@eBookRoom. Gautama Buddha
@eBookRoom. Gautama Buddha
@eBookRoom. Gautama Buddha
Vishvapani Blomfield
New York • London
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ISBN 978-1-62365-240-1
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For Leo
GAUTAMA’S FAMILY TREE
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Gautama and the Buddha
1: A World in Ferment
2: The Search for Wisdom
3: Nirvana
4: The Awakening Movement
5: Dialogue
6: The Homeless Community
7: A Holy Man in the World
8: Crisis
9: The Final Journey
10: Gautama’s Legacy
With such clues we may imagine the scene that confronted Bahiya: the
wattle-and-daub houses with domed roofs of tiles or thatch, the sturdier
brick-built civic buildings and homes of the wealthy; the main streets
clogged with mules, oxen, chariots and pedestrians; the elephants lumbering
impassively along the roadway laden with produce; the alleys spidering out
from the main thoroughfare, thick with smells and resounding with the cries
of food-sellers.
As Bahiya jostles through the press, he catches sight of a singular figure
and knows instantly that it is the man he seeks. He is in the middle years of
his life and the Bahiya Sutta—the account of this meeting in the ancient
Buddhist scriptures—describes him as “pleasing, lovely to see, with calmed
senses and tranquil mind, possessing perfect poise and calm.”2 He stands
silently at a doorway, his eyes cast downward, as the woman of the house
places a little food in his bowl. Like other townspeople, he wears lengths of
cloth draped around his midriff and across his shoulder to make a robe. But
their mud-yellow fabric is much coarser than the embroidered muslin used
by the rich, or even the plain cotton of the poor. It is a patchwork sewn
together from scraps gathered on rubbish heaps or from the charred
remnants of the shrouds that covered corpses in the cremation grounds.
These robes, along with the bowl made from dried palm leaves that he
holds before him, a needle and thread, a girdle, a razor and a water-strainer,
are the sum of his possessions. Most people call him “Gautama,” the name
of the clan into which he was born in Shakya, Kosala’s north-eastern
province; but his disciples address him by a host of titles, especially
“Bhagavat,” meaning Blessed Lord; “Tathagata”—“the one who is like
that”3—and “Buddha”—the Awakened.
The encounter is intense and dramatic. Bahiya throws himself at
Gautama’s feet and cries: “Please teach me! Teach me the Truth that will be
for my lasting benefit.” Gautama spoke to no one when he was collecting
food, so he tells Bahiya, “Come to me later and I will answer your
questions.” But Bahiya insists he cannot wait. “It is hard to know how long
you or I will live!” At the third time of asking, Gautama turns to face
Bahiya and speaks a few spare words:
Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: In the seen will be merely what is seen. In the heard will
be merely what is heard. In the sensed will be merely what is sensed. In the cognised will be
merely what is cognised. In this way should you should train yourself … Then, Bahiya, you are
not “in that.” When you are not “in that,” then you will be neither here nor beyond nor between
the two. Just this, is the end of suffering.4
This lineage made the Shakyans superior, in their own eyes, to Brahmins
like Ambattha, for whose benefit he told the story, and also to their Kosalan
rulers. But one discourse tells us that “the Shakyans are vassals of King
Prasenajit of Kosala. They bow down before him, salute him respectfully,
bow with cupped hands and are at his service.”27 In practice this probably
meant that Shakya paid the Kosalan Maharaja a share of its income as a tax
and could not wage war independently. It may be that Kosala had
conquered Shakya, or that Kosala’s sphere of influence expanded until it
encompassed the Shakyans, who accepted the king’s suzerainty in return for
his protection.*
While Kosala overshadowed Shakya, other forces challenged Kosala
itself. At the start of Gautama’s life it was probably the strongest of the
Ganges nations, buoyed by the unprecedented wealth that washed through
the entire region thanks to international trade and agricultural surpluses. But
Kosala’s administration was weak and swathes of the country were lawless.
Magadha, bolstered by iron and copper mines, was the growing power, and
throughout Gautama’s life the kingdoms of Kosala, Magadha and Kasi
jockeyed with each other and with the Vrijian Federation for control of the
fertile Ganges farmlands and the lucrative river trade. But if some
kingdoms were expanding more quickly than others, the kingdoms as a
whole were growing stronger and more centralized, and swallowing up
gana communities like Shakya. To start with, the king had probably been a
distant figure who left his subjects to rule themselves according to their
customs. But the power of central governments was growing. Kings
encouraged industry and supported trade, and as their power grew they
extracted more money from the peasants and larger tributes from dependent
territories. They issued laws, took a sixth of income in tax and claimed
ownership of uncultivated land, which they drained and irrigated using
forced labor to establish vast royal estates that enriched them further. Spy
networks underpinned their rule and, in time, standing armies backed it.
A new culture was growing in the cities that disrupted longstanding,
settled ways of life. When Ajatashatru (Magadha’s king in the latter part of
Gautama’s life) described his society to Gautama he listed the occupations
of his subjects: “Elephant riders, cavalrymen, charioteers, archers, spies,
standard-bearers, high-ranking royal officers, household slaves, cooks,
barbers, bath attendants, sweet-makers, garland-makers, washermen,
weavers, basket-makers, potters, those skilled in accounts and calculation,
and various other professions of a similar sort.”28*
These cities were booming, turning themselves into power centers
protected by massive, newly constructed ramparts. Bankers extended credit
and merchants made fortunes, while ruin could come to even the most
venerable families. Members of the same clan had previously shared land,
but landowners now amassed huge estates tended by hired workers and
slaves. For most people, life was hard. Gautama observed: “On account of
the craft by which a clansman has to make a living … he has to face cold,
he has to face heat, he is injured by gadflies, mosquitoes, wind, sun and
creeping things.”29
For a while, Gautama may well have shared Suddhodana’s
preoccupations and perhaps tasted the same pressures. Bhaddiya, another
Shakyan raja, recalled that he had lived within “lofty, encircling walls, firm
battlements and sturdy gates,”30 surrounded by armed guards who
accompanied him wherever he went, but, even so, he was constantly
“anxious, fearful and on alert.”31 We hear a similar anxiety in the Attadanda
Sutta in which Gautama describes Shakyan life as a fight for survival in a
confined space with people “flopping around, like fish in water too
shallow.”32
Spiritual Crisis
In a discourse called “The Noble Quest,” in which Gautama gave his fullest
account of the events leading to his Enlightenment, he says that when he
left home he was “still a young man with a head of black hair and the
advantages of being in the first flush of youth.”33 In another discourse he
adds, “I was twenty-nine years of age when I went forth in search of what is
good.”34 Buddhist tradition accepted twenty-nine as the age of Gautama’s
“going forth,” but it seems rather too old, leaving too much time in the
palace and too little between his departure and his Enlightenment to
encompass the events that are described. A younger age, perhaps the late
teens or early twenties, also fits better the intense emotions that stirred him.
The classical biographies use the story of Gautama’s Four Sights to
account for his crisis. While we cannot treat this as fact, it is a helpful
reminder that he was prompted not by psychological maladjustment but by
a visceral realization of inescapable aspects of the human condition. He
marveled that people ordinarily remain oblivious to the presence of old age,
sickness and death despite seeing around them those who are “tottering,
frail, youth gone, teeth broken,” the “afflicted, suffering and gravely ill,
lying fouled in [their] own excrement,” and the “bloated and oozing”35
bodies of the dead. Seeing these harsh realities, Gautama threw off the
“intoxication with youth, health and life”36 that had clouded his awareness,
and suddenly understood that old age, sickness and death are inescapable
facts. He called them “divine messengers” who tell human beings
something vitally important about their state.
In later life, when he had formulated his teachings, Gautama used a term
current in the religious discourse of his time to explain his motivation for
leaving home. All ordinary human life, he said, is dukkha. The word is
often translated as “suffering,” and it includes physical pain and distress,
but the root meaning is “not fitting well,” or perhaps “standing badly,” and
it also means “difficulty” and “uneasiness.”37 Dukkha encompasses all the
unsatisfactoriness that is inherent in life, and the sense that something is
awry even when things go well. For Gautama, this was more than a mild
unease: it was a shattering awareness of aspects of reality he had previously
ignored. He had a remarkable talent for identifying the universal truths in
particular experiences, but he may have been helped by spiritual teachings
he heard in Kapilavastu. He later quoted powerful verses, attributed to an
ancient teacher called Araka, which say that that human life vanishes as
quickly as
Ajita and similar teachers have often been seen as rationalist free-thinkers,
but they may simply have been Brahmins who rejected karma, which
played no part in Vedic thinking, and had only rudimentary ideas about
rebirth if they believed in it at all. The Buddhists who compiled the
discourse deemed such views “nihilism” and a denial of the moral order,
and Ajatashatru reports that a teacher called Purana Mahakasyapa spelled
out the horrifying implications: “If someone were to take a razor-edged
discus and make of all the creatures of the earth a single heap of flesh, there
would be nothing bad in that, nothing bad would come of it.”33
Such thinkers were in the minority and Gautama had little interest in
their ideas. The Jain community, however, was probably the largest of the
shramana groups and it influenced him greatly. Its leader was Vardhamana,
usually known as Mahavira (“the Great Hero”), who was said to have found
liberation by following the teachings of a shramana community that already
had a long history in the Ganges Valley, (though he seems not to have
joined the community itself). According to the Jain scriptures, Mahavira
defined the Self as “being without form,”34 and said that to free it the
practitioner must stop accruing fresh karma. That meant practicing non-
violence (ahimsa), and scrupulously avoiding killing living beings, even
insects. But the implications of this teaching went much further. As all
actions had a karmic result, Jain ascetics—who included women as well as
men—should eventually cease to act altogether:
A monk should examine a spot and when he has found it free of living beings he should spread
out his layer of grass there. He should lie there without food; if temptations should affect him in
this regard, then he should bear them … If [animals or birds] feed on his flesh and blood, he
should not kill them or wipe them away.35
Jain ascetics presented a grim spectacle. They refused to wash and their
followers praised them for being “filthy.”36 Gautama once observed a group
dwelling on one of the Rajagriha mountains who practiced “continuous
standing, rejecting seats, and experienced painful, racking, piercing feelings
due to exertion.”37 In this way, they burned up their past karma and
prepared for the culmination of their practice, which came when they
stopped eating altogether and died. That brought liberation because “by
doing no actions there will be no consequences … [and] all suffering will
be exhausted.”38 The Jains’ fervor won them many supporters who admired
their efforts to escape the world.
A similar group, the Ajivakas, survived for 2,000 years after Gautama’s
time; but their teachings have only recently been convincingly
reconstructed. According to the Jain Bhagavati Sutra, the Ajivaka teacher,
Makkhali Gosala, was a student of Mahavira’s who fell out with him. He
agreed that inactivity was the way to avoid creating karma, but he thought it
was impossible to eradicate old karma. According to Buddhist accounts, the
Ajivakas held that “No human action, no force, no effort, no striving, no
human endeavor has any effect.”39 The consequences of past actions were
like a ball of thread that had been thrown and would run on till it was
completely unraveled, which would take millions of lifetimes. In the
meantime they practiced austerities. Jambuka, an Ajivaka monk who
became a follower of Gautama, recalled that “for fifty-five years I wore
dust and dirt, eating a meal once a month. I tore out my hair and beard. I
stood on one leg, I avoided a seat, I ate dry dung, and I did not accept any
special food.”40 Such practices brought an unblinking focus on an
unconditioned level of being at which “there is no deed performed either by
[one’s own] self or by [the self] of others.”41 But in Gautama’s view,
Ajivaka teachings also undermined the basis for making an effort, and he
once called Makkhali an “infatuated man” who had caused more “loss,
discomfort and sorrow”42 than anyone living.
To decide which shramana sect to follow, Gautama needed to assess their
competing claims. Years later, when he was a teacher himself, Gautama
visited the land of the Kalamas in the Vrijian Federation where a group of
citizens who found themselves in a comparable situation asked for his aid.
Many teachers had passed through their city, they said, all claiming that
their ideas were the complete truth, and they had listened in the hope of
finding guidance. “They come to Kesaputta and set out and explain only
their theories while attacking, insulting, disparaging and rejecting the
theories of others.” Some time later, other teachers would arrive in the town
and do exactly the same thing. “Sir, we are doubtful and uncertain about
who are telling the truth and who lies.”43 Gautama’s reply has become
famous as advice on finding a path through spiritual confusion, and its
incisiveness and practicality suggests that it was informed by his own
struggles. He started by sympathizing with the Kalamas’ situation and
encouraged them to have an open, inquiring attitude because, he said, “your
uncertainty concerns something that is indeed a matter of doubt.” Then he
went through the grounds on which people usually adopt a belief and
rejected them all: “You should not go along with something just because of
what you have been told, because of tradition [or] because of accordance
with scripture.” That encapsulated the ways in which people unthinkingly
fall into step with a religious faith, or defer to the authority of ancient
scriptures, such as those of Brahminism. But Gautama also told the
Kalamas that impressive arguments didn’t necessarily mean that something
was true or right: “You should not go along with something … on the
grounds of reason, on the grounds of logic, because of analytical thought,
because of abstract theoretical pondering, because of the appearance of the
speaker, or because some ascetic is your teacher.”
The thoroughness with which this list demolished the pretensions of both
religion and philosophy evokes the mind of the young Gautama as we
might imagine him in Rajagriha’s shramana parks: self-contained, deeply
sincere, highly intelligent, determined to see through pretension, and
passionately intent on finding something that addressed his yearning to pull
out the thorn in his heart that produced his spiritual unease. He advised the
Kalamas to consider the effect of the teachings they heard. Did those who
followed them become more or less greedy? Were they more loving or more
filled with hatred? Did they grow wiser or become more confused? How
did they act? He said they should both listen to people they considered wise
and use their own judgment. Above all, they should try out the teachings for
themselves and see their effect. “When you know for yourselves that
particular qualities are wholesome, blameless, praised by the wise, and lead
to good and happiness when taken on and pursued, then you should engage
in them and live by them, Kalamas.”44
Gautama’s quest was existential, not philosophical, and before he
became a shramana he may have known nothing of the competing beliefs of
his day. His search had started with his distress at common and observable
features of human experience, and, so far as we can tell, he had no prior
assumptions about what would solve his problem. That left him free to
consider ideas without prejudice and to understand things, as he later
counseled others, by “seeing them with wisdom.”45
Initiation
According to “The Noble Quest,” Gautama now studied under two great
meditation masters: first Arada Kalama (whose reputation he may have
heard in Kapilavastu) and then Udraka Reamaputra, one of the most
prominent yogis in the Ganges Valley.* He threw himself into their
practices, but he later commented that he had, all the while, maintained his
independence and “looked among” the teachings of these gurus, “without
grasping them.”46
Arada assured Gautama at their first meeting that a capable pupil could
quickly “experience and attain for himself through direct knowledge what
the teacher has understood,”47 and Gautama joined the other students in
reciting and memorizing the teachings. Soon, Gautama tells us, he knew
Arada’s teachings, “as far as mere mouthing the words, mere repeating of
what had been repeated to me” was concerned. This theoretical knowledge
was enough for some, and to start with it satisfied Gautama, but he sensed
that Arada, who was a renowned meditator, had more to offer. “How far
have you experienced and attained [your teaching] for yourself through
direct knowledge?”48 Gautama asked him. Then Arada revealed the inner
meaning of the sacred formulas Gautama had been reciting by disclosing a
way to reach the goal of spiritual life. In a special initiation, Arada told
Gautama of an incredibly refined state called “the sphere of Nothingness”
that lay far beyond ordinary experience and could only be reached through
mastery of demanding meditation practices. Undaunted, Gautama reflected,
“Arada Kalama has faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.
That is how he has mastered these teachings. But I have these qualities too.
If I make the same effort, perhaps I can realize this teaching for myself.”49
Filled with confidence, Gautama applied himself, and before long he
reached the state of which Arada had spoken.
According to Buddhist tradition the sphere of Nothingness is one of the
highest levels of meditative absorption, reached only once the meditator has
passed through the stage of experiencing the mind as infinite space and then
experiencing it as infinite consciousness. One discourse tells us of yogis
who believed that such an experience was “Nirvana here and now,”50 which
seems to have been Arada’s view. It explains that some yogis believed that
in this state they left behind the deluded self of ordinary experience and by
contemplating “There is Nothing” they realized “another self.”51
Brahminical texts such as the Upanishads, which may record the beliefs that
Arada himself followed, say much more about these states.* According to
them, the yogi’s meditation reverses the process by which the universe
came into existence, stripping away the layers that cover the atman until the
meditator reaches the undifferentiated, primordial Nothingness that existed
before creation itself. Then, “like a shining flame without smoke, like the
bright sun, like a fork of lightning in the sky, [the meditator] sees the self
with the self.”52 He becomes atman and realizes its unity with brahman.
“The Noble Quest” tells us that when Gautama emerged from this
meditation he reported his experience to Arada, who was delighted. At last,
he said, he had discovered “a companion in the spiritual life” who shared
his deepest realization. “The teaching which I declare … is the one you live,
having experienced and attained for yourself through direct knowledge!”53
As Gautama had no more to learn, Arada proposed that they share the
leadership of the community. Arada died not long after and he may already
have been searching for a successor when he saw his heir in the young
Gautama.
Despite the honor, something felt wrong. The sphere of Nothingness had
disappointed Gautama. Arada had probably instructed him to merge with
the Absolute by losing himself in the experience of Nothingness and
becoming one with it. From his perspective, there could be nothing beyond
that. But when Gautama later discussed this state, he emphasized that it was
possible to inhabit it while “possessing mindfulness.”54 If that had
happened when he meditated under Arada he would have seen that what he
had attained was not a sublime, mystic union with God, but simply a state
of mind that had developed through his efforts. Having emerged from
meditation he left that state behind and saw he was fundamentally
unchanged. He told himself that Arada’s teaching “did not conduce to
dispassion, cessation, peace, direct knowledge, Awakening or Nirvana, but
only to rebirth in the sphere of Nothingness.” He still hadn’t answered the
questions about birth, death and suffering that had spurred him on his quest,
and he hadn’t removed the thorn, “hard to see—lodged deep in the heart,”55
that was the essence of the human problem. He used a potent phrase to
describe his response to Arada’s teaching: “Finding no satisfaction in that
teaching, I lost my enthusiasm for it and left.”56 He was dissatisfied with
the meditative state he had reached; dissatisfied, perhaps, with the
philosophy that explained it; and dissatisfied to find he was still so far from
the wisdom he yearned for.
Hoping that another teacher might show him how to go beyond the
sphere of Nothingness, Gautama traveled back to Rajagriha where he heard
of a famous guru, now dead, called Rama, who had attained a state that
went beyond Nothingness called “the Sphere of Neither-Perception-nor-
Non-Perception.” Rama’s community was now led by Udraka Reamaputra
(“Rama’s son”), a famous and revered teacher who lived with 700 disciples
and was venerated by nobles and kings, who showed him “great obeisance,
saluting him, placing [their] hands together, and paying homage.”57 Words
fail entirely in describing the state of “Neither-Perception-nor-Non-
Perception” and Udraka just said enigmatically, “He sees, but does not
see.”58 However, this state, or something very like it, is described in the
Mandukya Upanishad, where it is the ultimate aspect of the self or atman:
perceiving neither what is inside nor what is outside, nor even both together; not as a mass of
perception, neither as perceiving nor as not perceiving; as unseen; as beyond ordinary transaction;
as ungraspable; as without distinguishing marks; as one whose essence is the perception of itself
alone; as the cessation of the visible world … That is the self, and it is that which ought to be
perceived.59
Gautama passed out, and, as he lay unconscious, the forest spirits gathered
around. “He’s dead,” said one. “No, he isn’t dead,” said another, “but he’s
dying.” A third said, “Oh, he’s just a holy man [arahant]. This is how they
live.”69
Gautama stopped eating, aiming perhaps to “renounce his body,”70 like a
Jain monk or to “live on air,”71 like a Brahminical yogi. The spirits begged
him not to die, the discourse tells us, and Gautama sent them away,
determined to continue his ordeal by eating nothing at all. But the gods
continued to feed Gautama through the pores of his skin with “divine
nourishment,” and he opted to eat the smallest amount possible:
It occurred to me that I might take very little food, just a morsel at a time, of mung-bean soup,
lentil soup, chickpea soup or pea soup. My body became extremely emaciated: my limbs became
like the jointed stems of creepers or bamboo; my backbone, bent or straight, became like corded
beads; my ribs jutted and stuck out like the broken rafters of an old house; the pupils of my eyes
sunk deep in their sockets were like the glint of water seen down at the bottom of a deep well; my
scalp became like a fresh bitter gourd that has been withered and shriveled by the wind and sun.
When I wanted to touch the skin of my belly I felt my backbone. When I wanted to urinate or
defecate I fell over right there on my face. I stroked my limbs with my hand to soothe my body,
but the hair, whose roots had grown rotten, dropped from my body.72
Images of Gautama in this period are among the most striking figures in
Buddhist art. The statue in the Pragbodhi cave, for instance, shows a body
shrunk down to the skeleton, but nonetheless sitting erect in meditation
posture. There is something compelling in this image, but also something
that, to modern eyes, verges on the insane; and in the end that was how
Gautama saw it. His struggle to crush his mind and free his spirit from his
body had pushed him to the limits of endurance and brought him to the
verge of death, but he asked himself if he was any nearer to the realization
for which he yearned. Gautama’s efforts to destroy his attachment to the
senses had merely involved him in them even more deeply, and he later
compared the self-mortifier to a dog who tries to run away from a post to
which he is tied and “just keeps circling it.”73
A memory rose from the depths of Gautama’s mind. He was a child
again and sat beneath the rose-apple tree in the beautiful countryside as his
father plowed his field, with joy and wonder arising in him as naturally as
leaves sprouting on a tree. The memory of that moment of spontaneous
blossoming was a message from a time of innocence which contained all
that was missing from his grim struggles with the flesh. The happiness he
had felt was utterly different from attachment or craving and the web of
emotions connected with them. He recalled: “I asked myself why I feared
this happiness, which had nothing to do with sense pleasures [or]
unwholesome qualities. Then I decided I would not fear it.” Then he asked,
“Might this in fact be the path to Awakening?”74 and he knew with utter
certainty that it was. It is usually said that Gautama gained his insights into
the nature of existence when he attained Enlightenment, but this passage
suggests that some at least came before it. He was learning to see life in
terms of what he came to call the Dharma, the underlying structure of
reality which he later articulated in his teachings. More insights were to
follow.
At last, Gautama decided to eat.* In some later versions of this story a
girl from a local village, usually named Sujata, discovers him near the
Naranjara River, not far from the Pragbodhi cave, and gives him food.
Imagine the sight that would have confronted her: slack skin hanging from
a skeleton, its golden hue starved to an uncanny char; a lank beard clinging
to gaunt cheeks, and eyes like mineshafts—their primeval glimmer akin to
the ancient light of a distant star. Sujata thought he was one of the many
ghosts that haunted Gaya, and she offered him milk-rice, as she would when
she made an offering to propitiate a spirit. Gautama was living, even if he
had gazed into the land of the dead, and slowly, painfully, he ate. Then he
walked to the broad and sandy banks of the Naranjara and bathed himself in
its cool water. In this way, the story goes, after his years of striving
Gautama was restored, at last, by accepting help; and it came not from the
gods but from an ordinary person and a simple act of kindness.
Gautama’s five fellow self-mortifiers were disgusted by the change.
There was a confrontation and angry words were spoken. They had
followed him and he had let them down. They would not hear his
explanations and they told one another: “He has given up the struggle and
reverted to a life of excess.”75 The five bade Gautama a cold farewell and
said they would continue without him on the path of pain.
The Forest Path
Gautama was thirty-five years old, and Buddhist tradition states that it was
six years since he had left the palace—though that seems too short a time
for the many turns in his journey. Once again he was alone, and his solitude
was more complete than ever. He had left behind conventional society—the
world of family, responsibility, pleasure and power. The shramanas’ world
of ideas and training had also failed to answer his questions, for all its
ancient roots and spiritual masters. Now he was abandoning his
companions, the practice of self-mortification and the beliefs that underlay
it. No one could accompany him where he now wished to travel.
In Gautama’s most vivid account of this period—a discourse called
“Fear and Dread”—he says that he lived deep in the jungle, like the hermits
Megasthenes described. Gautama had heard the warnings that life in the
wilderness could drive people mad; but the jungle was the ideal place for
the naked confrontation with the truth he desired. He was ready to enter the
jungle as “one of the noble ones,”76 whatever demons it contained; and he
sensed that the self-awareness, ethical purity and inner peace he had
developed meant he could face anything at all without being overwhelmed.
Directly confronting his experience was a different kind of challenge from
that of attaining mystical states or the self-mortifier’s battle with life, and
more genuinely demanding than either. Gautama’s intuition guided him, and
he felt like “a man wandering through a forest” who comes on a forgotten
“ancient path traveled upon by people in the past.”77
Buddhist tradition relates that Gautama was living in the region around
Gaya, and if this is true, it is also significant. In legend and popular belief,
Gaya has always been associated with ghosts, spirits and the dead. The
Mahabharata names it as the best place to perform funeral rites, and even
today thousands of Hindu pilgrims travel there to visit spirit shrines and
perform puja for their ancestors. In Gautama’s day, some of these shrines
were in the hills overlooking the plains: Ghost Hill, Pragbodhi—where
Hsuan Tsang heard that Gautama had found himself sharing a cave with “a
dragon”78—and a peak formerly known as Ghost Mountain, which was
surrounded by temples with fearsome fire-shrines that housed powerful
serpent-gods. Gautama later returned to these shrines and continued his
engagement with their deities.
Gautama relates that certain spots in the midst of dark woodland or
around sacred trees undeniably possessed an unnerving atmosphere.
Beneath the trees were shrines scattered with the bones of sacrificed
animals that were dedicated to the ferocious spirits that were said to live in
them. People visited the shrines to perform ceremonies that propitiated the
spirits, but otherwise they were shunned. Despite hearing of the
overwhelming “fear and dread” these places prompted, Gautama visited
them at the very times they were most to be avoided: the nights that marked
the phases of the moon when the earth’s energy was roused and the spirits
walked abroad. “There in the darkness or the moon-cast shadows I would
hear an animal approaching, or a peacock would break off a twig, or the
wind would rustle the fallen leaves, and I thought, ‘Is this it coming now,
the fear and dread?’”79
Worshippers had long believed that in propitiating a spirit they were also
appeasing the wild and destructive forces of nature, so in facing the
demons, Gautama was also engaging with these threatening powers. And he
was confronting the secret places of his own mind that led him to fear them.
As he sat, he asked himself: “What am I doing here, wanting this to
happen? And if it does happen, why should I not drive it out?” Then it came
—again and again: fear and terror pulsing through him. But each time the
feeling rose up, he refused to be deflected from what he was doing. If he
was sitting, he continued to sit; if he was walking, he continued to walk. In
that way, he says, “I faced that fear and dread, just as it found me, and I
drove it out.”
Gautama’s confrontation with the Gaya shrines was a particularly
dramatic instance of his practice in this period. Whatever happened, he
simply observed his experience without interpreting it or getting caught in
habitual reactions—a practice Gautama came to call “mindfulness.” Past
experiences that had “left their impression on the heart”80 sometimes
resurfaced; and sometimes he found himself thinking about the future or
getting distracted by things around him. But he learned to notice these
thoughts when they arose and became sensitive to the emotions that
underlay them and how they affected him. He saw his experience as a flow
of “mental states,” one developing out of another. Some states, especially
those associated with craving, hatred and cruelty, carried a compulsive
power that grew stronger if he dwelled on it. These emotions were
constricting, and in that sense they brought him suffering; if he acted on
them they would bring suffering to others as well. Then there were states
like renunciation, friendliness and compassion that blossomed, if he paid
them attention, into deep calm and positivity. Gautama started to assess his
thoughts in these terms: “The thought occurred to me: ‘Why don’t I keep
dividing my thinking into two sorts?’ So I made thinking imbued with
sensual desire, ill will and cruelty one sort, and thinking imbued with
renunciation, non-ill-will and harmlessness another.”81
Gautama learned to guide his thoughts. “Sensual desire” arose again and
again, he recalled, and he applied a sensitive but nonetheless “diligent,
ardent and resolute” effort to address it: a middle way between lazily
indulging himself and attempting to storm Enlightenment through sheer
willpower. When ill will or another destructive emotion arose he became
aware of it, reflected that it would “obstruct wisdom, and lead away from
Nirvana,” and it naturally subsided. Conversely, he encouraged positive
emotions when they arose. His mind became concentrated, and the mention
of “non-ill-will” suggests that powerful impulses of renunciation and
compassion also welled up. It may be that Gautama undertook practices
which seem to have been current among shramanas, that amplified loving
kindness and similar emotions until they suffused the meditator’s
experience:
With his heart filled with unbounded, abundant loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy or
equanimity he dwells suffusing the whole world, upward, downward, across, everywhere. Like a
mighty trumpeter making a proclamation to the four quarters of the universe, by this meditation,
by this liberation of the heart he leaves nothing untouched.82
Hsuan Tsang was desolate at the heart of the vast international Buddhist
civilization because Gautama was absent. Even twelve centuries after
Gautama’s death, the memory endured of his living presence, and a sense
that he had communicated not just his ideas but his Dharma—the
understanding of life that he apprehended and embodied—so that others
might grasp it, too.
That direct communication was Gautama’s aim as he walked from
Uruvilva to Sarnath—about 210 km as the crow flies, and considerably
further by the winding track Gautama followed, which still runs beside the
new highway. It was the end of the hot season, so he probably set off very
early in the morning and waited in the shade for much of each day until the
heat subsided. Then he had to cross the River Ganges, using the ferry on
which shramanas traveled free of charge. He walked at a steady pace, but he
wasn’t hurrying and the journey must have taken around two weeks.
At the very start of his journey, before he had even reached Gaya,
Gautama met a naked Ajivaka wanderer called Upaka who asked Gautama
the usual questions about his guru and the dharma he followed. Gautama
replied, “I have no teacher, no one exists like me anywhere in all existence
and I have no peers. I am the supreme teacher and I alone am fully
Enlightened. I am now traveling to set turning the wheel of Dharma in a
world that has grown blind.”2 No doubt, many seekers claimed to have
found realization, some of them sincere and some quite mad. Gautama was
claiming not just a degree of spiritual attainment, but to have reached the
supreme goal of spiritual life. “By your claims, friend, you are an Absolute
Victor,” Upaka said. Gautama replied: “The Victors are those like me who
have destroyed their taints. I have done just that, so, yes, I am a Victor.”
Upaka waggled his head in the Indian way that suggests equivocal
acknowledgment. Such an attainment was impossible according to the
Ajivaka belief that “happiness and unhappiness come in fixed measures,
and the round of rebirth has a definite limit.”3 For them, liberation came
only after millions of aeons when a person’s karma had exhausted itself.
“May it be so, friend,” Upaka said, and he took care as he walked away to
follow a different road from Gautama.
Upaka’s indifference to Gautama’s pronouncement showed that some
people simply would not be open to Gautama’s teaching and he would need
to do more than simply declare his realization if he wanted to convince
others. Another discourse relates that just a week after his Awakening a
“certain haughty Brahmin”4 called Nigrodha had approached him and also
failed to recognize his attainment. And something similar happened when
Gautama reached Sarnath. As the July moon was becoming full and the
monsoon breaking, Gautama arrived at the Isipatana deer park where
Ashvajit, Bhaddiya, Mahanama, Vapshya and Kaundaniya were sitting
together deciding what they should do. “He has given up the struggle and
reverted to a life of excess,” said one. “We will not get up for him, [but] if
he wants to he can sit down.”5 As Gautama came near, the companions
could not contain themselves. They greeted him warmly; but he told them
he was not the person he had been:
Listen! The deathless has been achieved. I will give instruction, I will teach the Truth. If you
practice as instructed then soon you will come to live, having experienced and attained here and
now for yourselves through direct knowledge the ultimate goal of the spiritual life.6
One of the five expressed the doubts they all felt. Gautama had achieved no
special breakthrough while practicing self-mortification, so how could he
have done so when he was living in a way that, to their eyes, was indulgent
and sensual? Gautama insisted he hadn’t reverted to luxury, and eventually
the five admitted that they had never before heard him speak as he did now.
They settled down to hear what he had to say.
“The Noble Quest,” whose account of Gautama’s actions has been so
detailed up to this point, now merely says, “I was able to convince the five
monks,”7 but it gives no hint of what Gautama said. When later Buddhist
monks compiled their monastic code in the Vinaya, they introduced it with
an account of Gautama’s life in the year that followed his Awakening—the
Mahavagga, which was the first biography of Gautama. As “The Noble
Quest” didn’t mention what he said to the monks, the compilers inserted a
discourse called “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Teaching”
(Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta), which seemed to be an account of that
teaching. It relates that Gautama expounded two lists—the Four Truths and
the Eightfold Path—and this became a classic formulation of Buddhist
teachings that is still repeated in most textbooks. But in the discourses that
scholars consider the earliest, Gautama usually speaks directly and
informally rather than in lists, stressing principles rather than detailed
doctrines. Richard Gombrich comments:
Of course we do not really know what the Buddha said in his first sermon—no one was there
with shorthand or a tape recorder—and it has even been convincingly demonstrated that the
language of the text as we have it is in the main a set of formulas, expressions which are by no
means self-explanatory but refer to already established doctrines.8
We shall get a better sense of Gautama’s meeting with the five ascetics if
we broaden the focus and consider how, in the years following his
Enlightenment, he communicated what he had understood to many others.
