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| The Sinsapa Grove The supremacy of the Four Noble Truths in the teaching of the Buddha is abundantly clear from the message of the Sinsapa Grove as from the message of the Deer Park. Once the Blessed One was living at Kosambi (near Allahabad) in the Sinsapa Grove. Then, gathering a few sinsapa leaves in his hand, the Blessed One addressed the monks: "What do you think, monks, which is greater in quantity, the handful of sinsapa leaves gathered by me or what is in the forest overhead?" "Not many, trifling, venerable sir, are the leaves in the handful gathered by the Blessed One; many are the leaves in the forest overhead." "Even so, monks, many are those things I have fully realized but not declared to you; few are the things I have declared to you. And why, monks, have I not declared them? They, monks, are not useful, are not essential to the life of purity, they do not lead to disgust, to dispassion, to cessation, to tranquillity, to full understanding, to full enlightenment, to Nibbâna. That is why, monks, they are not declared by me. "And what is it, monks, that I have declared? This is suffering-this have I declared. This is the arising of suffering-this have I declared.This is the cessation of suffering-this have I declared. This is the path leading to the cessation of suffering-this have I declared. "And why, monks, have I declared these truths? "They are, indeed, useful, are essential to the life of purity, they lead to disgust, to dispassion, to cessation, to tranquillity, to full understanding, to enlightenment, to Nibbâna. That is why, monks, they are declared by me. Therefore, monks, an effort should be made to realize: 'This is suffering, this is the arising of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.' "24 The Buddha has emphatically said: "One thing do I make known: suffering, and the cessation of suffering"25 (dukkham ceva paññapemi, dukkhassa ca nirodham). To understand this unequivocal saying is to understand Buddhism; for the entire teaching of the Buddha is nothing else than the application of this one principle. What can be called the discovery of a Buddha is just these Four Noble Truths. This is the typical teaching of the Buddhas of all ages. The Peerless Physician The Buddha is also known as the peerless physician (bhisakko), the supreme surgeon (sallakatto anuttaro). He indeed, is an unrivalled healer. The Buddha's method of exposition of the Four Noble Truths is comparable to that of a physician. As a physician, he first diagnosed the illness, next he discovered the cause for the arising of the illness, then he considered its removal, and lastly applied the remedy. Suffering (dukkha) is the illness; craving (tanhâ) is the arising or the root cause of the illness (samudaya); through the removal of craving, the illness is removed, and that is the cure (nirodha-nibbâna); the Noble Eightfold Path (magga) is the remedy. The Buddha's reply to a brahmin who wished to know why the Master is called a Buddha clearly indicates that it was for no other reason than a perfect knowledge of the Four Noble Truths. Here is the Buddha's reply: "I knew what should be known, What should be cultivated I have cultivated, What should be abandoned that have I let go. Hence, O brahmin, I am Buddha- The Awakened One."26 With the proclamation of the Dhamma for the first time, with the setting in motion of the Wheel of the Dhamma, and with the conversion of the five ascetics, the Deer Park at Isipatana became the birthplace of the Buddha's Dispensation (sâsana) and of his Community of Monks (sangha).27 The Spread of the Dhamma Thereafter the Buddha spent the vassa28 at the Deer Park at Isipatana, sacred this day to over 600 million of the human race. During these three months of "rains" fifty others headed by Yasa, a young man of wealth, joined the Order. Now the Buddha had sixty disciples, all arahats who had realized the Dhamma and were fully competent to teach others. When the rainy season ended, the Master addressed his immediate disciples in these words: "Released am I, monks, from all ties whether human or divine. You also are delivered from all fetters whether human or divine. Go now and wander for the welfare and happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, for the gain, welfare, and happiness of gods and men. Let not two of you proceed in the same direction. Proclaim the Dhamma that is excellent in the beginning, excellent in the middle, and excellent in the end, possessed of meaning and the letter and utterly perfect. Proclaim the life of purity, the holy life consummate and pure. There are beings with little dust in their eyes who will be lost through not hearing the Dhamma, there are beings who will understand the Dhamma. I also shall go to Uruvelâ, to Senânigama, to teach the Dhamma."29 Thus did the Buddha commence his sublime mission, which lasted to the end of his life. With his