Who the Buddha is
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Worthier writers, eminent scholars and
researchers throughout history have written numerous books and learned
articles and presented erudite treatises on the subject of Buddha and
his teachings from a variety of diverse perspectives.
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BHIKKHU SARANAPALA
In this article which I undertook to write with immense delight at
the behest of the Indian Buddhist Society in Toronto my intention is to
share with you, the country men and women of the Great Prince Siddhattha
Gotama who became the Buddha, a few of my own perspectives on the
subject in the light of what I had studied over the years taking but a
glimpse at the rich and inexhaustible resource of the early Buddhist
Sutta literature.
For the devout Buddhist, Buddha is the supremely enlightened teacher
who showed the way to liberation from human suffering via release from
the fetters of Samsara. That is, ending without remainder the cycle of
repeated birth and deaths - ergo, gaining the immortality of Nibbana!
Life cycle of the Buddha as seen by ancient prophets |
Etymologically, the word Buddha in Sanskrit and Pali means ‘the
understood’ or ‘the awakened’. In the past participle form in either
language the word means ‘the one who has understood’ or simply ‘the one
who is awake’.
If so, what is it that Buddha understood or what did Buddha awake
into?
As we read in the Dona Sutta of the Anguttara Nikaya a Brahmin by the
name of Dona is amazed as he happens to observe some extraordinary
footprints left upon the dusty path by someone who had walked the same
path ahead of him. Versed as he was in the ancient science of bodily
observations, these footprints trigger in Dona’s an irresistible
curiosity that eventually leads him to the radiant and serene figure of
Buddha who was sitting under a tree.
For the intelligent Brahmin Dona the sight was simply overpowering
and stupendous. It had never happened before! Dona bursts out a
spontaneous paean:
‘This being - the owner of these footprints -
Is confident and inspiring confidence
His senses calmed; his mind calmed;
Having attained the utmost control and tranquillity,
Tamed and guarded,
Indeed!
His senses are restrained! ‘ (pasadika? pasadaniya? santindriya?
santamanasa? uttamadamathasamathamanuppatta?
danta? gutta? sa? yatindriya? naga?) - Dona Sutta.
While Dona’s exclamation portrays the excellent qualities of the
Buddha he observes at the first glance the famous episode per se becomes
pivotal in the understanding of ‘what Buddha is?’ and the entire gamut
of Buddha’s own Teaching from doctrinal to cosmological to temporal and
eschatological.
This unique exclamation being Dona’s spontaneous assessment, to the
limits of his personal knowledge and learning, of the unusual person he
sees Dona tarries enough around Buddha to ask a few casual questions in
quick succession:
Are you a Deva (god) or a Yakkha (demon) or a Gandhabba (semi-divine
being) or a Manussa (human being)? To all of these enquiries Dona
receives a negative reply from the Buddha. Next was Brahmin Dona’s
logical query ‘Who might you be then I pray, tell me?’ In a split second
the Buddha’s reply resounds in Dona’s ears, ‘I am Awake!’ - I am Buddha!
(tasma buddhosmi brahma ).
Obviously Dona would not have expected Buddha to say, ‘I am
Siddhattha Gotama!’ Evidently, his curiosity was prompted by an
overpowering sense he experienced - a certain overwhelming magnetism at
work - at the mere sight of the footprints that belonged to some ‘super
human being’.
Straight away Brahmin Dona’s mind goes to all known supra humans of
the then society’s reckoning , Deva (gods), Yakkha (demons) Gandhabba (a
semi-divine being) and then as Dona himself struggled to figure out, to
some unheard kind of human species of Manussa (human).
Buddha reads his mind very precisely and in a nutshell Buddha
expounds the core aspect of the meaning, significance and purpose of
life in human existence by uttering the most exalted and categorical
statement of Truth ever uttered by a human or divine being in the
present Kalpa, ‘I am Awake!’; just as if he had said, ‘I have
transcended humanity’ - a kind of metamorphosis a human being must
necessarily go through if he or she is to achieve the goal of life - ‘I
am the spotless One, the taintless One, utterly pure! Having gained the
realm of Nibbana I am the Buddha Supreme!
I am the very Truth! The stuff which all Buddhas are made of! ‘
Buddhahood that is within the reach of all human beings should they
follow his way, truth, life. Man - human being - experiencing a
substantial change, a complete transformation! A mental evolution that
sets him/her apart from the rest of his/her species! No human in human
history has ever uttered anything with certitude! So lucidly! So
clearly!
A Deva Buddha could not become! A Yakkha he could not! Nor a
Gandhabba! Not a man either! For they are all beings, ergo, subject to
repeated birth, sickness, decay and death; they are all riddled with
asavas (in Pali) or taints that defile and rob purity! Being sentient
beings, they are all conditioned constructs liable to deconstruction at
the dissolution of elements.