Meeting the Buddha
Throughout Gautama’s life, and perhaps especially at the start of his career,
his sheer presence made a powerful impact. Although no single account
gives us a credible physical description of Gautama, it is possible to
assemble a portrait by scavenging among the Discourses. It seems he was
shaven-headed, well built, of normal height and strikingly “handsome,
good-looking and of the most beautiful complexion.”9 We hear that he had
“golden-colored skin”10 and sometimes seemed, literally, to shine and glow
like the sun. “It’s marvelous how serene [is your] air, Master Gautama,” one
person exclaimed: “how clear and translucent [your] complexion!”11
Another says: “You have a perfect body, you are shining, well proportioned,
beautiful to look at … you have very white teeth … clear eyes, a round
face, you are large, straight, splendid.”12 There is more than a hint of saintly
iconography in such comments, and it is more likely that Gautama’s skin
was tanned dark by his outdoor life and hardened by the wind and heat.
Near the end of Gautama’s life, Ananda remarked: “his complexion is no
longer clear and radiant, his limbs are all flaccid and wrinkled and his body
is stooped.”13
The most detailed description of Gautama in the Discourses is much
closer to hagiography. It is placed in the mouth of a young Brahmin called
Uttara whose guru sent him to observe Gautama and see if he conformed to
the image of the superman of Brahminical lore. Uttara reported that not
only had he seen all thirty-two of the distinctive physical characteristics
such a person was expected to display, he had also observed Gautama’s
grace, elegance and decorum. Gautama’s “table manners,” for example,
were impeccable:
When he receives rice, he does not raise or lower the bowl, or tip it forward or backward. He
receives neither too little rice, nor too much. He adds sauces in the right proportion; he does not
exceed the right amount of sauce in the mouthful. He turns the mouthful over two or three times
in his mouth and then swallows it, and no rice kernel enters his body unchewed; then he takes
another mouthful.14
This chimes with reports of the purposeful, considered, self-aware character
of Gautama’s actions that displayed the “mindfulness” for which he was
renowned. As Uttara said, “He tastes his food experiencing the taste, though
not experiencing greed for the taste.”
For their part, Brahmins made sense of Gautama’s attainment in terms of
the Vedic precedents. The iconography with which he is depicted in
Buddhist art is based on the thirty-two marks, which include long ears,
webbed fingers and a bump at the crown of the head. But in many
discourses there is no hint that Gautama possessed such unusual features,
and the people who met him usually noticed nothing special about his
appearance beyond his air of calm. One wanderer, with whom he happened
to share a shelter for the night, remarked that he was searching for
“Gautama, who went forth from the Shakyan clan,”15 and noticed nothing
special in his companion that suggested he had found him already.
The uncertain line between observation and hagiography may reflect the
gradual overlay of religious piety upon historical reality; but even in the
earliest texts, Gautama’s followers believe that they encounter more than an
ordinary human being. The notion that Gautama’s life recapitulated the
pattern followed by the previous Buddhas, who dominated the history of the
universe, encouraged his disciples to regard him as the embodiment of a
timeless archetype whose Awakening was significant for the entire cosmos,
from the lowest hell to the highest heaven. Every step of his career is
watched over by hosts of divine beings, and the earth itself shakes in
response to the principal events of his life.
Gautama once said, “I often abide in voidness.”16 That could mean that
he existed on a transcendental plane distinct from the worldly one—an
important belief for many later Buddhists. But Gautama also said that what
made him distinctive was that he lived according to the insight that
experience is a shifting stream of phenomena that arises in dependence
upon conditions and is therefore “void” of a fixed essence. He still got ill
and experienced pain, but there was no alteration in his “lucidity.”17 When a
stone splinter cut his foot he simply observed the pain, “mindful and clearly
comprehending, without becoming distressed.”18 The true “wonder and
marvel,” Gautama declared, was not his supernormal powers, or the truth or
otherwise of the legends that surrounded his life, but his capacity to observe
his “feelings … perceptions … and thoughts … as they arise, as they are
present and as they disappear.”19 In a similar vein, he once redefined the
mythic superman of the Brahmins as “a master of the mind in the ways of
thought”20 because he could think any thought he wanted to think and not
think about something if he didn’t want to.
However we read these descriptions of Gautama, it is clear that he was
an extraordinary individual. Strangers sensed the majesty beneath
Gautama’s quiet demeanor, and disciples sometimes compared the
impression he made to the massive grandeur of an elephant or the prowling
watchfulness of a tiger. Perhaps the most successful literary attempt to
evoke this elusive power is Gautama’s brief appearance in Herman Hesse’s
novel Siddhartha:
His peaceful countenance was neither happy nor sad. He seemed to be smiling gently inwardly.
With a secret smile, not unlike that of a child, he walked along, peacefully, quietly. He wore his
gown and walked along like all the other monks, but his face and his step, his downward glance,
his peaceful, downward-hanging hand, and every finger of his hand spoke of peace, spoke of
completeness, sought nothing, imitated nothing, reflected a continuous quiet, an unfading light,
and invulnerable peace.21
Sometimes, if he thought a person was ready, Gautama directed the full
force of his consciousness toward them. That’s what happened in his
meeting with Bahiya, with which this book started. Those on the receiving
end reported feeling overwhelmed, transported and sometimes transformed.
It was a kind of spiritual energy, but also an engulfing sense of Gautama’s
compassion. He was said to “abide in loving-kindness,”22 and the Vinaya
suggests that Gautama could direct his goodwill toward others like a force
field. Once, it tells us, he subdued a rampaging elephant in this way, and
when a resident of Malla called Roja remarked that he was “not much
impressed” by him, Gautama “suffused Roja with a mind of love,”23 and
Roja became a disciple.
Gautama enjoyed “living in the remote jungle, where there is little noise
… places that are undisturbed and utterly secluded,”24 but he probably
spent relatively little time there after his Enlightenment. He usually passed
the annual rains retreat in a monastic center on the outskirts of a major city
(most often in Shravasti). For the rest of the year he wandered, but, as his
overriding project was spreading his teachings, he tended to travel back and
forth along the trade roads that linked these cities, often accompanied by a
substantial entourage. Unless he was meditating or collecting his food, he
was happy to strike up a conversation with people he met on the road,
whether they were farmers, Brahmins or merchants. At other times
shramanas and householders, including leading members of society, visited
Gautama in his lodgings; he also spent time instructing his own monks. He
didn’t care whether the person to whom he spoke was of high or low caste
or if they were conventionally respectable, and he was happy to share his
teachings with prostitutes, robbers and at least one murderer. He is
traditionally said to have taught people on the level they could understand,
reserving advanced teachings for the most receptive listeners. The
Discourses don’t quite bear this out, and there are many examples of people
failing to grasp his meaning; but he could sometimes pick out those with the
capacity to understand him more fully. An example is the story of the leper
named Suppabuddha who approached a group of people thinking, “Surely
some food must be being distributed.”25 Notwithstanding his
disappointment at discovering that they were, in fact, listening to Gautama’s
teaching, he sat down to listen. Gautama wondered, “Who here is capable
of understanding the Dharma?” and his eyes alighted on Suppabuddha. He
recognized something in the leper and directed his talk to him, finding just
the right words to communicate his insight and understanding, and
Suppabuddha made an instant spiritual breakthrough.
Whatever the circumstances, the Discourses represent Gautama as an
immensely skilled communicator with an uncanny ability to establish
rapport. Whoever he was with, he recalled at the end of his life: “I matched
my appearance to their appearance, I matched the sound of my voice to the
sound of theirs, and I instructed them with talk about the teaching,
encouraging, enthusing and inspiring them.”26 However strongly people
expressed their views, Gautama avoided getting into arguments and
developed a way of accepting, at least to start with, the value of the
qualities they praised. If they were interested in exciting mystical
experiences, he asked them to imagine the most valuable fruit of
meditation. They usually agreed that this was realization, not ecstasy. If
they thought that virtuous action meant performing a sacrifice, he asked
them what the highest sacrifice would be. He used images of cultivation
when speaking to farmers and spoke of discipline in speaking with an
animal trainer. This brought Gautama a reputation for charm and courtesy,
even among Brahmins. Sonadanda, for example, had heard that Gautama
was “kindly of speech, courteous, genial, clear.”27 Sonadanda wanted to
meet the remarkable shramana but was worried he would be shown up if
Gautama asked philosophical questions from the perspective of the Ganges
Valley religion, about which he knew nothing. He needn’t have worried.
The impeccably considerate Gautama put Sonadanda at ease by asking him
to describe the qualities of the true Brahmin. Then Gautama led him, step
by step, toward his own way of thinking until Sonadanda agreed (to the
dismay of his companions) that being a true Brahmin ultimately had
nothing at all to do with birth, appearance or knowledge of the sacred
mantras.
Uttara noted Gautama’s combination of charm and directness when he
spoke in public. His words were “distinct, intelligible, melodious, audible,
ringing, euphonious, deep and sonorous,” and he refused to flatter or
disparage his listeners, choosing instead to “instruct, urge, rouse and
encourage” them.28 This contrasted with the Brahminical way of chanting
scriptures, which was a ritual rather than an attempt to convey ideas.
Gautama’s preference for speaking in the “local language,”29 rather than
priestly Sanskrit, may reflect his identification with the spiritual traditions
of the Ganges Valley, but it also helped put people at their ease, allowing
them to make their own connections with his message.
Richard Gombrich comments that Gautama “had a clear and compelling
vision of the truth and was trying to convey it to a wide range of people
with different inclinations and varying presuppositions, so he had to express
his message in many different ways.”30 To this end, Gautama used
metaphors, parables and stories, as well as ideas, to convey his meaning.
From the start, Gautama had a remarkable talent for articulating insights
that defied the usual categories of thought in clear and powerful concepts.
But even these were a means to an end. He compared his teachings to a raft
that could help a person cross a stretch of water and then be left behind.
“The raft’s purpose is for crossing over, not for holding on to.”31 Gautama
explained.
The results could be dramatic. An aging Brahmin called Pingiya recalled
his first meeting with Gautama. “I am old,” he told him. “My body is weak
and my skin is pale. I can hardly see and I hear only with difficulty. Don’t
let me die while I am still in confusion, but teach me about the way things
are.”32 Gautama replied: “Pingiya, you must let go of the body and of
forms.” This mysterious message somehow touched the man with a startling
immediacy. He said, “Up till now, before I heard Gotama’s teaching, people
had always told me: ‘This is how it has always been, and this is how it will
always be’; only the constant refrain of tradition.” Gautama’s teaching
differed profoundly from the “bleary half-light” of the ancient mystical
beliefs Pingiya had previously followed, and Pingiya declared: “There is
nothing else quite like it anywhere in the world.”33
Hearing the Truth
The River Ganges is the heart of the region in which Gautama lived. For
orthodox Hindus it is a goddess—Ganga—whose course mirrors the flow of
life toward death. It runs south from the Himalayas, and then winds
eastward toward the Bay of Bengal; but at one point it makes a sharp turn
north-east, seeming to reverse its natural course, and Hindus see this as a
symbol for the transition from death to rebirth in a new body. In Gautama’s
time a city named Varanasi had already grown up around the port and the
bathing places on the western bank, facing the rising sun and the huge
floodplain on the east. For those wanting to find a favorable rebirth, the
crook in the river is an ideal place to be purified and die. The corpses lie in
rows and are dipped in the water before being placed on one of the funeral
pyres that litter the bank. Acrid smoke rises as the flesh melts and the bones
char to ashes that are thrown back into the river. Bodies of the unclean, like
lepers and pregnant women, and of the wholly pure, like cows and children,
are tied to a rock and dropped from boats into the stream. Many rise again,
and the grisly detritus is washed onto the farther shore. Meanwhile, crowds
of pilgrims stand up to their waists in the river and murmur sacred verses
before immersing themselves in its sacred yet utterly filthy water.
Varanasi was at the eastern edge of the Ganges Valley, just outside the
Aryan lands, and had recently been absorbed into Kosala along with the
kingdom of Kasi, of which it was the capital. Hindus claim that the city is
3,000 years old, but archaeologists report that the town’s fortifications and
oldest stone buildings were constructed in Gautama’s time: 460–440 BCE.34
The Discourses don’t portray the city as the center of Brahmin worship and
training it became, and trainee priests still traveled to the colleges of Taxila
far to the northwest. But many people, both Brahmins and non-Brahmins,
believed that “whoever, young or old, does an evil action is released from
[it] by ablution in water,”35 and it is reasonable to suppose that, even then,
people bathed in the Ganges in the hope of winning a better rebirth.
The belief that an act like ablution had spiritual merit in and of itself
opposed everything Gautama had learned in his Awakening. “Purity and
impurity are matters of personal experience,”36 he said, and when he saw a
group of renunciants performing ritual ablutions he commented that only
“truth and Dharma”37 would make them pure. Gautama wanted to direct
people’s attention away from external observances and toward their states
of mind, as well as the patterns of cause and effect. That’s what he did,
according to “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Teaching,” when he
addressed the Group of Five. The ascetics put their faith in practices that
cultivated pain and suffering, and Gautama addressed this preoccupation in
his teaching of the Four Noble Truths; but he introduced a new perspective
by drastically expanding the meaning of suffering. The first Truth suggests
that there is no need deliberately to accentuate suffering through self-
mortification. Dukkha is everywhere in the inherent unsatisfactoriness and
inescapable difficulty of human life. Its cause, he explained in the second
Truth, lies in the mind’s tendency to respond to experience with craving;
and, conversely (the third Truth), if craving ceases, dukkha will cease as
well. Therefore, the fourth Truth is that one must transform one’s
experience until one is without craving, and that means following the
Eightfold Path.
We cannot say if Gautama’s message took precisely this form, and in a
sense it doesn’t matter. We know that he communicated his insight into
dependent arising and can assume that he did so in terms that addressed his
listeners’ concerns. According to “Setting in Motion the Wheel of the
Teaching,” Kaundaniya was the first to understand Gautama’s meaning, and
when he did so the universe reverberated:
There arose in the venerable Kaundaniya a vision of truth, without blemish, untarnished: “The
nature of everything whose nature it is to arise is to cease … The Gods of the Earth proclaimed:
‘This wheel of Truth that the Blessed One has turned in Varanasi, at Isipatana in the animal park,
no ascetic or Brahmin, nor god, nor Mara, nor Brahma, nor anyone in the world can stop.”
This was a key event in the history of the universe, according to Buddhist
mythology, and the gods in the ascending heaven-realms took up the cry, up
to the apex of existence: “This ten-thousandfold world system shook,
trembled and quaked. A boundless splendid radiance appeared in the world
surpassing the majesty of the gods. Then the Blessed One breathed a sigh:
‘Kaundaniya has understood! Kaundaniya has understood!’”38
Gautama spoke further with the remaining four members of the group.
They took turns to beg food, and, one by one, they made the same
breakthrough as Kaundaniya. When Gautama gave a talk explaining that
nothing possessed any essential selfhood, they made another and then, the
Mahavagga tells us, “there were six perfected ones (arahants) in the
world.”39
Varanasi was a trading city and an important center for the manufacture
of fabrics, perfumes and sculpture, so it was home to wealthy merchants.
The Mahavagga relates that Yasha, the son of such a family, watched his
beautiful attendants as they slept, and was plunged into turmoil: “One with
a lute in the hollow of her arm, one with a tabor at her neck, one with a
drum in the hollow of her arm, one with disheveled hair, one with saliva
dripping from her mouth, muttering in their sleep, like a cemetery before
his very eyes.”40
Gautama’s biographers inserted this scene into their accounts of his
decision to leave the palace. In the original version, Yasha declares, “Alas!
what distress; alas! what danger!” He wanders into the Deer Park, Gautama
calls the young man over, and when they speak, Yasha immediately
understands his teaching.
Yasha’s father came looking for his son, and when he met Gautama the
same thing happened. Then Gautama spoke to Yasha’s mother and his wife,
and they were convinced as well. Word spread among Yasha’s friends that
something extraordinary was taking place, and more and more of them
visited Isipatana. Each in turn was convinced by Gautama and took
ordination. They shaved their heads, donned the shramanas’ robes and slept
rough among the trees. Each day they walked to Varanasi to get food, and
they spent the rest of their time meditating or discussing the Dharma. Soon,
the Mahavagga tells us, there were sixty-one arahants.
Buddhist tradition holds that, as arahants, the disciples had reached final
liberation and had no more to learn, and later Buddhists were puzzled by
the apparent ease with which they attained this state. The Discourses also
relate that listeners, starting with Kaundaniya, often made a dramatic
breakthrough on hearing a single teaching, or perhaps after a week or two
of putting Gautama’s instructions into practice. In later years progress
seemed much slower, and some suggested that times had become less
propitious for Dharma practice. Others said that the difference in Gautama’s
time was the impact of meeting “the giver of the Deathless,”41 Gautama
himself.
The tradition that such an encounter could have this revelatory impact is
strong in the Discourses: “When the Buddhas arise in the world, the
radiance-makers, they make visible this Dharma that leads to the calming of
dukkha and [men] hearing them acquire wisdom [and] regain their
hearts.”42
This makes sense if we read the encounters described in the Discourses
as recapitulations of an archetype, but they are puzzling if we regard them
as realistic descriptions of what happened. The notion that simply hearing
Gautama’s words might catapult a listener into Awakening runs counter to
his emphasis on self-reliance and his message that “one man cannot purify
another.”43 Gautama told one interlocutor, “I am not able to release anyone
who has doubts, but if you understand the most excellent Dharma you will
cross the flood for yourself.”44 He said that, while people could sometimes
make a sudden breakthrough, the usual pattern was “gradual training,
gradual practice, gradual progress in the Dharma,”45 and he compared
Awakening to the slow ripening of crops or “the slope of the Ganges to the
east.”46
Another explanation is that after Gautama’s death a later generation,
looking back at the heroic days of their community’s pioneers, inflated the
original meaning of their attainments. The Discourses identify arahants as
those who have “lived the spiritual life, done what has to be done, laid
down the burden, utterly destroyed the fetters of existence and [are]
completely liberated through final knowledge.”47 They are said to have
“done their work” so completely that they “are no longer capable of being
negligent.”48 But in the texts we find that Ashvajit declares he is “still a
beginner, newly gone forth in this Dharma,” even after becoming an
arahant, and Mahakasyapa repeatedly loses his temper.
What had happened to these men? The process that led people to practice
Gautama’s teaching, the Discourses often relate, started with the appearance
of a Tathagata—a fully Enlightened person:
He teaches the Truth that is beautiful in the beginning, beautiful in the middle and beautiful in the
end, both in its spirit and in its letter. He makes clear the spiritual life in all its perfection. A
householder gains faith in the Tathagata [and] reflects: “Living in a house is restricted and
cluttered, going forth is a life wide open.” After some time he might abandon his possessions and
leave behind his circle of relatives. Then he might shave off his hair and beard, put on ochre
robes, and go forth from home into homelessness.49
At some point a shift took place, usually under Gautama’s influence, and
listeners “made the breakthrough”50 to a new way of seeing the world.
Sometimes Gautama spoke of this breakthrough as renunciation—a change
from looking for happiness in sense pleasures to finding it in a simple,
uncluttered existence and a deepening of experience. For some, that meant
giving up household life and becoming a full-time renunciant, but this
wasn’t a penance: “If by renouncing a lesser happiness one would see an
abundant happiness, let the spiritually mature person … sacrifice the limited
happiness,”51 as Gautama said. Sometimes he spoke of the change as the
arising of faith, an emotion that includes trust, confidence and inspiration
and is grounded in experience. At other times he spoke of it as right view or
seeing truly. Technically, right view is defined as fully grasping the Four
Truths, which express, in précis, the insights that constituted Gautama
Enlightenment.
When this breakthrough is truly decisive it is as if a “Dharma-Eye”
opens to supplement the usual senses. An account of an encounter between
Gautama and a lay follower called Upali includes a detailed description of
this experience:
When Gautama knew that Upali’s mind was ready, receptive, free from hindrances, elated and
confident, he explained the teaching that is unique to the Buddhas: dukkha, its origin and
cessation and the path leading from it. Just as a clean cloth would take dye evenly, so while Upali
sat there the spotless, immaculate Dharma Eye arose in him: “Whatever is subject to origination
is subject to cessation.” He fathomed the Dharma, and passed beyond doubt.52
Someone who is Aryan in this sense, Gautama said, has “entered the course
of rightness, entered the plane of superior persons and transcended the
plane of the worldlings.”54 He or she acquires “unwavering confidence”55
in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and possesses the moral virtues that are
“dear to the noble ones.”56 Most Shravaka were renunciants, but the
difference between a savaka and a patthajana was their spiritual attainment,
not how they lived. Numerous householders made the same breakthrough
without renouncing their possessions, while some monks remained
members of the “un-Aryan company.”57 Occasionally someone like
Suppabuddha “crossed over doubt, attained to complete confidence and
became independent of others in the Teacher’s teaching,”58 without making
any formal commitment at all. Usually, though, if a listener was convinced
by Gautama’s teaching they made an act of commitment by “going for
refuge.” The only reliable refuge, Gautama said, is something that isn’t
caught up in the tangles of samsara, and that means the Buddha—Gautama
himself and the ideal he embodies; and the Dharma—his teachings and the
truth they describe. The third refuge is the Sangha, which can mean the
community of those who have who realized the Dharma, the community of
all Buddhists, or the monastic community—which is how many later
Buddhists understood it.
In time, this initial inspiration deepens. Faith can become a growing
commitment and openness to the truth; seeing truly can become a
deepening understanding that culminates in transformative wisdom;
renunciation can become the practice of letting go of craving and the end of
attachment in Nirvana. Going for refuge fully to the ideals represented by
the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha means embodying them. The whole of life
can be a path and then, shifting the metaphor, it can become a stream.
Living in this way, one is no longer swept along in the unconscious,
habitual patterns of the world, but borne by a new, inner current. Just as
water flows from a mountain-top to the ocean, Gautama said, with faith, the
practitioner’s experience transmutes into multiple “streams of merit”59 that
feed happiness and “flow on” to joy, tranquility, concentration, insight,
liberation and “the destruction of the taints.”60
Starting a Movement
Having gathered a number of disciples around him, Gautama had, in effect,
started a new shramana community, and at some stage he gave it a name:
“You are people of different birth, with different names, from different
lineages and families, who have gone forth from home into homelessness. If
you are asked who you are you should affirm: ‘We are ascetics, sons of the
Shakyan—Shakyaputra shramanas.’”61
The early Shakyaputras did not live like the Buddhist bhikkhus and
bhikkhunis of later times, whose activities are regulated by hundreds of
rules; and even the Christian terms “monks” and “nuns” are somewhat
misleading (though there are no adequate alternatives). The Shakyaputras
didn’t dwell in monasteries, at least to start with, and the difference between
renunciates and householders in the Shakyaputra movement was a matter of
how they lived, not the sacramental distinction that separates ordained
Roman Catholic clergy from the laity. But those who had formally “gone
forth” from the household life were different because their time was wholly
devoted to practicing Gautama’s teachings. Their main responsibility was to
find Awakening, but, even before the rains’ retreat had finished, Gautama
introduced another element. He told them to share their understanding with
others:
Wander, monks, for the blessing of the many, for the happiness of the many, out of compassion
for the world, for the benefit and welfare, blessing and happiness of gods and men. No two of you
should go the same way. Communicate the Dharma, which is lovely in the beginning, middle and
end, and share both the letter and the spirit of the spiritual life in all its fullness and purity. There
are those with little dust in their eyes, who are suffering from not hearing the Dharma.62
These stirring words show the character of the movement Gautama was
starting. He believed that his dharma applied to everyone, and telling the
monks to wander for “the benefit of the many” suggested that it wouldn’t be
a movement of shramanas alone. His teachings wouldn’t be passed only to
chosen disciples, in the Upanishadic manner, or restricted to certain castes,
like the Vedic traditions. The Jains and the Ajivakas (so far as we can tell)
also considered their teachings to be universally true; but we encounter
nothing in their scriptures comparable to the sense of mission these words
express. It helps explain Buddhism’s capacity to spread across Asia while
the other Ganges Valley sects never left the subcontinent, and Hinduism
remained an essentially Indian religion.
However, one Discourse relates an incident that seems to have occurred
during Gautama’s stay in Sarnath. A man called Dhammadinna (not to be
confused with a famous nun of the same name) traveled from Varanasi to
see Gautama with other householders, and requested a teaching. Gautama
told his listeners to “enter and dwell upon those discourses … that are deep,
deep in meaning, supramundane, dealing with emptiness.”63 This would be
hard, exclaimed Dhammadinna, for people “living in a home crowded with
children, enjoying Kasian sandalwood, wearing garlands, scents and
unguents, and receiving gold and silver.” He and his companions were
familiar with Gautama’s ethical precepts, he said, and they just wanted to
know the next step on the path. Gautama replied that they should develop
faith in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and the “virtues dear to the noble
ones.” The incident is ambiguous, but it suggests that Gautama had
overestimated how much these householders could understand and was
exploring how to communicate with them.
According to the Mahavagga, Gautama’s instruction to spread his
teachings inspired the new monks. They spread out quickly and new
recruits started to arrive at Isipatana even before the rains had finished.
Gautama could have stayed in Sarnath and made it his headquarters, but
instead he decided that the Shakyaputras would have a decentralized
structure. Gautama told the monks:
I permit you to grant the going forth and conduct ordinations yourselves. First the candidate must
have his hair and beard shaved off, then he must put on a robe and cover the left shoulder with it.
He must salute the feet of the ordaining monk and then squat down and salute the ordaining monk
with joined palms and recite “I go for Refuge to the Buddha; I go for Refuge to the Dharma; I go
for Refuge to the Sangha.”
Other powers included the ability to read others’ thoughts (which Gautama
often does in the Discourses), to hear sounds at a distance, to cause
earthquakes and to prolong life. If this seems unrealistic we should recall
that “miracle”-performing saints and prophets are found in every culture, as
are shamans who claim to enter the spirit world. Commentators who want
to make Gautama the proponent of their own rational world view suggest
that accounts of his miraculous feats are later constructions, but displays of
Gautama’s psychic powers are everywhere in the Discourses. By their
testimony, he was both the teacher of a down-to-earth, psychologically
convincing message and a wonder-working saint, and the difficulty in
reconciling these aspects reflects the difference between the modern world
view and that of a pre-modern society. In some aspects Gautama was a
remarkably modern figure who relied on his direct experience, evaluated it
pragmatically and asks others to do the same. But everyday reality in his
culture included gods, miracles, karma, rebirth and higher states of
consciousness.
Gautama’s victory over the Gaya nagas continues the confrontation with
the region’s spirits that had preceded his Awakening, and the battle with
Mara that symbolized it. But something had changed. Now he stood apart
from the universe “with its gods, Maras, Brahmas … princes and people,”69
and no spirit, however fearsome, had any hold over him because he was
free from the fear and clinging that made ordinary people susceptible. The
Uruvilva priests were so impressed that they decided to join Gautama’s
order. Kasyapa later recalled:
Seeing the marvels of the famous Gautama, I did not at once fall down before him, being
deceived by envy and pride. Knowing my intention, the charioteer of men urged me on. Then
there arose in me hair-raising agitation. Despising what little supernormal power I had had
previously, when I was an ascetic with matted hair, I went forth in the conqueror’s teaching.70
Those things that arise from a cause, of these the Truth-finder has told
the cause,
And that which is their stopping—the great recluse has such a
doctrine.74
Ashvajit didn’t even explain what these causes were or how they worked,
but the mere suggestion that the world could be looked at as a process of
cause and effect transformed Upatissa. He realized: “Whatever is of the
nature to arise all that is of the nature to stop.” The Dharma Eye opened,
and when he told Kolita what he had learned, the same happened to his
friend.
The two men sought out Gautama, and he ordained them with the simple
words, “Come, monks! Dharma is well proclaimed. Adopt the pure life and
make an end of suffering.”75 They took the names Shariputra and
Maudgalyayana, and both quickly became arahants. For a fortnight,
Gautama says, Shariputra probed his mind more and more deeply and saw
into the nature of his mental states “one by one, as they occurred.”76 He
passed through the absorptions and at each stage he “ferreted out” the
elements of his experience; whatever occurred, “he did not cling to it,
welcome it or hold to it,” and in this way, Shariputra freed himself from the
limitations those states brought. “Known to him those states arose, known
to him they were present, known to him they disappeared. He understood
thus: ‘So indeed, these states, not having been, come into being; having
been, they vanish’ … Regarding those states, abided unattracted,
unrepelled, independent, detached, free, dissociated, with a mind free of
barriers.”77
Eventually, the discourse tells us, he reached the stage of neither-
perception-nor-non-perception, and then the further stage of “the cessation
of perception and feeling.” Bringing mindful awareness to even this
incredibly refined state, “his taints were destroyed by his seeing with
wisdom” and Sariputra realized, “There is no escape beyond.”78
Gautama declared that every Buddha had two chief disciples and
Shariputra and Maudgalyayana were his. He had known them in many
previous lifetimes and their meeting in this life was the fulfillment of aeons
of development. In Buddhist art they are often depicted standing beside
Gautama or reverentially gazing up at him. Gautama saw that Shariputra
(with his exceptional intellect) and Maudgalyayana (with his extraordinary
psychic powers) could be important allies in developing his movement.
What’s more, the Mahavagga relates, their defection persuaded many of
Sanjaya’s followers to do the same, and a group of intellectually minded
skeptics joined Gautama’s order alongside the former priests, yogis and
laymen. Sanjaya was so distraught that he died of a hemorrhage.
Then came the popular backlash. Anger spread among Rajagriha’s
citizens that the “home-breaker” Gautama was taking away their sons and
husbands: “Who will he poach next?” The monks depended on the
townspeople for their food, and they ran the gauntlet of abuse when they
made their alms rounds each day. Gautama said the unrest would last a
week and advised the monks to stay calm. He gave them a verse of their
own to repeat to people who chanted anti-Shakyaputra slogans:
Great heroes, Truth finders, led by what is true Dharma. Who could be jealous of the wise,
leading according to Truth?79
The criticism died down, as Gautama had anticipated, but the episode
showed that the Shakyaputra movement, with its message of renunciation,
was vulnerable to the popular mood. He needed to take care not to alienate
those who were left behind.
Even if Gautama’s focus, at least in the early years, was sharing his
wisdom with full-time religious practitioners, his insights illuminated the
reality that everyone experienced. Everyone’s experience arose in
dependence upon conditions, and the Dharma could help them understand
the patterns of their lives. The fundamental cause of the world’s problems
lay in the minds of human beings, Gautama taught. “In dependence upon
feeling there is craving; in dependence upon craving there is pursuit,” he
once said. The chain continued with “gain,” then “decision-making,”
“desire,” “lust,” “attachment … possessiveness … niggardliness [and]
defensiveness.” As a result, “various evil, unwholesome things originate—
the taking up of clubs and weapons, conflicts, quarrels and disputes, insults,
slander and falsehood.”80
Gautama linked his insights into the mind with the traditional notion of
karma and the belief that it determined future rebirth. While Gautama had
little time for the Brahminical identification of karma with the “purifying
action” of rituals such as the sacrifice, he strongly believed that actions had
consequences in both “this world and the next.”81 That brought him close to
the Jain belief, which seems to have been especially influential in Magadha,
that all actions produce karma. For the Jains this meant that all action is
bad, which Gautama found absurd, but their teachings also made karma into
a universal principle, connecting it to a compassionate desire to avoid
harming others. Gautama agreed with the Jains that regulating behavior to
avoid destructive actions was vital, at least as a starting point, and he
formulated five ethical precepts that may well have been based upon the
precepts for Jain householders. These are abstaining from “the destruction
of life”; from “taking what has not been given”; from sexual misconduct
and from lying. The fifth Jain precept was giving up possessions, but
Gautama probably thought this unrealistic for householders and, instead, he
asked householder disciples to “abstain from wines, liquors and intoxicants
which are the basis for negligence.”82
The fifth precept connected Gautama’s ethical teachings to the mind,
hinting that, for him, being ethical and acquiring beneficial karma really
depended on the state of mind with which a person acted. In time, as we
shall see, Gautama reinterpreted the meaning of karma by saying that “by
karma I mean intention.”83 That was perhaps too subtle for some people,
but they could understand his insistence that they should develop loving-
kindness, generosity, contentment, honesty and mindfulness.