disciples he walked the highways and byways of India enfolding all within the aura of his boundless compassion and wisdom. Though the Order of Monks began its career with sixty bhikkhus, it expanded soon into thousands, and, as a result of the increasing number of monks, many monasteries came into being. In later times monastic Indian universities like Nâlandâ, Vikramasilâ, Jagaddalâ, Vikramapuri, and Odantapuri, became cultural centres which gradually influenced the whole of Asia and through it the mental life of humankind. After a successful ministry of forty-five years the Buddha passed away at the age of eighty at the twin Sâla Trees of the Mallas at Kusinârâ (in modern Uttara Pradesh about 120 miles northeast of Benâres).30 The Buddha's Ministry During his long ministry of forty-five years the Buddha walked widely throughout the northern districts of India. But during the rains retreat (vassa), he generally stayed in one place. Here follows a brief sketch of his retreats gathered from the texts: 1st year: Vârânasi. After the first proclamation of the Dhamma on the full moon day of July, the Buddha spent the first vassa at Isipatana, Vârânasi. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th years: Råjagaha (in the Bamboo Grove, Veluvana). It was during the third year that Sudatta, a householder of Sâvatthi known for his bounty as Anâthapindika, "the feeder of the forlorn," having heard that a Buddha had come into being, went in search of him, listened to him, and having gained confidence (saddhâ) in the Teacher, the Teaching, and the Taught (the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha), attained the first stage of sainthood (sotâpatti). He was renowned as the chief supporter (dâyaka) of the Master. Anâthapindika had built the famous Jetavana monastery at Sâvatthi, known today as Sahet-mahet, and offered it to the Buddha and his disciples. The ruins of this monastery are still to be seen. 5th year: Vesâli. The Buddha kept retreat in the Pinnacled Hall (kûtâgârasâlâ). It was at this time that King Suddhodana fell ill. The Master visited him and preached the Dhamma, hearing which the king attained perfect sanctity (arahatta), and after enjoying the bliss of emancipation for seven days, passed away. The Order of Nuns was also founded during this time. 6th year: Mankula Hill. Here the Buddha performed the "Twin Wonder" (yamaka pâtihâriya). He did the same for the first time at Kapilavatthu to overcome the pride of the Sakyas, his relatives. 7th year: Tâvatimsa (the Heaven of the Thirty-three). Here the Buddha preached the Abhidhamma or the Higher Doctrine to the deities (devâs) headed by his mother Mahâmâyâ, who had passed away seven days after the birth of Prince Siddhattha, and was reborn as a deva in the Tâvatimsa. 8th year: Bhesakalâ Forest (near Sumsumâragiri). It was here that Nakulapitâ and his wife, a genial couple, came to see the Buddha, told him about their very happy married life, and expressed the wish that they might continue to live together both here and hereafter. These two were placed by the Buddha as chiefs of those that win confidence. 9th year: Kosambi-at the Ghosita Monastery. 10th year: Pârileyyakka Forest. It was in the tenth year that, at Kosambi, a dispute arose between two parties of monks owing to a trivial offence committed by a monk. As they could not be reconciled, and as they did not pay heed to his exhortation, the Buddha retired to the forest. At the end of the vassa, their dispute settled, the monks came to Sâvatthi and begged pardon of the Buddha. 11th year: Village of Ekanâla (in the Magadha country). It was here that the Buddha met the brahmin farmer Kasibhâradvâja who spoke to the Buddha somewhat discourteously. The Buddha, however, answered his questions with his characteristic sobriety. Bhâradvâja became an ardent follower of the Buddha. It was on this occasion that the very interesting discourse, Kasibhâradvâja Sutta (Sutta-nipâta), was delivered. (Read The Book of Protection by this author (BPS).) 12th year: Verañja. The introduction of the Vinaya is attributed to the twelfth year. It was also during this retreat that the brahmin Verañja came to see the Buddha, asked a series of questions on Buddhist practices, and being satisfied with the answers, became a follower of the Blessed One. He invited the Master and the Sangha to spend the rainy season (vassa) at his village Verañja. At that time there was a famine. The Buddha and his disciples had to be satisfied with very coarse food supplied by horse merchants. As it was the custom of the Buddha to take leave of the inviter before setting out on his journeying, he saw the brahmin at the end of the vassa. The latter admitted that though he had invited the Buddha and his disciples to spend the retreat at Verañja, he had failed in his duties towards them during the entire season owing to his being taxed with household duties. However, the next day he offered food and gifts of robes to the Buddha and the Sangha. 