literally a cat, but a cat in the sense of a "cool cat" or hip person who had something to say that others bought into at the time, like those who followed the Buddah. He is a phenomenal cat because the Buddah became a phenomenon. "No one bothered him as he sat content in his tree..." He is just observing life like the Buddah. The Buddah was fat also and Davies attributes this not to some romanticised ideal of great prosperity due to an enlightened state, but simply because he loved to eat and "that's how he wanted to stay". This is actually a clever dig at the tenent of Buddism that adopts a complacent accepting "live and let live" attitude. By gorging himself because he wanted to, he was practicing Buddism. The lyric that points me to this interpretation most is that "he had flown to old Hong Kong and learned the meaning of life and the sea and the sky beyond". This is what Siddhartha (the actual name of the Buddah) did. As he traveled through life, he obtained enlightenment, a state of all knowing, or Nirvana. Davies is cynical of all so called leaders, like John Lennon was of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi(Sexy Sadie). So what did this "phenomenal cat" do with his newfound enlightenment? He ate himself through eternity. This is another reference to Buddism...the attainment of eternal life. Davie's message? The Buddah traveled and became enlightened so he could eat through the eternity of never ending life! Lesson here...there is no right path....Buddism, Taoism, christianity...they are all created by humans and therefore tied to human wants and needs, like food in this case. For a nice comparison, read Davies lyric to "Big Sky". Here he clearly explains that the big sky is just that.. a big sky, and there is no heaven, so he is comforted when he thinks that his problems are insignificant to a universe that is ambivalent.