The Shakyaputras would always be dependent on their householder
supporters, but they already had an asset of their own. The Mahavagga tells
us that Bimbisara had donated a plot of land called the Venuvana, or
“Bamboo Park,” just outside the city, and to start with the monks slept
rough in the squirrels’ feeding ground. As individual monks weren’t
allowed to own property, Gautama accepted the land on behalf of the
Shakyaputras as a whole. It gave the order some economic security, and the
Venuvana’s location helped define the monks’ relationship to townspeople.
It was “neither too far from a village nor too near, suitable for coming and
going, accessible for people whenever they want, not crowded by day,
having little noise at night … conducive to privacy and suitable for
meditation.”84 But accepting the property was also a step toward making
the order an institution in its own right.
Rajagriha was always an important center for the new movement, but the
Jains and other non-Buddhist wanderers were well established and some
groups may have been active for centuries. The city was never Gautama’s
main base, but he returned to Rajagriha often, and at the end of his life he
recalled with deep affection the sacred mountains and caves where he had
stayed: “Vulture’s Peak, Gotama’s Banyan Park, Robbers’ Cliff, the
Sattapanni Cave on the slope of Vebhara, Black Rock on the slope of Isigili,
the Sita grove in the Sappasondika ravine … the bamboo grove at the
squirrels’ feeding ground, Jivaka’s Mango Grove, the Maddakucchi deer
park.”85 In each place he had exclaimed to Ananda: “How delightful!”
Kapilavastu
It was about seven years since Gautama had left Shakya, and tradition says
that Suddhodana sent Kaludayin, one of Gautama’s childhood friends, to
persuade him to return. Kaludayin composed a beautiful set of verses that
evoked Shakya just as the land was exploding into flower after the rains.
For Gautama, all these attempts to explore consciousness were laden with
assumptions. He proposed the radical alternative of simply paying careful
attention to what perception actually felt like. When Malukyaputta
threatened to disrobe unless Gautama answered the four questions,
Gautama asked him to imagine a man who had been shot by a poisoned
arrow. This man declared that he would not allow the arrow to be pulled out
until he knew the name, family, appearance and caste of the person who had
shot him. He wanted to know what the feathers were made of and what kind
of animal gut was used to make the string. Gautama’s point was that this
information wouldn’t solve the man’s problem: he just needed to pull the
arrow out. By analogy, someone wanting to find a meaningful response to
life’s unsatisfactoriness didn’t need a definition of the world, the self, or
even a Buddha. He or she just needed to know what would help in finding
liberation. Gautama warned Vacchagotta (in images drawn from the
wandering life) that the result of puzzling over his questions would be like
getting lost in the wilderness or caught in a “thicket.”44 They would engross
him in speculations that would not help with the task of transforming the
mind. In fact, he once said, thinking too much about an “unconjecturable”45
question like the origin of the world or the extent of a Buddha’s power
would eventually drive you mad.
Gautama regarded belief in atman as a reassuring illusion, just like belief
in a creator god or conviction that one is superior or inferior to others
because of one’s caste, intelligence or beauty. The problem with the
teachings of all the rival groups, he said, was that even when their teachings
claimed to counteract clinging they failed to get to grips with its most basic
manifestations: “Clinging to sense pleasures, clinging to views, clinging to
rules and observances, and clinging to a doctrine of self.”46
All are distorted perceptions produced by an inability to face life’s
impermanence and contingency and the need to bolster the sense that one
exists as a solid, fixed self. “Normal experience,” therefore, is a state of
denial. People ignore the inevitability of death, which advances, Gautama
said, like “a mighty mountain range, scraping the sky with rocky crags …
crushing everything before it.”47 However real such a life might seem, it is
actually an illusion, like a mass of foam floating on the Ganges, a bubble on
the surface of the water, a mirage at noon, or an “illusion at a crossroads”48
created by a traveling magician. His task as a teacher was to puncture such
illusions, which “make us babble like fools,”49 to explain how they produce
suffering and to show a way to live that accords with reality.
The best image Gautama found to describe consciousness was a fire—
the image he used in preaching to the Uruvilva priests. Although we can
give it a name, a fire is clearly not fixed: it changes continually as it burns.
Consciousness, too, is not a thing, Gautama suggested. More precisely, he
identified five elements (khandas or skhandas) that make up what we call a
person’s “experience,” each of which is a process in its own right. There are
the physical processes that comprise “form” and the mental processes of
feeling, perceiving, volition and being conscious. Gautama called these
processes “blazing masses of fuel”50 (upadana-khanda) and said that
experience emerges from them just as a fire flickers up from whatever is
burning. Gautama also noted that how a fire burns depends on what is
burning—a log fire is one that “burns dependent on logs,”51 and so on. A
moment of consciousness also depends on the conditions from which it has
arisen. We suffer because of the past conditions—the fuel—from which our
minds have grown, but other conditions (especially morally worthy
intentions) enable them to develop in a more positive direction.
If consciousness is a flame, then the relationship between one life and
the next is like one flame lighting another. As there is no atman to be
reincarnated, nothing substantial is transferred to the new being, but old
tendencies and volitions ignite new ones, Gautama said, through the
mechanism of karma. Only an Awakened person is different because he or
she does not respond with craving and does not generate fresh karma. When
Gautama responded to Vacchagotta’s question about the fate of a Tathagata
after death he again used the image of a fire, and may have pointed to a real
fire beside which they were sitting.* What would Vacchagotta say if
someone asked where the fire had gone once it was extinguished? “The fire
burns in dependence upon grass and sticks. When that’s used up, if it gets
no more fuel, it is reckoned as extinguished,”52 replied Vacchagotta. The
same applies to a Buddha, Gautama said. The fire of craving, which fixes
identity and selfhood, is “blown out” in the process called Nirvana.
Seeing human experience like this—as a shifting flame-like process—is
a Middle Way between the views of the eternalists and the nihilists.
Gautama told the wanderer Kaccanagotta: “‘All exists’: Kaccana, this is one
extreme. ‘All does not exist’: this is the second extreme. Without veering
toward either of these two extremes, the Tathagata teaches the Dharma by
the middle.”53
His alternative means seeing how things arise and pass away without
clinging to appearances or “taking a stand about ‘my self.’” A second
application of the Middle Way was to offer an alternative response to
pleasure and pain, which was another prominent concern of the shramanas.
In “Turning the Wheel of Truth” Gautama spoke of the Middle Way as a
path between the “devotion to sensual pleasure with regard to objects of
sensual desire”—the typical preoccupation of an “inferior, vulgar
worldling,” and the “devotion to self-torment” in which the Group of Five
were themselves engaged. The first was an expression of craving, and the
second of aversion, but neither was a realistic response to life. However,
there was an alternative: “Not approaching either of these two extremes, the
Tathagata has thoroughly understood that it is the middle way of practice
that brings insight and knowledge, that conduces to peace, to direct
knowledge, to awakening, to Nirvana.”54
In many of his dialogues with other wanderers, Gautama needed to
address their ideas about identity, belief and skepticism, the appropriate
response to pleasure and pain, or some other preoccupation. He did so with
stories, metaphors and concepts. Faced with Saccaka’s Jain view that pain is
to be cultivated and overcome in order to gain “mastery,”55 Gautama
described his own practice of self-mortification and his discovery of an
alternative. And when the Brahminical wanderer Magandiya argued for the
value of sense pleasures, Gautama told him of his life in the palace, his
understanding of the pleasures he enjoyed there, and asserted that there is “a
delight apart from sensual pleasures … which surpasses divine bliss.”56 In
comparison, mere sense delight is like the relief a leper receives from
cauterizing his wounds, he said. He told wanderers of inner qualities that
are more valuable than outer observances, and states of realization that
made their vaguely defined ideals seem paltry.
Some wanderers were overwhelmed by these ideas and embraced them
wholeheartedly. Vacchagotta, for example, glimpsed a way of perceiving
the world that revealed the fallacy of his prior views and understood why
Gautama had refused to answer his questions. This new Dharma wasn’t
about beliefs, its path to realization had nothing to do with God, its
meditation practice didn’t consider mystical experiences to be ends in
themselves and its wisdom wasn’t concerned with secret mantras and
initiations. Gautama was asking Vacchagotta to abandon altogether the idea
of timeless essences and the soul, and to absorb the disruptive truth that
what we call “ordinary experience” arises and passes away in dependence
upon conditions.
Others were baffled. Gautama’s ideas challenged the most basic
assumptions of his contemporaries and many wanderers saw them as an
attack. He told one such group:
You may think: “Gautama says this to get disciples!” But let your teacher remain your teacher!
Or you may think: “He wants us to abandon our rules!” Well, let your rules remain as they are …
There are unwholesome things that have not been abandoned and these will produce suffering in
the future. I teach for the sake of abandoning such things and if you do so you will grow and
develop and through your own insight and realization you will find the fullness of perfected
wisdom in this very life.57
The challenge this posed to these wanderers was so different from their
usual debates that they were often at a loss for a response and “sat silent and
upset, their shoulders drooped and they hung their heads, downcast and
bewildered.”59 Others, like Potthapada, felt that even if they couldn’t quite
make sense of Gautama’s teaching in terms of their old way of thinking,
they nonetheless admired it:
I don’t know whether the world is eternal or not, whether the soul and body are identical or
different, or what happens to an Enlightened One after his death. But the ascetic Gautama teaches
a genuine, authentic, and accurate practice, grounded in the Dharma and consonant with it. Why
shouldn’t a knowledgeable person like me rejoice in Gautama’s well-spoken words?60
If one speaks or acts with a pure mind, happiness follows like a shadow that never departs.66
The precepts (which are formulated in various lists and versions) describe
how a person who is wholly skillful naturally acts. Such people are “seers
of dependent origination, skilled in action and its results.”67 For others, the
precepts are “training principles” that educate the ethical sensibility until
one automatically recoils from unethical behavior “just as a young, tender
infant lying prone at once draws back when he puts his hand or foot on a
live coal.”68
To some shramanas, this focus on mental states suggested that Gautama
believed that any action is permissible if one’s motivation is correct.
Parodying the Buddhist position, a Jain text proposes that “if someone puts
a child on a spit and roasts it on a fire … it would be fit for Buddhists to
[eat].”69 In fact, Gautama expected people to use their intelligence to assess
their motivations and understand the situation. Gentle though this sounds,
Gautama thought ethics the most demanding of all practices, and he told
one group of monks that whatever happened to them—“even if bandits
were to sever you savagely with a two-handed saw”—they should reflect:
“Our minds will remain unaffected and we will not speak any harsh words.
We shall regard that person with a mind suffused with compassion and
loving-kindness, without any hostility.”70
Gautama disagreed with those of his contemporaries who taught that
“Whatever a person experiences … is caused by what happened in the
past.”71* A success or a disaster may be the result of past karma, but one
cannot say for sure; that is more than “one knows by oneself [or] what is
considered to be true in the world.” But he was certain that unskilful actions
committed now bring future suffering. In that sense, while the precepts
aren’t commandments, Gautama did consider his ethical principles “an
eternal law.”72 To behave ethically, he said, is to act in accordance with
dharma on many levels, from fulfilling one’s responsibilities to matching
the underlying nature of reality.
DEVELOPING THE MIND
Such passages are striking because they evoke a modern way of relating to
experience. More commonly we find that the process of self-examination is
supported by the social context in which the monks lived and practiced.
They learned about themselves and developed an ethical measure by
listening to their teachers, sharing their lives with their friends and
confessing to groups of monks.
Energy
The focus on mindful observation and investigation of experience gave
Gautama’s approach to mental development a new subtlety. Unlike the
“fatalistic” Ajivakas, Gautama thought people could change their states of
mind if they were “moved by a sense of urgency” and made “a suitable
effort.”85 The Shakyaputras were famed for their persistence and
determination, and Gautama’s aunt Prajapati describes seeing “the disciples
all together, putting forth energy, resolute, always with strong effort.”86 But
Gautama intended the Shakyaputra lifestyle to be a Middle Way between
the self-torture of the Ajivakas and Jains, for whom the mind and the body
were enemies, and the self-indulgence of men like the Brahminical
wanderer, Magandiya, for whom Nirvana meant no more than realizing that
“I am healthy and happy and nothing afflicts me.”87
Sometimes the practitioner needs to engage in “determined striving” to
overcome a problem, and sometimes he should just “look on with
equanimity.”88 Gautama explained this to Sona, a former lute-player, who
came to him one day having practiced walking meditation so intensively
that the soles of his feet were split and bleeding. Using an image from
Sona’s former life, Gautama reminded him that his lute had been
unplayable if the strings were too taut or too loose: “Similarly, Sona, if
energy is applied too forcefully it will lead to restlessness, and if energy is
too lax it will lead to lassitude. Therefore, keep your energy in balance,
penetrate to a balance of the spiritual faculties, and there seize your
object.”89
Joy
The realization that a certain kind of “non-sensual” happiness could support
spiritual development was a key insight on Gautama’s own journey, and he
taught that, far from being an enemy to spiritual practice, it was a natural
result. One who develops the first three Awakening Factors and works
skillfully with his or her mind will experience a deep sense of satisfaction
and joy. The term used here is priti, which is the “bliss” associated with
meditative concentration, and later Buddhists described it in considerable
detail: “The lesser thrill is only able to raise the hairs of the body; the
momentary rapture is like the production of lightning moment by moment;
like waves on the seashore, the flooding rapture descends on the body and
breaks; the transporting rapture lifts the body into the air.”90
More generally, priti suggests a range of deeply positive states that can
be experienced outside meditation as well as within it. Gautama warned that
ordinary enjoyments that are prompted by sense pleasures bring suffering in
their wake, and in their place he praised non-sensual happiness: the “bliss of
renunciation, seclusion [and] peace”91 that springs from the mind itself. The
higher happiness drove out the lesser, “just as a carpenter uses a sharper peg
to drive out a blunt one,”92 he said. He told the Rajagriha Jains that in his
early life he had been able to let go of the attraction of sensual pleasures
only when he had experienced deep meditation and tasted “the rapture and
pleasure that is apart from sensual pleasures.”93
The practitioner could pass from the “blameless bliss”94 of a clear
conscience, to the “unsullied bliss” of living contentedly, and then progress
through the increasingly refined happiness that flowed from mindfulness,
leaving behind distractions, experiencing deep meditation and
understanding the nature of reality. Gautama compared a mind that is free
from attachment to “a forest deer wandering in the forest wilds: he walks …
without fear. Why is that? Because he is out of the hunter’s range.”95
Gautama’s disciples often spoke of their deep joy. The monk Pakkha
declared that he had “reached happiness through happiness,”96 while the
nun Sumangalamata, having “destroyed desire and hatred with a sizzling
sound,” simply meditated with the thought, “Oh, the happiness!”97
Observing a Shakyaputra gathering, another king (Prasenajit) declared that
their happiness distinguished them from the “lean and wretched” wanderers
of other sects: “Here I see monks smiling and cheerful, sincerely joyful,
plainly delighting, their faculties fresh, living at ease, unruffled, subsisting
on what others give and abiding with minds as aloof as a wild deer’s.”98
Tranquility
After joy comes prashrabdi: a sense of “calmness, tranquility, repose and
serenity”99 that suffuses both the mind and the body, and brings mental
refinement, sensitivity and malleability. Gautama compared this mental
ease to the experience of a cowherd who has put in the effort needed to
keep his cattle safe and fed and can “simply relax under the shade of a tree
or out in the open, quietly paying attention to his cows.”100 The energy
produced in earlier stages is channeled in ways that suggest psychological
integration, or perhaps the unification of the body’s subtle energies
discussed in traditions like yoga and tantra.
“When the mind is joyful, the body becomes tranquil, and when the body
is tranquil one experiences happiness,”101 Gautama said, and as the
practitioner gathers momentum, “effort” becomes less important:
It is a natural law that joy will arise in one who is glad at heart. For one who is joyful, there is no
need for an act of will. It is a natural law that the body will be serene in one who is joyful … that
one who is serene will feel happiness … for one who is happy that the mind will be concentrated
… for one with a concentrated mind to know and see things as they really are.102
Concentration
While the early Awakening Factors can occur at any time, the later ones
apply to the realm of meditation which, for Gautama, meant the conscious
development of concentrated and skillful states of mind. He often instructed
his disciples to “sit down cross-legged, holding body erect and keeping
mindfulness to the fore,”103 but he was a flexible and creative meditation
teacher who constantly devised new practices and adapted old ones, always
conscious that their aim was liberation from craving and awakening to
reality. In time, his senior disciples “taught and instructed”104 novices
themselves.
The Discourses describe Brahmins and shramanas who follow a vast
range of beliefs and practices, but only a handful mention that they engage
in something that could be termed “meditation,” and one listener remarks of
Gautama’s meditation teaching: “I do not see this division of Aryan
concentration fulfilled thus anywhere among the ascetics and Brahmins of
other schools.”105 This leads scholars like Johannes Bronkhorst to conclude
that, at least in its principal features, “Buddhist meditation was introduced
by … the historical Buddha,”106 rather than being drawn from an earlier
spiritual tradition.
One feature of meditation that probably wasn’t original to Gautama is
the practice of concentrating the mind, which Buddhist tradition termed
samatha. But the way Gautama discussed concentration reflects the
distinctive role he gave to mindfulness: he avoided philosophical or
metaphysical ideas and carefully described what was happening in the
mind. He noted the tendency for attention to jump from one thing to another
and get lost in a torrent of discursive thoughts, and said this was because it
was being driven by craving, aversion and associated “hindrances.” Like
others, he advised meditators to focus on an object such as the breath, and
return the mind to it again and again, until the hindrances died down; and in
teaching breath awareness and loving-kindness meditation Gautama
probably drew on existing techniques. But he taught them with a distinctive
psychological subtlety, directing meditators to focus on an object that suited
their temperaments or addressed unhelpful propensities. Attitudes and
motivations were always more important for Gautama than techniques or
experiences, and perhaps the most distinctive feature of his teaching was
the advice that meditators should avoid being distracted by the “bark” of
powerful meditative states from the “heartwood”107 of liberation.
The early stages of concentration involve stabilizing attention. Then, in
Gautama’s meditation teaching, come deepening levels of concentration as
the mind passes through the absorptions—the four dhyanas. He compared
the integration and concentration of dhyana to “a swiftly running river
flowing down from the mountains … in which the channels leading water
away from the main current had been closed off and the current is
undiffused,”108 and noted that in these states, powerful and highly skillful
“faculties” and “powers” become available to the mind, such as faith,
energy, mindfulness and wisdom. Whether or not the very idea of dhyana
was original, Gautama certainly stressed its importance and gave it a vital
role in his account of the path to Awakening.
A second class of practices—“insight” or vipassana meditation—
accompanies concentration and connects it to Awakening. Vipassana
practices involve examining experience to discern its true nature, and, by
extension, the nature of all conditioned things. Many of these practices
explore experience in the light of one of Gautama’s analyses of
consciousness, but at the root of all of them is contemplation of the
unsatisfactory, impermanent or insubstantial nature of existence. In some
later Buddhist traditions, concentration and insight were seen as separate
endeavors and one was stressed at the expense of the other; but in the
Discourses they go together. Gautama teaches concentration as a way to
clear the mind and look deeply into it, while insight reflection is a way of
seeing its true nature.
Equanimity
Gautama suggested that progress at each stage of the path follows a
distinctive pattern: becoming aware of thoughts and feelings fore-shadows
awareness of reality, and stilling the mind in dhyana anticipates the
complete stilling of Nirvana. As Rupert Gethin puts it: “The laws that
govern such progress are the same at any point along the path, for the
principles that underlie the workings of the mind are always the same.”109
Thus, the practice of being mindful and clearly aware involves seeing
things for what they are and leaving aside partial responses. That is the seed
of even-mindedness or “equanimity” (upeksha), which is to the capacity to
encompass a situation fully and unselfishly, maintaining composure
whatever happens: “Like a solid rock [that] cannot be shaken by the wind,
so the spiritually mature person is unmoved by praise or blame.”110
Equanimity is far from indifference. Gautama presented it as a state of
poise in which the Awakening Factors are perfectly balanced, and the
culmination of a process of emotional maturation which starts with the
cultivation of loving-kindness. In contrast to the trance-like states taught by
Gautama’s yogic teachers, in the third and fourth dhyanas the mind is
acutely clear and sensitive, mindful and equanimous. The mind reaches a
point of stillness and clarity, beyond clinging, in which one lets experiences
arise and fall like “raindrops on a slightly sloping lotus leaf.”111
WISDOM AND REALIZATION
Equanimity prepares for and merges into wisdom, the third stage of
Gautama’s Threefold Path: “Purified by equanimity and mindfulness,
preceded by investigation of phenomena, I say, is the release through
understanding, the destruction of ignorance.”112
Cultivating wisdom is in itself a path that accompanies and completes
those of moral practice and mental development. Gautama told his
followers to start by simply listening to his account of reality, which is so
different from the familiar one. Then they should reflect on it, take in its
implications and explore ways of thinking and acting that accord with it.
Finally, they should meditate on it, turning over the teachings when they
were deeply concentrated, looking directly at their experience to see for
themselves that it was dependently arisen and therefore impermanent,
insubstantial and unsatisfactory.
This means reflecting on actual experience, examining motivations, and
rooting out beliefs and attitudes that spring from selfish emotions. Even
advanced practitioners should continually ask themselves: “Is there any
obsession that might so consume my awareness that I cannot know or see
things as they really are?”113 Gautama’s teachings, then, suggest new ways
of seeing the world, and the practitioner learns to look at life in this way.
It’s a matter of “seeing through” the Buddha’s eyes until one perceives
reality directly, at which point the teachings are simply descriptions of the
practitioner’s own experience. At that point, Gautama said, a person is
“independent in the Dharma.”
How do wise people see the world? What is it like to live entirely free
from craving or attachment? This is what Gautama conveyed to Bahiya in
the meeting that opened this book. For many years Bahiya had meditated in
a cave overlooking the Arabian Sea and was revered as an accomplished
holy man. He had practiced with great intensity and at last thought,
“Perhaps I have finally gained Awakening.” The ghost of a deceased
relative whispered to him, “Bahiya, you haven’t found Awakening, and you
aren’t even on the path that leads to it.” Gautama had come to the same
realization when he trained under the two teachers. Bahiya asked: “Does
anyone in the world know the path?” The ghost replied: “In a distant
country, in the city of Shravasti, lives an Fully Enlightened One, who
teaches dharma for realization.”
The teaching Bahiya eventually received from Gautama transformed
him:
Bahiya, you should train yourself thus: in the seen will be merely what is seen. In the heard will
be merely what is heard. In the sensed will be merely what is sensed. In the cognised will be
merely what is cognised. In this way should you should train yourself … Then, Bahiya, you are
not “in that” then. When you are not “in that,” then you will be neither here nor beyond nor
between the two. Just this, is the end of suffering.114
These evocative verses suggest that the early Shakyaputras were more
individualistic, less institutionalized and less regulated than later Buddhist
monks. Other passages in the Sutta Nipata give the same impression, and
we also have the Theragatha: an extraordinary collection of verses
composed by Gautama’s Enlightened male disciples that offers glimpses of
their daily existence.
Gautama urged the monks and nuns to be their own “islands of refuge.”4
Being ordained was a freely chosen personal commitment and the
community was an association of self-reliant individuals who initially
needed relatively few rules to govern them. In the early days, the
Shakyaputras probably just followed the conventions of shramana life. Not
being married, they were celibate; having left the household life, in which
rank and property were so important, they had no possessions or careers;
and they did not observe caste distinctions or household rituals. Over and
above this common lifestyle, Gautama seems to have decided for himself
how to live, and his disciples probably followed his example.
One discourse represents Gautama looking back ruefully on the
simplicity of these arrangements at a time when the rules had multiplied:
“At one time I just said to the monks, ‘I eat only one meal a day and that
leaves me healthy, strong and contented. Do the same yourselves, and you
will enjoy those benefits, too.’ There was no need for me to say any more; I
just had to raise the issue.”5
Perhaps it was never quite that simple. We read elsewhere that when
Gautama proposed this rule the monk Bhaddali was so upset that he refused
to follow it.6 Nonetheless, in this founding period Gautama probably just
told the monks that they should own nothing beyond the “four requisites”
that addressed their basic needs for clothing (three simple robes); food (an
alms bowl); shelter (they should live outdoors); and medicine (only cow’s
urine was allowed). Over the years, Gautama defined more precisely what
he had in mind for each of these areas, but the guiding principle remained
that Shakyaputras should be as free as possible to practice his teachings.
Having a robe differentiated them from wanderers who went naked, but
Gautama insisted that it should be a patchwork of discarded rags; and he
told them to cut their hair off rather than letting it grow in thick, matted
locks (like Brahmin ascetics), and to shave it with a razor rather than
plucking it out (like the Jains).
The Shakyaputra lifestyle was intended to support non-attachment, and
homelessness was especially important. Gautama constantly encouraged the
monks to live on the road, traveling from place to place and, at least to start
with, sleeping rough rather than staying in buildings. Here, too, Gautama
struck a balance. Monks stayed put during the rainy season and could
remain near a village for a period of time, rather than moving on every day
as Jain wanderers did. It was still a tough existence. The “shaven-headed,
unsightly, reviled”7 monks were separated from mainstream society, yet still
dependent on it, and they could easily find themselves worrying, “Where
shall I find food, and what shall I be given? How badly I slept last night—I
wonder where I will sleep tonight?”8 But this was all part of the training,
Gautama explained:
A monk who stands firm in the ancient traditions of the Noble Ones should be content with
whatever lodging he finds. He doesn’t do anything unseemly or inappropriate for the sake of a
comfortable place to stay. If he finds nowhere he doesn’t become agitated. If he does find
somewhere he uses it without intoxication or regrets and doesn’t become tied to it, because he
sees the drawbacks of attachment.9
The rule that monks should only eat food they were given rather than
gathering their own (which Jain monks could do), was another aspect of
renunciation. Usually, villagers donated cooked rice, barley, wheat, beans,
rye, fruit and vegetables, and wealthier householders might give food they
enjoyed themselves such as “pork cooked in jujube fruit juice,” or “cooked
rice with dark seeds picked out, served with various soups and sauces.”10
Strict vegetarianism wasn’t an option, as meat was popular, and the monks
were permitted to accept it provided they had not “seen, heard or
suspected”11 that the animal was slaughtered specifically for their benefit.
The basic principle was that they should eat what they were given, and the
archrenunciant Mahakasyapa took this to an extreme when he received food
from a leper whose finger fell into the bowl. “I ate the morsel and did not
feel the least disgust,”12 he recalled. As monks could eat only food donated
by householders they had to stay near villages, or at least farmsteads,
instead of disappearing into the wilds and leaving society altogether. That
made “the welfare of the multitude”13 a natural part of their concerns. A
monk might teach the villagers after eating and then re-enter the jungle or
clamber up to his cave and plunge back into meditation.
Wilderness
Gautama loved wilderness living all his days, and he loved the open road.
“When I am traveling along a road and see no one in front or behind me,
then I feel at ease, even when I am urinating or defecating,”14 he once said.
King Prasenajit remarked that Gautama had been “a remote forest dweller
for a long time”15 and he was known for his affinity with wild animals,
trees and forest spirits. But his teaching work took him away from the
forest. Gautama once remarked that the two things he most often found
himself thinking about were the “the welfare of beings” and “solitude.”16
These are seemingly contrary impulses and he sometimes seems tugged in
different directions by his love of wilderness living and his desire to share
the Dharma. Gautama became a public figure who was accompanied on his
travels by “a multitude of followers”17 and drew crowds of householders
wherever he went.
But he kept contact with wilderness life through periods of solitary
retreat lasting three or four months in which he told the monks that he
“should not be approached by anyone except the one who brings the alms
food.”18 Retreats helped Gautama maintain the freshness of his experience
and at the end of one he said that he had been “inhabiting the region in
which I dwelled when I had newly realized Awakening.”19 However, as
time went by, even the retreats were disrupted. Once, when Gautama was
meditating in a forest grove, he was disturbed by the noise of a large crowd
of visitors. When his attendant explained that they had come to pay their
respects, Gautama sternly replied, “I have no interest in homage; my
concern is with renunciation!”20
To get away, Gautama sometimes just “set out on tour, without a
companion,” telling no one what he was doing. Ananda commented:
“Whenever the Blessed One sets out like that he wishes to be alone [and]
should not be followed.”21 As the Discourses record Gautama’s talks and
conversations they offer few glimpses of these times, but we do hear of
people who just stumbled across him. Once, some boys were collecting
firewood when they saw Gautama and ran to fetch their Brahmin teacher,
who arrived to find a figure rapt in unearthly concentration. The Brahmin
may have sat watching for many hours and when Gautama emerged from
his absorption he said:
When Rahula was eighteen, Gautama gave him a more advanced teaching,
telling him that whatever he experienced, he should reflect: “This is not me,
this I am not, this is not my self.”94 He taught his son to navigate through
the elements, to “develop a meditation like the earth,” and then like water,
air, fire, air and space. When Gautama was convinced that Rahula had
understood impermanence he explained that his attitude to this
impermanent reality should be one of non-attachment. Eventually, Rahula
understood for himself that “all that is subject to arising is subject to
cessation”95 and became an arahant.
Gautama gave individual practitioners meditation practices that suited
their temperaments and matched their needs. He had many successes, but
some monks left the order unhappily, some failed to make progress, and one
striking account seems to show his teaching going badly wrong. Having
instructed a group of monks in Vaishali to meditate on the decomposition of
the corpse, Gautama went into strict retreat. In his absence the monks were
“repelled, humiliated and disgusted with this body”96 and “twenty or thirty”
of them committed suicide. It seems clear that this outcome was far from
what Gautama had intended. Emerging from his retreat he remarked, in one
version: “The park seemed ablaze with [monks]. But now … the Sangha
has become diminished, thin, scanty, like sparse foliage … Where have
[they] gone?”97 However, no one suggests that Gautama had made a
mistake, and he admits no error.
Gautama wasn’t the only focus of veneration and instruction. According
to the Vinaya, senior monks trained the novices from the Shakyaputras’
earliest days. A “preceptor” conducted a new monk’s ordination and was
responsible for his training over the next five years. The trainee helped his
preceptor practically and was obliged to show him both respect and
kindness. This system meant that senior monks and nuns had their own
disciples, making Gautama “the teacher of the teachers of many.”98 In
matters of monastic protocol, monks deferred to those who had been
ordained before them, but a parallel hierarchy ranked people according to
their level of attainment. Alongside the formally categorized stages of
realization, individuals were recognized as possessing distinctive qualities,
and men like Maudgalyayana, Shariputra, Mahakasyapa and perhaps
Devadatta developed large followings. These realized elders were an elect
group among the monks: a Noble Community that was “worthy of sacrifice,
worthy of hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverence with folded
hands, the unsurpassed field of merit for the world.”99
Mahakasyapa, for example, kept strictly to the four reliances, lived in the
wilderness and was renowned as a meditation master with many psychic
powers. When Mahakasyapa was old Gautama suggested that he ease up a
little, for instance allowing himself to wear robes made by householders.
Mahakasyapa insisted that he was setting an example for later generations
and continued his austere way of life.100 Mahakasyapa was eventually seen
as the most senior disciple, but in Gautama’s lifetime that place was held by
Shariputra, whom Gautama called “the son of the Blessed One, born of his
breast, born of his mouth … an heir in the Dharma.”101 The chief of
Shariputra’s gifts was the depth and clarity of his insight, and Gautama
praised his “quick, wide, penetrative wisdom.”102 He was an exceptionally
able teacher who stimulated “quick-wittedness”103 in his students. Gautama
often asked him to elaborate his own Discourses, and seventy-five
discourses given by Shariputra alone are included in the Buddhist canon.
When Shariputra died, Ananda said he had been “an adviser and a
counselor who instructed, exhorted, inspired and gladdened me.”104 A stupa
(or sacred funeral mound) containing his relics was constructed in Shravasti
and Shariputra’s cult continued through worship of the stupa. In the
centuries after Gautama many such shrines sprang up across India,
commemorating other realized masters who were thought, at least in
popular belief, to be literally present in the stupas and continued to offer a
“refuge for many.”105
The devotion of both householder and monastic disciples to these elders
brought the danger that sects might form within the order. This may have
happened in the case of Devadatta, but the Discourses present a general
image of harmony between the elders. One delightful discourse records a
discussion between the senior disciples, who seem to have been on retreat
together in the Gosinga sal-tree forest. It was a beautiful evening: “The
Gosinga Wood is delightful, the night is moonlit, the sal trees are in
blossom and heavenly scents seem to be floating in the air,”106 said
Shariputra. The elders discussed what kind of monk they most admired. For
Ananda it was one who was learned; for Revata it was the master of
meditation; Anuruddha praised psychic powers above all; Mahakasyapa
praised wilderness living; and Maudgalyayana spoke of two monks whose
“talk rolls on in accordance with the truth” as they discussed the Dharma.
For Shariputra, the ideal monk was one “who masters his mind rather than
letting his mind master him”; and when the discussion was reported to
Gautama, he said that this was his opinion as well.
