The oldest known date in the history of India is the death
of the one called Buddha in 483 BC,
and even that date is somewhat
controversial.
Buddha means "one who is intuitive, awakened,
or enlightened."
The famous historical person known as Buddha
was also called the Tathagata,
which means "the one who has
come thus," and Shakyamuni,
which means "the sage of
the Shakya tribe."
He is said to have lived eighty years,
and thus was probably born in 563 BC.
His father Suddhodana of the Gautama clan was elected king
of the Shakya tribe
by its five hundred families just south of
the Himalaya mountains
in the realm of influence of the powerful
Kosala monarchy.
The son was born in the Lumbini garden and named
Siddartha, which means
"he who has accomplished his aim."
Many myths and legends surround the birth of Siddartha,
but most
of these seem to have been developed centuries later in the Jatakas.
A famous seer named Asita predicted that the child would either
become a great king or
if he left home, a great teacher.
His
mother Maya died seven days after giving birth, and her younger
sister Mahapajapati,
who was also married to Suddhodana, became
his foster mother.
By all accounts Siddartha was raised amid the finest luxuries
of the time.
Later he said that three palaces had been built for
him—one for hot weather,
one for cold, and one for the rainy
season.
His clothes were of the finest silk.
When he walked on
the grounds, someone held a white umbrella over his head.
Even
the servants were well fed, and music was played only by beautiful
women.
Having demonstrated his skill in archery, Siddartha chose Yasodhara
to be his wife,
and they were married when he was about sixteen
years old.
For the next thirteen years he continued to live in
luxury with his wife and concubines.
Then about the time of the
birth of his son Rahula, the famous four signs occurred.
According
to legend, his father had tried to prevent his princely son from
experiencing
any suffering or sorrow or religious contact
so that
he would become a king rather than a spiritual teacher.
However, one day while traveling outside the palace gates,
Siddartha happened
to come across an old man for the first time
in his life.
He was appalled at the wrinkles and decrepitude.
On another occasion he happened to observe a sick person
and learned
about the loathsome nature of disease.
The third sign came when
he witnessed a funeral procession
and was able to see the lifeless
corpse that was being carried.
The suddenness of these three experiences
set him thinking
about the transitoriness of human life.
Finally
he came upon a religious ascetic, who had renounced the world
to seek enlightenment, a common occupation
for Kshatriyas like
himself as well as for Brahmins.
With the birth of his son he had fulfilled his obligation to
continue his family line
and decided that he too must renounce
his kingdom and seek a way out of
the human miseries of old age,
sickness, and death.
So he took off his silk garments and put
on the coarse clothes of an ascetic
and went south to Magadha
seeking enlightenment.
While begging for his food in Rajagriha, the capital city of
Magadha,
his princely demeanor was observed by King Bimbisara
(Shrenika).
The king went to see Siddartha to find out who he
was and what he was doing.
Siddartha told him that he was purifying
himself in order to achieve nirvana,
and he promised to teach
the king after he attained enlightenment.
Like the sages of the Upanishads,
Siddartha practiced yoga and meditation.
At Vaishali to learn
meditative concentration he studied with Alara Kalama,
who was
said to have had hundreds of disciples.
Siddartha soon learned
how to reach the formless world,
but still having mental anxieties
he decided not to become a disciple of Alara Kalama.
Nor did he
become a disciple of his second teacher, Uddaka Ramaputra,
after
he attained the higher state of consciousness beyond thought and
non-thought.
Still not satisfied, Siddartha decided to practice the path
of extreme austerities,
and in this quest he was joined by the
sage Kaundinya and four others.
He pressed his tongue against
his palate to try to restrain his mind
until the perspiration
poured from his armpits.
He restrained his breath and heard the
violent sounds of wind in his ears and head.
He went into trances,
and some thought he was dead.
He fasted for long periods of time
and then decided to try limiting his food
to the juice of beans
and peas.
As his flesh shrank, the bones almost stuck out of his
skin so that
he could touch his spine from the front;
after sitting
on the ground his imprint looked like a camel's footprint.
For six years Siddartha practiced such austerities, but instead
of achieving
superhuman knowledge and wisdom he only seemed to
get weaker and weaker.
Finally he thought that there might be
a better way to attain enlightenment.
He remembered how, while
his father was working, he would sit in the shade
of an apple
tree free of sensual desires.
Perhaps in concentrating his mind
without evil ideas and sensual desires
he should not be afraid
of a happy state of mind.
However, to gain the strength he felt
he needed for this concentration
he decided to start eating again.
When he gave up practicing the extreme austerities, the five mendicants
who were with him became disillusioned and left him, saying that
Gautama lives in abundance and has given up striving.
Siddartha reasoned that a life of penance and pain was no better
than
a life of luxury and pleasure, because if penance on Earth
is religion,
then the heavenly reward for penance must be irreligion.
If merit comes from purity of food, then deer should have the
most merit.
Those who practice asceticism without calming their
passions
are like a man trying to kindle fire by rubbing a stick
on green wood in water,
but those who have no desires or worldly
attachments
are like a man using a dry stick that ignites.
Regaining his strength from normal eating of the food he begged,
Siddartha once again practiced meditation.
Now he easily attained
the first stage of joy and pleasure, then a joyful trance
arising
from concentration with serenity and the mind fixed on one point
without reasoning and investigation.
The third stage produced
equanimity to joy and aversion in a mindful, happy state.
In the
fourth stage pleasure and pain were left behind in a mindful purity.
With his mind thus concentrated and cleansed he directed it
to
the remembrance of former existences from previous births,
also
perceiving cycles of evolution and dissolution of the universe.
Then he directed his mind to the passing away and rebirth of
beings,
perceiving how the karma of evil actions, words, and thoughts
leads to rebirth
in miserable conditions and suffering in hell;
but those beings leading good lives are reborn in a happy state
in a heavenly world.
Finally directing his mind to the means of
ultimate release Siddartha realized that
there is pain, a cause
of pain, the cessation of pain,
and a way that leads to that cessation
of pain.
Thus his mind was emancipated from sensual desires,
the
desire for existence, and ignorance.
According to legend this whole process occurred in one night
after he had decided
to sit under a tree until he became enlightened
or died.
It was also said that he was tested by Mara, the tempter,
but Siddartha could not be swayed from his purpose.
Thus darkness
and ignorance were dispelled by the light
as Siddartha Gautama
became enlightened and was henceforth known as the Buddha.
