happy buddha purnima&pledge to follow on his path from today

[Guest guest]

The life of the Buddha presented in the subsequent ten acts is

neither history nor a myth. It is a pious report of the founder of

Buddhism as the Buddhist tradition tells it. The whole story of the

Buddha takes on a mythic and legendary character. A wealth of detail

is to modern sensibilities of a decidedly " miraculous "

and " supernatural " nature.

Traditionally, the Buddha's life story centers on events from his

conception to his Awakening and his first teaching. In this

particular account of the life of the Buddha, however, i`ll add to

the narrative a few more post-enlightenment episodes which are

fascinating in their own right.

1. The Conception of the Buddha

The earliest Buddhist sources state that the future Buddha

Shakyamuni was born SiddharthaGautama, the son of a local king in

Kapilavastu on what is now the Indian-Nepalese border around the

fifth century BCE. He was thus a member of a relatively privileged

and wealthy family, and enjoyed a comfortable upbringing. Buddhist

world-view, however, views his birth not as a onetime event so much

as a grand finale of a long series of countless previous lives as an

enthusiastic seeker of religious truth.

The story goes back incalculable numbers of aeons ago to when there

lived an ascetic called Sumedha (the future Buddha Shakyamuni) who

encountered the buddhaDipamkara. This meeting affected Sumedha in

such a way that he too aspired to becoming a buddha. Sumedha thus

set out on the path of the cultivation of the " Ten Perfections. "

(Nepalese image of Dimpankara from Patan Museum)

The Bodhisattva cultivated these perfections over many lifetimes.

The life in which he becomes the Buddha Shakyamuni some time in the

fifth century BCE, represents the fruition of Sumedha's distant

aspiration and tireless endeavors. An old tradition tells us that

shortly before his final rebirth the Bodhisattva spent his life as a

god in Tusita (the Heaven of the Contented). Surveying the world

from Tusita, the Bodhisattva saw the time had come for him to take a

human birth and at last become a buddha; he saw that the " Middle

Country " of the great continent of Jambudvipa (India) was the place

in which to take birth, for its inhabitants would be receptive to

his message. The Bodhisattva was conceived on the full moon night in

July; that night his mother, Maya, dreamt that a white elephant

carrying a white lotus in its trunk came and entered her womb

through her right flank.

The white elephant symbolizes perfect wisdom and royal power; in

India, an elephant is accounted the most sacred animal on earth. As

a matter of fact, prior to the descent, the Bodhisattva in the

Tusita heaven consulted with other gods about what guise he should

take to enter his mother's womb. The gods suggested all the divine

forms imaginable, but one of them, who knew the writings of the

brahmins better because of his recent birth, closed the discussion

by stating, " In the form of a white elephant having six tusks. "

Now the Bodhisattva enters his mother's womb in the form of a white

elephant, but here we encounter a little problem in that we are not

informed at what moment he exchanges his animal form for a human

one. The Chinese thought they solved this problem by showing the

Bodhisattva as entering his mother's womb " mounted on an elephant.

This preoccupation with moral purity is carried over to the second

act, the birth of the Buddha.

2. The Birth of the Buddha

Having carried the Boddhisattva in her womb for precisely ten lunar

months, Maya gave a birth to him. On the full moon in May, passing

by the Lumbini grove on her way to her home town, she was captivated

by the beauty of the flowering sala trees and stepped down from her

palanquin to walk amongst the trees in the grove. As she reached for

a branch of a sala tree, which bent itself down to meet her hand,

the pangs of birth came upon her. Thus, while other women are

depicted as giving birth sitting or lying down, the Bodhisattva's

mother is shown delivering her child while standing and holding on

to the branch of a sala tree in the garden of Lumbini.

(See this moment illustrated on the murals of Baiya Monastery,

Tibet.)

 

(The baby is caught by the god Brahma, identifiable by his brahmin

attire and turban. The woman who is to the right side of Maya is

Mahaprajapati, Maya's sister gautami who raises the boy after her

imminent death.

 

 

It is said that this kind of birth didn't hurt his mother at all. As

soon as the Bodhisattva was born he took seven steps to the north

and proclaimed: " I am chief in the world, I am best in the world, I

am first in the world. This is my last birth. There will be no

further rebirth. " Because no child can immediately walk or talk, let

alone make proclamations at birth, it is by these acts that the

Buddha's prodigious nature, even as an infant, is revealed. We are

told that he was already the size of a six-month-old child and had

the " thirty-two marks of a great man. " The Bodhisattva was thus born

among the Shakya people into a khsatriya family whose name was

Gautama. Seven days after his birth his mother died and was born in

the Tushita heaven. The child was named Siddhartha— " he whose purpose

is accomplished. "

Soon after his birth the infant Bodhisattva was examined by brahmin

specialists in " the thirty-two marks of the great man. " According to

Buddhist tradition two destinies are open to one who possesses these

marks in full: either he will become a great " wheel-turning " king

ruling the four quarters of the earth in perfect justice, or he will

become a buddha. On hearing that the brahmins had pronounced his son

was one who possessed the marks, Shuddhodana determined that his son

should become a wheel-turning king. To this end he arranged matters

that Siddhartha should have no occasion to become unhappy and

disillusioned with his life at home. In this way Shuddhodana hoped

that he might prevent Siddhartha from renouncing his home-life for

the life of a wandering ascetic.