13th year: Câliya Rock (near the city of Câlika). During this time the elder Meghiya was his personal attendant. The elder being attracted by a beautiful mango grove near a river asked the Buddha for permission to go there for meditation. Though the Buddha asked him to wait till another monk came, he repeated the request. The Buddha granted him permission. The elder went, but to his great surprise he was oppressed by thoughts of sense pleasures, ill will, and harm, and returned disappointed. Thereupon the Buddha said: "Meghiya, for the deliverance of the mind of the immature, five things are conducive to their maturing: (1) a good friend; (2) virtuous behaviour guided by the essential precepts for training; (3) good counsel tending to dispassion, calm, cessation, enlightenment and Nibbâna; (4) the effort to abandon evil thoughts, and (5) acquiring of wisdom that discerns the rise and fall of things."31 14th year: Jetavana monastery, Sâvatthi. During this time the Venerable Râhula, who was still a novice (sâmanera), received higher ordination (upasampadâ). According to the Vinaya, higher ordination is not conferred before the age of twenty; Ven. Râhula had then reached that age. 15th year: Kapilavatthu (the birthplace of Prince Siddhattha). It was in this year that the death occurred of King Suppabuddha, the father of Yasodharâ. 16th year: City of Âlavi: During this year Âlavaka, the demon who devoured human flesh, was tamed by the Buddha. He became a follower of the Buddha. For Âlavaka's questions and the Master's answers read the Âlavaka Sutta, in the Sutta-nipâta. (See The Book of Protection, p.81 by this author (BPS).) 17th year: Râjagaha, at Veluvana Monastery. During this time a well-known courtesan, Sirimâ, sister of Jivaka the physician, died. The Buddha attended the funeral, and asked the king to inform the people to buy the dead body-the body that attracted so many when she was alive. No one cared to have it even without paying a price. On that occasion, addressing the crowd, the Buddha said in verse: "Behold this painted image, a body full of wounds, heaped up (with bones), diseased, the object of thought of many, in which there is neither permanence nor stability." Dhammapada, 147 18th year: Câliya Rock. During this time a young weaver's daughter met the Buddha and listened to his discourse on mindfulness of death (maranânussati). On another occasion she answered correctly all the four questions put to her by the Master, because she often pondered over the words of the Buddha. Her answers were philosophical, and the congregations who had not given a thought to the Buddha word, could not grasp the meaning of her answers. The Buddha, however, praised her and addressed them in verse thus: "Blind is this world; few here clearly see. Like a bird that escapes from the net, only a few go to a good state of existence." Dhammapada, 174 She heard the Dhamma and attained the first stage of sanctity (sotâpatti). But unfortunately she died an untimely death. (For a detailed account of this interesting story, and the questions and answers, see the Commentary on the Dhammapada, Vol. III, p.170, or Burlingame, Buddhist Legends, Part 3, p.14.) 19th year: Câliya Rock. 20th year: Râjagaha, at Veluvana Monastery. From the 21st year till the 43rd year: Sâvatthi. Of these twenty-four vassas, eighteen were spent at Jetavana Monastery, the rest at Pubbârâma. Anâthapindika and Visâkhâ were the chief supporters. 44th year: Beluva (a small village, probably situated near Vesâli), where the Buddha suppressed, by force of will, a grave illness. In the 45th year of his Enlightenment, the Buddha passed away at Kusinârâ in the month of May (vesâkha) before the commencement of the rains. During the first twenty years of the Buddha's life, the bhikkhus Nâgasamâla, Nâgita, Upavâna, Sunakkhatta, Sâgata, Râdha, and Meghiya, and the novice (sâmanera) Cunda attended upon him, though not regularly. However, after the twentieth year, the Buddha wished to have a regular attendant. Thereon all the great eighty arahats, like Såriputta and Moggallâna, expressed their willingness to attend upon their Master. But this did not meet with his approval. Perhaps the Buddha thought that these arahats could be of greater service to humanity. Then the elders requested Ânanda Thera, who had kept silent all this while, to beg of the Master to be his attendant. Ânanda Thera's answer is interesting. He said, "If the Master is willing to have me as his attendant, he will speak." Then the Buddha said: "Ânanda, let not others persuade you. You on your own may attend upon me." Buddhahood and Arahatship Perfect Enlightenment, the discovery and realization of the Four Noble Truths (Buddhahood), is not the prerogative of a single being chosen by divine providence, nor is it a unique and unrepeatable event in human history. It is an achievement open to anyone who earnestly