Having gained this doctrine, the Buddha thought how difficult
it would be
for humanity to understand because of their attachments
and lust.
Trying to teach it to them would be vexation for him.
However, the god Brahma asked him to teach the doctrine, because
some people,
who were not too impure, were falling away from not
hearing the teachings.
Then the Buddha in pity for beings surveyed
their conditions
and saw some of little impurity whom he could
teach.
At first he thought of his former teachers Alara Kalama
and Uddaka,
but in his clairvoyant awareness he realized
that
both of them had just died in the last few days.
Then he decided
to teach the five mendicants who had been with him in their striving.
Perceiving that they were in the deer park at Benares, he decided
to go there.
Along the way he met an Ajivika ascetic named Upaka,
who when
told of the Buddha's enlightenment, merely said that
he hoped
that it was so and went his way.
When the five mendicants saw
Siddartha Gautama,
they thought they would not rise in respect
but would offer him a seat.
However, as the Buddha arrived, they
spontaneously greeted him as a friend.
They still criticized him
for living in abundance, but the Buddha explained that
he does
not live in abundance.
He spoke to them as one enlightened, and
they had to agree that
he never had spoken to them in that manner
before.
While he admonished two of them, the other three went
off to collect alms;
then he spoke with those three while the
other two went for alms.
In this way all five soon attained insight
and the supreme peace.
In this deer park at Benares the Buddha gave his first sermon
in which he explained that
the two extremes are not to be practiced
by the one who is enlightened—
what is joined with the passions
and luxury which is low, vulgar, common, ignoble,
and useless,
nor what is joined with self-torture which is painful, ignoble,
and useless too.
Avoiding these two extremes the enlightened follow
the middle path
which produces insight and knowledge and leads
to
peace, wisdom, enlightenment, and nirvana.
Buddha then expounded
the four noble (aryan) truths of his doctrine.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of pain:
birth is painful; old age is painful; sickness is painful; death is painful;
sorrow, lamentation, dejection, and despair are painful.
Contact with unpleasant things is painful; not getting what one wishes is painful.
In short the five groups of grasping are painful.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cause of pain:
the craving, which leads to rebirth, combined with pleasure and lust,
finding pleasure here and there, namely the craving for passion,
the craving for existence, and the craving for non-existence.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the cessation of pain:
the cessation without a remainder of craving,
the abandonment, forsaking, release, and non-attachment.
Now this, monks, is the noble truth of the way that leads to the cessation of pain:
this is the noble eightfold way, namely,
correct understanding, correct intention, correct speech, correct action,
correct livelihood, correct attention, correct concentration, and correct meditation.1
The Buddha declared that Kaundinya had understood the doctrine,
and he welcomed him as the first monk in the community by saying,
"Come, monk, well proclaimed is the doctrine;
lead a religious
life for making a complete end of pain."2
After further instruction
the other four mendicants
were also admitted into the community (sangha).
Then the Buddha preached to the five that the
body, perceptions, feelings, the mind,
and even discriminating
consciousness are not the self or soul.
By turning away from the
body, perceptions, feelings, mind,
and discriminating consciousness,
one becomes free from craving and emancipated.
Life then becomes
religious and is no longer under finite conditions.
Yasa, the son of a wealthy guildmaster, lived in luxury at
Benares,
and like Siddhartha he became disgusted with his palace
attendants.
After hearing the Buddha's doctrine he left home
and
became the first lay disciple in the new community.
The first
women to become lay disciples were Yasa's mother and former wife.
They were soon followed by four friends of Yasa and then fifty
more.
The Buddha then suggested that the sixty disciples wander
around separately to preach
the doctrine so that others may be
liberated from the fetters of illusion,
while he went to Uruvela
in Magadha.
There thirty men of royal blood had entered the forest with
their 29 wives
and a courtesan for the one who was not married.
When the courtesan ran off with their gold, silver, and gems,
they all went to search for her and found the Buddha.
He asked
them if it was more important to seek for that woman or for themselves.
When they agreed that their selves were more important,
they sat
down so that the Buddha could teach them how to seek within themselves.
Shakyamuni was sitting under a banyan tree when a Brahmin named
Drona
approached him in awe, asking if he was a god.
The Tathagata
said no.
The Brahmin asked if he were a kind of nature spirit (gandharva or yaksha),
but again the Buddha denied
it.
When he asked if he were a human, he denied that too.
Finally
Drona asked him if he was neither divine nor non-human nor human,
then what was he?
The reply was that he is Buddha (awake).
Shubha, a Brahmin student, asked the Buddha why humans differed
so much in
birth, intelligence, health, and so on.
Shakyamuni
explained that beings are heirs of karma, the consequences of
their actions.
Evildoers may experience happiness until their
deeds ripen,
and the good may experience bad things until their
good deeds ripen.
The pure and the impure create their own destinies;
no one can purify another.
Also living in this region were three Brahmin brothers of the
Kashyapa family.
They were ascetics with matted hair over the
age of seventy and were the most respected
religious leaders in
Magadha with a total of about one thousand disciples.
The Buddha
spoke with the oldest, Uruvilva Kashyapa, but it was difficult
for him
to accept that such a young man could be so holy.
Finally
the Buddha used his mystic powers,
and convinced of the Buddha's
superiority Uruvilva decided to follow him.
The Buddha suggested
that they ask his five hundred followers what they wanted to do,
and they all decided to join as well, shaving their hair and beards
and throwing their ceremonial utensils into the river.
The two
Kashyapa brothers saw the implements in the river
and eventually
joined as well with their disciples.
On the way to Rajagriha the Buddha and the thousand disciples
saw the volcanic mountain Gayashirsa with its glowing fire.
The
Buddha preached his sermon on fire—how the sensations, perceptions,
thoughts,
and actions are burning with the poisons of covetousness,
anger, and ignorance.
At the capital he preached to King Bimbisara
about the triple doctrine of
charity, precepts, and good works.
The king declared that all five of his wishes had been fulfilled—
that he might be king, that a Buddha would come to his kingdom,
that he would meet him, be instructed by him, and understand the
teachings.
After the sermon King Bimbisara donated a bamboo grove
near the capital as a site for a monastery.
Also at Rajagriha lived the agnostic Sanjaya, who also had
many disciples
under two named Shariputra and Maudgalyayana,
who
were seeking enlightenment and a better teacher.
Shariputra observed
Assaji (one of the first five mendicants in the community) beggin
and learned of the Buddha's teachings.