Settled Living
When the Indian monsoon breaks in June or July, rivers swell to torrents
and burst their banks, and travel on foot is difficult or impossible. Even Jain
ascetics sought shelter in this season, but, according to the Mahavagga, the
Shakyaputras kept traveling. Magadhan householders complained to
Bimbisara that the monks were “trampling down the crops and grasses and
bringing many small creatures to destruction.”107 For Jains, who believed
that all matter was alive, this was unthinkable, and their example had
already shaped how householders expected shramanas to behave. Gautama
instituted an annual three-month-long rains retreat. Perhaps he had no
choice (he told the monks, “I instruct you to obey the commands of
kings”108) but the retreat also gave him a way to cement the monastic
community. Soon, monks gathered for rains retreats wherever they were
living, and the monsoon “vassa” became an important part of their year.
In rural areas monks found a cave where they could live together, or else
they marked out a piece of ground called an avasa. The monks managed
everything themselves and built simple shelters of branches and broad
tropical leaves. They stayed there until the rains abated, unless the site
turned out to be unsuitable, and lived on alms food from a nearby village.
At the end of the retreat came a special ceremony in which each monk told
his companions: “If I have made any mistake or offended anyone here in
the last three months, please accept my apologies.”109 Then householders
donated fresh robes—the one occasion in the year when they could do so.
Rains retreats held in or near towns were similar, but lay supporters
looked after the monks’ needs, built the accommodation and provided the
food. Sometimes monks just stayed in thatched huts in a patron’s garden,
but another model existed from the community’s first year (according to the
Mahavagga’s version of its history) thanks to Bimbisara’s donation of the
Venuvana outside Rajagriha. This was the Shakyaputras’ first sangharama
—a permanent monastic park—and similar bases were eventually started
around all the region’s major cities. These sangharamas allowed large
numbers of monks and nuns to stay with Gautama or his senior disciples,
and novices could be trained more effectively. The sangharamas also gave
the Shakyaputras a profile in the cities, and therefore a role in society as a
whole.
Gautama ruled that monks should leave the sangharama when the rains
retreat was over; but it seems they gradually stayed longer and longer, and
eventually the parks became permanent residences. As portrayed in the
Discourses, the sangharamas of Gautama’s time seem to have been open
ground with trees and a few buildings; but the largest grew into extensive
monasteries that eventually housed thousands of monks, complete with
refectories, libraries and permanent staff. The distinction between
sangharamas and monasteries is blurred in the Vinaya, however, which is
the principal early source describing the community’s development. It tells
us that, at first, the Venuvana in Rajagriha contained no buildings, and
monks slept “here and there: in a forest, at the root of a tree, on a hillside, in
a glen, a mountain cave, a cemetery, a forest glade, the open air, on a heap
of straw.”110 Then a wealthy merchant offered to build some huts and
Gautama gratefully accepted, telling him: “[These dwellings] protect us
from heat and cold, beasts of prey and creeping things, gnats and rain, in the
wet season and the hot winds of summer.”111
The Jetavana in Shravasti was donated by Anathapindika, a member of
the Ganges Valley’s super-rich business elite and reportedly one of just
seven Indians with over 500 servants. The Mahavagga tells us that
Anathapindika found parkland just outside Shravasti owned by Prince Jeta,
and therefore called “Jeta’s Grove”—the Jetavana. Like the Venuvana, it
was conveniently near to the city but far enough away to be peaceful, and
Anathapindika bought it at incredible expense. The Mahavagga tells us that
he constructed a large monastery with “dwelling-rooms, cells, porches, fire-
halls, privies, places for pacing up and down, wells, bathrooms, lotus ponds
[and] sheds.”112 However, excavations on the site suggest it is unlikely that
such a structure was built in Gautama’s time, and the many discourses set in
the Jetavana do not mention these grand buildings.
Taken as a whole, the Discourses suggest that Shakyaputra monks (and
Gautama himself) alternately dwelled alone in the wilderness, traveled from
village to village and lived communally for the rains—perhaps in a
sangharama. The basic elements of the monastic code provide for life in all
three environments. No doubt individual monks specialized in certain
aspects of Shakyaputra life, and, in time, these became distinct vocations. A
text that probably dates from the first century BCE describes a visitor to a
monastery identifying “the learned monk, the Dharma-preacher, the Vinaya-
holder, the wilderness dweller, the yogi, the monk in charge of repairs and
the administrator.”113 They all coexist happily.
Gautama sometimes spoke of “wilderness” and “settlement” as states of
mind rather than locations, and told the monks that by withdrawing from
worldly concerns their minds could “enter into the perception of forest.”114
One discourse relates that Gautama was staying at the Venuvana, meditating
outside in the “thick darkness,” when a giant snake appeared. He
recognized the snake as Mara and understood that he was luring him back
to more comfortable conditions. Gautama told Mara:
One who lives in empty huts is a self-controlled sage. It is right for him to live there, having
given up everything. Though creatures crawl around him, terrors, flies and snakes, the sage in his
hut does not stir one hair. Even if the sky splits open, the earth trembles, terrifying all, and men
come and stab him in the heart, the Enlightened takes no shelter in possessions.115
Awakening was possible wherever one was, and the verses of Patacara, a
senior nun, evoke her own Enlightenment in the midst of what seems to be
a settled life and a steady routine: “I took a lamp and I inspected my cell. I
inspected the bed and sat on the couch. Then I took a needle and drew out
the wick. The complete release of my mind was like the quenching of the
lamp.”116
The community’s most serious crisis in its early years was a split among
the monks of Kausambi, the capital of the kingdom of Vamsa. The origins
of the dispute are obscure, though later sources say the trouble started when
a senior monk was accused of committing an offense under the disciplinary
code. A chapter of monks expelled this monk when he refused to
acknowledge his fault. Then the banished monk enlisted the support of his
friends and disciples, and factions formed. By the time Gautama arrived the
two parties “had taken to quarreling and brawling and were deeply at odds,
stabbing each other with their words.”117 Gautama reminded the monks of
their duty to “act toward one another with loving-kindness”118 and
suggested the warring groups meet separately until the matter was settled.
But members of the groups “came to blows,”119 nonetheless. Again
Gautama called for restraint, but one participant told him: “The
responsibility for these quarrels is ours alone.” In the end Gautama just
walked away, reflecting that such people “do not realize that we are all
heading for death. Those who do realize it will compose quarrels.”120
The Kausambi dispute seems to suggest that Gautama’s authority
diminished as his movement spread. It also illustrates potential fault lines in
the Shakyaputra community. These included loyalty to an individual
preceptor rather than to the order as a whole, and focus on the minutiae of
monastic observance rather than dharma practices. According to the Vinaya
version of this story, Gautama left Kausambi altogether and visited another
group of monks that included his cousin Anuruddha. The harmony between
them, as described by Anuruddha, showed communal monastic life at its
best:
We are united like milk and water, friendly, and have no quarrels. I am fortunate to live with such
fellows, so I act, think and speak to them with loving-kindness. Sometimes I reflect: “What if I
put aside my own wishes and follow the wishes of my companions?” Consequently, although we
have several bodies, we are one in mind.121
Gautama said that he refrained from “such base arts and wrong means of
livelihood”29 as astrology and fortune-telling, and defined the true
shramana as “one in whom the power of omens such as shooting stars,
dreams and signs has been destroyed.”30 His teaching did address the needs
and fears to which folk religion and Brahminism ministered, but it also
brought freedom from a certain kind of “magical thinking.”
In the accounts of Gautama’s meetings with Brahmins he is always well-
mannered and remains calm and reasonable even when a Brahmin
interlocutor becomes angry or dogmatic. Nonetheless, he fundamentally
rejects their caste-based view of society and themselves:
Hearing these words, the hostile spirits fled in terror. The sick were cured
and the friendly spirits joined the population in acclaiming Gautama.
Encounters between Gautama and yakshas in the Discourses are early
examples of the same phenomenon. Typically, the spirit feels Gautama’s
power or glimpses his wisdom, agreeing to act ethically and support the
Dharma. Leaving the wilderness, it takes up residence on the edge of the
village or in a monastery, and Gautama encourages the villagers to continue
to make offerings to it, provided these involve no alcohol or violent
sacrifices, and regard his own Enlightened qualities as superior. Recent
archaeological discoveries showing that important monasteries were often
built above megalithic burial sites suggest that early Buddhist monks
inherited from older religions a role in tending the spirits of the dead, and to
this day visitors to a Buddhist temple may notice a shrine near the entrance
dedicated to local gods and perhaps other deities. The popular Buddhism
that is still found in many Asian countries has always incorporated, and
even rejoiced in, worship of god and spirits, while subordinating it to
Buddhist ideals.
From the perspective of normal society, Gautama was a saint who had
engaged the frightening supernatural forces ruling the wilderness, absorbed
their power and learned to control them. Having done so, his protective
influence could assuage the unquiet dead who hovered around the living.
Spirits were said to populate the hills around Rajagriha, for example, and
psychically attuned monks like Maudgalyayana witnessed a Dantesque
phantasmagoria at Vulture’s Peak. He reported seeing a skeleton flying
through the air pursued by vultures, a figure pierced by body hairs formed
into needles, and another—the ghost of “a corrupt magistrate”52—with
testicles like water pots. Hsuan Tsang reported that “strange forms, as of
nagas, serpents and lions” still emerged from another Rajagriha cave, and
that “those who see such sights lose their reason and become dazed.”53
Some yakshas were the reborn spirits of ancestors, while pretas were the
anguished ghosts of departed humans (usually relatives) who couldn’t
relinquish their unsatisfied cravings. Gautama’s presence naturally subdued
the spirits, and we read that when he stayed in a town or village “that place
[was] not troubled by non-human beings.”54 But the spirits turned hostile if
they didn’t receive offerings, and when Bimbisara first gave alms to
Gautama, one discourse reports, they “set up a dreadful wailing outside the
palace walls in the dead of night.”55 Gautama explained that the ghosts of
departed relatives were complaining that the King had deprived them of
their sustenance in giving food to the monks instead of making offerings to
their shrines. Henceforth, Gautama said, the merit gained through donations
to monks should be “transferred” to the spirits.
Just as Gautama’s victory over the death-demon Mara dramatized his
attainment of the “deathless,” his mastery of the spirit realm was connected
to his mastery of death. The meaning of Gautama’s Enlightenment was
probably mysterious to most householders, but his triumph over death had a
deep resonance. Hell and the demonic realms were vividly real, and
everyone wanted to know how to ensure a happy rebirth. One of Gautama’s
powers was knowledge of where the deceased had been reborn, and people
constantly asked him about the fate of dead friends or relatives. Gautama
eventually grew weary of this role, and preferred to motivate people to
practice his Dharma by reminding them of their mortality. If they did that,
he said, they would not be powerless victims of death. Acting skillfully
would bring a good rebirth while, conversely, he told one group of
householders, “It is by reason of unethical conduct … that some beings are
reborn after death … in the lower world of hell.”56
At least some of Gautama’s listeners understood his teaching that karmic
results depend on the state of mind with which one acts, and that morality
involves training the mind. A good rebirth, therefore, follows from
developing a positive state of mind, and Gautama sometimes taught a
hierarchy of meritorious actions starting with “giving and acting ethically”
and culminating in “developing the mind through meditation.”57 His cousin
Mahanama worried that he might die in a moment of unawareness and his
merit would be swept away; but Gautama reassured him that the
accumulated influence of his positive actions would remain:
Suppose a man submerges a jar of ghee or oil in a deep pool of water and breaks it. Its shards and
fragments would sink downward, but the ghee or oil would rise upward. So, too, when a person’s
mind has been fortified with faith, virtue, learning, generosity and wisdom, then when various
creatures eat his body … his mind … goes to distinction. Don’t be afraid, Mahanama! Your death
will not be a bad one.58
Still more attentive listeners understood that Gautama denied the existence
of an atman or soul, but, like later generations of Buddhists, they sometimes
struggled to understand what was reborn, or even how rebirth was possible.
Gautama’s power over the spirit world made him, in some respects, like
the gods themselves—the devas who (according to popular belief) dwell in
a heavenly realm and often appear as a radiant presence in the background
of the Discourses. Observers reported that Gautama sometimes broke off in
mid-conversation to address an unseen deity, and we learn that devas
instinctively recognized Gautama’s qualities. His teaching delighted them
so much that sometimes, “elated and full of joy, they shone with many
lustrous colors, like a beryl gem that radiates when placed on a brocade.”59
But Gautama explained that, for all their glory, the gods were still part of
ordinary existence; their lives in the heavens, though long-lasting, were not
eternal; and they were as baffled by the ultimate nature of existence as
human beings.
Gautama accepted worship of the gods among householders, though not
Shakyaputra monks, but it seemed to him a distraction from the real
concerns of life. He told those who looked for a protective force outside
themselves that they could also rely on his mastery of the spirit realms, and
that the Awakened state he embodied would help them in the face of
whatever mysteries they feared. This made Gautama a worthier and more
profitable focus of devotion than the gods, and he told people: “If you
revere those worthy of worship—Awakened Ones and their disciples …
there’s no measure for reckoning your merit.”60 The source of his strength
was the freedom from craving, hatred and delusion that he had attained
through his Enlightenment. The spirits had no hold over him, and he was a
true refuge because he was beyond samsara entirely.
The Art of Living
When he was out walking near the Venuvana in Rajagriha one day,
Gautama came upon a sight that is common in India even today. A young
man called Sigala was propitiating the gods and powers of the universe by
praying to the Six Directions (the four points of the compass, plus upward
and downward). In these directions, according to Indian cosmology, lie the
four cosmic continents with their divine and demonic inhabitants and the
forces of life, death, creation and destruction they represent. Gautama called
Sigala over and suggested another way of understanding what it meant to
protect the Six Directions. For him, “the world” meant the things one
actually experienced, so Gautama told Sigala that the true meaning of the
Six Directions lay in human relationships: “the East should be seen as one’s
mother and father, the South as one’s teachers, the West as one’s wife and
children, the North as one’s friends and companions, the direction below as
servants and workers, the direction above as ascetics and brahmins.”61 The
ethical person protects the Six Directions, he suggested, by honoring the
responsibilities these relationships brought in a spirit of kindness. This
binds people together in the network of reciprocal obligations we call
“society.”
The story once again shows Gautama inverting a person’s belief in the
value of an external ritual by revealing a meaning that connects the ritual
action to the moral state of the person performing it. It’s not so much that
Gautama considered psychology more important than ritual but that, for
him, the universe was inherently moral. The law of karma operates
everywhere, he stressed, so every action and thought has a moral weight
and shapes a person’s future. That was a powerful message and of a piece
with Gautama’s general philosophy. Dependently arisen reality isn’t just a
matter for holy men: it is the life that unfolds each moment in every
person’s experience and actions. So morality really means understanding
the motives that lie behind an action, and intelligently anticipating its
consequences. That, in itself, connects a person to the underlying patterns of
existence. Serving others in the ways Gautama suggested to Sigala, and
feeling gratitude for what one receives in return, aligns a person with the
true character of human society.
On the special uposatha days that mark the phases of the moon Jain
householders adopted aspects of monastic life, and these days may already
have had a status in Magadha comparable to the Jewish Sabbath. Gautama
adapted the custom for his own householder disciples. When monks
gathered to confess they should spend the day living simply: not eating after
noon and abstaining from sex, entertainments, cosmetics and comfortable
beds. In a similar vein, Gautama also offered householders advice on acting
skillfully in a marriage, in work and in managing money. Perhaps reflecting
the number of business-minded merchants among his listeners, he
suggested that a man should divide into four parts the wealth he had
“amassed by the strength of his arms, earned through the sweat of his
brow.”62 He should spend a quarter to maintain his happiness and that of his
dependents; save a quarter as provision for the future; give a quarter to
friends; and donate the final quarter to holy men. The proportions suggest a
society awash with surplus wealth and a fast-growing economy.
Gautama sometimes explicitly said that wealth was a sign of merit:
Someone who is virtuous … accumulates great wealth on account of his lack of negligence; his
good reputation spreads around; whenever he enters a company, whether of nobles, Brahmins,
householders or ascetics, he does so with confidence; he dies untroubled; and at the breaking up
of the body after death he is reborn in a happy destiny, a heavenly world.63
Brahmins and others who equated status with birth resented this praise of
wealth (which anyone could gain). But it legitimized the position of
merchants like Anathapindika who had won or sustained their social
positions through their efforts, and associated it with an underlying pattern
of reward and punishment. The most prominent figures in the Discourses
are Kshatriyas and Brahmins, followed by Vaishyas, and some historians
suggest that Gautama’s movement appealed to the social elite. Often in later
Buddhist history, monks bolstered the standing of rich benefactors on whom
they depended, and there are hints in the early sources that some poor
people thought the monks paid the wealthy more attention. However,
inscriptions on shrines from the early centuries of Buddhist history show
that donors came from many sections of society, especially artisans, guilds
of craftsmen, traders, fishermen and gardeners, small-scale landowners, and
monks and nuns themselves—in fact, all sections that could afford to make
donations.* This reflects the pattern in the Discourses, in which Gautama
teaches publicly to anyone who will listen—rich or poor, male or female—
and sometimes singles out an outcast like the leper Suppabudda or the
bandit Angulimala.
All Gautama’s teaching expressed his understanding of life, but it is hard
to know how many of his subtler insights he shared with householders. He
told Vacchagotta that he had numerous lay followers who “carry out my
instruction, respond to my advice, have gone beyond doubt and become
independent in [the Dharma].”64 But teachings in the Discourses that are
addressed to groups of householders (as opposed to individuals) usually
confine themselves to praise for ethics and giving. When Anathapindika
was dying, Shariputra told him: “Do not cling to what is seen, heard,
cognised, encountered, sought after and examined by the mind and your
consciousness will not be dependent on that.”65 The instruction not to cling
to experience was one of Gautama’s basic teachings, but Anathapindika
burst into tears and told Shariputra: “Although I have long attended the
Teacher and other worthy monks, I have never before heard such a talk.” He
urged Shariputra to make such teachings more widely available because
some householders had “little dust in their eyes and are wasting away
through not hearing the Dharma.”
Prasenajit
One day—it can’t have been many years after Gautama’s Awakening—
Prasenajit, the Kosalan Maharaja, visited him at the Jetavana. He arrived
resplendent atop the white state elephant, accompanied by soldiers and
members of his court, and his sister rode quietly behind him. The meeting
changed the lives of both men. Prasenajit was the same age as Gautama, but
he was a connoisseur of the pleasures of “each of the five senses”66 and had
a substantial collection of beautiful wives. However, he lived in an
atmosphere of intrigue, suspecting that the courtiers were insincere, the
judges corrupt and the generals plotting against him. In his world, Prasenajit
later told Gautama, “kings quarrel with kings, Brahmins with Brahmins,
householders with householders, mothers with sons, brother with brother
and friend with friend.”67
Prasenajit seems to have regarded Gautama with a mix of curiosity and
wariness. The new guru was Prasenajit’s subject by birth and Gautama’s
father may have attended assemblies of provincial chieftains. But Gautama
was also a man of considerable influence. If the Mahavagga is to be
believed, he had already won the support of Prasenajit’s brother-in-law and
sometime rival, the mighty Bimbisara, and in Shravasti he was backed by
Anathapindika’s money. Gautama’s claim that he was not just wise but had
attained supreme Enlightenment set him apart from most shramana gurus;
and the establishment of the Jetavana must have shifted the balance of
Shravasti’s religious world. His teachings challenged worldly values, yet
Anathapindika, who had more money than anyone, was devoted to him, and
many gifted young Kosalan men had joined the Shakyaputras. Prasenajit’s
chief wife, Mallika, had become a devotee and quoted Gautama’s sayings
so often that Prasenajit eventually exclaimed: “No matter what Gautama
says, you applaud it!”68 But the young teacher’s predictions had a
disconcerting way of coming true, and Prasenajit at last decided to see
Gautama for himself to judge if he were a savior or a charlatan, an
opportunity or a threat.
Prasenajit’s first words expressed his wariness. “Master Gautama, do
you claim, ‘I have awakened to unsurpassed perfect Enlightenment’?”69
“Great king,” Gautama replied, “if you could rightly say that of anyone, you
could say it of me.” “But, Master Gautama, when I have asked other
teachers, who are leaders of their own communities, if they were perfectly
Enlightened they did not claim to be so. And yet you are still young and
newly gone forth.” Gautama responded with a blistering declaration.
Great king, there are four things you should not look down on for their youth: a warrior, a snake,
a fire and a perfect monk.
Do not underestimate a young warrior. One day he will gain the throne and punish you with
his royal might. So avoid him if you value your life.
Do not look down on a young snake. It slithers along, shimmering with vibrant colors, and
one day it may bite the fool who scorns it.
Do not disparage a fire that is newly lit. Some day it may burn you. If it grows it will become
a great mass of flame that feeds on everything and leaves a blackened trail behind it.
When a fire burns down a forest the shoots grow up again; but if a perfect monk burns you
with his potency, you will not acquire sons or cattle, and your heirs will not enjoy wealth. They
will be barren and heirless, like the stumps of palm trees.70
Gautama added ruefully that in this way people tormented both themselves
and others. And yet, in his first meeting with Prasenajit, Gautama made his
own claim to supernatural power. As a realized holy man he was part
shaman, part teacher and part divinity, embodying an archetype that touched
the deepest needs of both Prasenajit and the society he ruled—their fear of
death and the spirits of the departed, their awe of the divinities with power
in the spirit realm and their desire for happiness and success in this life. In
this role, Gautama could communicate his understanding of life.
If Prasenajit was impressed by Gautama’s spiritual power, he also
appreciated his personal qualities, contrasting the atmosphere among the
Shakyaputras with the corruption and intrigue of the court. The king often
officiated in Shravasti’s Judgment Hall, where he arbitrated in disputes
between members of Kosala’s wealthy elite. Each day he had the wearying
experience of listening to people “speaking deliberate lies for the sake of
their own selfish pleasures.”72 By contrast Gautama had no hidden agenda,
no interest in money or sex, and he offered straightforward, honest advice,
rather than “reciting charms, interpreting dreams or practicing astrology”73
like the Brahmins. The qualities Gautama valued and encouraged his monks
to develop also made him someone the king could trust—an invaluable
quality. Gautama said of the ideal monk: “He keeps his eyes from
wandering restlessly, his ears are deaf to chatter and gossip and he has no
desire for possessions. He isn’t troubled by criticism or impressed by praise.
When he speaks to householders he doesn’t hope for a reward … He
doesn’t tell lies, avoids treachery, and even if he is provoked he doesn’t
retaliate.”74
The Shakyaputras may have had their own interests and rivalries, but
Gautama tried not to fuel them, and his discretion and neutrality made him
an ideal counselor. As Gautama put it, Dharma practice brought maturity
and independence along with “a sense of meaning, a sense of oneself, a
sense of moderation, a sense of time, and a sense of social gatherings.”75
The last quality was the capacity to move easily between different groups
and act appropriately in each—a rare virtue in India’s divided society
Prasenajit ruefully mused that, even though he could order people to be
exiled or executed, they still barged in when he was sitting in council.
Gautama’s disciples treated him with far more respect. Listening to
Gautama teach one day, Prasenajit noticed that when a monk cleared his
throat “one of his companions nudged him with his knee to indicate: ‘Be
quiet, venerable sir,’ Prasenajit reflected. ‘It is wonderful that an assembly
can be so disciplined without force or weapons.’”76
Prasenajit faced spiritual challenges as well as political ones, and
realized that “Very few people who acquire great wealth do not become
intoxicated and negligent, succumb to greed or act cruelly.”77 Gautama told
him that to make progress he would need “spiritual friendship”78 and,
according to some accounts, when Gautama was in Shravasti Prasenajit
visited him every day, and they made a point of meeting when their paths
crossed elsewhere. Gautama offered the king honest advice, and in return he
asked Prasenajit to be “honest and sincere,” as well as to “show himself to
his teacher”79 as he actually was. His guidance ranged from reflections on
high matters of state to lifestyle advice. One day Prasenajit came to see
Gautama having eaten “an entire bucketful of rice and curry.” Gautama told
him:
These words had a shattering effect. Angulimala cried out: “At long last I
see the sage whose tracks I pursued earlier. Having heard your true and
sublime words I will forsake my prolonged evils.” He threw away his sword
and shield, and laid himself at Gautama’s feet. “May I be granted the going
forth.” Gautama smiled, “his mind full of loving-kindness and compassion
and with the pity of a great spirit for the manifold sorrows of beings.”
“Come, monk,” he said, and through that simple ceremony Angulimala
became a Shakyaputra monk.
Gautama’s miracle may have stunned Angulimala, but the teaching that
revealed its meaning transformed him. The image of a man running but
failing to catch another who is moving more slowly dramatizes the contrast
between Angulimala’s state of mind and Gautama’s. Whether his motive
was blind hatred or pernicious vows, the effect was the same. Driven by a
compulsion to kill, Angulimala was out of control, while Gautama had
mastered his mind and was no longer driven by unconscious emotions. His
instruction to Angulimala to “stand still” was shorthand for his entire
teaching—as he suggests by mentioning the Four Noble Truths. To be still
was to stop craving, stop killing, stop fighting the world and stop being
directed by unconscious compulsions.
The texts do not delve far into the emotions behind Angulimala’s
dramatic transformation, but they hint at its cause. Angulimala operated
through power, yet Gautama showed no hint of the fear Angulimala was
used to seeing in his victims. In a similar situation, the monk Adhimutta
told the bandits who attacked him, “I have no fear of death,”97 and that
stopped them in their tracks. Gautama had escaped the realm of desire in
which he was vulnerable to fear or force, and Angulimala—like the yakshas
—had no hold on him. Instead, Gautama gave the murderer his complete,
untroubled, loving attention, and the Pali version poignantly relates that
Angulimala cried out: “Oh, at last this recluse, a venerated sage, has come
to the forest for my sake.”98
Both the Chinese and Pali versions of the story include the verses that
Angulimala composed during the solitary retreat in which he gained
Enlightenment. In a few luminously calm stanzas we sense the relief of a
man who had left behind the dark places of his mind:
This also has the ring of authenticity. It accords with the accommodating
approach we find in the Discourses. Gautama’s movement could include
ardent renunciants, those who thrived through communication and
friendship, and those who wanted a more settled life. He urged his monastic
followers to practice intensively, whatever their lifestyle, and encouraged
those who remained in lay society to apply his teachings as well.
Ajatashatru
As well as being a tale of religious politics, the Devadatta legend is a story
of court intrigue. The Vinaya relates that Devadatta persuaded Ajatashatru
to murder Bimbisara and that the prince crept, Macbeth-like, into his
father’s bedroom feeling “afraid, anxious, fearful, and alarmed”28 as he
prepared to kill him. Unlike Macbeth, Ajatashatru was stopped before he
could act, and his father asked, “Why did you want to kill me?” “Because I
need a kingdom,” replied Ajatashatru. “Then let it be yours!” With that
Bimbisara abdicated, but tradition records that Ajatashatru, now king
himself, imprisoned his father and deprived him of food. Only Bimbisara’s
wife was allowed to visit, and he survived by licking syrup that she had
smeared on her body. The ruse was discovered, and, even as Bimbisara
wasted away, his son had his feet cut with razor blades so that he died in
agony. No one expected Gautama to save Bimbisara, but they did ask him
to declare Bimbisara’s fate in the afterlife. Gautama “meditated in solitude”
and saw a vision of a yaksha, now in the court of the great yaksha king,
who cried out to him: “I am Bimbisara! I am Bimbisara!”29
Ajatashatru threw himself into the task of developing Magadha’s
military power and set the country on its way to control of an empire that,
some generations later, stretched across India. Bimbisara had sponsored the
education of Magadhan youths in the Brahminical colleges of Taxila in the
north-east, where the students (who may have included Ajatashatru) would
have learned of the vast power of the Persian Empire that stretched all the
way to Egypt.* An age was approaching in which great empires vied for
supremacy, and when Ajatashatru became king his thoughts turned to
conquest. He overhauled Maghada’s administration, increased taxes and put
the country on a war footing. His military build-up created a powerful,
professionally trained army and new weapons which, Jain sources inform
us, included powerful catapults and a chariot fitted with a huge mace. The
status quo in the Ganges Valley was shattered.
After Bimbisara’s death his widow also died of grief, and, as she was
Prasenajit’s sister, the Kosalan king declared that the village in Kasi that
had been ceded to Magadha in her dowry should revert to Kosala. When
Prasenajit occupied the village, Ajatashatru mobilized his army and drove
the Kosalans out. But after several more battles Ajatashatru was captured
and brought before Prasenajit. “He is still my nephew,” Prasenajit reflected,
so he decided to “confiscate Ajatashatru’s elephants, cavalry and
infantry,”30 but spare his life. The commentaries add that Ajatashatru swore
an oath never to attack Kosala again, and to seal the pact he married
Prasenajit’s daughter, Vajira. They add that Gautama commented, watching
the shifting fortunes of the two sides, “Victory brings hatred, for the
defeated one experiences suffering. The tranquil one experiences happiness
[by] giving up both victory and defeat.”31 He also remarked that
Ajatashatru was experiencing the effects of his actions:
Gautama told Vassakara that he had already informed the Vrijians that
the seven customs he had listed would ensure they remained strong, and
Vassakara agreed that even one of them would be enough to maintain
Vrijian strength. But the conclusion Vassakara drew cannot have been the
one Gautama intended. He commented that “King Ajatashatru will never
overcome the Vrijians in war without some intrigue, without creating
dissension among them.”12 Then he made his excuses and left. It had
occurred to him that victory might be achieved by destabilizing the Vrijians,
and he commenced a prolonged campaign to sow dissension among the
clans.
The discussion of the sources of a nation’s strength must have set
Gautama thinking about the monastic community, as he asked Ananda to
summon all the Shakyaputra monks in the Rajagriha region to a meeting on
Vulture’s Peak. The discourse tells us they met in an assembly hall, but it is
more likely that they gathered on the mountainside, their robed figures
spreading up the slopes and among the rocks. Many must have sensed that
this was Gautama’s parting address. He spoke again of the seven principles,
but adapted the list to show how they could prevent decline among the
monks. They should “meet together frequently and regularly,”13 he said,
maintaining the balance between the solitary and the communal aspects of
Shakyaputra life and guarding against factionalism. They should meet, act
and follow the Shakyaputra life in concert, following the pattern of the
republics rather than developing new power structures. The monks’
common lifestyle also unified them, so Gautama told them not to “make
pronouncements that have not been agreed upon [or] revoke
pronouncements that have been agreed.” Similarly, they should maintain the
principle of seniority and “honor, revere and worship those monks who are
elders, possess pearls of wisdom, went forth into the holy life long ago
[and] are the fathers and leaders of the community.” Whereas he had told
the Vrijians to treat women respectfully, Gautama told the monks that they
shouldn’t be overcome by “the kind of craving that leads to rebirth.”
Stressing once again the vital role of wilderness-dwelling in Shakyaputra
practice, Gautama urged the monks to “have regard for living in the forest.”
Finally, he reminded them that mindful awareness was the most vital
ingredient of the harmonious Shakyaputra life. They should “continue to
establish mindfulness, such that well-behaved companions in the spiritual
life who have not come are encouraged to come, and those that have come
live easily.”14
“Final Nirvana” adds other aspects of Dharma practice to this list, but
the seven factors are the core of Gautama’s advice in all the versions that
have come down to us. The discourse also relates that Gautama gave a
further talk in which he went over the basic principles of the path,
explaining:
how concentration that is invested with good conduct is of great fruit and benefit, how wisdom
that is invested with concentration is of great fruit and benefit, and how the mind that is invested
with wisdom is fully released from the taints, namely the taint of sense desire, the taint of being,
the taint of view, is of great fruit and benefit.15
The image of an island of refuge suggests the hillocks and sand-bars that
are the only dry land above the Indian plains when the rivers flood: a
practitioner would find a refuge from the floods of life by truly making the
Dharma his or her own. From now on Gautama’s followers would have to
be their own “guides in the darkness.”
A few days after this charged exchange Gautama was well enough to
walk into Vaishali to beg his food. He told Ananda to bring a mat because
he wanted to visit the Capala shrine—a huge tree held sacred to a local
spirit, probably with a funeral mound beneath it. Sitting below the shady
branches and absorbing the energy of the place, Gautama mused, “How
delightful is Vaishali. How delightful are the shrines of Udena, Gautamaka,
Sattambaka, Bahuputta and Sarandada. How delightful is the shrine of
Capala.”28 Gautama had told Vassakara that the Vrijians’ respect for such
places was a key to their strength, and something about its atmosphere and
beauty stirred him deeply. He told Ananda, “One who has developed the
four bases of success and practiced them often could undoubtedly live for a
full age. Having developed those powers myself I could live on.” The bases
of success are the qualities required to develop on the path, especially the
psychic abilities of one who has “developed a shining consciousness”29
through meditation practice. Such capabilities, Gautama explained, allow a
person to determine “the length of their life,”30 though it isn’t clear if the
“age” Gautama mentioned was the proverbial allotted span of 100 years
(the Indian equivalent of the Bible’s “three score years and ten”), or the
duration of an aeon (kalpa). In any case, Ananda missed Gautama’s hint
and left without asking him to go on living.