After the strange and marvelous circumstances of his birth

Siddhartha grew up as a son of a royal family, confined within his

palace, leading a life of luxury enjoyed by the very wealthy and

privileged. This lifestyle made him more and more delicate and

sensitive. Following is the Buddha's recollection of his youth:

I was delicate, most delicate, supremely delicate. Lotus pools were

made for me at my father's house solely for my use; in one blue

lotuses flowered, in another white, and in another red. I used no

sandal wood that was not from Benares. My turban, tunic, lower

garments and cloak were all of Benares cloth. A white sunshade was

held over me day and night so that I would not be troubled by cold

or heat, dust or grit or dew…Yet even while I possessed such fortune

and luxury, I thought, " When an unthinking, ordinary person who is

himself subject to aging, sickness, and death, who is not beyond

aging, sickness, and death, sees another who is old, sick or dead,

he is shocked, disturbed, and disgusted, forgetting his own

condition. I too am subject to aging, sickness, and death, not

beyond aging, sickness, and death, and that I should see another who

is old, sick or dead and be shocked, disturbed, and disgusted---this

is not fitting. " As I reflected thus, the conceit of youth, health,

and life entirely left me.

3. The Four Encounters

This brings us straight to the next act, Siddhartha's disenchantment

with his life of pleasure. This stage of the Buddha's life is told

through story of Siddhartha's rides with his charioteer. As he

leaves the confines of his luxurious apartments, he encounters for

the first time in his life a decrepit old man, a severely ill man,

and a corpse being carried to the funeral pyre by mourners. The

experience is traumatic, and when he afterwards sees a wandering

ascetic with serene and composed features Siddhartha resolves that

he will leave his home and take up the life of a wandering ascetic

himself.

It is perhaps difficult to understand why Siddhartha reacted so

violently to the sight of these miseries, because we know that most

people become accustomed to seeing them from childhood on. His

reaction can be understood only by learning that his father

Shuddhodhana, always haunted by the fear that his son might enter

the religious life, had succeeded in keeping such sights from him

until his manhood.

4. The Great Departure

Siddhartha was now nearly thirty and the moment of his final

decision was imminent. Tired of waiting, his father, King

Shuddhodhana, had already begun preparations for the crowing his

heir, and in seven days Siddhartha was to be enthroned. Shuddhodhana

took every precaution to prevent his son's flight and even mobilized

all Shakya people capable of bearing arms to guard the palace exits.

At this same moment Siddhartha's son, Rahula, was born. " It is a

bondage which has come to me, " said Siddhartha when he heard of his

first-born and only child, meaning that it was another tie added to

those already holding him back. However, that night as he left his

palace, he stopped and thought: " I must see my son. " He went to the

residence of his wife and opened the door. She was asleep on a bed,

her hand on her son's head. Siddhartha, with one foot in the

doorway, stopped and watched. " If I lift the Queen's hand to take my

son in my arms she will awaken and thus my departure will be

hampered. When I shall become Buddha I will come back and see him. "

And with these words he went forth on his horse, accompanied by his

charioteer, Chandaka. But how did he pass through all the doors and

gates heavily guarded? Again, it was the moment when supernatural

assistance interfered and helped him. thirty-three gods descended

from the sky and put all of Kapilavastu's inhabitants into such a

profound sleep that no sound whatsoever would awaken them. And to be

even safer they held the horse's hoofs in their hands to soften

their pounding on the ground and helped him jump over the wall of

the palace. According to traditional reckoning he was then twenty-

nine years old and this was the beginning of a six-year quest for

awakening.

Austerities

During these six years he first spent time with and practiced the

systems of meditation taught by two leading ascetics of the time.

Although he mastered their respective systems, he felt that here he

had not found any real answer to the problem of human suffering. So

next, in the company of five other wandering ascetics, he turned to

the practice of severe austerities. The old texts preserve a

hauntingly vivid description of the results of this practice:

My body reached a state of extreme emaciation. Because of eating so

little my limbs became like the jointed stems of creepers or bamboo;

my backside became like a buffalo's hoof; my backbone, bent or

straight, was like corded beads; my jutting and broken rafters of an

old house; the gleam of my eyes sunk deep in their sockets was like

the gleam of water seen deep down at the bottom of a deep well.