He told Maudgalyayana,
and they told the two hundred fifty disciples of Sanjaya.
Even
though Sanjaya tried three times to stop them from going away,
they all went to find the Buddha, who greeted them with the revelation
that these two would become his greatest disciples.
Within two
weeks of joining the community
both Shariputra and Maudgalyayana
had become enlightened.
In meditating Maudgalyayana had trouble with drowsiness and
falling asleep.
The Buddha suggested several remedies including
laying down for a while to sleep
before resuming meditation.
The
uncle of Shariputra was a skeptic like Sanjaya and told the Buddha
that
he could not accept any conclusive doctrine.
Shakyamuni simply
asked him if he recognized his own doctrine as conclusive.
Caught
in self-contradiction, he realized the weakness and limitation
of skeptical philosophy.
Then the Buddha explained the law of
causation in human life.
Having heard that his son had become a Buddha, King Suddhodana
sent Udayin to invite Shakyamuni to the capital at Kapilavastu.
Udayin was converted to the new religion,
and Shakyamuni returned
to his home town.
His father criticized him for begging for food
when he was rich enough
to feed thousands of followers.
Shakyamuni
replied that mendicancy was the correct custom for his line,
by
which he meant the line of Buddhas.
Verbal discussions were not
enough to win over people who had known him as a boy;
so the Buddha
used his mystical powers to convince them.
Siddartha's half-brother Nanda was about to be declared crown
prince
and married to Sundari, the most beautiful woman in the
kingdom,
but he decided to join the community instead.
However,
he could not help thinking about Sundari;
so the Buddha gave him
a vision of hundreds of heavenly maidens,
though this was later
criticized by others as a wrong motivation for seeking enlightenment.
Eventually Nanda repented of this motivation and asked the Buddha
to dissolve his promise of these maidens,
and Nanda attained enlightenment
and became an arhat
(a term meaning "worthy"
or "honorable" used for disciples
who attained the highest
level of awareness).
Siddartha's son Rahula was also admitted to the community at
the age of ten,
but later a rule was made that minors under twenty
could not join the community
without permission from their parents.
Many Shakya nobles also joined the community at this time
(according
to legend 80,000) including Ananda, Anuruddha,
Devadatta, Bhaddiya,
and Kimbila.
On the way to Buddha they were accompanied by their
barber and slave, Upali.
They sent him back to Kapilavastu with
their jewels,
but afraid of the Shakyas' reaction, he put them
on a tree and rejoined the five aristocrats.
Upali, who was of
the lowest caste, was ordained first giving him seniority over
the nobles
he had served so that their Shakya pride might be moderated.
Like Mahavira, the Buddha taught in the ordinary language of the
people
rather than in the aristocratic Sanskrit.
Complaints that monks wandering around during the rainy season
trampled the grass
and destroyed living creatures led the Buddha
to adopt the custom of staying in retreat
during the three months
of rain.
After one of these retreats, a wealthy householder from
Shravasti,
who became known as Anathapindada ("Giver of alms
to the unprotected"),
confessed to the Buddha that he enjoyed
his investing and business cares.
Shakyamuni suggested that he
be a lay disciple and continue his work and use it
as a blessing
for other people.
So Anathapindada invited the Buddha to spend
the next rainy season at Shravasti,
the chief city in Kosala,
where he purchased and built the Jetavana Monastery.
Later when
Anathapindada was dying of a painful illness,
Shariputra went
and taught him the mental concentration for the avoidance of pain
usually only taught to monks; Anathapindada died in peace.
The Buddha liked the Jetavana Monastery to be quiet, for he
once dismissed
Yashoja and five hundred monks for talking too
loudly after they arrived.
However, they went to another place
near Vaishali and made great spiritual gains.
Later when the Buddha
traveled to Vaishali, he noticed that the area was illuminated.
He told Ananda to invite Yashoja and the five hundred monks
to
the hall with the peaked roof.
When they arrived, the Buddha was
sitting in silent meditation;
they too joined him in silent concentration.
Every few hours Ananda approached the Buddha to ask him to greet
these monks,
but Shakyamuni remained silent and in the morning
told Ananda
that if he understood meditation better, he would
not have kept asking him
to greet the monks, who were likewise
sitting in immovable concentration.
A new monk once confessed to the Buddha for having eaten meat
in his almsbowl,
but the Buddha forgave those who ate meat that
was not prepared for them.
Their ethical principle was not to
harm any living creature.
Yet he criticized those who hunt and
kill animals for sport and warned his followers
not to accept
any food from such blood-stained hands.
After Shakyamuni's father died as a lay disciple, he declared
that a lay disciple,
whose mind is free from the poisons of lust,
attachment, false views, and ignorance,
is no different than anyone
else who is free.
Fearing a famine, the Shakya warrior chiefs
agitated for a war with the Kolyas
over water rights to the Rohini
River.
The Kolyas had built a dike to conserve water;
when they
refused the Shakyas' demand to dismantle it,
both sides prepared
for war.
Just before the battle was to begin, the Buddha spoke
to both sides,
asking them to compare the value of earth and water
to the intrinsic value of people
and the human blood they were
about to spill.
He told a parable about a decrepit demon,
who
fed on anger and took over a royal throne, becoming stronger as
more anger
was directed at him until the true king came and calmly
offered to serve the throne,
which led to the diminishment and
disappearance of the anger demon.
In this way the war was avoided.
Krisha Gautami was stricken with grief when her only son died.
Unable to find a physician who could bring him back to life,
someone
suggested that she go to the Buddha.
He told her to get a handful
of mustard seed in the city,
but it must be from a house where
no one has ever lost a child, spouse, parent, or friend.
Eventually
she came to realize how common death was
and put aside her selfish
attachment to her child.
Prajapati, the aunt and foster mother of Shakyamuni,
asked
to be admitted to the community.
With Ananda acting as intermediary,
the Buddha established eight conditions
for the admittance of
nuns into the community.
Nuns had to make obeisance to all the
monks, even the newest,
and nuns were not allowed to criticize
a monk even though monks criticized nuns.
Although they were not
treated equally, at least women were allowed to join the community.
The sexism was also apparent when the Buddha told Ananda that
the religious life
would only last five hundred years instead
of a thousand
because women had been admitted.
A legend tells how a disciple used magical power to get a sandalwood
bowl
that had been tied from the top of a bamboo pole as a kind
of contest.
When the Buddha heard of it, he forbade those in the
community to use such magical powers
and had the bowl broken up
and used as perfume.