As Gautama meditated, Mara appeared before his old adversary. He
reminded Gautama of his resolve not to die before he had established a
community that could both practice and communicate the Dharma.
Gautama had achieved everything he had wished, Mara said, so “now is the
time for the Lord’s Parinirvana.” “Don’t worry, Mara,” Gautama replied.
“Three months from now I will enter Parinirvana.” With that, he let go of
the life force and then, Ananda reported, “the earth quaked violently,
frightening, making my hairs stand on end, and claps of thunder rent the
air.”31 Gautama breathed a sigh:
Gautama encouraged this attitude with more than words. Throughout the
discourse he faces his death with dignity, realism and acceptance. “Take a
person who has not done wrong, not acted cruelly and wickedly, but has
done beautiful things,” he once said. Faced by death, such a person “does
not grieve, fret, lament; he does not cry out beating his chest; he does not
become deranged.”47 In his final hours Gautama also showed a generosity
that went beyond stoicism. He turned to the monks who were gathered there
and praised Ananda. People were always happy to see him, Gautama said.
When Ananda spoke about the Dharma they were pleased, and when he
kept silent they were sad. This was a final expression of Gautama’s
affection for his friend.
Ananda looked at the humble surroundings. He told Gautama it was not
fitting that he should die in this remote “mud-wall town” rather than an
important city such as Campa, Rajagriha, Shravasti, Saketa, Kausambi or
Varanasi, where wealthy followers could provide a funeral of appropriate
grandeur. Gautama had a different perspective. “Don’t call this town a
miserable place in the back of beyond.” He conjured a vision of a bustling
ancient city that had existed on the spot long before and had been
“successful and prosperous, with many inhabitants, full of people and well
provided with food.”48 Another discourse gives a fuller account of this city
and his life there as Mahasudassana—“a Universal Ruler, a righteous king
of Truth, sovereign of the four quarters”49—in the last of his many lives
before this one.
No less important to Gautama than this mythic past were the present-day
inhabitants of Kusinagara—old friends and followers he would have met on
previous visits. They would have been upset, and perhaps offended, if so
momentous an event as the death of a great teacher had occurred near their
city without their knowledge, so Gautama told Ananda to inform the Mallas
that they had one last chance to see him. When Ananda passed the news to
a gathering in the Mallas’ assembly hall, the citizens were distraught and
commenced what seems to have been a collective grieving ritual: “With
disheveled hair some spread their arms wide and called out; they fell to the
ground, broken, and rolled back and forth. ‘All too soon will the Blessed
One attain final Nirvana! All too soon will the eye of the world
disappear!’”50
That evening a procession of Malla families filed past Gautama to pay
their respects, and news of Gautama’s imminent death had also been
spreading through the Shakyaputra community. Of the senior disciples only
Ananda’s half-brother, Anuruddha, arrived, but many more monks
converged on the sala grove. Others came too and a wanderer named
Subaddha, who happened to be in the area, approached Ananda and asked if
he could put a question to Gautama. “He’s tired,” said Ananda. “Don’t
disturb him.” But Gautama told Ananda to let Subaddha pass, sensing that
he would listen receptively. Subaddha was steeped in shramana culture and
wanted to know from Gautama if the other teachers of the age had reached
the final goal of spiritual life: “Have all of these gained the direct
knowledge they claim, or has none achieved it, or have some achieved it
and some not?”51 The question was typical of the shramanas’ obsession
with competing teachers, and Gautama told Subaddha that his question
could wait. The important thing was to follow a path of spiritual
development that was based on the truth, not to involve oneself in
philosophy and guru-obsession. Gautama added that where the Eightfold
Path was taught many practitioners would attain realization of one degree or
another, but without it there would be no such success. He continued in
verse:
When I was twenty-nine years of age, Subaddha,
When I went forth to search for what is good.
Now it is more than fifty years
Since I went forth, Subaddha.
To abide in the realm of the way of Truth,
Outside which there is no ascetic.52
Subaddha replied with the same cry of delight that is repeated in the
Discourses by innumerable people when they were touched by Gautama’s
words: “Excellent, sir! Excellent! As if someone were to set upright what
had been knocked down, or reveal what had been hidden, or hold a lamp up
in the dark so that those with eyes could see—just so the Blessed One has
made clear the Truth.” Subaddha asked to go for refuge to the Buddha,
Dharma and Sangha, but as he was a wanderer of another sect Gautama set
out the probationary period he should follow. He was Gautama’s last
disciple.
One final, painful duty remained for Gautama, and the suspicion must be
that he had been putting it off to the last possible moment. Chandaka, his
charioteer in his days in the Shakyan palace (whom he had known all his
life), had become more and more difficult. His devotion had spilled over
into partisanship and he had become embroiled in monastic politics
between the monks and the nuns. Gautama told Ananda that the monks
should ignore Chandaka. Whatever he said, “monks are strictly not to speak
to him, nor give him advice or instruction.”53
Then Gautama turned to the monks gathered around him: “It may be that
one of you has doubts or uncertainty about the Buddha, the teaching, the
community, the path, or the practice,” he said. “Ask your questions, monks.
Do not later regret that, although your teacher was right in front of you, you
were not able to put your questions.” The monks were silent. “Perhaps you
do not ask your questions out of respect,” said Gautama. “Let one
companion tell another his questions.”
The monks remained silent and Ananda said, “This is extraordinary …
There is not a single monk who has doubt or is confused.” Gautama
remarked that, while Ananda said this out of faith, he knew it to be so.
Every one of the monks “has entered the stream and is beyond affliction,
destined to full Awakening for sure.” Then Gautama spoke his last words,
which encapsulated his message. “Well, monks. Now I take my leave of
you: it is of the nature of things to decay, but if you are attentive you will
succeed.”54
Then Gautama passed into meditation and an unearthly stillness covered
him, and the monks stayed beside him, absorbed in a shared stillness. “Final
Nirvana” describes a complex process in which Gautama ascends a
meditative ladder culminating in the mysterious “stage of cessation.” But
this seems to be a “later version”55 of the story. The earliest elements of the
text tell us that Gautama simply ascended the four dhyanas. He entered the
first and then: “emerging from that he attained the second absorption.
Emerging from that he attained the third absorption. Emerging from that he
attained the fourth absorption. Emerging from the fourth absorption, the
Blessed One directly attained final Nirvana.”56
Eventually, one account relates, Anuruddha broke the silence that settled
upon the disciples who surrounded their departed master:
This diversity reflects the way Gautama had taught. He spoke from
experience, formulated the teachings in response to questions and shaped
his movement by addressing practical issues as they arose. In his efforts to
communicate, Gautama used numerous dialects and adapted others’
terminology, and his words were sometimes ambiguous, ironic or
metaphorical. The teachings were ways to help people develop “peace not
passion [and] contentment not attachment,”21 and progress toward Nirvana.
It is no wonder that they were understood in different ways. Sectarian
attitudes developed in later centuries, especially in outlying areas, but
Tibetans, for example, inherited, relatively late in Indian Buddhist history,
the view that the various schools and practices offered between them
“84,000 gateways” to the Dharma.
Followers of these schools sought, in various ways, to maintain a
relationship with Gautama. The Discourses give a powerful impression of
the disciples’ intense faith that Gautama was a living embodiment of
ultimate reality; and he remained a vivid presence even when he was
physically absent. Pingiya declared: “Day and night, I see him with my
mind, as if with my eye.”22 After the Parinirvana, many Buddhists sustained
that connection by reflecting on Gautama and his Enlightened qualities,
and, in time, artists started to depict him. In the earliest friezes, which date
from the second century BCE, they avoid depicting Gautama himself and
represent him with an emblem such as a wheel. Or they left a space: a
vacant throne, an umbrella without the person it shaded, or a footprint
without the foot. But early in the first millennium CE, statues of Gautama,
including the beautiful Greek-influenced Gandharan figures from Pakistan
and Afghanistan, were created as “reminder relics” to set people in mind of
Buddhahood.
A legend recounted in the Ashokavadana (c.200 CE) suggests how
imagining Gautama could become visionary contact with him. In this text a
Buddhist sage called Upagupta converts Mara to the Dharma. Then,
reflecting that Mara met Gautama many times, Upagupta asks him to
assume Gautama’s appearance. Mara manifests a Buddha form and
Upagupta, entranced, prostrates at its feet. Realizing that he has bowed
before an illusion, Upagupta hurriedly explains: “Of course I know that the
Best of Speakers has gone to extinction … Even so, when I see his figure,
which is so pleasing to the eye, I bow down before that sage … just as men
bow down to clay images of the gods, knowing that they worship the god
not the clay.”23
Others believed that through their practice of Gautama’s teachings they
contacted a level of reality in which he was still present. In one discourse
Gautama tells the monk Vasettha that if asked to identify himself he should
reply: “‘I am the Blessed One’s own child, born of his mouth, born of the
Dharma, created by Dharma, heir of the Dharma’; for Gautama himself is
designated ‘Dharma-bodied, Brahma-bodied, become-Dharma, become-
Brahma.’”24 In saying that he was “Dharma-bodied” Gautama probably
meant that he could be identified with his metaphorical “body” of
teachings. But some believed he was, in fact, disclosing the existence of a
transcendent dharma-body, or dharmakaya, which was perceived with the
dharma-eye and lived on when Gautama’s form-body (the rupakaya) had
perished. That was the view of many Mahasanghikas, who believed that
Gautama persisted as a transcendental presence. In a similar vein, some
Buddhist philosophers found new ways of understanding the world that
made Gautama’s continued presence seem reasonable. The Sarvastivada
school held that the past and the future were as real as the present—they
were just different “modes” in which something could be said to exist. And
if the past was real, then the Gautama of the past was still accessible.
Others, again, pondered Gautama’s teaching that phenomena lack an
abiding essence and asked what it means to say that anything exists or does
not exist—Gautama included.
Another way of kindling Gautama’s presence was by telling stories about
him. Vivid reliefs decorating Buddhist monuments such as the Great Stupa
at Sanchi depict scenes from Gautama’s life and show that, three centuries
after the Parinirvana, he was already the subject of densely imagined
legend. Many of the incidents recounted in this book are portrayed, but their
biography starts with Gautama’s previous lives as a “bodhisattva” and the
countless virtuous actions he performed as an animal, an ascetic, a god and
finally a Universal Ruler. Some of these tales (called jatakas or “birth
stories”) appear in the Discourses, and hundreds more were eventually
gathered into great collections such as the Jataka-mala.
From around the first century CE lengthy poetic biographies started to
appear, filling a gap in the Pali canon, which contains no continuous
narrative of Gautama’s life. The first-century CE Mahavastu tells Gautama’s
story up to his Enlightenment, while Ashvaghosha’s second-century CE
Buddhacarita (“Acts of the Buddha”) recounts his entire career. This is one
of the masterpieces of classical Sanskrit literature and seems to be an
attempt by a highly educated Buddhist poet to rival the Mahabharata and
Ramayana, the mighty Hindu epics then capturing Indian imaginations.
These biographies lack the naturalistic elements we find in the Discourses:
quirky characters, shafts of humor and odd details that serve no polemical
purpose. Instead, we find a vivid spiritual hero who starts in ignorance and
suffering and becomes a consummate holy man (in Reginald Ray’s
summary: “an accomplished being, superhuman in stature, recognized as
fully realized by those in his environment, surrounded by miracles and in
possession of magical powers, venerated by gods, human beings and the
cosmos as a whole, one who compassionately leads others on the path to
liberation.”25 His every action possessed a symbolic meaning and his
Awakening had a profound importance for the entire cosmos.
The Transcendent Buddha
Through a gradual process that cannot easily be traced, a new movement
emerged within some of the early Buddhist schools that eventually came to
be known as the Mahayana (“the Great Way”). The Buddha of the
Mahayana is prefigured in a classical biography called the Lalitavistara
(“Living out the Game”) which presents him as a transcendental being—not
an ordinary human at all—whose life is a drama enacted for the edification
of living beings. At its start Gautama is in the Tushita heaven teaching the
Dharma to the gods, but he decides that the time is right for his final birth
and enters his mother’s womb fully conscious.
The Mahayana movement centered on new scriptures, the Mahayana
Sutras, which portray Gautama as a transcendent figure, usually called
Shakyamuni (“the Shakyan Sage”), who teaches in a cosmic setting to a
host of gods, men and spiritual beings. As one Sutra explains: “The body of
the Tathagata is the Dharmakaya and does not come from the illusion of
thought and desire. His body is above and beyond the three realms [of
desire, form and beyond form] and is outside the stream of transmigratory
suffering. The Buddha body is transcendental and is beyond destiny.”26
Adherents of these scriptures claimed they had been secretly passed
down from Gautama and preserved by the gods or spirits who lived in the
depths of the ocean. Other texts were inspired by visionary experiences or
the cogent application of the spirit of Gautama’s teaching at a time when it
was in danger (from the Mahayana viewpoint) of being swamped by the
letter of intellectual analysis. By the start of the first millennium CE, monks’
wanderings had been curtailed, and their lives increasingly regulated and
focused on large monasteries where the main activities were recitation and
scholarship. Some monasteries became important intellectual centers where
philosophy, logic and other disciplines were practiced by the finest
intellects of the age, and the largest, Nalanda, grew into a university-style
campus that attracted students from across the Buddhist world. But many
feared that non-scholarly activities were being frozen out and the true goals
of Dharma practice forgotten.*
While some other strands of Indian Buddhism prided themselves on
changing little, the Mahayana was, for many years, a ferment of creativity
and innovation. In principle, some Mahayana texts argued, any doctrine or
practice that leads beings toward Awakening, whatever its source, could be
deemed “the word of the Buddha.” This allowed Mahayana practitioners to
embrace practices like stupa and relic worship and to address the aspirations
of householder Buddhists alongside those of the monks. It also explored
devotional rituals and visionary experiences, developed an expansive
mythology and offered new insights into the mind. It wasn’t a single,
unitary movement, and some Mahayana teachings are contradictory; but all
were inspired by the stories of Gautama’s countless lifetimes as a
bodhisattva, acting selflessly for the benefit of others. For Mahayana
practitioners this “bodhisattva path” was vastly superior to that of his
arahant disciples who found Awakening and then disappeared. Guided by
the resonant, transforming force of bodhicitta—the “mind or will to
Awakening”—they vowed to put off entering Nirvana in order to help all
beings attain it. By comparison with the breathtaking spiritual ambition of
this Great Vehicle, its followers considered the older traditions cramped and
self-absorbed, calling them the Hinayana: the “lesser vehicle.”
Some later Mahayana Sutras explain that the eternal Buddha they portray
is distinct from the form in which he appeared on earth—his nirmanakaya,
or emanation-body. The Buddha of the sutras inhabits a glorious, subtle
“Body of Complete Enjoyment” (Samboghakaya). Dwelling eternally in
this transcendent domain, the Buddha spreads his compassionate influence
throughout the universe (or, at least, the part of it that is his “Buddha field”)
so that all who are open may benefit. The form in which this eternal Buddha
was conceived rapidly multiplied into numerous figures embodying
particular qualities or dimensions of Enlightenment. The five Conquerors
(Jinas), including the radiant Amitabha and the “unshakeable” Akshobhya,
formed a mandala, or sacred pattern, of fully Enlightened Buddhas. Some
texts describe the beautiful Pure Lands these Buddhas have created and say
that after death the truly faithful and virtuous will be reborn there. Beside
the Buddhas are archetypal bodhisattvas like the compassionate
Avalokitesvara, the wise and majestic Manjushri and the radiant Tara (“the
Savioress”), who can be called on as sources of support and inspiration.
Beyond the archetypes of the Samboghakaya lies the Dharmakaya, the
“Body of Truth or Dharma,” which in this context means the purified
qualities of the Buddha and the primordial, signless reality he had realized.
That reality cannot be conceptualized and the Mahayana “Perfection of
Wisdom” texts used the term emptiness (sunyata) to describe it. Gautama,
himself, had used the word to evoke the insubstantiality of all phenomena,
and now the great Mahayana philosopher, Nagarjuna, used it to cut through
the mass of doctrines the early Buddhist schools had developed in their
efforts to explain existence. Things cannot be defined or tied down, he said,
because they arise and pass away in dependence upon conditions; therefore,
they are empty and mysterious and magically alive, and realizing this truth
brings Liberation.
For the “Mind-Only” (Cittamatra or Yogacara) school the Dharmakaya
is a mysterious, luminous, non-dual consciousness at the heart of existence,
which one can reach through meditation and from which everything else
arises. According to a further group of scriptures, if emptiness is the true
nature of all beings and all beings have the capacity to realize that nature,
then, in some sense, Buddhahood, or “Buddha-nature” (Tathagatagarbha)
is present within us, like a “womb” or matrix: “All living beings, though
they are among the defilements of hatred, anger and ignorance, have the
Buddha’s wisdom, Buddha’s Eye, Buddha’s Body … they are possessed of
the Tathagatagarbha … the Buddha preached the doctrine in order to
remove the defilements and manifest the Buddha-nature within living
beings.”27
A final movement, the Vajrayana, grew in Indian Mahayana circles from
around the sixth century CE. If the Mahayana sought to assert what its
followers considered the true meaning of the Dharma in the face of the
early schools, the Vajrayana responded to the immense timescales
envisaged by Mahayana scriptures, which made full Buddhahood a very
distant goal. “Vajrayana” means “the Diamond Vehicle” or “the Way of
Reality,” and texts called Tantras set out an intensely demanding method of
practice that was said to lead quickly to Awakening. These esoteric
teachings were passed in secret from master to disciple and required utter
devotion to the teacher, or guru, who gave it. For such a disciple, the tantric
guru is the Buddha (or, more precisely, he or she is an “esoteric Buddha
refuge”). The various schemes of tantric practice involve elaborate rituals
and devotions as well as visualizations and meditations on chosen Buddhas
and bodhisattvas, and at the higher levels meditation involves transforming
the body’s subtle energies and identifying with the Buddhas at the level of
ultimate reality.
If early Mahayana imaginings resolved the uncertainty over whether the
Buddha lived on by focusing on his timeless and archetypal aspect, these
movements restored him as an immediate presence. In the Buddha-nature
perspective he is the essence of all beings—even their “True Self ”—that
waits, womb-like, to be reborn in each of us. For Vajrayana practitioners, he
resides in the magical potentiality of each moment to reveal the vibrant,
essence-less nature of existence. Paradoxically, while these movements
clearly develop aspects of Buddhist practice, they all claim that they are
merely reasserting teachings that were there right from the start. In some
cases, their approach is prefigured in the earliest scriptures; in others the
differences seem more fundamental. Believers in Buddha-nature, for
example, have often been criticized for slipping into the very belief in
atman that Gautama took such pains to avoid. But it is quite possible that at
least some of them preserve traditions dating back to Gautama that were
excluded or marginalized in the texts that became normative.
The Reign of Dharma
Paralleling the efforts of the various schools to engage with Gautama and
his teachings were efforts to manifest those teachings in society as a whole.
Telling the story of the vast Buddhist civilization in which Gautama’s
teachings and example had a central place would take this chapter too far
from Gautama himself, so that is left to the Appendix. However, the reign
of the Emperor Ashoka has a special place in this story.
In the years following Gautama’s death Ajatashatru and his heirs
conquered the Vrijians, then Kosala and the rest of the Ganges Valley, and
in time their territory stretched far beyond the lands Gautama had known.
They successfully beat back the invading army of Alexander the Great, only
to be ousted from within by a challenger called Chandragupta Maurya
(c.322 BCE). The Mauryan Empire, ruled by Chandragupta from Pataliputra,
soon extended all the way to Afghanistan, and, in time, it spread southwards
to include most of the Indian subcontinent.
Chandragupta’s grandson Ashoka came to the throne in c.272 BCE, 132
years after the approximate date of Gautama’s death, and ruled until his
death in 231 CE.* In his youth Ashoka probably studied the Arthashastra,
the ruthless manual of gaining and keeping power written by the Brahmin
who was Chandragupta’s chief adviser. In keeping with its view of how a
ruler should act, Ashoka struggled viciously with his brothers to win the
throne and launched a campaign to expand the empire that culminated in an
attack on Kalinga, a wealthy nation on India’s eastern seaboard. Ashoka
(referring to himself as “Piyadassi”) takes up the story in one of the Edicts
he had inscribed on rock faces around the empire:
Beloved of the Gods, King Piyadassi, conquered the Kalingas eight years after his coronation.
150,000 were deported, 100,000 were killed and many more died [of other causes]. After the
Kalingas had been conquered, he felt a strong inclination toward the Dharma, a love for the
Dharma and for instruction in Dharma. Now [he] feels deep remorse … [and] is deeply pained
because of the killing, dying and deportation that take place when an unconquered country is
conquered.28
Legends tell that Ashoka was struck by the calm and integrity of
Shakyaputra monks, which spoke to his condition more directly than
Brahminical ideas about his roles and duties. It showed what his own life
lacked. In another inscription from two and a half years after the Kalinga
war, Ashoka says he is making a strenuous effort to improve himself with
the help of Buddhist monks and urges his subjects to do the same.
Henceforth, Ashoka sought to rule his vast empire according to
“Dharma.” The word carried Buddhist associations, but it also expressed
the universal ethical values of “little evil, much good, kindness, generosity,
truthfulness and purity.”29 More broadly, it embodied Gautama’s teaching
that a moral order underpinned the world through the action of karma, and
Ashoka’s agenda unmistakably echoes the example of the Universal
Monarch. In place of further military expansion, Ashoka launched a
campaign of “Dharma conquest” to reform the empire. He built
monuments, expanded education, reformed the justice system, enhanced
provision for the destitute and improved the roads. “Dharma Officers”
fanned out across the empire to implement justice, clemency and equity,
and see that state institutions followed the emperor’s principles.
Ashoka redefined the monarch’s role as that of a father, rather than a
sanctified semi-deity, and acknowledged the limits of his power: “Progress
among the people through Dharma has been done by two means, by
Dharma regulations and by persuasion. Of these, Dharma regulation is of
little effect, while persuasion has much more effect.”30 This echoed
Gautama’s belief that individuals create a society, rather than the ruler, and
that its health depends on their virtue and the networks of healthy,
respectful relationships they establish. At the same time, it was a prudent
and realistic policy for the ruler of a sprawling empire that was tugged by
contending national, religious and cultural forces, and where regional
governors influenced people’s lives more directly than the distant emperor.
Following Gautama’s principle of exemplifying the virtues he proclaimed,
Ashoka became a vegetarian and tried to get his court to follow suit. Where
previous rulers had devoted much of their time to hunting, Ashoka worked
constantly to promote the moral welfare of the realm, conducting “Dharma
tours” of the regions that combined pilgrimage to Buddhist holy places with
inspections of the local administration and addresses urging his subjects to
make a moral effort.
Ashoka distinguished his personal faith in Gautama’s teaching from his
responsibilities to subjects of all faiths, and there were no forcible
conversions. Nonetheless, the remains of large Buddhist monasteries and
stupas dating from Ashoka’s time show that Buddhism expanded
dramatically during his reign right across the empire. In fact, the monks
prospered so much that Ashoka had to intervene in the community’s affairs
by expelling “false monks” who took robes in order to share its privileges,
and recommending texts that all monks should know. Dharma officers,
“occupied with various good works among the ascetics and householders of
all religions,”31 monitored religious groups to ensure they set aside their
rivalries, moderated their speech and became allies in the emperor’s
campaign of moral development. “If there is cause for criticism, it should
be done in a mild way,” one edict urges. “But it is better to honor other
religions … One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by
others.”32
As our information about Ashoka comes from Edicts which the emperor
issued himself, we must be cautious in appraising him. But his story has
been a powerful inspiration. Buddhists of later centuries regarded Ashoka’s
reign as the golden age of a real-life Universal Monarch: a rare example of
a ruler putting Buddhism’s implicit social teachings into effect on a large
scale. And when India became an independent country in the last century its
founders invoked Ashoka’s empire as a model, regarding it as a tolerant and
multicultural state in which moral and spiritual values had an esteemed
place and state machinery was dedicated to social altruism, education and,
where feasible, non-violence. The example of Ashoka’s India vividly
demonstrates that Gautama’s Dharma does not just have a bearing on the
minds of individuals. It implies a different way of ordering the world.
Gautama’s Heirs
The phases of Indian Buddhism (the early schools, the Mahayana and the
Vajrayana) created the framework for subsequent developments, and their
differences, along with the impact of the cultures to which Buddhism
traveled, underlie the diversity of the Buddhists one sees in a setting such as
Bodh Gaya. Globalization has thrown together schools that have been
separated by culture, language and sometimes belief, each of which has its
own scriptures, saints and forms of practice, as well as critiques of one
another dating back millennia. But these Buddhists also share a great deal.
The commonest Buddhist ritual is the act of going for refuge to the Three
Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. Becoming a Buddhist
involves making an act of commitment to the Three Jewels and in many
countries Buddhists recite the verses of going for refuge each day.
For all their philosophical differences, the schools broadly share
Gautama’s understanding of reality: his Dharma. They teach that everything
we experience is impermanent, insubstantial and dependently arisen and
that human beings, being prone to craving for pleasure and security, set
themselves at odds with reality and thereby create the seeds of their
suffering. Like Gautama, the schools teach ways for people to change their
condition, sometimes speaking of the need to follow a “path,” but always
stressing the importance of manifesting qualities such as generosity, faith,
energy, mindfulness, wisdom and compassion. Buddhists also agree on the
importance of living by ethical principles such as non-violence and
contentment, and most offer methods of mental development, especially in
the grand tradition of Buddhist meditation practice.
Sangha means the community of Buddhists, and its centrality contradicts
the view that Buddhism is simply a path of individual practice and personal
development. All the schools have full-time practitioners at the heart of
their communities and value a way of life that is dedicated to realizing
Buddhist ideals. These full-time practitioners are usually monks (and
sometimes nuns) who follow the Vinaya, but some are priests, renunciants
or others who do not take monastic vows. Monastic institutions have
sometimes been rigid, and dependence on patronage has made the monks
vulnerable to political change, but as Robert Thurman comments, the
monastic movement started by Gautama has been remarkably successful. It
“swept throughout Asia, transforming the landscapes, the cultures and the
politics of all its nations, as well as countless individuals. It is quite likely
that it influenced West Asia, North Africa and Europe by lending its
institutional style to Aramaic and Egyptian Christianity as well as to
Manichaeism.”33
The traditions also focus on the lineages of teachers, yogis, saints and
philosophers who inspired and led their schools: Nagarjuna, Vasubandhu
and Asanga, Padmasambhava, Tsongkhapa and Milarepa, Hui Neng, Kukai
and Dogen. These remarkable individuals (and many others), who continue
to inspire millions of devotees, are another aspect of Gautama’s legacy,
perhaps the most important. Modeling themselves on Gautama, they set out
to attain Awakening themselves, and their followers, at least, believe that
they succeeded.
The Buddha Jewel is Gautama himself and the ideal of Buddhahood he
embodied. In some traditions the historical Gautama is lost in a crowd of
transcendental Buddha figures, and his life story is often mixed with legend
or reformulated as mythology. But time and again in Buddhist history the
tradition has revived by returning to Gautama or re-emphasizing the
importance of the Awakening he embodied.
The shared commitment to the Three Jewels links Buddhists to one
another and to the very earliest followers of Gautama. In reciting the verses
of going for refuge, they repeat the words of the people in the Discourses
who speak with Gautama and are overwhelmed by the vision of existence
he reveals. Each of them prostrates before Gautama and declares that he or
she will go for refuge to the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
Gautama, Our Contemporary
Gautama remarked that, like everything else, his teaching was subject to the
universal law of impermanence: in time, it would cease to be a living force
in the world and eventually be forgotten. A case can be made that over the
last century, this has been happening to traditional Asian Buddhism. Its
time-honored institutions flourished in stable societies in which monks
represented a link with a higher order of reality. But when Asian countries
encountered the array of hostile, alien forces of modernity, Buddhism had
few defenses.
First came colonial rule which was sometimes hostile to Buddhist
practice, especially when the colonial powers brought aggressive Christian
missionaries with them. Then, as imperial and feudal governments faltered
and communism swept Asia, Buddhist monks were murdered in their tens
of thousands. That’s what happened in Stalin’s Siberia, Mao’s China and
Pol Pot’s Cambodia. The story of Tibetan Buddhism’s suppression by the
Chinese forces who took full control of the country in 1959 is well known,
but it is less often seen as part of the wider suppression of religion by the
Chinese authorities and the assault on Buddhism by communists in general.
These events truly deserve to be called “the Buddhist Holocaust.”
Traditional Asian Buddhism is not dead. Many centers of intensive
practice survive, the faith has reemerged in formerly communist countries
like Mongolia and China, and some traditions flourish. The troubles of
Burma, North Korea and Tibet still fill the headlines, but most Buddhist
countries enjoy relative political stability. However, even in countries where
Buddhism is thriving—Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea—the
strongest forces are consumerism and the drive for economic growth. To
many young people, Buddhism is associated with dusty traditions that have
little connection with their lives.
The surest sign than Buddhism has a continuing relevance, even in
modern culture, is its ever-growing appeal in the West.* Western Buddhists
are diverse, but they all engage with Buddhism because they feel it is
relevant to their needs, rather than for reasons of tradition or culture. Some
follow the teachings of particular schools more or less as they have been
practiced for centuries. Others adapt the tradition and attempt to separate
Asian culture from the aspects of the Dharma that are relevant to them.
According to Joseph Goldstein, such Buddhists are informed by a
“pragmatic” engagement with “a very simple question: ‘what works?’ What
works to free the mind from suffering? What works to engender a heart of
compassion? What works to awaken?”34
This pragmatism echoes that of Gautama himself in his desire to
communicate his insights in whatever ways people could understand, but it
also means that westerners tend to interpret Buddhism according to their
own needs and agendas. For some, Buddhism is a quintessentially modern
faith: a rational religion that suits people who have rejected God but still
desire a source of values and meaning. For others (especially followers of
Tibetan Buddhism), its appeal is that it contains the very things that
rationalism lacks and its teachings open a magical dimension that is better
expressed through symbols than concepts. For a third group, Buddhism
means stripping away beliefs, interpretations and myths and focusing on
what is happening in the present moment.* Finally, “engaged Buddhists”
see it as a vehicle for social change and find the meaning of Buddhist
practice in its practical effects in the world.
None of these approaches does full justice to Gautama’s teaching,
although each reflects an aspect that has continuing resonance. In the early
sources we find a rational Gautama—as a great a demystifier as his
contemporary, Socrates—who urged people to think for themselves and
look to their own experience rather than accepting the beliefs that were
passed down to them. But he was also at home using mythic language and
communicating with the gods. Meditation was a central part of Gautama’s
path and he told his disciples to be aware of their experience as fully and
deeply as possible. But he also encouraged his followers to develop
communities and friendships and to cultivate the virtues that make for a
good society.
Much could be written about the ways in which western scientists,
artists, contemplatives, philosophers and activists have engaged with
Buddhism.† But it would be a mistake to identify
Gautama’s legacy with certain ideas or particular religious institutions,
texts, myths, archetypes or meditation practices. Gautama’s vision of
human life contains all these elements, but its focus is the most fundamental
dynamics of being. His continuing significance ultimately rests on his
insights into the nature of experience, and a way to approach these is to
focus on his time meditating in the forest as he sought Awakening.
The accounts of this time start with Gautama’s recognition that his
childhood experience beneath the rose-apple tree had shown him the “path
to Awakening.”35 Understanding that his mind was capable of the intense
concentration, bliss and refinement of dhyana, Gautama abandoned the
shramanas’ mistrust of pleasure, and rejected the ideas of God that had
framed other approaches to meditation. He was free to address his
experience directly and discover how it worked.
The heart of his realization was the discovery that consciousness is a
process, not a thing. He saw that skillful states (such as contentment and
loving-kindness) brought happiness for himself and others, while unskilful
ones caused suffering, and he learned to mold his consciousness by
cultivating the former and discouraging the latter. He realized that values,
meaning and ethics grow from the nature of the mind itself and don’t
depend on divine revelation, and concluded that karma (the key element of
his culture’s religious world view) depends on the intention with which one
acts, not just the action one performs.
Gautama applied his insights most dramatically in confronting the fear
and dread that was stirred by Gaya’s demonic spirit shrines. In that way, he
confronted death, the spirit world and the instinctual fears they roused in
him, as a shaman might, and mastered them by practicing mindful
awareness of his experience. Through this practice, and with the power
unleashed in intensely concentrated meditation, he freed his mind from
limitations. Having seen the processes shaping his consciousness, Gautama
understood that the same principles are at work in the whole of existence.
All phenomena arise in dependence upon conditions; everything is process,
including the natural world and human society. After his Awakening,
Gautama applied these principles in guiding his disciples, formulating the
path and developing the monastic community.
Perhaps we can say that Gautama’s legacy is, fundamentally, an
orientation to life and a vision of existence. It is something to be felt,
experienced and developed. So I will conclude not with a definition but
with images of Gautama that draw me toward him and make him a
reference for the deepest hopes and fears of my own life.