6. Enlightenment

But despite his grueling penance he again felt he had not found what

he was searching for. Then he recalled an experience from his youth.

One day seated quietly beneath the shade of a rose-apple tree his

mind had settled into a state of deep calm and peace. Buddhist

tradition calls this state the first meditation or " dhyana. " As he

reflected, it came to the Bodhisattva that it was by letting the

mind settle in to this state of peace that he might discover what he

was looking for. This required that he nourish his body and regain

his strength. His five companions thought he had turned away from

the quest and left him to his own devices. At this moment a young

woman named Sujata offers milk-rice to the Bodhisattva. Now

nourished, he seated himself beneath a pipal tree, henceforth to be

known as " the tree of awakening " or Bodhi Tree. It was once more the

night of the full moon and he made a final resolve: " Let only skin,

sinew and bone remain, let the flesh and blood dry in my body, but I

will not give up this seat without attaining complete awakening. "

the oldest accounts describe the Awakening in sober technical terms,

most often by reference to the successive practice of the four

dhyanas culminating in the knowledge of suffering, its cause, its

cessation, and the way leading to its cessation—what come to be

known as the " Four Noble Truths. " However, perhaps because they do

not exactly make for a good story, the later legend of the Buddha

recounts the Awakening through the description of the Bodhisattva's

encounter with demon Mara. This is a story rather more vivid and

immediately accessible than the abstract concepts of Buddhist

meditation theory.

Mara is a being who in certain respects is like the Satan of

Christianity. His name means " bringer of death " and his most common

epithet is " the Bad One. " Mara is not so much a personification of

evil as of the power of all kinds of experience to seduce and

ensnare the unwary mind. So as the Bodhisattva sat beneath the tree

firm in his resolve, Mara approached, mounted on his great elephant

and accompanied by his dreadful armies. His one purpose was to

assault the Bodhisattva and frustrate his efforts of finding the way

to immortality.

Mara's armies were incredibly horrible, being composed of most

repulsive monsters with hanging tongues, bared fangs, eyes of

burning coals, deformed bodies, some devils with the heads of

ferocious beasts, heavily armed soldiers shooting arrows, and a

fierce demon flaming out at the Bodhisattva. The king of death tried

to spur his troops on, but even the arrows of his monsters lost

their sharp points and spontaneously were covered with flowers.

Enclosed by a zone of complete protection around him, the

Bodhisattva laughed at his aggressors while not a single hair on his

body was disturbed. Mara then sent his beautiful daughters before

the Bodhisattva to test his commitment to his purpose by offering

themselves to him. When this too failed Mara approached to claim the

Bodhisattva's seat directly. He asked him by what right he sat there

beneath the tree. The Bodhisattva replied that it was by right of

having practiced the Perfections over countless aeons. Mara replied

that he had done likewise and, what was more, he had witnesses to

prove it: all his armies would vouch for him, but who would vouch

for the Bodhisattva? The Bodhisattva then lifted his right hand and

touched the ground calling on the very earth as his witness. This is

the " earth-touching gesture " depicted in so many statues of the

Buddha through the ages. It signals the defeat of Mara and the

Buddha's complete awakening. As the Buddha touched the earth Mara

tumbled from his elephant and his armies fled in disarray.

The Buddha had achieved his purpose. In Buddhist terms, he had a

direct experience of " the unconditioned, " " the transcendent, " " the

deathless, " Nirvana. It is said that at that point his mind inclined

not to teach:

This Dharma that I have found is profound, hard to see, hard to

understand; it is peaceful, sublime, beyond the sphere of mere

reasoning, subtle, to be experienced by the wise. But this

generation takes delight in attachment, is delighted by attachment,

rejoices in attachment and as such it is hard for them to see this

truth, namely…nirvana.

According to the oldest tradition it is this moment when the great

god, the Brahma called Sahampati, or " mighty lord, " came and

requested him to teach, saying: " There are beings here with but

little dust in their eyes. Pray teach Dharma out of compassion for

them. "

In a deer park outside Benares the Buddha thus approached the five

who had been his companions when he practiced austerities and gave

them instruction in the path to the cessation of suffering that he

had discovered. In this way he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma,

and soon, we are told, there were six awakened ones in the world.

For the Buddha this was the beginning of a life of teaching that

lasted some forty-five years. Many stories and legends are recounted

of the Buddha's teaching career.he accomplished so many tough

tasks.angulimal,ananda,kashyapa & infinite otherswere taught.

buddha,s face always reflects a smile that says it all.happy buddha

purnima & may god buddha bless us.