He suggested that his disciples only gain
adherents by the miracle of instruction.
In the ninth year after the enlightenment the Buddha was at
Kaushambi,
and the monk Malunkyaputra complained that the Buddha
never explained
whether the world is eternal or temporary, finite
or infinite,
or whether life and the body are the same or different,
or whether arhats are beyond death or not.
He even threatened
to leave the community if the Buddha would not answer his questions.
First the Buddha asked him if he had ever promised to explain
these things; he had not.
Then he told the parable of a man who was pierced by a poisoned
arrow,
and his relatives summoned a doctor.
Suppose, he said,
the physician had said that he would not remove the arrow
nor
treat the patient until his questions had been answered,
such
as who made the bow, what kind it was, all about the arrow, and
so on.
The man would die, and still the information would not
be known.
Then the Buddha told Malunkyaputra that a person would
come to the end of one's life
before those metaphysical questions
he had asked could be answered by the Tathagata.
Those questions
do not tend toward edification nor lead to supreme wisdom.
However,
the Buddha's teaching regarding suffering, its cause,
and the
means of ending it is like removing the poisoned arrow.
A conflict arose in the community when a monk who refused to
admit
he had committed an offense was expelled.
Some complained
that this violated their principle that only evil deeds
committed
with conscious intent are morally reprehensible.
However, the
Buddha declared that the two greatest ways to obtain demerit
are
not to ask forgiveness after committing a wrong
and not to forgive
one who has confessed and asked for forgiveness.
A Kalama nobleman from north of Kaushambi admitted that he
had doubts
because various teachers expressed contradictory views.
The Buddha responded that he was wise not to believe everything
but to question with reason and by experience.
After thorough
investigation whether the teachings are good, free from faults,
praised by the noble, and when practiced lead to the welfare and
happiness of oneself
and other beings as well, then they may be
accepted and lived.
At Asyapura they found Brahmin priests sacrificing horses,
sheep, goats, cows,
and other animals on bloody altars decorated
with images of gods.
The Buddha told his followers not to be deceived
but to purify their hearts and cease to kill.
They should not
refuse to admit they are ascetics,
who enjoy robes, bowl, bed,
and medicine.
In their simplified lives they learn how to calm
their bodies
and concentrate their minds to awaken the four religious
qualities of
loving friendship, compassion, altruistic joy, and
equanimity.
The Buddha also declared that in regard to this ascetic
life all the castes are equal.
A monk named Sona in the Sitavana Monastery at Rajagriha was
so zealous in walking
that his feet left a bloody trail.
The Buddha
asked him if his lute could be played well
if the strings were
too tight or too loose.
Just so, excessive zeal may make the mind
weary
and one's thoughts irritable and uncertain.
He suggested
to Sona that gradual progress led to
self-mastery and happiness
rather than anxiety.
A young Brahmin named Vakula was so infatuated with the Buddha
that he continually kept him in his sight.
The Buddha explained
that the one who sees the dharma (doctrine) sees the Buddha,
but Vakula still always remained in his presence.
Finally at the
end of the rainy season the Buddha asked him to go away.
Realizing
that Vakula was climbing Vulture Peak to commit suicide,
Shakyamuni
went after him and called him back
lest he destroy the conditions
for winning great fruit.
An ambitious disciple named Purna decided to spread the doctrine
to the Shronaparantakas.
The Buddha, knowing that they were a
dangerous people,
asked him what he would do if they insulted
and abused him.
Purna said he would consider them good and kind
for not hitting him and throwing rocks at him.
But what if they
hit and throw rocks?
Then he would be glad they did not use clubs
and swords.
If they used clubs and swords, he would be glad they
did not kill him;
even if they kill him, they will have delivered
him from his vile body.
So equipped with patience and love Purna
went to the Shronaparantakas
and was about to be killed by a hunting
archer for fun,
when the hunter was so struck by how willing this
person was to die
that he stopped and eventually accepted the
three refuges
of the Buddha, the doctrine, and the community.
Another monastery at Purvarama near Rajagriha
was donated by
Vishakha, the daughter of a rich man.
Once at this monastery the
Buddha remained silent on the moon day
when the preaching service
and confessions by the monks took place.
Finally the Buddha said
to Ananda that the assembly was not wholly pure.
Maudgalyayana,
perceiving who the immoral person was, asked him to leave;
when
he refused to leave three times, he was escorted out of the hall
by the arm.
The Tathagata thought it strange that he should wait
until he was thrown out.
Then the Buddha declared that he would
no longer attend these sessions,
but the monks would recite the
regulations themselves.
When Shakyamuni was about 55, his personal attendant at the
time, Nagasamala,
insisted on taking a different road than the
Buddha advised and was beaten by robbers.
At the Shravasti Monastery
the Buddha announced
that he wanted to have a permanent attendant.
Shariputra volunteered, but the Buddha said his work was teaching.
Maudgalyayana and others were also rejected.
Ananda remained silent,
but Shakyamuni asked him if he would find it a bother.
Ananda
said that it would not be bothersome, but he did not consider
himself worthy.
Then he offered to do it on the following eight
conditions:
that he not have to accept gifts or alms given to
the Buddha nor dwell in his chamber
nor accept invitations offered
only to him and that he may accompany the Perfect One
when the
monks are invited, that he may present him to those who come from
a distance,
that he may have access to him at all times, and that
whatever teaching he missed
by absence should be repeated to him
by the Perfect One's own lips.
The Buddha heartily agreed,
and
Ananda was his personal attendant for the rest of the Buddha's
life.
Shakyamuni was able to tame a dangerous robber and admitted
him into the community.
He also bathed and treated a monk, who
was suffering from dysentery
and had been neglected by the other
monks because he lay in his own excrement.
On another occasion
he found that a leper understood the doctrine
very well as he
explained that whatever has a beginning must have an end.
About 491 BC when Shayamuni was 72, a schism arose in the community,
because his cousin Devadatta wanted to take over as head of the
community;
but Buddha refused, saying that he would not even turn
it over to Shariputra
or Maudgalyayana much less to a vile one
to be vomited like spit.
Devadatta became resentful and used his
magical powers to win the favor of
Prince Ajatashatru, the son
of King Shrenika Bimbisara.
They plotted together to take over
the kingdom of Magadha and the Buddhist community.
Bimbisara and
the Buddha were to be murdered;
but since Bimbisara turned over
his kingdom to his son, he was merely put in prison.
There he
soon died, though chronicles stated he was killed by his son.