I think of the young Gautama learning the tangled ways of Kapilavastu
life, seeing that his companions were like fish struggling for space in a
drying river and realizing that his heart was wounded, just like theirs, by a
thorn lodged deep within it. I think of Gautama burning with fiery
realization in his forest meditation, and resting in the afterglow of
Awakening in the deep satisfaction of primordial awareness; then setting
out on the dusty road to Sarnath, with no reason to think anyone would
understand his message beyond the compassionate apprehension that people
are like lotuses waiting to burst into flower. I think of him hammering out
his ideas through dialogue with shramanas and his wary meetings with
Brahmins and kings. I see him sitting amid the community of monks,
sharing with them a silence as deep as a lake, and then returning to the
wilderness where he sat impassive as a mountain. Finally, I think of him
resting at the end of an exhausting journey, lying down on his side and
passing into a state beyond life, for which his followers had no words.
The encounter with Bahiya has a special resonance. It stands for his
many meetings and communications, but it has a unique drama. Its heart is
the teaching that describes not just how Bahiya should train himself but
how Gautama experienced the world. He was a man for whom the seen
really was just the seen, the heard was the heard and the cognised was the
cognised. What could be simpler than that? Yet, somehow, that made him a
man who was “neither here nor beyond nor between the two,” whose
experience was constructed in an entirely novel way and who possessed a
key to life, as if he had woken up after a long sleep filled with endless
compassion and wisdom.
What does this mean? Perhaps the best explanation is not a philosophy
or a myth, or even an image. It is the example of Gautama’s remarkable life.
APPENDIX
An Outline of Buddhist History
Ashoka’s reign marked the start of Buddhism’s impact on Indian society as
a whole, and its effect on the world beyond India. One of Ashoka’s Edicts
states that the emperor sent dharma missions to people living beyond the
borders of his realm, “even as far as 600 yojanas”1 (about 3,000 miles),
listing the kings of Sri Lanka, Egypt, Syria and Macedonia among their
recipients. Hinduism also spread beyond India to South East Asia, but it
remained the religion of a particular culture and drew people who were
attracted to that culture. Buddhists, in contrast (like Christians and Muslims
after them), said that their teachings held true everywhere and for everyone.
At its height the Buddhist world spread from Persia in the west to Indonesia
in the east, and from Korea in the north to Sri Lanka in the south. A traveler
like Hsuan Tsang could rightly feel that he was participating in a world
religion that touched most of humanity. Above all, Buddhism deeply
affected China and India, the two great Asian civilizations.
Buddhism in India after Ashoka
Ashoka’s reign, which lasted thirty-seven years, marks an early high point
of Buddhism’s impact on Indian society. His regime depended on central
power and his own impact as a charismatic leader who commanded
exceptional loyalty. Soon after he died the empire started to break up,
probably because of economic difficulties and the strength of the regions
relative to the center. Fifty years after Ashoka’s death, the last of the
Mauryas was assassinated by his general, Pushyamitra, whose first act was
to perform the Vedic horse sacrifice. The new emperor devoted his reign to
restoring Brahminical influence, and Buddhist chronicles tell us that
Pushyamitra “burned down numerous monasteries … killed a number of
vastly learned monks … and within five years the Doctrine was extinct in
the north.”2 That almost certainly exaggerates what happened, but for the
time being Buddhist fortunes had turned.
Victorian archaeologists unearthed the buried monuments of a Buddhist
civilization that recovered from Pushyamitra’s persecution and spread
across the subcontinent in the centuries after Ashoka. Hsuan Tsang’s
account of his travels through the subcontinent in the seventh century shows
that while Buddhism had declined in some regions, it thrived in others.
Everywhere, it competed for influence with Jains and the priests of the
Brahminical “deva temples.” Monarchs usually supported all the major
faiths, and there are no further examples of rulers who tried to manifest
Gautama’s Dharma as a social reality, as Ashoka had done.
Buddhism remained associated with the merchant class, who supported
Buddhist monks even when the state was hostile or indifferent, and helped
it to spread along the trade routes. Buddhist teachings supported the open,
entrepreneurial culture in which commerce thrived, whereas Brahminism
stifled it, and some historians regard Buddhism’s 1,500-year history in India
as a forgotten battle between two very different visions of life. Some
sources hint at competition for patronage between Buddhists and Brahmins,
as well as fierce debates and occasional persecution of the Buddhists. The
Linga Purana, for example, relates that a king named Pramitra “destroyed
barbarians by the thousand, killed all the kings born of Shudras and cut
down the heretics.”3
Brahmins sought new ways to embed their vision of existence in the
fabric of Indian life by fostering a feudal economy and turning existing
social divisions into a rigid caste system that assigned people a group
within which they lived, worked, ate and married. Brahminism also allied
itself with the cults of popular deities like Shiva and Vishnu; the great
mythic cycles of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata were formed
according to Brahminical perspectives; yogic traditions found a place in the
Brahminical mainstream; and, partly in response to the intellectual
challenge of Buddhism, Brahmin theologians and philosophers found
subtler ways to articulate their tradition. The elements that comprise what
we now call “Hinduism” slowly coalesced.
The Brahminical model of society shaped the lives of ordinary Indians,
and its amalgam of caste, deity worship and a resurgent priesthood
increasingly commanded their religious imaginations. Developments in
Indian Buddhism, such as Mahayana devotions and Pure Land teachings,
show that the tradition found new ways to connect with popular religious
needs; but, eventually, Buddhists found themselves frozen out by caste
regulations while royal patrons were drawn to the Brahminical consecration
rituals that sanctified their rule. In return, the kings built huge temples in
regional capitals across India that became centers of the new deity cults.
The Muslim invaders who swept across India in the thirteenth century
destroyed the already weakened remnants of Indian Buddhism when they
razed Nalanda, Vikramasila and other Buddhist centers. Barring a few
remnant groups in Orissa and some border areas, the faith disappeared from
India. The motivation of the Muslim attackers was probably loot and
conquest rather than Taliban-style religious hatred, but a degree of hostility
to Buddhism per se may have fueled their aggression.
Although Buddhism became India’s greatest cultural export, it was
forgotten in the land of its birth. Its reverberations are evident in the
devotional traditions around some Hindu deities and Muslim saints, as well
as in Hindu meditation, art and yoga. But Buddhism itself was written out
of Indian history, and until colonial archaeologists took an interest its
temples lay ruined or buried or were converted into Hindu shrines. Indians
forgot Ashoka and the Hindu texts do not mention him. Indeed,
Brahminical sources are largely silent about Buddhism, and the little they
do say is set within a narrative of “Hindu” triumph. Modern Hindu thinkers
sometimes describe Gautama as a “rebel child”4 of the mainstream faith and
his teachings as a “branch” of that tradition; and Brahmins long ago recast
Gautama as an “avatar,” or incarnation, of the great god Vishnu. And while
the nations that inherited Indian Buddhism preserved the scriptures and
philosophies relevant to their schools, the texts of the Indians themselves
were destroyed.
Sri Lanka
We have no record of the reception Ashoka’s missionaries received in
Europe or Asia Minor, but Sri Lanka’s king enthusiastically greeted the
mission to the island, led by Ashoka’s sons, and set about making it a
Buddhist nation. From the outset, the state supported Sri Lankan Buddhism
and the monastic establishment eventually commanded enormous wealth
and influence, burgeoning as nowhere else in the Indian subcontinent. In the
fifth century Fa-hsien reported finding 60,000 monks on the island. The
price of state patronage was that, from its inception, Sri Lankan Buddhism
supported the state in whatever it did—a pattern that continues in the
island’s current ethnic conflicts. Ashoka’s envoys belonged to a precursor
sect of the Theravada school that still dominates Sri Lankan Buddhism,
whose adherents believed they were preserving the Buddha’s original
teaching. That view led an important Theravadin chronicle called the
Dipavamsa to declare: “The seventeen sects [of Indian Buddhism] are
schismatic. Only one sect is non-schismatic … Like a great banyan tree, the
Theravada is supreme.”5
The principal Sri Lankan monasteries competed for royal favor, and
monks split into factions. The question for the Sri Lankans was which form
of Theravada was supreme. Sri Lankan monks also focused on literary
work. They wrote down the canon of early scriptures in the Pali language,
produced chronicles and commentaries, and eventually, through the
immense labors of the fifth-century monk Buddhaghosha, gave the texts the
form in which they have been passed down ever since. Sri Lankan
Buddhism’s fortunes have fluctuated along with those of the island itself,
which was invaded from India and later colonized by Portugal and Britain.
The monastic order died out and had to be reintroduced from Burma, and
on several occasions it needed to be reformed and revived. But unlike its
Indian counterpart, Sri Lankan Buddhism survived and preserves to this day
the practices and teachings of at least some early Buddhists.
South East Asia
Ashokan missionaries also traveled to the Mon territories of lower Burma
and northern Thailand, and by the turn of the millennium Theravada was
firmly established there. Eventually it dominated the whole of Burma, as it
has to the present day. An important part of Buddhism’s appeal was its
connection to Indian culture, whose literature and philosophy was far more
sophisticated than that of the indigenous people. But that culture contained
many strands, and in Cambodia and Thailand, Mahayana Buddhism was
embraced along with elements of Hinduism, and the two faiths replayed the
competition for influence and royal favor that occurred in India itself. The
spectacular Angok Wat temple, which now rises in extraordinary crumbling
grandeur from the tangle of Cambodian jungle, was built in the twelfth
century as a Hindu temple and became a Theravadin shrine when the
country adopted the faith. Neighboring Thailand also became solidly
Theravadin only in the fifteenth century, and all these countries (and Laos
as well) adopted the Sri Lankan model in which Buddhism supported the
state in return for patronage and regulation.
“Official” histories of Buddhism in these countries tend to emphasize the
Theravada school and the institutions that created the grand temples and
influenced affairs of state. But alongside that, the unofficial Buddhism of
practice and popular belief contained other elements that are sometimes
overlooked. Mahayana and even tantric practices were adopted in some of
these countries, and even in Indonesia, as the magnificent Borobudur
temple complex testifies. Mahayana vestiges lived on in South East Asian
countries, even when they became officially Theravadin, and in the villages
a monk will often act as a shaman and healer as well as a priest, educator
and spiritual guide. Wonderfully evocative accounts also survive of the
experiences of wilderness monks, whose lifestyle dated back to Gautama
himself. Development, centralization and war have limited the scope to live
this way today, but in remote regions of forests and mountains some still do.
The Silk Road
Even more significant than centrally directed missionary efforts to spread
the faith outside India was its gradual diffusion along trade routes. To the
north and north-east are the virtually impassible Himalayas; but the passes
on the northwest were no such barrier, and traders, migrants and armies
traveled them continually. Kashmir was an important focus for Mahayana
Buddhism, and the Kushan Empire, founded in the first century CE, joined it
to the lands to the north and west. Kashmiri Buddhist influence spread
through Pakistan and even made long-forgotten inroads into Persia. The
Jataka Tales of Gautama’s previous lives were translated into Persian in the
sixth century and became known in western lands, where they influenced
Aesop’s fables, the tales of Sinbad and the Arabian Nights, while in distant
Europe the “bodhisat”—the name of the Buddha-to-be—transmuted into
the Christian Saint Josephat.
Buddhism reached Afghanistan during Ashoka’s reign, and until their
destruction by the Taliban in 2001 the towering Buddhas of Bamiyan were
the most visible remnants of a thriving Buddhist culture. The caves around
the statues were home to 2,000 monks, and the world’s oldest oil paintings
have been found inside them. Further north, the huge, arid territories of
Central Asia were less hospitable. But this region was a vital part of the
network of trade routes connecting China and the Middle East, with a
southern spur that led to India. Marco Polo, who went from Italy to China
in the fourteenth century, was the most famous trader to travel the “Silk
Road,” but the route he followed was already many centuries old. Much
earlier, Buddhist monks had joined the trading caravans, and Buddhist texts
describe the perils that confronted them. Some settled in oasis towns where
Chinese and Indian culture converged, along with Persian and even
Nestorian Christian influences. Buddhism flourished in this fertile
environment until the Muslim invasions of the eighth century. By the
fourteenth century, little was left to show for Buddhist culture, but when the
Hungarian archaeologist Aurel Stein entered a cave in Dunhuang at the
eastern end of the Silk Road, he discovered 40,000 scrolls containing
Buddhist texts dating from the ninth century or earlier. They include the
earliest known versions of important Buddhist scriptures, the first-ever
printed book (a copy of the Mahayana Diamond Sutra) and Buddhist-
influenced Nestorian texts entitled the Jesus Sutras.
China
In the first century Buddhists reached China, at the eastern end of the Silk
Road, where they found a civilization at least a match for India’s.
Confucianism and Taoism were deeply established indigenous faiths, and
Buddhism initially made little impact, though many scriptures were
translated. The country changed in 220 CE when the Han dynasty collapsed,
and in the subsequent period of turmoil the religion took off spectacularly.
By the fifth century, northern China boasted 30,000 monasteries housing an
astonishing two million monks and nuns, principally following the
Mahayana—more than in India itself. Meanwhile, in southern China, which
was still ruled by the old dynasty, Confucian influence declined and
Buddhism appealed to members of the relocated court. Cut off from India
and Central Asia, new and characteristically Chinese forms of Buddhism
started to emerge that showed Taoist or Confucian influences. When the
two regions were reunited under the Sui and T’ang dynasties of the sixth to
tenth centuries, the two streams of Chinese Buddhism mingled, and
immensely accomplished teachers and scholars founded new schools that
drew on Indian Buddhism (often basing themselves principally on a single
scripture), but with a distinctly Chinese cast.
A byproduct of the fertility of the Indian Mahayana, with its succession
of teachings, philosophies, schools and practices, all piled on top of the
earlier scriptures, was that later generations faced an overwhelming
profusion of material. Only dedicated scholars could become familiar with
even the main aspects of the tradition, and even they were left asking what
was most important and how they could practice it. Indian teachers had
their own solutions, which Tibetan Buddhism inherited, but the Chinese
were cut off from India by this time. The approach of the Hua-yen and the
T’ient’ai schools was to consider one sutra the key to the whole tradition
and to arrange the rest in a hierarchy of importance beneath it. An
alternative was to focus on a single practice that cut through the complexity
and offered a direct path to Nirvana. Some schools taught ways to be reborn
in Amitabha’s pure land, while Ch’an focused principally on meditation and
made the heart of its teachings: “a special transmission outside the
scriptures; no dependence on words and letters; direct pointing to the mind;
[and] seeing into one’s nature and realizing Buddhahood.”6
The fortunes of Chinese Buddhism changed abruptly in 845 when a
Taoist emperor launched a massive campaign to suppress it. In the most
intense of four separate persecutions in this era monasteries were dissolved
and the monks and nuns forcibly disrobed. The great scholastic sects, which
depended on large monastic institutions, never recovered. Buddhism
remained a potent force in Chinese culture, and experienced periods of
significant revival, but it was never again the virtual state religion it had
been in its heyday.
East Asia and Japan
China was the dominant civilization of East Asia, just as India dominated
South Asia, and Chinese Buddhism was exported throughout the region. It
reached Vietnam (where it eventually mixed with South East Asian
Theravada), and in the sixth century it reached Korea and Japan. The
Japanese aristocracy wanted to civilize their turbulent subjects and looked
to Buddhism as the embodiment of Chinese virtues that also offered
distinctive ethical teachings. By the eighth century, Japanese Buddhism was
the state religion and there were temples in every province. T’ien-t’ai lived
on in Japan after its demise in China as the Tendai school, and tantric
traditions were introduced with the Shingon school. Characteristically
Japanese forms of Buddhism developed during the Kamakura period
(1185–1333) when a series of charismatic Japanese teachers founded
schools and movements that bypassed the existing, allegedly corrupt,
monastic establishment. The new schools shared a stress on the redemptive
power of faith, devotion to a single practice and a belief that the world was
passing through a dangerous period of decline. From this turbulent time
emerged the traditions of Japanese Zen (a development of Ch’an); Jodo-
shin-shu, which taught surrender to the “other-power” of Amitabha (called
Amida in Japan); and Nichiren Buddhism. Nichiren was a Tendai monk
who became deeply disillusioned with the state of Japanese Buddhism and
declared that only a particular form of devotion to the Mahayana scripture
the Lotus Sutra would be effective. Both Nichiren Buddhism and Jodo-shin-
shu offered simple practices that won a popular following.
Tibet and Mongolia
Buddhism traveled to Tibet directly from India, with Nepal as an important
staging post (though there was also some early influence from China). It
arrived in two waves, in the seventh century and the tenth century, which
was relatively late in Indian Buddhist history, and the Tibetans inherited
Indian Buddhist traditions virtually in their entirety. They made sense of
them in terms of the systematized schemes the Indian Mahayana had
developed, and like many of their Indian Buddhist contemporaries they
considered Vajrayana the highest form of practice. But the Buddhist
civilization that developed in Tibet was also unique because the shamanistic
and magical aspects of Vajrayana enabled it to absorb the indigenous beliefs
of the Tibetans themselves. A founding myth of Tibetan Buddhism tells of
the conversion of the nation’s demon-spirits by the great tantric sage
Padmasambhava. That echoed Gautama’s battle with Mara and his battles
with other Indian demons, but it also suggests that, in Tibet, the most primal
and barbaric forces of the culture were united with the higher pursuits of
Dharma practice. One historian calls Tibetan Buddhists “civilized
Shamans.”7
Tibetan Buddhist history includes great thinkers who grappled with the
ancient problems of Buddhist philosophy and made new and liberating
syntheses; vast monastic colleges that echoed the lost universities of India;
and a unique system of identifying the children, or “tulkus,” in whom great
teachers were thought to be reborn. In the seventeenth century the Mongol
Khan made an important teacher the country’s head of state with the title
“Dalai Lama,” and children identified as his tulku succeeded him in the
role. The Dalai Lama led a Buddhist school that competed with others, so
feelings toward him were often mixed; but on another level he was
considered the manifestation of Chenrezig, bodhisattva of compassion and
the nation’s embodiment.
The Revival of Indian Buddhism
The struggles of Buddhism in the modern era have already been touched on.
This has been one of the most difficult periods for Buddhism in its entire
history. However, it seems fitting to conclude this sketch of Buddhist
history with its dramatic return to India as a mass movement.
Each year on October 14 a million pilgrims flood into a vast area of open
ground known as Diksha Bhumi (the “Conversion Ground”), dominated by
a huge modern stupa. A casket at its center contains the ashes of Dr.
Ambedkar (1891–1956), India’s first Law Minister and the focus of the
pilgrims’ reverence. Portraits, which appear everywhere on banners and
placards, show a thickset, bespectacled man in a western business suit who
seems an unlikely focus for a religious movement. But for his followers, the
two hundred million Indians considered “untouchables” under the Hindu
caste system, he is a savior for two reasons. He framed newly independent
India’s constitution which outlawed untouchability, and in 1956, just before
his death, he initiated a wave of mass conversions to Buddhism.
Under Dr. Ambedkar’s inspiration, Buddhism has returned to India as a
mass faith. Ambedkarite Buddhists number twenty to thirty million, and
many more are drawn to the movement. But most of Dr. Ambedkar’s
followers do not follow Buddhism in one of its traditional forms. His
conversion was driven by an urgent need to find an alternative to the Hindu
world view, and the aspects of Buddhism that he valued most highly
addressed his community’s need for “social uplift” and education as well as
affirming the meaning and dignity of human life. To find them, he turned to
the life and teachings of Gautama, the historical Buddha.
Select Bibliography
TEXTS (PALI, SANSKRIT, CHINESE AND GREEK)
Anguttara Nikaya Nyanaponika Thera and Bhikkhu Bodhi, Numerical
Discourses of the Buddha: An Anthology of Suttas from the Anguttara
Nikaya (New Delhi, 2001).
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Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha’s Words: An Anthology of Discourses from
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Glossary of Terms, Names and Places
Ajatashatru (Pali: Ajatasattu) King of Magadha, son of Bimbasara
Ajivaka a sect of self-mortifiers led by Mahali Gosala who believed that
man’s fate is predetermined
Ambattha a proud Brahmin youth
Ananda Gautama’s cousin and his personal attendant for many years
Anathapindika a wealthy lay disciple who donated the Jetavana monastery
Angulimala a murderer who was converted by Gautama
Anuruddha cousin and important disciple of Gautama
Arada Kalama (Pali: Alara Kalama) Gautama’s first teacher, who taught
“the sphere of Nothingness”
Arahant (Pali: arhat) one who has found Awakening or realization by
following the Buddha’s teaching
Aryan either “a noble one,” or a member of the Aryan race
aryavarta the lands deemed “pure” by Aryans
Ashoka third-century BCE monarch, who ruled over most of India and
converted to Buddhism
Ashvajit (Pali: Assaji) one of the Group of Five self-mortifiers
atman (Pali: atta) the unchanging eternal essence of selfhood sought by
yogis, thought by some to be identical to Brahman
Bimbisara King of Magadha
Bodh Gaya the site of Gautama’s Enlightenment
Bodhi Tree the tree under which Gautama sat when he gained
Enlightenment
Bodhisattva (Pali: Bodhisatta) one destined for Enlightenment, such as the
Buddha before his Awakening, or, in the Mahayana, one who defers
realization for the sake of others
Brahma the highest class of divinities, and sometimes an individual
member of this class
Brahman the divine heart of existence, described in the Upanishads and
elsewhere
Brahminism the religion of the Aryans and the precursor of Hinduism
Brahmin a member of the priestly caste of Aryan society
Buddha literally “the Awakened,” Gautama’s principal title after his
Enlightenment
Chandaka (Pali: Channa) Gautama’s groom, who helped him leave the
palace and later joined his order
commentaries texts expounding the Buddhist Discourses, compiled in later
centuries
dependent arising the Buddhist teaching of conditionality or causality
deva a class of divine being
Devadatta Gautama’s cousin and eventual rival
dharma (Pali: dhamma) the nature of reality and how one should act to be
in accordance with it. The teaching of the Buddha
dharmakaya “The body of truth or dharma,” the purified qualities of the
Buddha and the primordial, signless reality he realized
dhyana (Pali: jhana) a state of meditative absorption
Digha-karayana a Kosalan general
Discourses the body of suttas/sutras of the Buddhist canon
dukkha the “suffering” or “unsatisfactoriness” that characterizes
conditioned existence
Fa-hsien Chinese pilgrim who described his visit to India early in the fifth
century CE
Four Sights the encounter with an old man, a sick man, a corpse and a
religious wanderer, ascribed to Gautama
gana community a clan-based oligarchy or republic, such as Shakya
Ganges Valley the region in which Gautama lived, roughly equivalent to
the Central Ganges Basin
Gautama (Pali: Gotama) the Buddha’s clan-name
Group of Five the five men who practiced self-mortification with Gautama
and to whom he addressed his first teaching
Hsuan Tsang Chinese pilgrim of the seventh century CE
Jainism an important religious movement of Gautama’s day, led by
Mahavira
Jatakas tales of Gautama’s previous lives
Jetavana a monastic park in Shravasti where Guatama spent many rainy
seasons
kalpa an aeon: a measure of time variously defined as 1051, 1059 or 1063
thousand years
Kapilavastu (Pali: Kapilavatthu) the capital of Shakya, where Gautama
grew up
karma (Pali: kamma) actions or thoughts whose results are felt in this or
future lives
Kausambi (Pali: Kosambi) the capital of the kingdom of Vatsa, situated on
the Yamuna river, near the confluence with the Ganges. Local monks
engaged in a serious dispute
Koliya a clan closely related to the Shakyas
Kosala one of the major kingdoms of the Ganges Valley, with Shravasti as
its capital
Kshatriya (Pali: Khattiya) the warrior and aristocratic caste of Aryan
society
Kusinagara (Pali: Kusinagara) a small town in Malla, where Gautama
entered Parinirvana
Lumbini Gautama’s birthplace
Magadha a major kingdom of the Ganges Valley, with its capital in
Rajagriha
Mahakasyapa (Pali: Mahakassapa) a leading disciple of Gautama’s, famed
for his austerities, who presided over the First Buddhist Council
Mahanama cousin of Gautama and leading Shakyan noble
Mahavagga a section of the Vinaya that contains an extended account of
the start of Gautama’s teaching career
Mahavira “Great Hero”: teacher of the Jains
Mahayana “the great vehicle.” A broad Buddhist school or movement
Malla the land (including Kusinagara) inhabited by Great Vehicle Mallas:
members of the Malla clan
Mara chief god of the “realm of desire,” who challenged Gautama on the
night of his Enlightenment
Maudgalyayana (Pali: Moggallana) one of Gautama’s two chief disciples,
famed for his psychic powers
Maya (or Mahamaya, or Mayadevi) Gautama’s mother
naga a class of serpent-like spirits
Nanda Gautama’s brother
Nikaya a division of the sutta collection of the Pali canon
Nirvana (Pali: Nibbana) the “blowing out” of craving, hatred and
ignorance, the goal of the Buddhist path
Pali the north Indian dialect in which the best-known versions of Gautama’s
Discourses are recorded
Parinirvana (Pali: Parinibbana) the death of a Buddha or arahant, and their
“complete Nirvana” because they will not be reborn
Prajapati (Pali: Mahapajjapati) Gautama’s aunt and stepmother
Prasenajit (Pali: Pasenadi) King of Kosala
Rahula Gautama’s son
Rahulamata Gautama’s wife, sometimes named as Yashodhara, Bimba,
etc.
Rajagriha (Pali: Rajagaha) a mountain-fortress city, the capital of
Magadha, ruled by Bimbasara and Ajatashastru
Rohini the principal river of Shakya
sangha the “spiritual community” of the Buddha’s followers and the order
of Buddhist monks and nuns
Sanjaya Belataputta a teacher of skepticism and leader of a community of
shramanas
Sanskrit India’s “holy language” in which many Buddhist scriptures are
recorded
sangharama a monastic park
Shakya the tribe to which Gautama belonged, and the territory in which
they lived
Shakyamuni “Sage of the Shakyans”: a title given to Gautama and his
principal epithet in Mahayana Buddhism
Shakyaputra (Pali: Shakyaputta) “the sons of the Shakyan,” the name by
which Gautama’s monastic followers were known
Shariputra (Pali: Sariputta) one of Gautama’s two chief disciples, famed
for his understanding
shramanas “strivers”: wandering spiritual seekers of the Ganges Valley
Shravasti (Pali: Savatthi) capital of Kosala where Gautama spent many
rains retreats
Shudra the servant class of Aryan society
Siddhartha (Pali: Siddhattha) Gautama’s personal name according to later
tradition, meaning “he who achieves his aim”
stupa circular funeral mounds which developed into Buddhist monuments
Suddhodana Gautama’s father
sutta (Sanskrit: sutra) a discourse attributed to the Buddha
Tantra a class of esoteric texts and traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism
Tathagata “the thus gone” or “thus come”: a title given to Gautama
following his Awakening
Taxila an important center of Brahminical study and training in the modern
Pakistani Punjab
Theragatha/Therigatha collections of verses composed by the early
monks/nuns
Theravada the Buddhist school now found in Sri Lanka and South East
Asia, which preserves the Pali scriptures
Udraka Reamaputra (Pali: Uddaka Ramaputta) Gautama’s second teacher,
who taught the attainment of “the sphere of neither perception nor non-
perception.”
Upanishads a set of Brahminical texts
uposatha days on which monks meet to recite and confess, and lay people
practice extra precepts
Uruvilva (Pali: Uruvela) the village near to which Gautama gained
Enlightenment
Uruvilva Kasyapa (Pali: Uruvela Kassapa) the priest of a temple in
Uruvilva, and one of three brothers Gautama visited after his
Enlightenment
Vacchagotta a shramana who engaged in several dialogues with Gautama
and eventually joined his order
Vaishali home of the Licchavi clan and chief city of the Vajjian
confederation
Vajrayana the “Diamond Vehicle” tradition of esoteric Buddhism,
commonly called “tantra”
Vedas sacred texts of Brahminism
Venuvana (Pali: Veluvana) the “Bamboo Grove”—a monastic park in
Rajagriha
Vidudabha son of King Pasenadi and a Shakyan slave-girl, who
slaughtered the Shakyans on becoming king
Vinaya the Buddhist monastic code, whose texts make up one of the three
divisions of the ancient Buddhist canon
vipassana “insight” meditation practices
Vrijjian Federation (Pali: Vajjian) an alliance of eight or nine clans, all
ruled as republics
Vulture’s Peak a mountain on the outskirts of Rajagriha, where Gautama
often stayed
yaksha (Pali: yakkha) a class of “worldly” spirits, often hostile to human
life
Yoga spiritual practice, e.g. meditation
Notes
NOTE ON PALI QUOTATIONS
Most of the quotations in this book come from the suttas (or Discourses) of
the Pali canon. Where possible I have included the name of the sutta from
which the quotation is taken; then comes the collection, or Nikaya, of which
it is a part, and then the sutta’s number in that Nikaya. References in
brackets are to the volume and page number of the Pali Text Society
edition. References to the shorter collections are by PTS verse number or
sutta number as applicable.
Numerous translations are available of the best-known suttas. In some
cases (where no translator is cited) I have compared translations and made a
fresh version, which should therefore be read as a rendering or paraphrase
rather than an exact quotation.
ABBREVIATIONS
AN—Anguttara Nikaya
DN—Digha Nikaya
MN—Majjhima Nikaya
SN—Samyutta Nikaya
Sn—Sutta Nipata
Ud—Udana
Dhp—Dhammapada
It—Ituvittaka
ATI—Access to Insight: online quotations at www.accesstoinsight.org
INTRODUCTION: GAUTAMA AND THE BUDDHA
1 Vidhurapandita Jataka: Jataka 545—Cowell 1895, 6: 276.
2 Bahiya Sutta: Udana 1: 10 (Ud 6)—Ireland 1997: 20.
3 This is Richard Gombrich’s rendering of the term in What the Buddha
Thought, p.151.
4 Bahiya Suttu: (Ud 6)—Ireland 1997: 21.
5 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 26 (I 167)—Gethin 2009: 186.
Quotations from the Ariyapariyesana Sutta and the Mahasaccaka Sutta
are drawn from Gethin’s translation of the same passages (where
parallels exist) in the context of the Bodhirajakumara Sutta—Majjhima
Nikaya 85.
6 Stephen Collins, “On the Very Idea of the Pali canon,” Journal of the Pali
Text Society 15 (1990): 89.
7 This date is proposed by Richard Gombrich in The Dating of the
p.1.
10 Dona Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 4: 36 (II 45)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi
2000: 88.
11 Mahapadana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 14 (II 13)—Walshe 1987: 203.
12 Ray, 1994: p.62.
13 Bahiya Sutta (Ud 6)—Ireland 1997: 21.
14 Ibid.
15 Rohitassa Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 2: 26 (I 62)—Gethin 2009: 210.
1: A WORLD IN FERMENT
1 Samyutta Nikaya 55: 21 (V 369).
2 Si-Yu-Ki—Beal 1906, 2: 13–14.
3 Cullavagga 7.1.1–2.
4 Si-Yu-Ki—Beal 1906, 1: l.
5 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 74).
6 Ambattha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 3 (I 91)—Walshe 1987: 114.
7 Nidana Katha—Jayawickrama 1990: 69.
8 Acchariya-abbhuta Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 123 (III 122)—Nyanamoli
and Bodhi 1995: 982.
9 Cullavagga 10.1.3 Vinaya—Horner 1992, 5: 354.
10 Sukhamala Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 38 (I 145)—Nyanaponika and
Bodhi 2000: 53.
11 Kama Sutra 2: 1, trans. Richard Burton.
12 Sukhamala Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya III 3: 38—Nyanaponika and Bodhi
2000: 54.
13 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 65)—Gethin 2009: 21.
14 Ibid.
15 Magandiya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 75 (I 504)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 609.
16 Sakkapanha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 21 (II 267)—Walshe 1987: 323.
17 Anguttara Nikaya 2: 230 (II 237)—Woodward 1932: II: 37.
18 Mahadukkhakkhanda Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 13 (I 87)—Nyanamoli and
Bodhi 1995: 181–2.
19 Dhammapada 103—Sangharakshita 2001: 43.
20 Ibid. 80—Sangharakshita 2001: 35.
21 Mahasaccaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 36 (I 246)—Gethin 2009: 183.
22 Atharva Veda: 3: 17, 4, trans. W. D. Whitney.
23 Mahasaccaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 36 (I 246)—Gethin 2009: 183.
24 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 74)—Gethin 2009: 28.
25 Pabajja Sutta: Sutta Nipata 422–3 (adapted).
26 Ambattha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 3 (I 92)—Walshe 1987: 114–15.
27 Agganna Sutta: Digha Nikaya 27 (III 83)—Gethin 2009: 120.
28 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 51)—Gethin 2009: 10.
29 Mahadukkhakkhanda Sutta: MN 13 (I 85)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
180.
30 Bhaddiya Thera: Theragatha 863, trans. Andrew Olendzki, Insight
2009: 261–2.
39 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN I 162)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 255.
