The Buddha
|
The quest for the historical Buddha has never been a major pursuit. We must understand the life of the Buddha in order to understand the Dharma. 'It is only self-evidently appropriate to start the study of a religion with the life-story of its founder: if we hold that the life-story of the founder is in some sense a crucial preliminary to understanding what follows. That is, in the case of Buddhism, if it were true that we could not understand the Dharma without first understanding the life-story of the Buddha' (Paul William).
It is not just the person of the Buddha that is significant but what the Buddha discovered. It is that sasana (teaching) or Dharma that are the reason the life of the Buddha has any significance at all. Gautama was a sammasambuddha (fully self-enlightened or universal Buddha). A sammasambuddha discovers enlightenment: that is the Dharma and then establishes the sasana and community in the world. This contrasts with a pratyeka Buddha who discovers the Dharma but does not establish the sasana or the Buddhist community in the world. Williams sees the study of Buddhism as involving the study of Buddhia thought rather than a study of the historical Buddha, the life story of the Buddha then becomes a hagiography (religious biography). The specific purpose of a hagiography is to illustrate that if the person was who we think he was, then what they were is an exemplification of what they represent. 'For what we find when we look at the life-story of the Buddha is not a historical narriative but a hagiography, and it is as a hagiography that one should read the life-story of the Buddha...within this perspective, the interests of veridical historical narrative are sometimes not seen, and are always subordinate'. The Vakkali sutta states 'who sees the dharma, sees me, and who sees me, sees the dharma'. |
|
The life of the Buddha
|
The conception and birth of the Buddha
Birth of the Buddha can be found in various Buddhist texts and the most elaborate can be found in the Jatakas, a sanskrit text called the Mahavastu and in the famous works by Ashvaghosa, the Buddhacarita (an early sanskrit poem) The story can be outlined as follows:-
|
|
|
The Prophecy and Early life
Seven holy men predicted that he would be a strong ruler like his father however another called Asita cried from happiness that he recognised the 32 signs of a Buddha predicting he would aspire to full and complete enlightenment (sambodhi) Outside of the Tripitaka it is understood that Asita said that Gautama would become either a cakravartin or a Buddha. Another holy man Kondanna predicted that he would become a holy man and pursue the truth. 'The king, being thus consoled and congratulated by those well-trusted Brahmans, dismissed from his mind the unwelcome suspicion and rose to a higher degree of joy. And well-pleased he gave to those most excellent of the twice-born rich treasures with all due honour - "May he become the ruler of the earth according to your words, and may he retire to the woods when he attains old age"...Then having learned by signs and through the power of his penances the birth of him who was to destroy all birth, the great seer Asita in his thirst for the excellent law came to the palace of the Sakya kind... (and declared) 'But hear now the motive for my coming and rejoice thereat; a heavenly voice has been heard by me in the heavenly path, that thy son has been born for the sake of supreme knowledge'' (Ashvaghosa's Buddhacarita) The story continues that to avoid this happening the kind had to ensure that the prince lived a life of happiness and luxury that avoided any unpleasantness. 'His father provided him with the greatest comforts...lacking nothing of the earthly joys of life, he lived amid song and dance, in luxury and pleasure, knowing nothing of sorrow' (Piyadasi Thera). In particular four things were to be avoided. Siddhartha was not to encounted any of the following: old age, sickness, death or a wandering ascetic (sannyasin). |
|
|
The Four Sights
It was argued that if the prince was kept away from the four sights, then he would not waver from his path as future king and ruler. However, if the prince did encounter these sights, they would serve as a catalyst to stimulate a search for truth that would take Gautama on an alternative path as a wandering holy man. Up until the age of 29, despite being surrounded by extraordinary levels of luxury and protection, Gautama's life was no more unusual than that of any other prince. He was married to Yasodhara at 16 and they lived within their palace grounds.'His father provided him with the greatest comforts. He had, so the story tells, three palaces, one for each of the Indian year's three seasons. Lacking nothing of the earthly joys of life, he lived amid song and dance, in luxury and pleasure, knowing nothing of sorrow' (Pyadassi) The signficiant events the brought about change for Gautama at the age of 29, involve excursions from the palace grounds with his charioteer. The first sight was an old, weak man, bent over with age. The second sight was another man who had been ravaged by disease, existing as mere skin and bone with the very little strength in his body ebbing away. The third sight was one of grieving relatives carrying the corpse of their beloved on their shoulders in preparation for cremation. Lastly, the sight that provoked the prince most deeply was a wandering holy man, walking camly and contentedly in pursuit of truth and an answer to life's problems. This man was living a life of purity, in complete detachment from society. In short Suddhodana and his son had been set up to fail. The future was already determined and could not be altered, becasue of the power of some supernatural prophect but due to the fact that what was expected to avoid destiny was to take a form of denying reality and ignoring the very nature of existence. 'Not ever to see old age, sickness or death is of course impossible, and the fact that we are told his father kept these facts of life from Gautama until adulthood shows the absurdity of reading this account as narrative history. But it also shows the value of reading it as hagiography. Gautama had been brought up radically to mispercieve things. He saw things one way, when they are really another way. His story portrays in acute form the situation that the Buddhist claims all unenlightened people are in, whether the realise it or not' (Paul Williams) |
|
|
|
|
The Renunciation
On returning to the palace, and hearing the news that Yasodhara had just given birth to a son, Gautama was filled with new anxiety at bringing a new life into the world which now held confusion and suffering. He aptly named his son Rahula, meaning 'fetter' or 'bondage' as Gautama felt even more tied by a new responsibility that bound him to his life as it was: 'A fetter (rahula) has been born, a bondage has been born' he declared.