Hired killers were converted by the Buddha, but Devadatta tried
to roll a huge boulder
from Vulture Peak down upon him.
However,
only Shakyamuni's foot was scratched.
Yet spilling the blood of
a Tathagata with murderous intent
created terrible karma for Devadatta.
When he had learned of his intent, the Buddha had already declared
that
Devadatta's words and actions were not to be considered
as
representing the community in any way.
Although he had gained
a few followers, these were persuaded to return to
the real community
after long sermons by Shariputra and Maudgalyayana
when Devadatta
fell asleep after his own talk.
Abandoned and with his psychic
powers destroyed by his evil intentions,
Devadatta soon became
ill and died.
King Ajatashatru, who had also listened to Mahavira,
was eventually converted by the Buddha; but his previous evil
intentions and actions
prevented him from attaining the enlightenment
he might have achieved in that life.
Ajatashatru married the daughter
of the Kosala king Pasenadi,
and Pasenadi's son married a maiden
of the resentful Shakyas who was secretly of low birth.
Her son,
Vidudabha, swore revenge against the Shakyas.
Pasenadi killed
his powerful general and his sons,
replacing them with the nephew
Digha Karayana.
While Pasenadi was listening to the Buddha,
Digha
hurried off and put Vidudabha on the throne.
Pasenadi tried to
get help from Ajatasatru but died of exposure on the way to Rajagriha.
Surveying the world, the Buddha became aware of Vidudabha's
intention to attack
the Shakyas and three times was able to convince
him to turn back;
but on the fourth time the Shakyas' karma for
poisoning the river could not be averted,
and they were massacred.
Enough Shakyas remained, however, to accept
a portion of Shakyamuni's
relics after his death.
When Shakyamuni was 79, both his chief
disciples, Shariputra and Maudgalyayana, died.
Shariputra died
in the home where he was born,
but Maudgalyayana was killed by
robbers to balance karma from a former life.
At the age of eighty the vitality of the Tathagata's body seemed
to diminish,
and he declared that he had only three months to
live.
Ananda missed the opportunity to plead with him to stay
until the end of the eon
as Buddhas could do, and Ananda was later
blamed for that by the community.
Finally Shakyamuni took his
last meal, ordering a smith named Cunda
to give him some mushrooms
(literally pig's food or pork) and give the monks other food
and
then bury the rest of the mushrooms.
Sharp sickness arose with
a flow of blood and deadly pains,
but the Buddha mindfully controlled
them and declared that
he would die in the third watch of the
night.
He sent word that Cunda was not to feel remorse
but consider
this giving of alms of the greatest merit.
Ananda asked the Buddha how he was to act toward women.
The
Buddha advised him not to see them; but if he saw them, not to
speak to them;
but if speaking, to exercise mindfulness.
Then
he said his burial was to be handled by the local Kshatriyas.
That evening Ananda brought the local families to say goodby,
and then the Buddha answered the questions of an ascetic named
Subhadda.
Before going through the four stages of higher awareness
into nirvana,
the last words of the Buddha were, "Decay is
inherent in all component things.
Work out your salvation with
diligence."3
Having taught for forty-five years from his enlightenment to
his death,
the Buddha left behind a large compendium of teachings
that were memorized by various of his disciples.
Since writing
was a rarity then in India, they were passed on through the community
until they were written down several centuries later.
These earliest
texts are in the common Pali language
and usually are dialogs
between the Buddha and others.
Often the Buddha emphasized that
it was more important for disciples
to see the dharma (doctrine)
than the Buddha,
because the dharma would remain and was
what they needed to practice
to attain enlightenment and even
afterward.
The third refuge for the Buddhist was in the community (sangha) of monks and nuns.
The Buddha advised his followers not to feel ill will or get
angry
when others spoke against them, because this might disrupt
their self-mastery
and prevent them from being able to judge whether
the criticism was valid or not.
For the same reason they should
not be overly glad when the doctrine is praised.
In regard to the moral precepts, the Buddha described himself
as having put away
the killing of living things, holding himself
aloof from the destruction of life.
Having laid aside weapons,
he is ashamed of roughness and full of mercy,
being compassionate
and kind to all creatures.
He does not take what has not been
given, is chaste, and speaks truth being faithful
and trustworthy,
not breaking his word to the world.
He has put away lying and
slander and does not raise quarrels.
Thus does he live:
as a binder together of those who are divided,
an encourager of those who are friends, a peacemaker, a lover of peace,
impassioned for peace, a speaker of words that make for peace.4
In describing the fruits of living as a recluse the Buddha
emphasized to King Ajatasatru
the importance of mindfulness toward
the ethical significance of every action and word.
Then having
mastered the moral precepts, restrained the senses,
endowed with
mindfulness and self-possession, filled with content,
the recluse
chooses a lonely and quiet spot to meditate in order to purify
the mind of lusts,
the wish to injure, ill temper, sloth, worry,
irritability, wavering, and doubt.
At the end of this long dialog King Ajatasatru confessed his
sin in putting
to death his father and asked to be a disciple
of the blessed one.
The Buddha accepted his confession and noted
that in the tradition of the noble ones'
discipline whoever sees
one's fault as a fault and correctly confesses it
shall attain
self-restraint in the future.
The Buddha was quite a penetrating psychologist and described
the psychological
causality that leads to suffering in his theory
of pratitya-samutpada (dependent origination).
Sorrow,
lamentation, misery, grief, despair, old age, and death are all
caused by birth,
which depends on existence, which depends on
attachment, which depends on desire,
which depends on sensation,
which depends on contact, which depends on the six senses,
which
depend on name and form, which depend on consciousness,
which
depends on karma, which depends on ignorance.
However, by ending
ignorance, then karma, consciousness, name and form,
the six senses,
contact, sensation, desire, attachment, existence, and birth
with
all the misery that comes after birth can be ended.
Sensation
and desire also lead to pursuit, decision, gain, passion, tenacity,
possession,
avarice, and guarding possessions, which can lead
to
blows and wounds, strife, quarreling, slander, and lies.
This process is further described in a parable about an ancient
kingdom
where the celestial wheel symbolizing the dharma
disappeared.
The king ignored the advice of the sages that
he
should share some of his wealth with the destitute.
This led to
widespread poverty and theft.
At first the king gave some wealth
to a thief to solve his problem,
but then not wanting to reward
stealing he ordered that thieves have their heads cut off.
This
led to the arming of the poor, increased violence associated with
their stealing,
and more murders.