strives for perfect purity and wisdom, and with inflexible will cultivates the pârami, the perfections which are the requisites of Buddhahood, and the Noble Eightfold Path. There have been Buddhas in the dim past and there will be Buddhas in the future when necessity arises and conditions are favourable. But we need not think of that distant future; now, in our present days, the "doors to the Deathless" are still wide open. Those who enter through them, reaching perfect sanctity or arahatship, the final liberation from suffering (Nibbâna), have been solemnly declared by the Buddha to be his equals as far as the emancipation from defilements and ultimate deliverance is concerned: "Victors like me are they, indeed, They who have won defilements' end."32 The Buddha, however, also made clear to his disciples the difference between a Fully Enlightened One and the arahats,33 the accomplished saints: "The Tathâgata, O disciples, while being an arahat, is Fully Enlightened. It is he who proclaims a path not proclaimed before; he is the knower of a path, who understands a path, who is skilled in a path. And now his disciples are wayfarers who follow in his footsteps. That, disciples, is the distinction, the specific feature which distinguishes the Tathâgata, who being an arahat, is Fully Enlightened, from the disciple who is freed by insight."34 Salient Features of the Dhamma There are no dark corners of ignorance, no cobwebs of mystery, no smoky chambers of secrecy; there are no "secret doctrines," no hidden dogmas in the teaching of the Buddha, which is open as daylight and as clear as crystal. "The doctrine and discipline proclaimed by the Buddha shine when open and not when covered, even as the sun and moon shine when open and not when covered" (A.I,283). The Master disapproved of those who professed to have "secret doctrines," saying, "Secrecy is the hallmark of false doctrines." Addressing the disciple Ânanda, the Master said: "I have taught the Dhamma, Ânanda, without making any distinction between exoteric and esoteric doctrine; for in respect of the truths, Ânanda, the Tathâgata has no such thing as the closed fist of a teacher who hides some essential knowledge from the pupil."35 A Buddha is an extreme rarity, but is no freak in human history. He would not preserve his supreme knowledge for himself alone. Such an idea would be completely ridiculous and abhorrent from the Buddhist point of view, and to the Buddha such a wish is utterly inconceivable. Driven by universal love and compassion, the Buddha expounded his teaching without keeping back anything that was essential for man's deliverance from the shackles of samsâra, repeated wandering. The Buddha's teaching from beginning to end is open to all those who have eyes to see and a mind to understand. Buddhism was never forced upon anyone at the point of the gun or the bayonet. Conversion by compulsion was unknown among Buddhists and repugnant to the Buddha. Of the Buddha's creed of compassion, H. Fielding Hall writes in The Soul of a People: "There can never be a war of Buddhism. No ravished country has ever borne witness to the prowess of the followers of the Buddha; no murdered men have poured out their blood on their hearth-stones, killed in his name; no ruined women have cursed his name to high heaven. He and his faith are clean of the stain of blood. He was the preacher of the Great Peace, of love of charity, of compassion, and so clear is his teaching that it can never be misunderstood." When communicating the Dhamma to his disciples, the Master made no distinctions whatsoever among them; for there were no specially chosen favourite disciples. Among his disciples, all those who were arahats, who were passion-free and had shed the fetters binding to renewed existence, had equally perfected themselves in purity. But there were some outstanding ones who were skilled in different branches of knowledge and practice, and because of their mental endowments, they gained positions of distinction; but special favours were never granted to anyone by the Master. Upâli, for instance, who came from a barber's family, was made the chief in matters of discipline (vinaya) in preference to many arahats who belonged to the class of the nobles and warriors (kshatriya). Såriputta and Moggallâna, brahmins by birth, because of their longstanding aspirations in former lives, became the chief disciples of the Buddha. The former excelled in wisdom (pañña) and the latter in supernormal powers (iddhi). The Buddha never wished to extract from his disciples blind and submissive faith in him or his teachings. He always insisted on discriminative examination and intelligent inquiry. In no uncertain terms he urged critical investigation when he addressed the inquiring Kâlâmas in a discourse that has been rightly called the first charter of free thought: See http://maxpages.com/drfu38 for more |
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