40 Sukhamala Sutta (AN 146)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi 2000: 54.
41 Ibid.
42 Attadanda Sutta (Sn 935–9)—Olendzki: ATI.
43 Jeremiah 31: 33, King James Bible.
44 Acchariyaabbhuta Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 123 (III 123).
45 Tinakattham Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 15: 1 (II 177)—Bodhi 2000: 651.
46 Pabbata Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 15: 5 (II 181)—Bodhi 2000: 654. The
period.
37 Isigili Sutta (MN I 92)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 187.
38 Devadaha Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 101 (II 214)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 827.
39 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 53)—Gethin 2009: 12.
40 Jambuka Thera: Theragatha 283–4—Norman 1997, 1: 36.
41 Samannaphala Sutta (DN I 53). This amended translation is in
Bronkhorst 2007: 47.
42 Anguttara Nikaya 1:18 (I 32)—Woodward 1932, 1: 92.
43 Kalama Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 65 (I 189)—Gethin 2009: 252
(abridged).
44 Ibid. (I 190)—Gethin 2009: 254.
45 Khana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 35: 153 (IV 138)—Bodhi 2000: 1215.
46 Magandiya Sutta: Sutta Nipata 837.
47 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN I 164)—Gethin 2009: 176.
48 Ibid.
49 Ibid.
50 Brahmajala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 1 (I 38)—Bodhi 1998: 86.
51 Ibid. (I 35)—Bodhi 1998: 80.
52 Mokshadharma: Mahabharata 12. 212. 17.
53 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (I 164)—Gethin 2009: 177.
54 Upasiva-manavapuccha: Sutta Nipata 1070—Norman 1986: 170.
55 Attadanda Sutta: Sutta Nipata 938—Olendzki (ATI).
56 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (I 164, 165)—Gethin 2009: 177.
57 Vassakara Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 4: 187 (II 180)—Woodward 1992, 2:
187.
58 Pasadika Sutta: Digha Nikaya 29 (III 126)—Walshe 1987: 431.
59 Mandukya Upanishad 7—Olivelle 2008: 289.
60 Uddaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 35: 103 (IV 83)—Bodhi 2000: 1182.
61 Anguttara Nikaya 10: 190 (V 63)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi 2000: 246.
62 Latukikopama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 66 (I 456).
63 Mahasaccaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 36 (I 240)—Gethin 2009: 179.
64 Mahasihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 8 (I 165)—abridged.
65 Mahasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 12 (I 78)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 173.
66 Ibid. (MN I 79).
67 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 242)—Gethin 2009: 181.
68 Ibid. (MN I 243–4)—Gethin 2009: 181–2 (abridged).
69 Ibid. (MN I 245).
70 Ayaramga 1. 8. 7. 7–8.
71 Mahabharata 1. 81. 16 in Bronkhorst 1986: 46.
72 Mahasaccaka Sutta (I 245–6)—Gethin 2009: 182–3 (abridged).
73 Pancattaya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 102 (II 233).
74 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 246–7)—Gethin 2009: 183–4 (abridged).
75 Ibid. (MN I 247) 184.
76 Bhayabherava Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 4 (I 17–18)—Nyanamoli and
World, p.69.
80 Samyutta Nikaya 35: 117 (IV 97)—Bodhi 2000: 1191.
81 Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 19 (I 114).
82 Tevijja Sutta: Digha Nikaya 13 (I 251).
83 Dvedhavitakka Sutta (MN I 115).
84 Samyutta Nikaya 54: 8 (V 317)—Bodhi 2000: 1770.
85 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 247)—Gethin 2009: 184.
86 Dvedhavitakka Sutta (MN I 116)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 208.
87 Samyutta Nikaya 54: 8 (V 317)—Bodhi 2000: 1770.
88 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 246)—Gethin 2009: 183.
89 Samannaphala Sutta (DN I 75)—Gethin 2009: 29.
90 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 247)—Gethin 2009: 184.
91 Samannaphala Sutta (DN I 75)—Gethin 2009: 29.
92 Bodhirajakumara Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 85 (I 92)—Gethin 2009: 176.
93 Samyutta Nikaya 51: 11 (V 263)—Bodhi 2000: 1726.
94 Upakkilesa Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 128 (III 161)—Nyanamoli and
Bodhi 1995: 1015.
95 Dvedhavitakka Sutta (MN I 117)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 209.
96 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (I 167)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 259.
97 Atanatiya Sutta: Digha Nikaya 32—Walshe 1987: 474.
98 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (I 167)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 259.
99 Appativana Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 2: 1, 5 (I 50).
100 Mahagosinga Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 32 (I 219).
3: NIRVANA
1 Padhana Sutta: Sutta Nipata 425—Saddhatissa 1985: 48.
2 Ibid., Sn 426–8—Saddhatissa 1985: 48.
3 Godhika Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 23 (I 122)—Bodhi 2000: 214.
4 Manasa Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 15—Bodhi 2000: 205.
5 Batchelor 2004: 21.
6 Mahasamaya Sutta: Digha Nikaya 20 (II 262)—Walshe 1987: 320.
7 Padhana Sutta: Sn 442—Saddhatissa 1985: 49.
8 Ibid. 434, 443—Saddhatissa 1985: 48, 49.
9 Nidana Katha 74: The Story of Gotama Buddha, p.98.
10 Lalitavistara ch. 21: Bays 1983, O: 482.
11 Maradhitu Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 25 (I 127).
12 Ibid.
13 Padhana Sutta: Sn 447—Saddhatissa 1985: 49.
14 Sattavassanubandha Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 24 (I 124).
15 Maradhitu Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 25 (I 124)—Bodhi 2000: 217.
16 Mahasaccaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 36 (I 247–8)—Gethin 2009: 184.
17 Dhatuvibhanga Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 140 (III 243).
18 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 247)—Gethin 2009: 184.
19 Potthapada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 9 (I 184)—Walshe 1987: 162.
20 Ibid. (DN I 185)—Walshe 1987: 163.
21 Samyutta Nikaya 12: 66 (II 107)—Bodhi 2000: 604.
22 Maha Sakyamuni Gotamo Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 12: 10 (II 10)—Bodhi
2000: 537.
23 Ibid.
24 Samyutta Nikaya 12: 69 (I 118)—Bodhi 2000: 611.
25 Dhammapada 1—Sangharakshita 2001: 13.
26 Samyutta Nikaya 22: 26 (III 27–8), Samyutta Nikaya 14: 31 (II 31),
2009: 244.
33 Mahasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 12 (I 70)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 166.
34 Mahasaccaka Sutta (MN I 249)—Gethin 2009: 186.
35 Pathamaparinibbana Sutta: Udana 8: 1 (Ud 81).
36 Epithets collected by T. W. Rhys Davids, Early Buddhism, quoted in
1998: 162.
45 Nava Sutta: Sutta Nipata 319—Saddhatissa 1985: 35.
46 Samyutta Nikaya 12: 23 (II 32)—Gethin 2009: 215.
47 E.g. Culasakuludayi Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 79 (II 32)—Nyanamoli and
2009: 186.
50 Naga Sutta: Udana 4: 5 (Ud 41)—Ireland 1997: 58.
51 Catuma Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 67 (I 458)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
561.
52 Sanankumara Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 6: 11 (I 125)—Bodhi 2000: 247.
53 Kosala Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 10: 29 (V 58)—Woodward 1994: 41.
Various views of Brahma are found in both Buddhist and Brahminical
sources, offering a greater complexity than can be addressed here.
54 Ariyapariyesana Sutta (MN I 168–9)—Gethin 2009—p.187.
55 Ibid. (MN I 169)—Gethin 2009: 187–8.
56 Ibid. (MN I 170)—Gethin 2009: 188.
1995: 747.
15 Dhatuvibhanga Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 140 (III 238).
16 Culasunnata Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 121 (III 104).
17 Mahasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 12 (I 83)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 177.
18 Sakalika Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 4: 13 (I 245–6)—Bodhi 2000: 203.
19 Acchariya-abhuta Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 123 (III 124)—Nyanamoli and
475.
23 Mahavagga 4. 36. 3—Horner, 1993, 4: 341.
24 Umbarika-sihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 25 (III 38)—Walshe 1987: 386
(adapted).
25 Kutthi Sutta: Udana 5: 3 (Ud 48)—Ireland 1997: 66.
26 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 109)—Gethin 2009: 62.
27 Sonadanda Sutta (DN I 116)—Walshe 1987: 127.
28 Brahmayu Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 91 (I 369)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 748.
29 Aranavibhanga Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 139 (III 231)—Nyanamoli and
Buddhism, p.52.
43 Dhammapada 165—Sangharakshita 2001: 61.
44 Dhotaka-manavapuccha: Sutta Nipata 1064.
45 Ganakamoggallana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 107 (III 2)—Nyanamoli and
580.
48 Ibid. (abridged).
49 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 63)—Gethin 2009: 19.
50 Nakhasikha Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 13: 1 (II 134)—Bodhi 2000: 621.
51 Dhammapada 290—Sangharakshita 2001: 99.
52 Upali Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 56 (I 380).
53 Samyutta Nikaya 35: 136 (IV 127) trans. Masefield in Divine Revelation
1833.
64 Si-Yu-Ki: Beal 2: 145.
65 Jatila Sutta: Udana (Ud 64)—Ireland 1997: 63.
66 Mahavagga 1.15.7—Horner, 1993, 4: 35.
67 Gaya Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 8: 64 (IV 302) (abridged).
68 Samannaphala Sutta (DN I 78)—Gethin 2009: 31. See also the
223.
73 Mahavagga 1. 22. 4—Horner 1993, 4: 48.
74 Ibid. 1. 23. 5—Horner 1993, 4: 54.
75 Ibid. 1. 24. 4.
76 Anupada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 111 (III 25)—the Sutta’s title as
5: DIALOGUE
1 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (II 58)—Gethin 2009: 15.
2 Brahmajala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 1 (I 27)—Walshe 1987: 81.
3 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 26 (I 169–70)—Gethin 2009:
188.
4 Hatthaka Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 34 (I 136).
5 Sabhiya Sutta: Sutta Nipata 537—Saddhatissa 1985: 62.
6 Cula-Assapura Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 40 (I 281).
7 E.g. Dhammapada 154.
8 Enijhanga Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 1: 30 (I 16)—Bodhi 2000: 104.
9 Brahmajala Sutta (DN I 2–3)—Walshe 1987: 67.
10 Nalaka Sutta: Sutta Nipata 720—Olendzki: ATI.
11 Dutthatthaka Sutta: Sutta Nipata 781—Norman 1984: 130.
12 Brahmajala Sutta (DN I 40)—Walshe 1987: 87.
13 Kalahavivada Sutta: Sutta Nipata 867–8—Ireland: ATI.
14 Mahasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 12 (I 70)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 166.
15 Pali—English Dictionary, p.321—entry on “ditthi.”
16 Udumbarika-sihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 25 (III 38).
17 Culasaccaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 35 (I 228).
18 Mahasakuludayi Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 77 (II 2).
19 Mahaviyuha Sutta: Sutta Nipata 910—Norman 1986, II: 148.
20 Magandiya Sutta: Sutta Nipata 841—adapted from Saddhatissa 1985: 99.
21 Desana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 42: 7 (IV 317)—Bodhi 2000: 1340.
22 Kathavatthu Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 67—Woodward 1932: 179.
23 Mahasihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 8 (I 165).
24 Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 71 (I 482).
25 Aggivacchagotta Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 72 (I 487).
26 Potthapada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 9 (I 192)—Walshe 1987: 165.
27 Aggivacchagotta Sutta (MN I 487)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 593.
28 Mahanidana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 15 (II 66)—Walshe 1987: 226
(abridged).
29 Culadukkhakkhanda Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 14 (I 92)—Nyanamoli and
(adapted).
33 Udumbarika-sihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 25 (III 44)—Walshe 1987:
388.
34 Pathamananatthiya Sutta: Udana 6: 4 (Ud 66).
35 Brahmajala Sutta (DN I 21)—Walshe 1987: 78.
36 Vina Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya IV 35: 246 (IV 195).
37 Culasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 11 (I 66)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 161.
38 Alagadupama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 22 (I 135–6)—Gethin 2009: 162.
39 Samyutta Nikaya 22: 96 (III 144)—Bodhi 2000: 954.
40 Magandiya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 75 (I 503).
41 Ananda Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 44: 10 (IV 401).
42 Hamilton 2000: 23.
43 Potthapada Sutta (DN I 180).
44 Aggivacchagotta Sutta (MN I 485).
45 Acintiya Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 4: 77.
46 Culasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 11 (I 66) 38—Nyanamoli and
Bodhi 1995: 161.
47 Pabbatopama Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 3: 25 (I 101).
48 Kalakarama Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 22: 95 (III 140–41)—Gethin 2009:
221.
49 Ibid. (SN I 142)—Gethin 2009: 222.
50 Richard Gombrich’s rendering of the term in What the Buddha Thought,
p.114.
51 Mahadukkhasankhaya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 38—Nyanamoli and
Bodhi 1995: 351.
52 Aggivacchagotta Sutta (MN I 487)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 488.
53 Kaccanagotta Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 12: 15 (II 17)—Bodhi 2000: 544.
54 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 56: 11 (V 421)—
1995: 332.
56 Magandiya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 75 (I 504 and 507)—Nyanamoli and
Bodhi 1995: 609, 613.
57 Udumbarika-sihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 25 (I 56–7)—Walshe 1987:
393–4 (adapted).
58 Vajjiyamahita Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 10: 94 (V 190).
59 Udumbarika-sihanada Sutta (DN III 57)—Walshe 1987: 394.
60 Potthapada Sutta (DN I 190).
61 Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN V 422)—Gethin 2009: 245.
62 Dhammapada 169—Sangharakshita 2001: 62.
63 Devadaha Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 101 (II 218)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 829.
64 Ibid. (DN II 222)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 833.
65 Lekha Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 130 (I 283)—Woodward 1932: 262.
66 Dhammapada 1–2—Sangharakshita 2001: 13.
67 Vasettha Sutta: Sutta Nipata 653/Majjhima Nikaya 98 (II 196)—
1995: 806.
69 Suyagada 2, 6, 26–8, trans. Bollee; quoted in Bronkhorst 2007: 19.
70 Kakaupama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 21 (I 129)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 223.
71 Sivaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 36: 21 (IV 230)—Bodhi 2000: 1279.
72 Dhammapada 5—Sangharakshita 2001: 14.
73 Kundaliya Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 46: 6 (V 73–6)—Bodhi 2000: 1575.
74 Sammanaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 71)—Gethin 2009: 26.
75 Udumbarika-sihanada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 25 (III 38)—Walshe 1987:
385.
76 Sallatha Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 36: 6 (IV 207–8).
77 Gellanna Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 36: 8 (IV 212)—Bodhi 2000: 1267.
78 Sallatha Sutta (SN IV 209)—Bodhi 2000: 1264.
79 Sedaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 47: 20 (V 170).
80 Satipatthana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 10 (I 63)—Gethin 2009: 151.
81 Samyutta Nikaya 46: 53 (V 115)—Bodhi 2000: 1607.
82 Khana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 35: 153 (IV 138).
83 Samyutta Nikaya 46: 45 (V 111).
84 Talaputa Thera: Theragatha 1129–30—Norman 1997, 1: 108.
85 Somanassa Sutta: Itivuttaka 2: 37 (It 29)—Ireland 1997: 176.
86 Mahapajjapati-Gotami Theri, Therigatha 161—Norman 1997, 2: 188.
87 Magandiya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 75 (I 510)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 510.
88 Devadaha Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 101 (II 223)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 834.
89 Sona Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 6: 55 (III 374)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi
2000: 168.
90 Atthasalini—trans. Pe Maung Tin, The Expositor (London, 1920), p.153,
1995: 450.
95 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 26 (I 174) Nyanamoli and
Liberation, p.107.
97 Sumangalamata Theri: Therigatha 24—Norman 1997, 2: 167.
98 Dhammacetiya Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 89 (II 121)—Nyanamoli and
Asankhyatasamyutta.
119 Lekha Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 3: 130 (I 283)—Woodward 1932: 283.
120 Upasiva-manavapuccha: Sutta Nipata 1076—E. M. Hare: Woven
1995: 602.
6: THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY
1 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 105–6)—Gethin 2009: 60.
2 Khaggavisana Sutta: Sutta Nipata 42—Norman 1984: 7.
3 Ibid. Sn 36, 39 and 53–4—Norman 1984: 7–8.
4 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 101)—Gethin 2009: 58. See
also Magga Sutta: Sutta Nipata 501 for the same instruction applied to
the monks while Gautama was living.
5 Kakucupama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 21 (I 124).
6 Bhaddali Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 65 (I 437–8).
7 Talaputa Thera: Therigatha 1118: Norman 1997, 1: 107.
8 Sariputta Sutta: Sutta Nipata 970.
9 Ariyavamsa Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 4: 28 (II 27).
10 Manapadayi Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 5: 44 (III 48).
11 Jivaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya (I 369)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
474.
12 Mahakassapa Thera: Theragatha 1056.
13 Mahavagga 1. 11. 1.
14 Yasha Sutta, Anguttara Nikaya 8: 86 (IV 341).
15 Anguttara Nikaya 10: 30 (V 65)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi 2000: 248.
16 Vitakka Sutta: Itivuttaka 2: 38 (It 39).
17 Sonadanda Sutta: Digha Nikaya 4 (I 116)—Walshe 1987: 128.
18 E.g. Samyutta Nikaya 54: 11 (V 326)—Bodhi 2000: 1778.
19 Samyutta Nikaya 45: 11 (V 13)—Bodhi 2000: 1531.
20 Nagita Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 6: 42 (III 342).
21 Parileyya Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 22: 81 (III 94)—Bodhi 2000: 921.
22 Katthaharaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 7: 18 (I 180–181)—trans.
Olendzki: ATI.
23 E.g. Dvedhavitakka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 19 (I 118)—Nyanamoli and
1995: 300.
32 Cittaka Thera: Theragatha 22—Olendzki (1996).
33 Culaka Thera: Theragatha 211—Olendzki: ATI.
34 Talaputa Thera: Theragatha 1137–8—Norman 1997 1: 109.
35 Cullavagga 7. 1. 6—Horner 1993, 5: 258–9.
36 Karaniya Metta Sutta: Sutta Nipata 149—Sangharakshita (2004), p.6.
37 Revata Thera: Theragatha 648—Norman 1997, 1: 70.
38 Bhuta Thera: Theragatha 522–5—Olendzki: ATI.
39 Kappatakura Thera: Theragatha 199–200—Norman, 1997 1: 27.
40 Maha-Moggallana Thera: Theragatha 1146—Norman, 1997 1: 111.
41 Sirimanda Thera: Theragatha 452—Olendzki: ATI.
42 Paccaya Thera: Theragatha 223—Norman 1997, 1: 30.
43 Yodhajiva Sutta (1): Anguttara Nikaya 5: 75 (III 89)—Woodward 1988:
78.
44 Rajadatta Thera: Theragatha 316.
45 Ajakalapaka Sutta: Udana 1: 7 (Ud 5)—Ireland 1997: 17.
46 Atanatiya Sutta: Digha Nikaya 32 (III 195, 204).
47 Punnabbasu Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 1: 10 (I 210)—Bodhi 2000: 310.
48 Upatthana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 9: 2 (I 198)—Bodhi 2000: 294.
49 Mahavagga 63. 3—Horner 1993, 4: 111.
50 Adhimutta Thera: Theragatha 705–25.
51 Subha Jinakambavanika Theri: Therigatha 383—Norman 1997, 2: 213.
52 Anguttara Nikaya 10: 99 (V 201).
53 Samyutta Nikaya 21: 8 (II 281)—Bodhi 2000: 719.
54 Dasadhamma Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 10:48 (V 87)—Woodward 1994:
62.
55 Uposatha Sutta: Udana 5: 5 (Ud 51)—Ireland 1997: 73.
56 Dasadhamma Sutta (AN V 87)—Woodward 1994: 62.
57 Mahapadana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 14 (II 49)—Walshe 1987: 219.
58 Sona Sutta: Udana V 6 (Ud 57). The monk recites the Atthakavagga
n.3.
70 Mitta Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 7: 35 (IV 30)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi
2000: 220.
71 Sigalaka Sutta: Digha Nikaya 31 (III 187)—Walshe 1987: 465.
72 Meghiya Sutta: Udana 4: 1 (Ud 35)—Ireland 1997: 52 (abridged).
73 Vangisa Thera: Theragatha 1253–5—Norman 1997, 1: 119.
74 Ibid. 1239 and 40—Norman 1997, 1: 118.
75 Ibid. 1273—Norman, 1997 1: 121.
76 Parayana Thuti Gatha: Sutta Nipata 1142.
77 Samannaphala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 2 (I 51)—Gethin 2009: 9.
78 Mahapunnama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 109 (III 15).
79 Samannaphala Sutta: (DN 1 101)—Gethin 2009: 58.
80 Anapanasati Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 118 (III 79)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 941.
81 Vimamsaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 47 (I 320)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 415.
82 Vinaya I 49. 20. 46.10. Cited in Gombrich, What the Buddha Thought,
p.16.
83 Suttavibhangha 3.11–21.
84 Catuma Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 67 (I 458)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
561.
85 Anguttara Nikaya (III 5–6)—Gethin 2009: 259.
86 Pilahaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 17: 5 (II 228–9).
87 Culasihanada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 11 (I 67)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 162.
88 Sallekha Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 8 (I 43)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
127.
89 Anguttara Nikaya 4: 133 (II 135).
90 Alagaddupama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 22 (I 135)—Gethin 2009: 160.
91 Gotami Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 8: 53 (IV 280) and Satthusasana Sutta:
777.
99 Vatthupama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 7 (I 37), i.e. the traditional chant, the
1995: 902.
102 Ibid. (II 25)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 899.
103 Vangisa Thera: Theragatha 1231: Norman 1997, 1: 117.
104 Cunda Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 47:13 (V 162)—Bodhi 2000: 1642.
105 Magha Sutta: Sutta Nipata 503.
106 Mahagosinga Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 32 (1 212ff.)—Nyanamoli and
4. 2–5.
122 Mahavagga 10. 4. 6—Horner 1993, 4: 503.
123 Naga Sutta: Udana 4: 5 (Ud 41).
124 Ibid.—Ireland 1997: 59.
125 Manusmriti V 147 trans. Basham in The Wonder That Was India, p.182.
126 Dhammapala, Paramadipani, trans. Caroline Rhys Davids, in Norman
1997, 2: 4.
127 Blackstone 1998: 9.
128 Soma Theri: Therigatha 61—Norman 1997, 2: 176.
129 Blackstone 1998: 112.
130 Ibid. p.109.
131 Samyutta Nikaya 5: 3 (I 130), trans. Andrew Olendzki, Insight Journal,
1834.
4 Dhaniya Sutta: Sn 31—Norman 1984: 5.
5 Cullavagga 6. 4. 8—Horner 1992, 5: 222.
6 Si-Yu-Ki XX—Beal I: Ixliv.
7 Sumangala-vilasini 1: 45 (Buddhaghosa’s Commentary on the Digha-
1995: 342.
14 Sudatta Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya (I 212).
15 Sumangala-vilasini 1: 46.
16 Ariyapariyesana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 26 (I 161)—Nyanamoli and
484.
24 Dhammapada 308—Sangharakshita 2001: 105.
25 Anguttara Nikaya 5: 58 (III 75)—Hare 1989, 3: 62.
26 Ibid. (III 77), 3: 64.
27 Brahmajala Sutta: Digha Nikaya 1 (I 9–11): Walshe 1987: 71–2
(abridged).
28 Bronkhorst 2007: 271.
29 Brahmajala Sutta (I 10): Walshe 1987: 71–2.
30 Sammaparibbajaniya Sutta: Sutta Nipata 360.
31 Vasettha Sutta: Sutta Nipata 648/Majjhima Nikaya 98 (II 126)—
1995: 763.
36 Kutadanta Sutta: Digha Nikaya 5 (I 134)—Walshe 1987: 134–5.
37 Canki Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 95 (II 167)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995:
777.
38 Brahmayu Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 91 (II 144)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi
1995: 753.
39 Sundarikabharadhvaja Sutta Nipata 481.
40 Assalayana Sutta (MN II 148).
41 Kevaddha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 11 (I 221)—Walshe 1987: 178
(abridged).
42 Tevijja Sutta: Digha Nikaya 13 (I 238)—Walshe 1987: 188.
43 Pingya-manavapuccha Parayana Thuti Gatha: Sutta Nipata 1135.
44 Apannaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 60 (I 401).
45 Agganna Sutta: Digha Nikaya 27 (III 81)—Gethin 2009: 118.
46 Ambattha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 4 (I 90)—Walshe 1987: 113.
47 Kutananta Sutta: Digha Nikaya 5 (I 144–7).
48 Cullavagga 6. 4. 2.
49 Sudatta Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 10: 8 (I 211)—Bodhi 2000: 312
(abridged).
50 Dhammapadathakatha (III 440) 21: 1—Burlingame 1990, 3: 171.
51 Ratana Sutta: Sutta Nipata 222–4.
52 Samyutta Nikaya 19: 10 (II 258)—Bodhi 2000: 703.
53 Si-Yu-Ki—Beal 1906, 2: 156.
54 Sonadanda Sutta: Digha Nikaya 4 (I 116)—Walshe 1987: 117–18.
55 Tirokudda Kanda Sutta: Petavatthu (Khuddhaka Nikaya) 1: 5.
56 Saleyyaka Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 41 (I 285).
57 Anguttara Nikaya 8: 36 (IV 241).
58 Mahanama Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 55: 21 (V 370–71)—Bodhi 2000
(adapted).
59 Susima Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 2: 29 (I 64–5)—Bodhi 2000: 160
(adapted).
60 Dhammapada 195–6.
61 Sigalovada Sutta: Digha Nikaya 31 (III 188–9)—Gethin 2009: 135.
62 Anguttara Nikaya 4: 61 (II 66)—Nyanaponika and Bodhi 2000: 99.
63 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 86)—Gethin 2009: 48
(abridged).
77 Appaka Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 3: 6 (I 168–9).
78 Appamada Sutta (II): Samyutta Nikaya 3: 18 (I 87).
79 Kannakatthala Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 90 (II 128)—Nyanamoli and
(abridged).
83 Pabbatopama Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 3: 25 (I 102)—Bodhi 2000: 192–3.
84 Kosala Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 5: 49 (III 57).
85 Kannakatthala Sutta (MN II 126)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 734.
86 Bandhala Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 3:10 (I 76–7)—Bodhi 2000: 172.
87 Mahadukkhakkhanda Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 13 (I 87)—Nyanamoli and
Buddhism, pp.82–3.
91 Agganna Sutta (DN III 92).
92 This rendition (and the accompanying interpretation) is taken from
1995: 711.
99 Ibid. (II 104)—Nyanamoli and Bodhi 1995: 715.
100 Dhammapada 5—Sangharakshita 2001: 14.
101 Angulimala Sutta (II 103).
8: CRISIS
1 Mahavagga 5. 1. 1—Horner 1993, 4: 236.
2 Janavasabha Sutta: Digha Nikaya 18 (I 219)—Walshe 1987: 300.
3 Baddha Theri, Therigatha (110).
4 Punnovada Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 145 (III 270).
5 Parayanavagga (Introduction): Sutta Nipata (978).
6 Jara Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 48: 41 (V 216–17).
7 Gelana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 36: 7 (IV 211)—Bodhi 2000: 1266.
8 Parapariya Thera: Theragatha 920–48.
9 Samyutta Nikaya 16: 8 (II 208–9)—Bodhi 2000: 670.
10 Cf. Samyutta Nikaya ch. 17: Labhasakkarasamyutta—Bodhi 2000: 700ff.
11 Samyutta Nikaya 17: 8 (II 230)—Bodhi 2000: 685.
12 Bhaddali Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 65 (I 445).
13 Samagama Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 104 (II 243–4)—Nyanamoli and
translation is “boar-softness.”
39 Ibid. (DN II 127–8)—Gethin 2009: 73.
40 Ibid. (DN II 132)—Gethin 2009: 75.
41 Ibid. (DN II 134)—Gethin 2009: 77.
42 Ibid. (DN II 137)—Gethin 2009: 78.
43 Ibid. (DN II 138)—Gethin 2009: 79.
44 Ibid. (DN II 140)—Gethin 2008: 80.
45 Ibid. (DN II 141)—Gethin 2009: 81.
46 Ibid. (DN II 143–4)
47 Janussoni Sutta: Anguttara Nikaya 4:184 (II 175)—Gethin 2009: 258.
48 Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN II 147)—Gethin 2009: 84.
49 Mahasudassana Sutta: Digha Nikaya (II 199)—Gethin 2008: 115.
50 Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN II 148)—Gethin 2009: 84.
51 Ibid. (DN II 150–51)—Gethin 2009: 86.
52 Ibid. (DN II 151)—Gethin 2009: 87.
53 Ibid. (DN II 154)—Gethin 2009: 88.
54 Ibid. (DN II 155–6)—Gethin 2009: 89.
55 Gombrich, What the Buddha Thought, p.108.
56 Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN II 156)—Gethin 2009: 89.
57 Parinibbana Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 6: 15 (I 159)—Bodhi 2000: 253.
10: GAUTAMA’S LEGACY
1 Mahaparinibbana Sutta: Digha Nikaya 16 (II 156).
2 Ananda Thera: Theragatha 1046—Norman 1997, 1: 101.
3 Ananda Thera: Theragatha 1034—Olendzki: ATI.
4 Anando Sutta: Samyutta Nikaya 9: 5 (I 200)—Bodhi 2000: 297.
5 Gopakamoggallana Sutta: Majjhima Nikaya 108 (III 8)—Nyanamoli and
Post Colonial Theory, India and the “Mystic East” (London and New
York, 1999), p.138.
5 Dipavamsa 4, 90–91; quoted in Sujato 2006: epigraph.
6 Verse ascribed to the Indian monk Bodhidharma.
7 Samuel 1993.
Index
Index Notes: G is used in places as an abbreviation for Gautama. Page
references for footnotes appear in italics. Extended discussions on indexed
subjects, other than those entered under Gautama, are in bold.