This also caused more lying,
evil speaking, and false opinions.
Eventually greed, adultery,
perverted lust, and incest became common,
followed by lack of
respect for parents, religious teachers, and the heads of the
clans.
Human life became like hunters feel toward their game,
and at times people treated each other like wild beasts.
Finally
deciding to do something good, people started to abstain from
taking life,
which led to abstaining from taking what is not given,
abstaining from lying,
and abstaining from adultery.
As the virtues
were practiced, the health of the society returned.
When this
happens, a fully awakened one (Buddha) called Maitreya will come.
Until then the Buddha recommended that people live as islands
unto themselves,
taking the dharma as their refuge, letting
the mind be filled
with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity.
In another dialog the Buddha clarified the meaning of the eightfold
path
by saying that right view is knowledge of the
four noble
truths of suffering, its cause, cessation, and the way that leads
to its cessation.
Right aspiration is towards benevolence and
kindness.
Right speech is to abstain from lying, slander, abuse,
and idle talk.
Right doing is to abstain from taking life, from
taking what is not given,
and from carnal indulgence.
Right livelihood
is only described as putting away wrong livelihood.
Right effort
is toward preventing bad states from arising, putting away evil
that has arisen,
toward good states arising, and nurturing good
that does arise.
Right mindfulness is being self-possessed and mindful in regard
to the body,
overcoming craving and dejection in feelings, thoughts,
and ideas.
Right rapture is being aloof from sensuous appetites
and evil ideas,
entering into and abiding in the four levels of
higher awareness.
The first of these has cogitation and deliberation
born of solitude and is full of ease and joy.
The second suppresses
cogitation and deliberation evoking by itself concentration,
calming
the mind and dwelling on high.
In the third stage one is disenchanted
with joy, is calmly contemplative and aware.
The fourth state
leaves behind ease and transcends former happiness and melancholy
by entering into the rapture of pure mindfulness and equanimity,
feeling neither ease nor ill.
According to the Buddha the four motives that lead to evil
deeds are
partiality, enmity, stupidity, and fear.
The six channels
for dissipating wealth are being addicted to liquors,
frequenting
the streets at unseemly hours, haunting fairs,
gambling, bad companions,
and idleness.
These ethical teachings and discourses on many other subjects
are from the sayings (Nikaya)
of the Buddha in the first
of the Three Baskets (Tripitaka) that make up the
Pali Canon.
The second basket contains the discipline (Vinaya)
books for the monks and nuns.
Later commentaries on the original
teachings
make up the third basket of "higher doctrines"
(Abhidharma).
The first book in this last collection has
been called
A Manual of Psychological Ethics (Dhamma-sangani).
The Dhamma-sangani lists the good states of consciousness
as the following:
contact, feeling, perception, volition, thought,
application, sustained thinking, zest, ease,
self-collectedness;
the faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, insight,
ideation,
gladness, and life; right views, endeavor, mindfulness,
and concentration; the powers of faith,
energy, mindfulness, concentration,
insight, conscientiousness, and the fear of blame;
the absence
of greed, hate, dullness, covetousness, and malice; serenity,
lightness,
plasticity, facility, fitness, and directness in mind
and mental factors;
intelligence, quiet, intuition, grasp, and
balance.
The list of bad states of consciousness is similar except that
the views, intention, endeavor,
and concentration are wrong instead
of right, and there is unconscientiousness,
disregard of blame,
lust, dullness, and covetousness instead of their absence.
In
a further discussion of these ties the perversion of rules and
rituals and the disposition
to dogmatize are added to covetousness,
lust, and ill will.
To the cankers (asavas) of sensuality,
rebirth, and ignorance is added speculative opinion
about useless
metaphysical questions such as whether the world is eternal,
the
soul is infinite, the soul and body are different, or whether
one exists after death.
A work on human types (Puggala-pannatti) analyzes individuals
in terms
of many characteristics such as the six sense organs
and their objects
(including mind as the sixth sense); eighteen
elements of cognition,
twenty-two faculties or functions, and
such negative traits as being wrathful, vengeful,
a hypocrite,
a charlatan, jealous, avaricious, shameless, impudent, disobedient,
associating with the wicked, having unguarded senses, being immoderate
as to food,
forgetful, unmindful, infringing moral laws, having
wrong views,
and internal and external fetters as well as their
opposites.
However, these texts mostly consist of dry and abstract
lists with many repetitions.
One of the greatest literary works of early Buddhism is the
Dhammapada,
which was placed
among the smaller sayings in the first basket of sutras
although
it contains 423 stanzas in 26 chapters.
Put together from highlights
of Buddha's ethical teachings,
it was in existence by the time
of Emperor Ashoka in the third century BC.
It begins with the
idea that we are the result of our thoughts, impure or pure.
Those who harbor resentful thoughts toward others, believing
they were insulted, hurt,
defeated, or cheated, will suffer from
hatred, because hate never conquers hatred.
Yet hate is conquered
by love, which is an eternal law.
Those who live for pleasures
with uncontrolled senses will be overthrown by temptation.
Those
who cleanse themselves from impurity, grounded in virtues, possessing
self-control
and truth are worthy of the yellow robe.
Those who
imagine truth in untruth and see untruth in truth follow vain
desires.
Passion enters an unreflecting mind like rain comes into a
badly roofed house.
Wrong-doers suffer and grieve in this world
and the next,
but the virtuous find joy and happiness in both.
The second chapter is on awareness and begins:
Awareness is the path of immortality; thoughtlessness is the path of death.
Those who are aware do not die.
The thoughtless are as if dead already.
The wise having clearly understood this delight in awareness
and find joy in the knowledge of the noble ones.
These wise ones, meditative, persevering, always using strong effort,
attain nirvana, the supreme peace and happiness.5
It is good to control the mind, but thought is difficult to
guard and restrain.
Yet a tamed mind brings happiness.
A wise
person, who shows you your faults, may be followed as though to
hidden treasures.
The wise, who teach, admonish, and forbid the
wrong,
will be loved by the good and hated by the bad.
The wise
mold themselves, as engineers of canals guide water and carpenters
shape wood.
The path of those who have stilled their passions
and are indifferent to pleasure,
perceiving release and unconditional
freedom,
is difficult to understand like that of birds in the
sky.
Whoever conquers oneself is greater than the person
who conquers
in battle a thousand times a thousand people.
In regard to punishment
this text warns that those who inflict pain on others
will not
find happiness after death.