Despite his family situation and rich inheritance, Gautama immediately sought freedom, he renounced his birthright. Shedding his rich clothes and longer hair, he took on the mantle of a wandering holy man, with a simple bowl for food offerings and a single robe, and the thoughts 'Verily, this world has fallen upon trouble - one is born, and grows old, and dies, and fals from one state, and springs up in another. And from the suffering, moreover, no one knows of any way of escape, even from decay and death. O, when shall a way of escape from this suffering be made known - from decay and death?'
In Theravada Buddhism, the term anagarika (homlessness) is used to signify one who has 'gone forth' into the life of a renouncer according to traditional indian culture. It was tradition for the renouncer to seek out other ascetics from whom he could learn. Gautama sought out two teachers, both renowned for their strict ascetic lifestyle and yogic practice.
The first was Alara Kalama who trained Gautama in yoga. Soon Gautama had attained the same level of experience as his teacher: a state of nothingness. But this did not satisfy Gautama. He felt that desire, passion and attachment were not eradicated and that this method simply ignored them by taking an alternative route. Despite the fact that Kalama asked Gautama to become his teacher. Gautama moved on to find another way.
The second was Uddaka Ramaputta, similarly, mastery Rammaputta's yoga led not to an awakening of truth or an Enlightenment experience, but simply to a plane beyond nothingness referred to as neither perception nor non-perception. Such meditative states were later to become known as false states because they give an impression of awakening or Enlightenment but are stiill far from it.
After six years of experimenting with the two schools of yoga, the ascetic lifestyle began to take its toll. He had become so weak and thin that it is alleged that is backbome was visible through his stomach. As a young man Gautama was kept in the lap of luxury and he did not want for anything, never knowing sorrow or witnessing suffering. As a contrast to this, as an ascetic he practiced a very harsh form of asceticism and ate only one meal a day, gradually reducing this to one jujube fruit, a sesame see and a grain of rice a day although other accounts written say that towards his physical demise he only ate one grain of rice a day.
At this point, close to physical exhaustion and collapse, he was revived with milk-rice by a woman called Sujata. Gradually, on regaining some strength, Gautama decided to persue an alternative lifestyle and find some 'middle way' between the two extremes of luxury and asceticism. As Narada Thera states 'The new way which he himself discovered was the Middle path, Majjhima patipada, which subsequently became one of the salient characteristics of his teaching'
'To be a renouncer was a young man's, indeed a romantic's, aspiration, and from this point of view, the Buddha was but one of many youths who left home, attracted by the challenge of the wandering life' (Carrithers)
'Thus the great intoxication of youth (yobbanamada), of health (arog ya-mada), and of life (jivitamada) left him. Having seen the vanity and danger of the three intoxications, he was overcome by a powerful urge to seek and win the deathless, to strive for deliverance from old age, illness, misery and death not only for himself but for all beings (including his wife and child) that suffer.'(Piyadassi)
On returning to the palace, and hearing the news that Yasodhara had just given birth to a son, Gautama was filled with new anxiety at bringing a new life into the world which now held confusion and suffering. He aptly named his son Rahula, meaning 'fetter' or 'bondage' as Gautama felt even more tied by a new responsibility that bound him to his life as it was: 'A fetter (rahula) has been born, a bondage has been born' he declared.
Despite his family situation and rich inheritance, Gautama immediately sought freedom, he renounced his birthright. Shedding his rich clothes and longer hair, he took on the mantle of a wandering holy man, with a simple bowl for food offerings and a single robe, and the thoughts 'Verily, this world has fallen upon trouble - one is born, and grows old, and dies, and fals from one state, and springs up in another. And from the suffering, moreover, no one knows of any way of escape, even from decay and death. O, when shall a way of escape from this suffering be made known - from decay and death?'