A
Abhidharma 165
Adhimutta 190, 248
Afghanistan 304, 311, 329
Agganna Sutta 243
Ajakalapaka 188–9
Ajatashatru, King 29–30, 58–9, 257, 260–4, 268–9, 271–2, 273, 275–6,
277, 279, 280–1, 311
Ajita of the Blanket of Hair 58–9
Ajivakas 60–1, 104–5, 122, 148, 166 see also shramanas
alms 39, 48, 51, 53, 131, 134, 180, 181, 182, 185, 191, 193, 214, 218–19,
229, 242, 254, 260, 289 see also monastic communities;
Shakyaputra
shramanas; shramanas
Ambapali 282–4
Ambattha 28, 44, 45, 225
Ambedkar, Dr. 334
Amitabha 331, 332
Ananda 5, 21, 22, 24, 107, 133, 135, 151, 182–3, 194, 195–6, 199, 203,
211, 212, 252–3, 255, 265, 271, 302
and Gautama’s final journey 275, 276, 280, 281, 284–7, 289, 290, 291–4,
295, 299
Anathapindika 205–6, 226–7, 234, 235, 236, 245
Angulimala 234, 245–9
animals see natural world
Anuruddha 17, 135, 203, 208, 293, 296, 299
Arada Kalama 39, 63–6, 67, 77, 102, 140, 290
arahants 69, 116, 117, 118, 130, 138, 175, 199–200, 201, 258, 276, 301–2,
308 see also Shakyaputra shramanas
Araka 32
Arthashastra 238, 242, 312
Aryan 119–20, 222
Aryas (race) 40–5
Asanga 316
ascetics 46, 59–61, 67–8, 124–5, 157, 169, 180, 232, 242, 263 see also
Group of Five; Jains; self-mortification;
Shakyaputra shramanas; shramanas
Ashoka, Emperor 6, 52, 244–5, 311–14, 323–4, 326–7, 329
Ashokavadana 304
Ashvaghosha 306
Ashvajit 68, 105, 118, 129
Assalayana 223
Asuras 41
atman (selfhood or soul) 58–9, 64, 66, 91, 97, 147–56, 231, 311 see also
dependent arising; Dharma
Attadanda Sutta 30, 33–4
Avanti 251, 275
Awakening see Dharma; dhyana; Englightenment (G’s); Gautama; Path to
Enlightenment
B
Baddha 252
Bahiya 2–4, 5, 11–12, 110, 173, 322
Bandhula 266
begging see alms Bhaddali 180, 186
Bhaddiya 30, 68, 105
Bhagavat see Buddhas; Gautama
Bhagavati Sutra 60
bhikkhus and bhikkunis 121
Bhuta 186
Bihar 279, 297
Bimbisara, King 128–9, 132, 134, 204, 205, 229, 236, 251–2, 257, 260–1,
275
Blackstone, Kathryn 210
Bloom, Harold 9
Bodh Gaya 78–9, 83, 103, 297–8, 300
Bodhi Tree 81, 89, 95, 96, 102, 297
bodhisattvas 145, 244, 305, 308, 309, 310, 333 see also Universal Ruler
Brahma Sahampati 100–1
Brahmadatta 139–40, 142
Brahmayu 223
Brahminism 12, 28, 35, 40, 41–6, 64, 69, 101, 107–8, 112, 159, 166, 180,
209–10, 381 219–25, 234, 238, 324–5, 326 see also Vedas and Vedic faith
Bronkhorst, Johannes 77, 169–70, 220
Buddhacarita 306
Buddhaghosha 161, 216–17, 327
Buddhas 7, 10–11, 23, 38, 53–4, 308–9 see also Bodhisattvas; Dharma;
Enlightenment
(G’s); Gautama; Mahayanas; Path to Enlightenment; Refuge
Buddhism (world overview) 315–20
China 330–2, 333
East Asia and Japan 332
India 323–6, 328, 331, 333, 334
“Silk Road” 329–30
South East Asia 327–8, 332
Sri Lanka 326–7, 328
Tibet and Mongolia 333 see also Dharma; Enlightenment; Gautama;
Mahayanas; monastic communities; Path to
Enlightenment; Shakyaputra shramanas
Burma 29, 318, 327
C
Cambodia 317, 328
Canda 212
caste system (varnas) 43–4, 111, 122, 179, 192, 221, 222, 243, 325, 334 see
also Brahminism
Ch’an school 331
Chandaka 24, 47, 48, 135, 295
Chandragupta Maurya 311, 312
Chenrezig 333
China 18, 317, 318, 330–1, 333
Chunda (metalsmith) 289, 290
Chunda (monk) 271
clothing 2, 23, 48, 53, 117, 118, 123, 134, 139, 141, 162, 180, 185, 191,
202, 204, 211, 254, 259, 260, 290, 298
communism 317
confession 166, 192–3, 233, 264
Confucius 18, 330
D
Dalai Lama 333
death and final journey (G’s) 273–99
dependent arising 98–100, 109, 115–16, 131, 140, 146, 152, 158, 160, 172–
3, 214, 232–3, 309, 315 see also atman; Dharma; Path to Enlightenment
Devadatta 24, 135, 202, 203, 252, 256, 257–60
Dhamma see Dharma
Dhammacakkapavattana Sutta 106
Dhammadinna 122–3
Dhammapada 137, 192
Dhaniya 213–15
Dharma 3, 4, 9, 38, 71, 94, 96–9, 102, 103, 117–18, 119–20, 122, 130, 147–
56, 215, 235, 244, 264, 301–3, 315, 320–1 see also Ashoka, Emperor;
atman; dependent
arising; Enlightenment (G’s); Gautama; Path to
Enlightenment
dharma eye 119, 129, 264, 305
Dharmaguptaka 303
dharmakaya (dharma-body) 305, 307, 309 see also Mahayanas
dhyana 27, 77–9, 87–9, 170–2, 190, 296, 320 see also Dharma;
Enlightenment (G’s); meditation; Path to Enlightenment
Digha-karayana 266–7, 268
Dipavamsa 327
Dogen 316
Dona 10–11
dukkha (suffering) 32, 33, 90, 96, 115, 117, 119–20
E
East Asia 298, 332
Eight-fold Path see Path to Enlightenment
Enlightenment (G’s) 4, 9, 10, 207, 273
and Mara 82–7
meditative stages (dhyana) 87–92
realizing Dharma 92–4
reflection on attainment 95–9 see also dependent arising; Dharma;
meditation;
Path to Enlightenment
equanimity 171–2 see also Enlightenment (G’s); Path to Enlightenment
eternalism see atman
ethics 158–61 see also dependent arising; Dharma; Path to
Enlightenment
F
Fa-hsien 15–16, 18, 216, 259, 270, 326
fasting 70
“Fear and Dread” 73–8 see also wilderness living
“Final Nirvana” 273–96, 298–300
fire
metaphors for reality 89, 90, 154–5
worship and sacrifice 41, 73, 82, 84, 124–5, 127
“First Council” 301–3
food see alms
forest see wilderness living
Four Noble Truths 106, 115, 119, 222, 247, 281 see also Dharma;
Enlightenment (G’s); Path to
Enlightenment
Four Sights 7, 31, 38
“Fruits of the Ascetic Life” 262
funeral (G’s) 244, 291–2, 293, 299, 300–1 see also stupas and relics
G
gana communities 19–20, 29, 37
Ganges, River 19, 55, 113–15, 281
Gautama 2, 4, 10–11, 31–3, 73–6, 182–5, 188–90, 252, 304–10, 316, 320–1
ablution in Ganges 114–15
advice to Kalamas 61–2
and Angulimala “the killer” 245–9
and Bahiya 2–4, 5, 11–12, 110, 173, 322
becomes a shramana 46–9
birth of 21–2
and Brahmins 221–5
cosmological and religious background 35–42
daily routine 216–18
death and final journey 8, 273–99
death of closest disciples 270–2
dhyana (“absorption”) 77–9, 87–9, 170–2
dispute with Devadatta 257–61
Enlightenment 4, 9, 10, 82–99, 207, 273
experience in Gaya forest 73–8
fasting 70
funeral 244, 291–2, 293, 299, 300–1
and householders 229, 230–5
and Koliya conflict 136–8
and Mara 82–7, 88
old age and succession issues 252–3, 256–9
physical appearance and bearing 107–10
question of selfhood 147–56
region of birth 15–18
return to Shakya 133–8
searches for a guru 54–5
self-mortification 67–72, 148–9, 156
supernormal abilities 124–7, 134–5, 220, 227–30, 231, 239, 319
teachings 99–102, 110–13, 115–21, 122, 123, 177–8, 197–202, 217, 301–
2, 303
upbringing 22–7
wife 23–4, 27, 47, 136 see also Ajatashatru, King; Ananda;
Anathapindika; Ashoka, Emperor; Bimbisara,
King; Buddhas; Buddhism (world overview);
dependent arising; Dharma; Group of Five;
Kapilavastu; Mahayana beliefs; Mara; meditation;
monastic communities; nuns; Path to
Enlightenment; Prasenajit, King; Rahula (G’s son);
Rajagriha; Shakya; Shariputra; Shayaputra
shramanas; shramanas; spirits and gods;
Suddhodana (G’s father); wilderness living
Gautama clan 2, 8, 16, 136–7
Gaya 42, 68, 72, 73–8, 83, 124, 126, 128, 189–90, 227, 237, 320
Gethin, Rupert 77, 171
Glass Palace Chronicles 29
Godakka 185
Goldstein, Joseph 318
Gombrich, Richard 112, 154, 175, 212, 224
government and monarchy 27–30, 243–5, 260–3, 317–18 see also
Ajatashatru, King; Ashoka, Emperor;
Bimbisbara, King; Prasenajit, King
Greece 34–5
Group of Five 68, 72, 102, 105–6, 115–16
gurus 54–5, 63–7 see also shramanas
H
Harrappan civilization 38–9, 40
Heraclitus 97
Hinduism 41, 73, 95, 113, 298, 306, 323, 325, 326, 334
householders 118, 120, 121–2, 123, 132, 141, 182, 193, 199, 208, 214–15,
218–19, 230–5, 239, 244, 271, 280, 282, 308 see also alms; Anathapindika;
clothing
Hsuan Tsang 16, 55–6, 73, 103–4, 124, 127, 229, 260, 270, 274, 275, 324
Hua-yen school 331
Hui Neng 316
I
India (post Emperor Ashoka) 323–6, 328, 331, 333, 334
Isipatana park 102, 105, 115, 117, 123
J
Jains 39, 53, 59–60, 67, 78, 122, 129, 132, 133, 144, 148, 159, 166, 180,
192, 204, 210, 233, 255–6, 324
Jambuka 60
Japan 298, 318, 332
Jataka-mala 305, 329
Jatilas see Kasyapa (Uruvilva priests)
Jesus 9
Jesus Sutras 330
Jetavana 146, 162, 189, 205–6, 215–16, 235, 236, 265 see also
Anathapindika; monastic communities;
Shakyaputra shramanas; Venuvana Jews 18, 35
Jivaka 262–3
Jodo-shin-shu school 332
joy 167–8 see also Path to Enlightenment
jungle see wilderness living
K
Kaccanagotta 155
Kalamas 61–2
Kaludayin 133–4
Kama Sutra 22–3
Kanthaka 47, 48
Kapilavastu region 15–19, 39, 133, 135, 270, 300 see also Shakya
Kappatakura 187
karma 37, 39–40, 58, 59–60, 93, 132, 151, 159–61, 174, 232–3, 262, 269,
313, 320 see also atman; dependent arising; Dharma; Path
to Enlightenment; rebirth Kashmir 329
Kasi 29, 114, 251, 262
Kasyapa (Uruvilva priests) 124–5, 126–7, 128
Kaundaniya 68, 105, 115–16
Kausambi dispute 207–9
Kolita 129–30
Koliyas 20, 21, 23, 29, 51, 134, 136–7
Korea 298, 318, 332
Kosala 1, 2, 28–9, 41, 114, 237–8, 251, 262, 264, 268–9, 311 see also
Prasenajit, King
Kotigama 281
Kshatriyas 22, 43, 44, 48, 191, 234, 268, 277, 283
Kukai 316
Kunaliya 56
Kushan Empire 329
Kusinagara 291, 293
L
Lalitavistara “Living out the Game” 85, 86, 306–7
Laos 328
Licchavis 219, 277, 283
Linga Purana 325
lotus imagery 101–2
Lumbini 300
M
Magandiya 156, 166
Maghada 29–30, 55, 132, 204, 233, 251–2, 261–2, 280–1 see also
Ajatashatru, King; Bihar; Bimbisara, King; Rajagriha
Mahabharata 73, 225, 306, 325
Mahabodhi temple 297–8
Mahakasyapa 56, 118, 181, 202, 203, 254, 259, 274, 301–2
Mahamaya see Maya
Mahanama 15, 17, 24, 68, 105, 138, 230, 265, 270
Mahapadana Sutta 7
Mahaparinibbana Sutta 273
Mahasanghikas 303, 305
Mahasudassana 293
Mahavagga 106, 116–17, 123, 124, 128, 130–1, 204, 206, 214, 226–7, 236
Mahavastu 306
Mahavira 59–60, 144, 159, 210, 255–6
Mahayana school 145, 174–5, 244, 306, 307–11, 328, 329, 330, 332, 333
Maitreya 54
Makkhali Gosala 60, 61
Mallas 20, 51, 288–9, 291, 293, 300
Mallika 236, 241
Malukyaputta 147, 152–3
Mandukya Upanishad 66
Mara 9, 82–7, 88, 177, 206–7, 210, 213–14, 286, 304 see also
Enlightenment (G’s); spirits and gods
Maudgalyayana 130–1, 136, 139, 187, 202, 203, 229, 252, 256, 258, 271–2
Mauryan Empire 311, 312, 324 see also Ashoka, Emperor Maya (G’s
mother) 21–2, 136
meditation 26–7, 38, 39, 63–7, 69, 148, 185–7, 197, 286, 290, 295–6, 309,
310, 320
Arada Kalama and Udraka Reamaputra 63–7
daily routine (G’s) 216–17
dhyana 27, 77–9, 87–9, 170–2, 190, 296, 320
experience in Gaya forest (G’s) 73–9
Path to Enlightenment 161–2, 167–8, 169–75 see also Dharma;
Enlightenment (G’s); wilderness living
Megasthenes 46, 53, 54
Meghiya 195, 196
Middle Way 75, 155, 158, 166 see also atman; Dharma; Enlightenment
(G’s); Path to Enlightenment
Milarepa 316
“Mind Only” school (Cittamatra or Yogacara) 309
mindfulness 74–5, 162–4, 170, 216–17, 240–1, 278, 319 see also dependent
arising; Dharma; karma; meditation; Path to Enlightenment
miracles see supernormal abilities
Mohenjo Daro 38
monastic code see Vinaya
monastic communities 178–80, 191–6, 204–9, 254–5, 285, 314
after Gautama’s death 301–4, 307
Buddhist schools today 315–20
Gautamas methods of teaching 197–202 see also alms; Buddhism (world
overview); clothing; Jetavana; meditation; Path to Enlightenment;
Shakyadhitas; Shakyaputra shramanas; Vinaya; wilderness living
Mongolia 318, 333
monks see Ajivakas; Ananda; ascetics; Bhraminism; Brahmins; Devadatta;
Gautama; Jains; Kasyapa; Mahakasyapa; Maudgalyayana; monastic
communities; Shakyaputra shramanas; Shariputra; shramanas; yogis
Muslims 325–6, 330
N
Nadika 282
Nagarjuna 307, 309, 316
nagas 95, 124–5, 189–90, 227, 229 see also spirits and gods
Nagita 195
Nalanda 307
Nanda (G’s half-brother) 24, 135, 191
Naranjara, River 72, 78, 82, 96, 124
natural world 95, 185–6, 209 see also wilderness living
Nichiren 332
Nidana Katha 85, 134
nidanas 99
Nigrodha 144
nihilism 37, 59, 148 see also atman
Nirvana 46–7, 121, 155, 171, 177, 194, 215, 273 see also atman; Dharma;
Enlightenment (G’s);
“Final Nirvana”; Gautama; Path to Enlightenment
“Noble Quest” 31, 32–3, 46, 63, 79, 100–1, 106, 214
nuns 27, 168, 190, 195, 207, 209–12, 252 see also alms; Ambapali;
Buddhism (world overview); monastic communities; Prajapati;
Shakyputra shramanas; Therigatha
O
Okkaka, King 28, 45
P
Paccaya 187
Padmasambhava 316, 333
Pakkha 168
Pancala 29
Parinirvana see death and final journey (G’s)
Parsva 39
Patacara 207
Pataligama (Patna) 55, 280–1
Patanjali 40, 45
Path to Enlightenment 106, 115, 279, 294, 315
concentration 169–70
developing the mind 161–2
energy 166–7
equanimity 171–2
ethical precepts 158–61
investigating experience 165–6
joy 167–8
mindfulness 162–4, 170
tranquility 168–9
wisdom and realization 172–5 see also Dharma; Enlightenment (G’s);
“Fear and
Dread”; meditation Pava 289
Persia 18, 40, 261, 329
Phussa 253, 259
Pingiya 113, 197, 224, 304
Piyadassi see Ashoka, Emperor
Potthapada 152, 157
Prajapati (G’s stepmother) 22, 24, 47, 135, 166, 200, 210–11
Prasenajit, King 168, 182, 235–43, 245, 248, 251, 262, 264–8
pratyekabuddhas 53–4 see also buddhas; Gautama
psycology (modern) 319
Pukkusa 290
Punna 252
Purana 302
Purana Mahakasyapa 59
Pushyamitra 324
R
Rahula (G’s son) 27, 47, 136, 200–1
Rahulamata (G’s wife) 23–4, 27, 47, 136
Rajadatta 188
Rajagriha 55–7, 66, 128–33, 229, 252, 273, 279, 300 see also Ajatashatru,
King; Bimbisara, King; Venuvana
Rama 66 Ramayana 306, 325
Ray, Reginald 11, 306
rebirth 25, 36–7, 40, 58, 83, 89–90, 93, 113–15, 132, 151, 230–1, 282 see
also atman; dependent arising; Dharma; karma; Path to Enlightenment
Refuge (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha) 121–2, 123, 203, 214–15, 225, 231,
258, 290, 315–17 see also Gautama
renunciation relics 203, 270, 300–1, 304, 308
renunciation 119, 120–2, 131, 141–2, 178–81, 187–8, 213–14, 259–60 see
also monastic communities; refuge; Shakyaputra shramanas; wilderness
living
Revata 186, 203
Rig Veda 40
robes see clothing
Rohini, River 16, 21, 136–8
Roja 110
S
Sabhiya 142
Saccaka 69, 144–5, 155–6
sacrifices 37, 41, 42, 52–3, 74, 111–12, 124, 127, 128, 159, 219, 220, 225,
238, 242, 324 see also Brahminism; spirits and gods
Samboghakaya 308, 309 see also Mahayana
Sammanaphala Sutta 264
samsara 36, 46, 48, 89–90, 120, 231, 301 see also Refuge; renunciation
Sangha 120, 315–17 see also Dharma; Gautama; monastic
communities; Refuge; Shakyaputra shramanas;
wilderness living
Sangharakshita 9
sangharamas see Jetavana; monastic communities; Venuvana
Sanjaya Belatthaputta 129, 130–1, 139–40
Sarnath 102, 105, 122–3, 214, 300 see also Isipatana park
Sarvastivada school 303, 305
Satipatthana Sutta 19
Schumann, H. W. 16
self-mortification 56, 67–72, 115, 148–9, 156, 187
selfhood or soul see atman
serpent and snake imagery 95, 124–5, 189–90, 206–7, 229, 237
“Setting in Motion the Wheel of the Teaching” 106, 115–16
sex and celibacy 46, 132, 158, 187–8, 198–9, 211
Shakya 2, 16, 17, 19–21, 27–9, 30, 37–8, 41, 44–5, 133–8, 264–7, 268–70
Shakyadhitas see nuns Shakyamuni 307
Shakyaputra shramanas 121, 123, 128, 129, 131, 132–3, 135, 138, 139–40,
141–4, 178–81, 202–6, 215, 218–20, 225, 239, 252, 254–5, 300–1
Gautama’s final meetings with 278–9, 281, 282–4, 287, 288, 293–6
Gautamas methods of teaching 197–202, 303 see also alms; monastic
communities; Enlightenment; renunciation; wilderness living
Shakyavardana 37–8
Shariputra 68, 94, 130–1, 136, 139, 202–3, 235, 252, 256–7, 258, 270–1,
279
Shingon school 332
Shiva 325
shramanas 12, 38–40, 45–6, 54, 56–61, 139–57, 218–20 see also Ajivakas;
alms; ascetics; Brahmins; Gautama; Jains; monastic communities; self-
mortification; Shakyputra shramanas; yogis
Shravasti 1–2, 18, 28, 110, 203, 205, 215, 236, 245, 252 see also Jetvana
Shudras 43, 44, 225
Siddhartha 8 see Gautama
Siddhartha 109–10
Sigala 232–3
Six Directions 232
Socrates 34–5
Soma 210
Sona 166–7
Sona Kutikanna 217
Sonadanda 112, 223
Songs of the Monks see Theragatha
Songs of the Nuns see Therigatha
soul and selfhood see atman
South East Asia 327–8
spirits and gods 37–8, 41–2, 72, 74, 86, 100–2, 188–90, 227–9, 231, 232,
291, 299, 307, 319, 320–1, 330 see also Brahminism; Mara; nagas;
sacrifices;
shramanas; yakshas
Sri Lanka 297, 298, 326–7
Stein, Aurel 330
Sthatavara 86
Sthaviravadins 303
Striving 82, 83, 84–6
stupas 53, 188, 203, 245, 292, 300–1, 305, 308, 314, 334
Subaddha 294–5
Subha 190
Suddhodana (G’s father) 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 47, 133, 134, 136, 138, 210 see
also Shakya
Sudinna 198
Sujata 71–2
Sumangalamata 168
Sumedha 212
Sundari Nanda 24
Sunidha 280
supernormal abilities (G’s) 124–7, 134–5, 220, 227–30, 231, 239, 246–7,
319 see also spirits and gods
Suppabuddha (Gautama’s uncle) 24
Suppabuddha (leper) 111, 120, 234
Suppiya 139–40, 142
Susima 218
Sutta Nipata 178–9
T
Talaputa 165, 186
Tantra 310
Taoism 330, 331
Tathagata see Buddhas; Gautama
Taxila 40, 261
T’ein-t’ai school 331
temples 41, 73, 228, 297–8, 325, 326, 328, 332 see also monastic
communities; relics; sacrifices;
spirits and gods; stupas
Thailand 328
Theragatha 7, 179, 184, 299
Theravada Buddhism 36, 302, 327–8, 332
Therigatha 7, 190, 210, 212
Thurman, Robert 316
Tibetan monks 303–4, 317, 333
tranquility 168–9 see also Path to Enlightenment
Tsongkhapa 316
“Turning the Wheel of Truth” 155
U
Udayin 193
Udraka Reamaputra 63, 66, 67, 77, 102, 140
Universal Ruler/Monarch 28, 244, 292, 293, 300, 305, 313, 314
Upagupta 304
Upaka 104–5
Upali 5, 119, 191, 302
Upanishads 64, 66, 69, 78, 122, 147
Upasiva 174
Upatissa 129–30
Uposatha 192–3, 233
Uttara 107–8, 112
V
Vacchagotta 146–8, 151, 153, 154, 156, 175–6, 235, 299
Vaishali 20, 146, 185, 201, 227, 251, 277, 282–3, 286–7, 300 see also
Vrijian Federation
Vaishyas 43, 44, 234
Vajrapani 145
Vajrasana 83, 85
Vajrayana 310–11, 315, 333
Vakkali 184–5
Vanganaputta 185
Vangisa 197
Vapshya 68, 105
Varanasi 23, 42, 114, 115, 116, 117
Vardhamana see Mahavira
varna system see caste system
Vasabha 265–6
Vasettha 305
Vassakara 275–6, 277, 280, 286
Vasubandhu 316
Vebhara, Mount 302
Vedas and Vedic faith 25, 40, 41, 42, 45–6, 84, 108, 220, 222, 223, 224, 324
see also Brahminism
Venuvana 133, 205, 206, 226 see also Jetavana; monastic communities;
Shakyaputra shramanas
Vidudabha, King 266, 268–70, 276
Vietnam 332
Vimala 283
Vinaya 5, 17, 106, 110, 138, 178, 186, 189, 193, 194, 202, 205, 208, 210,
211, 212, 252, 256, 259, 264–5, 301–2, 316
vipassana meditation 171, 319
Vipassi 7, 23, 38 see also Buddhas
Vishnu 325, 326
Vrijian Federation 251, 275–7, 279, 280, 282, 286, 311 see also Vaishali
Vulture’s Peak 55, 229, 258, 274, 278
W
wanderers see Shakyaputras shramanas; shramanas
Western Buddhism 318–19
wife (G’s) 23–4, 27, 47, 136
wilderness living 52–3, 73–8, 110, 183–91, 254, 257, 278, 328
women 209–12 see also nuns; Therigatha
Y
yakshas 37–8, 188–9, 227–8, 229 see also spirits and gods; nagas
Yasha 116–17
Yasoja 184
yogis and yogic practices 39, 63–7, 69, 97, 140, 149, 183, 222, 325
Z
Zen meditation 319, 332
The following publishers and/or authors have generously given permission
to reproduce their original work:
Stone seal from Mohenjo-Daro showing a mysterious figure who may be meditating. Indus Valley,
Pakistan, 3000–1500 BCE.
© Harappan National Museum of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan / The Bridgeman Art Library
Gautama’s birth, springing miraculously from the flank of his mother, Maya. Stone relief sculpture
from East India, 10th century CE.
© The Art Archive / British Museum
Gautama’s life in Suddhodana’s palace, as imagined by a Tibetan artist, 18th century.
© The Art Archive / Musée Guimet Paris / Gianni Dagli Orti
Gautama in the period between his departure from the palace and his Enlightenment. Fourth-century
figure in schist or shale from Mekha-Sanda near Shabaz-Garhi, Pakistan.
© Musée Guimet, Paris, France / Peter Willi / The Bridgeman Art Library
Gautama’s Awakening. Fifth-century CE image, found at Sarnath.
© Delhi, National Museum / R. & S. Michaud / akg-images
Following his Enlightenment and his first teaching, Gautama returned to Gaya and tamed the local
serpent gods. Here he presents the snake’s lifeless body to the awed Brahmans. Stone relief in Greco-
Buddhist style, 1st–4th century CE.
© National Museum of Karachi, Karachi, Pakistan / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library
Gautama teaching: a limestone relief panel showing the conversion of Sundarananda.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Gautama’s return home. This fresco from the Ajanta caves (c. 5th century CE) shows Gautama’s
return to Kapilavatsu after his Enlightenment and his reunion with his wife and son.
© Lindsay Hebberd / CORBIS
Gautama seated under the Bodhi tree, worshipped by monks and princes. Stone relief carving BPA2#
4094, 2nd century CE, Indian Museum of Sarnath.
© Bettmann / CORBIS
Gautama flanked by his chief disciples Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, Tibetan thangka image.
© Tibet Ancient Art & Architecture Collection
Gautama’s miraculous descent from heaven.
© Christie’s Images / CORBIS
Gautama’s Parinirvana. Gautama is lying on his bed surrounded by noblemen, beggars and followers.
Ananda, Gautama’s companion and Subhadra, his last disciple, are in front of the bed. Gray slate
relief.
© akg-images / Erich Lessing / British Museum
The division of the Gautama’s relics, schist relief panel.
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Theravadin monks and laypeople worshipping at the Sarnath stupa (site of Gautama’s first teaching).
© Dinodia / The Bridgeman Art Library
The Buddha meditating just after his Enlightenment, shaded by Mucalinda the serpent-god.
© Werner Forman Archive / Musée Guimet
The god Indra disguised as a woodcutter offers grass to the Buddha while Vajrapani looks on,
Gandhara, 1st century CE.
© Peshawar Museum, photo by Sylvia Sax
* Among the many methods of “higher criticism” of the Buddhist texts that have been used over the
last century are various approaches to assessing the age of the language and verse forms they use,
comparing Pali texts with Chinese translations of the Sanskrit versions of the Discourses and
identifying details that serve no polemical purpose and seem to contain the memory of actual events.
After all these efforts, there is some agreement but no consensus about Gautama’s original teachings.
It is worth adding that while some historians would reject the approach to the Buddhist scriptures in
this book, leading figures like Richard Gombrich and Johannes Bronkhorst follow a similar method.
* These estimates are made by H. W. Schumann in his book The Historical Buddha, p.18. He
estimates that Shakya’s population was 180,000.
* There is no convenient term for this region, so I will refer to it as “the Ganges Valley,” although,
strictly speaking, the valley extends further east and west than the region the Buddha inhabited.
According to the Discourses, his travels also took him to Kuru, beyond the Ganges Valley, where he
is said to have taught the famous Satipatthana Sutta.
* According to the Burmese Glass Palace Chronicles, both Shakya and neighboring Koliya were
conquered at a time when the kingdoms of Kosala and Pancala were united, the cause being an insult
by the Shakyans to the Pancalan king.
* This passage may describe the larger cities of the period in which the text was compiled, rather
than those of Gautama’s time.
* This seems to have been the prevalent view of the Ganges Valley religions. Brahminical texts offer
different ideas, including the belief that the world was created, and Gautama knew that such views
existed.
* There are thirty-one spheres in all, according to Theravada Buddhism: four formless spheres
(arupa-lokas), and sixteen spheres of the realm of form (rupa-lokas), all with their heavenly
inhabitants; while the world of form and sense (kama-loka) includes six god realms and the realms of
humans, animals, hungry ghosts and the inhabitants of hell.
* Buddhism designated these spirits “earth gods,” and distinguished them from the spirits that reside
in the higher heavenly realms.
* Rahula appears in the Pali Discourses, but Gautama’s abandonment of him does not.
* Buddhist tradition expanded the list to twenty-seven, with Gautama as the twenty-eighth Buddha.
According to most Buddhist traditions, Maitreya will be the next Buddha.
* There is good evidence, put forward in Alexander Wynne’s book, The Origins of Buddhist
Meditation, that Arada and Udraka are actual historical figures, but we know only a little about their
lives. Arada may have lived in Shakya (in which case, Gautama may not have traveled south at all),
or in mountains in the Vajjian Confederation. Some later accounts say that he studied with other
teachers as well.
* Buddhist tradition says that Arada and Udraka were shramanas, but the parallels between the states
they describe and those described in the Upanishads and elsewhere suggest that they may in fact have
been Brahminical sages, like those the texts described. Another possibility is that Brahmins learned
meditation from yogis like Arada and Udraka.
* As with so many elements of Gautama’s story, we cannot say how long the period of his austerities
lasted, but the sources give the impression that it was some years.
* The suggestion that Gautama “discovered” the dhyanas/jhanas has been made by in recent years by
Bronkhorst, Vetter and others. Strictly speaking we can only say that, as Gethin puts it, the dhyanas
“first surface in Buddhist writings … and are a central feature of Buddhist texts” (Gethin 1992,
pp.347, 348). The implication is that the meditative states taught by Arada Kalama and Udraka
Reamaputra (arupasamapattis), were rather different, even though they are integrated with the
rupadhyanas in developed Buddhist thought.
* This is the first instance of the famous chain of twelve nidanas, which is mentioned many more
times in the Discourses and depicted, for example, on the outer rim of the Tibetan wheel of life. But
there are signs that this detailed exposition of how dependent arising shapes experience and brings
rebirth developed more slowly. For an interpretation of how this happened see Richard Gombrich,
What the Buddha Thought, pp.129ff.
* The term translated as “wanderer” is parivrajika. Wanderers were, in effect, a subset of the
shramanas.
* This is the first appearance in Buddhist scriptures of Vajrapani, the “holder of the thunderbolt,”
who evolved into one of the most important Mahayana Bodhisattvas. Here he is a humble yaksha.
* Vacchagotta may have been alluding to the Upanishadic belief that full liberation could only be
found after death. Gautama believed that it could be found in this life, and that the status of an
Awakened person after death could not be expressed. As Chapter 10 discusses, this became an
important issue after Gautama’s own demise.
* Buddhist monks are forbidden by the Vinaya to sit beside a fire, but that does not mean that
Gautama was bound by such rules. In What the Buddha Thought Richard Gombrich identifies
another passage (MN 260) in which Gautama indicates, or perhaps lights, a fire.
* He would also have disagreed with those later Buddhists who believe that everything that befalls a
person can be ascribed to the karma of a previous life. Buddhaghosha developed this idea in his
notion that there are five niyamas, or orders of conditionality.
* Buddhist tradition made the Abhidharma (Sanskrit), or Abhidhamma (Pali), the third division of
the Buddhist scriptures, along with the Discourses (the Sutta Pitaka) and the monastic Discipline (the
Vinaya Pitaka). It is traditionally said that Gautama devised the Abhidharma in the period following
his Enlightenment, but as the Abhidharma isn’t mentioned in the Discourses scholars conclude that it
was compiled in later centuries.
* Paccaya’s determination to avoid eating is reminiscent of the practices of Jains and other self-
mortifiers. The tensions between hard-core renunciants such as himself and the mainstream, whose
practice was less extreme, seems to have come to a head in the later years of Gautama’s career, and
continued to be an issue in subsequent years.
* We need to be a little cautious in reading these accounts of Gautama’s victories over the Brahmins.
They are, among other things, Buddhist propaganda designed by monks of a later period to show the
superiority of their faith to that of their Brahmin rivals.
* The British Pali scholar Richard Gombrich is the leading exponent of this approach in his various
books.
* This does not mean that Gautama did not appeal to poor people as well, who couldn’t afford to
sponsor an inscription. Most disciples mentioned in the Discourses come from relatively affluent
backgrounds, but that may simply reflect what the monastic tradition considered worth recording.
Enough poor people are mentioned to imagine that there were many more.
* Gautama’s association with the figure of the Universal Monarch is explicit in the claim that he was
descended from one and in his instructions that his funeral follow the elaborate rituals associated
with one. The figure of the Bodhisattva, which is central to the Mahayana Buddhism of the first
millennium CE, inherited many features from the Great Agent, and also has a social meaning.
* In 518 BCE Taxila was annexed to the Persian Empire by Darius the Great, and it may have
remained part of the empire in Gautama’s day.
* This discourse—the Sammanaphala Sutta—is one of the classic expositions of the Buddhist path.
* The Discourses are unclear (or perhaps unconcerned) about the exact distinction between Nirvana
in life and Nirvana after death, but later Buddhism distinguished them carefully: a living Enlightened
person was still affected by “the result of past clinging” but after death their Enlightenment was
“without remainder.” (Visuddhimagga XVI: 94—Nanamoli 1991: 522.)
* The discourse alludes to this when Vassakara calls Ajatashatru “Videhiputta” (Videha’s son).
* The discourse describes a meeting with Shariputra shortly after, but this is probably a later addition
to the story.
* There were many Mahayana philosophers and scholars, but the movement’s followers insisted that
intellectual pursuits should be subordinate to the goal of Awakening. Nagarjuna and his heirs, for
example, practiced philosophy with the aim of showing the limitations of rational understanding.
* This is a rare piece of fairly solid dating in the uncertain chronology of ancient India, although the
date of Ashoka’s birth is less certain.
* This doesn’t mean that western Buddhism is necessarily more important than what is happening in
Asia. Asia is also changing dramatically and many Asian Buddhists are trying to adapt to the new
conditions, without losing what is most valuable in their traditions.
* This description applies to many western Buddhists including Vipassana practitioners and followers
of Zen.
† The recent wave of interest in Gautama’s view of consciousness among psychologists and
neuroscientists is an example. Many neuroscientists are exploring parallels between recent insights
into the brain’s neuroplasticity (its capacity to change) and neurogenesis (the development of fresh
neural pathways as a result of using the brain in new ways) and Gautama’s view of the mind (see
www.mindandlife.org). Meanwhile, psychologists are using mindfulness as a key to helping their
patients relate differently to their experience (see www.mindfulexperience.org).