Self is the master of the self, and
a person who is self-controlled finds a master few can find.
By
oneself wrong is done and suffered, and by oneself one is purified.
In regard to the world the Buddha recommended not following
a bad law
any more than a wrong idea or thoughtlessness.
He advised
us not to be attached to the world but to follow the path of virtue,
for the world is like a bubble or mirage.
Most of the world is
blind, but the wise are led out of it by conquering temptation.
The teaching of the awakened ones is not to blame nor strike,
but to live alone and restrained under the law, moderate in eating,
and practicing the highest consciousness.
Joy is the natural state for those who do not hate those who
hate them.
Craving is the worst disease and disharmony the greatest
sorrow.
Health and contentment are the greatest wealth, trusting
the best relationship,
and nirvana the highest joy.
Grief comes
from pleasure, attachment, greed, lust, and craving.
Anger may
be overcome by love, wrong by good, avarice by generosity, and
a liar by truth.
The wise hurt no one and always control their
bodies.
There is no fire like lust, no chain like hate;
there is no snare like folly, no torrent like craving.
The faults of others are easy to see; our own are difficult to see.
A person winnows others' faults like chaff, but hides one's own faults
like a cheater hides bad dice.
If a person is concerned about the faults of others
and is always inclined to be offended,
one's own faults grow and one is far from removing faults.6
Anyone who tries to settle a matter by violence is not just.
The wise consider calmly what is right and wrong,
proceeding in
a way that is nonviolent and fair.
For the Buddhist one is not
noble because of injuring living beings;
rather one is noble,
because one does not injure living beings.
Whoever realizes that
all created things suffer, perish, and are unreal transcends pain.
There is no meditation without wisdom and no wisdom without meditation,
for in meditating one becomes wise; but in not meditating wisdom
is lost.
Whoever has wisdom and meditation is close to nirvana.
Lift up your self by yourself; examine your self by yourself.
Thus self-protected and attentive you will live joyfully, mendicant.
For self is the master of self; self is the refuge of self.
Therefore tame yourself, like a merchant tames a noble horse.
Joyful and faithful in the doctrine of the Buddha,
the mendicant finds peace, the joy of ending natural existence.7
No one should hurt a holy one, but no holy one should strike
back.
The sooner the wish to injure disappears, the sooner all
suffering will stop.
The holy are free of all attachment, anger,
and lust.
Though having committed no offense, the holy bear reproach,
ill treatment, and imprisonment.
They are tolerant with the intolerant,
peaceful with the violent,
and free from greed among the greedy,
speaking true words that are useful and not harsh.
The holy call
nothing their own, letting go of attachment to humans
and rising
above attachment to the gods.
Eventually a holy one knows one's
former lives, perceives heaven and hell,
and reaches the end of
births, having attained perfection.
Another great literary work of the Theravada ("way of
the elders") school of Buddhism is
The Questions of King
Milinda.
Menander was one of the Greek kings who ruled Bactria
after the conquests of Alexander,
carrying Greek power further
into India than any of his predecessors in the last half
of the
second century BC; his name was Hinduized to Milinda by the
unknown
Buddhist author, who wrote this work a century or so later.
The philosophical dialog is preceded by a prophecy from the
previous lives
of the two individuals whereby the Buddha foretold
they would have this discussion some five centuries hence.
While
living as a god in a heavenly world, Mahasena is persuaded to
be reborn as
Nagasena so that he could help to enlighten this
king.
King Milinda delights in philosophical discussion and has
never met his match
until he encounters Nagasena.
He asks the
sage every difficult question he can think of and is continually
amazed
at the sagacious replies of Nagasena.
In this way the Buddhist
doctrine is thoroughly tested and explained.
Even the first question asking his name elicits the response
from Nagasena
that there is no permanent individuality.
King Milinda
asks then who it is who lives, receives gifts, devotes himself
to meditation,
attains enlightenment, etc.
Like a chariot it is
none of the separate parts though their combination comes
under
the name "chariot," and he is known as Nagasena.
Nagasena
wants to know if Milinda will be discussing as a scholar who may
be convicted
of error or as a king who punishes disagreement,
and King Milinda agrees to discuss as a scholar.
The next day the king asks Nagasena what is the goal of his
renunciation.
The highest aim is the end of sorrow and the complete
passing away.
Sinful beings are reindividualized after death;
sinless ones are not.
True wisdom is cutting off one's failings,
and this is accomplished by good conduct,
faith, perseverance,
mindfulness, and meditation.
Good conduct is achieved by virtue
and wisdom.
Faith frees the heart of lust, malice, mental sloth,
pride, and doubt.
Perseverance renders support, and mindfulness
discerns the good qualities from the bad;
but meditation is the
leader of all the good qualities.
The one who will not be born
again is more aware and,
though suffering physical pain, is free
of mental pain.
But if there is no soul or individuality, how does reincarnation
occur, and what reincarnates?
Nagasena explains the doctrine of
karma—
how causes have their effects even from one life to the
next.
One who sets a fire is responsible for the other things
that are burned by the spread of the fire.
A person who prepares
poison and drinks it oneself as well as giving it to others
is
responsible for one's own pain and shares responsibility for the
pain of the others too.
According to the Buddha it is karma that
causes the many differences among people.
The king asks why the recluses are so concerned about taking
care of their bodies
if they don't love their bodies.
The body
is like a wound that must be treated with salve, oil, and a bandage
even though one does not love the wound.
Although Buddhism is
in many ways a pessimistic philosophy,
Nagasena nonetheless finds
more merit than demerit,
because eventually the wrong-doer acknowledges
the wrong and feels remorse,
eventually correcting and ending
demerit.
Yet those who do well do not feel remorse but gladness
and peace
and blissful feelings; thus good increases.
After seven days of abstinence the king continues his discussion
with Nagasena,
asking him about various dilemmas he found in the
Buddhist doctrine.
Nagasena solves every problem by giving various
illustrations.
For example, the Buddha admitted Devadatta to the
order even though
he knew that he would cause a schism because
he perceived that even this contact
with the Buddha would keep
Devadatta from becoming even worse.
Social prejudice is transcended
as even a prostitute is able
to perform a miracle by the power
of truth.
Eleven advantages come to those who feel love toward all beings
and put it into practice.
Such people sleep in peace, awake in
peace, have no sinful dreams,
are dear to people and spirits,
watched over by gods, not harmed by fire nor poison
nor a sword,
are easily tranquilized, calm, undismayed by death,
and if arhatship
is not attained, are reborn in the Brahma world.