In Theravada Buddhism, the term anagarika (homlessness) is used to signify one who has 'gone forth' into the life of a renouncer according to traditional indian culture. It was tradition for the renouncer to seek out other ascetics from whom he could learn. Gautama sought out two teachers, both renowned for their strict ascetic lifestyle and yogic practice.
The first was Alara Kalama who trained Gautama in yoga. Soon Gautama had attained the same level of experience as his teacher: a state of nothingness. But this did not satisfy Gautama. He felt that desire, passion and attachment were not eradicated and that this method simply ignored them by taking an alternative route. Despite the fact that Kalama asked Gautama to become his teacher. Gautama moved on to find another way.
The second was Uddaka Ramaputta, similarly, mastery Rammaputta's yoga led not to an awakening of truth or an Enlightenment experience, but simply to a plane beyond nothingness referred to as neither perception nor non-perception. Such meditative states were later to become known as false states because they give an impression of awakening or Enlightenment but are stiill far from it.
After six years of experimenting with the two schools of yoga, the ascetic lifestyle began to take its toll. He had become so weak and thin that it is alleged that is backbome was visible through his stomach. As a young man Gautama was kept in the lap of luxury and he did not want for anything, never knowing sorrow or witnessing suffering. As a contrast to this, as an ascetic he practiced a very harsh form of asceticism and ate only one meal a day, gradually reducing this to one jujube fruit, a sesame see and a grain of rice a day although other accounts written say that towards his physical demise he only ate one grain of rice a day.
At this point, close to physical exhaustion and collapse, he was revived with milk-rice by a woman called Sujata. Gradually, on regaining some strength, Gautama decided to persue an alternative lifestyle and find some 'middle way' between the two extremes of luxury and asceticism. As Narada Thera states 'The new way which he himself discovered was the Middle path, Majjhima patipada, which subsequently became one of the salient characteristics of his teaching'
'To be a renouncer was a young man's, indeed a romantic's, aspiration, and from this point of view, the Buddha was but one of many youths who left home, attracted by the challenge of the wandering life' (Carrithers)
'Thus the great intoxication of youth (yobbanamada), of health (arog ya-mada), and of life (jivitamada) left him. Having seen the vanity and danger of the three intoxications, he was overcome by a powerful urge to seek and win the deathless, to strive for deliverance from old age, illness, misery and death not only for himself but for all beings (including his wife and child) that suffer.'(Piyadassi)
|
|
The awakening under the Bodhi Tree: The Enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama.
Sitting beneath a Bodhi or Bo (pipal) tree, in a state of deep meditation, Gautama contemplated the nature of existence throughout the night. Traditional Buddhist writings have vivid accounts of his religious experience that night. All centre around the process of meditation through levels of insight known as Jhanas (Dhyanas Sanskrit) before explaining how Gautama then encountered the ultimate experience known as nirvana. There are however, other mythological elements to his experience in the stories that focus on the deva (spiritual being or deity) of the sense realm of existence, Mara. Mara represents all that binds human beings to the physical world.
Sitting beneath a Bodhi or Bo (pipal) tree, in a state of deep meditation, Gautama contemplated the nature of existence throughout the night. Traditional Buddhist writings have vivid accounts of his religious experience that night. All centre around the process of meditation through levels of insight known as Jhanas (Dhyanas Sanskrit) before explaining how Gautama then encountered the ultimate experience known as nirvana. There are however, other mythological elements to his experience in the stories that focus on the deva (spiritual being or deity) of the sense realm of existence, Mara. Mara represents all that binds human beings to the physical world.
|
|
The Four Meditative absorptions (jhanas)
Before becoming enlightened Siddhartha progressed through the four Jhanas (meditative stages). Each stage has a corresponding experience which are:
Before becoming enlightened Siddhartha progressed through the four Jhanas (meditative stages). Each stage has a corresponding experience which are:
- 1st Jhana: Unbroken attention to an object of meditation, detached from the world and in a total state of calm.
- 2nd Jhana: thoughts are discarded as detachment becomes more profound and a sense of joy, as Mahathera Nyanatiloka defines it 'a state free from thought- conception and discursive thinking...which is born of concentration'
- 3rd Jhana: a state of equanimity, totally composed and with absolute attentiveness, but still clearly conscious.
- 4th Jhana: this is a state of beyond all differentiation, beyond pleasure and pain, indeed, beyond all sense of joy and thought construction, as Denise Cush describes it 'leaving a mind peacful, tranquil, clear, a sharp tool ready to pierce into reality'