Though of a loving
disposition, Prince Sama was shot by a poisoned arrow,
because
the virtues are not inherent in the person
but are only effective
at that moment while in use.
The king is convinced that the felt
presence of love
has the power to ward off all evil mental states.
Nagasena agrees heartily:
Yes!
The practice of love is productive of all virtuous
conditions of mind both in good and in evil ones.
To all beings whatsoever, who are in the bonds of conscious existence,
is this practice of love of great advantage,
and therefore ought it to be sedulously cultivated.8
The king asks Nagasena whether virtue or vice is more powerful.
The karma from vice seems to be effectively punished,
this balancing
in fact causes it to die away rather quickly;
while virtue because
of its grandeur lasts for a long time.
Because virtue is rarely
rewarded immediately as vice is often so punished,
the results
of virtue usually are received more abundantly in the lives to
come.
Also according to Nagasena vice only affects the doer,
while
virtue overspreads the whole world of gods and people.
By giving
the individual no peace the remorse from wrong-doing
leads more
quickly to the eradication of that evil.
Finally at the end of their discussions King Milinda ordered
a building constructed
for Nagasena and the monks, turned his
kingdom over to his son,
abandoned the household life to become
homeless, grew in insight,
and eventually became an arhat himself.
After the Buddha's death in 483 BC, the first Buddhist Council
was led by Mahakassapa
during which Ananda recited the discourses
on the doctrine
and Upali the rules of the discipline.
These were
then memorized and became the first
two baskets of the Pitaka,
the Sutta and Vinaya.
Buddhism added abstinence
from intoxicants to the four cardinal rules
of abstaining from
violence, stealing, lying, and sexual misconduct.
At Buddhist gatherings the Pratimokshasutra was recited,
followed by confessions
of monks who felt they had violated any
of it.
The four offenses that led to expulsion were having sexual
intercourse,
taking what was not given, taking of a human life
or persuading anyone to commit suicide,
and falsely boasting of
supernatural attainments.
The thirteen offenses deserving suspension
included sexual misdemeanors,
harming living beings by building
a hut, falsely accusing another monk of a major offense,
persisting
in causing divisions in the community,
and refusing to move when
admonished by other monks.
Other minor violations were eating
between meals, attending secular entertainment,
using unguents
and jewelry, using high or luxurious beds, and handling money.
A century after the death of the Buddha the monks of Vaishali
relaxed the rules on ten minor points, leading to contributions
of money to the monks.
These were protested by the elder Yasa,
who organized a council to condemn the changed rules.
The easterners
from Vaishali became known as Mahasanghikas,
and the traditional
westerners Theravada.
According to tradition Theravada soon divided
into eleven sects
and Mahasanghikas into seven.
Thus Buddhism
was administered locally, though a monk could reside
in any monastery
irrespective of sect.
In the third century BC the Emperor Ashoka tried to unite the
Buddhists,
but he was stricken with remorse when his minister
beheaded monks refusing to comply.
Advised by the most learned
monk of the time, Moggaliputta Tissa,
all monks who did not follow
the Theravada were dismissed from the community,
and refutations
of heretical views were published in the
Kathavatthu of
the Abhidamma basket.
The number of sects was reduced,
but others
later denied that Ashoka ever held such a council.
Regardless of whether that council was held, the support of Ashoka
for Buddhism
greatly expanded its influence so that it was even
adopted
and promoted by Greek rulers such as Menander.
The deification of the Buddha by the non-Theravadins led to
the ideal of the Bodhisattva
or future Buddha instead of
the mere arhat.
Bodhisattvas are enlightened persons, who
postpone their own nirvana in order
to help save all sentient
creatures.
This along with the conception of the pure mind (vijnana)
eventually
led to the "Greater Vehicle" or Mahayana
Buddhism.
According to Edward Conze the earliest part of the Prajnaparamita
Sutra
is from about the first century BC.9
It explains that
the Bodhisattva comprehending the truth does not retire into the
blessed rest
but dwells in wisdom to help others.
In this wisdom
one finds that all truths are empty.
The Bodhisattva, assured
of future Buddhahood by previous Buddhas,
whether absorbed in
trance or not, knows the essential original nature.
Seeing everything
and everyone as illusion, the Bodhisattva is not attached to anything,
while guiding all beings to nirvana.
The world is transcended
in this practice of wisdom, the highest perfection.
Later during
the Christian era this form of Buddhism
was to spread into China
and throughout Asia.
Among the major religions Buddhism is unusual, like Jainism,
in that it did not originally believe in God, though it recognized
gods and goddesses
and heavens and hells.
Less stringent and more
popular than the ascetic Jainism, it's emphasis on ethical behavior
and the quest for enlightenment appealed to both
those who renounced
the world and laypeople.
Though it also offered excellent individual
models of ethical behavior and friendly attitudes,
except in its
religious community it was unable to convert society
as a whole
to its way of nonviolence any more than Jainism could.
Nevertheless in my opinion both Jainism and Buddhism even more
provided
outstanding examples of supremely ethical attitudes and
actions.
They were not afraid to criticize the priestly corruptions
of Brahminism
nor the violent ambitions of the ruling class (Kshatriyas).
Mahavira and the Buddha were great teachers and leaders,
and the
non-theistic religions they founded nourished and enriched the
spiritual tradition
of India and encouraged ethical behavior among
its people.
Perhaps the greatest contribution they both made was to make
nonviolence
a noble path in a culture where the word for noble
(Aryan) had stood for racism
based on color and the violent conquest
of India.
Their devotion to truthfulness and their ability to
live simple lives
with few material possessions as well as their
chastity kept their lives
relatively pure and free of entanglements
and exploitation.
Though surely not without their individual imperfections
and occasional schisms,
the good contributed to the world by these
teachings
and the lives of their best followers must have been
substantial.
1. Samyutta Nikaya 5:420 tr. Sanderson Beck.
2. Thomas, Edward J., The Life of the Buddha, p. 88.
3. Maha Parinibbana Suttanta 6:7 (156).
4. Brahma-Jala Sutta 1:9 (4).
5. Dhammapada 2:1-3 tr. Sanderson Beck.
6. Ibid. 18:17-19.
7. Ibid. 25:20-22.
8. The Questions of King Milinda tr. T. W. Rhys Davids,
4:4:16.
9. The Perfection of Wisdom in Eight Thousand Lines & Its
Verse
Summary tr. Edward Conze, p. x.
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