They all are riddled also with identities that need to be ended! A
Buddha on the other hand is a man who is no longer a man but a Buddha
because he’s not subject to repeated births! Therefore, old age,
sickness decay and death! Thus Buddha becomes a Supra- Human! The
Conqueror of Death! And therefore, the supreme achiever of Immortality
of Nibbana!
Dona, the Brahmin was evidently at a pivotal point in his Samsaric
journey and in a state of mental readiness to comprehend the profound
Truth Buddha uttered. he had no more questions! In Dona Sutta Buddha
compares the making of a Buddha to the blossoming of a lotus with the
lotus in full bloom to Buddha-hood.
Any lotus irrespective of its herbal family type springs from the
lakebed mire to grow in the water to bloom, yet un-smeared by the
surrounding muddy water! Similarly a Buddha is born into the world,
grows up in the world to finally dwell - through the total evolution of
consciousness-fully ‘Awakened’ in the world, yet untouched by the world.
It’s this Enlightened Being, the Buddha that Brahmin Dona was drawn to
as if to a magnet.
Buddha’s journey to Buddhahood comes alive in the Ariyapariyesana
sutta, Mahasaccaka sutta , the Mahasihanada suta and in the Bhayabherava
sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya. Accordingly, certain extraordinary
characteristics or distinguished marks of identity by which a Buddha may
be recognised are advanced in these suttas.
They are five in number:
1. Three-fold supernormal knowledges.
2. Realization of four noble truths.
3. Destruction of desire.
4. Omniscience.
5. Undying bliss.
Scholars could argue that Buddhahood means more than these five-fold
marks still, none would gainsay these indeed are the essential key
qualities of Buddhahood.
Threefold supernormal knowledge
Suttas record that prior to Siddhattha Gotama’s Enlightenment, he had
gained the three-fold supernormal knowledge:
1. Recollection of his own past lives (pubbenivasanussatinana).
2. Recollection of births and deaths of all sentient beings in terms
of their own karmic actions (cutupapatanana)
3. destruction of taints ( asavakkhayanana ).
As necessary conditions to these supernormal knowledge, Siddhattha
Gotama had to develop and attain worldly absorptions (rupajjhana) and
formless absorptions (arupajjhanas).
Development and attainment of these absorptions enabled him to gain
supernormal knowledge which produced in turn experiential knowledge of
the cycle of life.
First, supernormal knowledge gave Siddhattha Gotama an experience of
his own life from the past immemorial.
Secondly, knowledge gave him right understanding of all sentient
beings: how good karma produces good results and how bad karma produces
bad consequences for all sentient beings.
In focused meditation he had literally experienced the brutal and
changing vicissitudes and the sufferings of the humankind. Third
supernormal knowledge gave him the insight that people are bound in this
cycle of life due to the taints of sensual desire, existence and
ignorance. These threefold supernormal knowledge gave him fundamental
understanding that all sentient beings suffer. hence, Buddha becomes
worthy eliminator of Dukkha!
Realisation of Four Noble Truths
In becoming a Buddha realisation of the truth of suffering is a sine
qua non . Sentient beings are struggling to be permanent. This is what
led Buddha to proclaim to his monks in the Ariyapariyesana Sutta:
“There is the case where a person himself being subject to birth
seeks happiness in what is likewise subject to birth. Being himself
subject to ageing... illness... death... sorrow... defilement, he seeks
happiness in what is likewise subject to illness... death... sorrow...
defilement.”
While beings are subject to these Samsaric realities, they still keep
searching pleasure in such things replete with impermanence, pain and
dejections.
This is mainly because of taints of sensual pleasure in continued
existence and in ignorance.
These taints and thirsts cause repeated birth and death. Siddhartha
Gotama realised that in order to get rid of suffering one has to uproot
desire for sensual pleasure - that of existence and non-existence.
When one eradicates these causes, the healing, liberation from
Samsaric suffering, Nibbana, is possible for him.
The way to liberation from suffering is Noble Eightfold Path; one has
to purify ones mind by the practice of morality (sila), concentration (samadhi)
and wisdom (panna).
In his first sermon, Dhammacakkapavattana sutta of the Samyutta
Nikaya, the Buddha told his first five disciples what awakening really
means:
“Vision arose, insight arose, discernment arose, knowledge arose,
illumination arose within me.”
Vision, knowledge, wisdom and illumination arose in him of the Four
Noble Truths, a unique concept the world had never heard before and no
religious teacher in the world history had ever advanced! One is called
Buddha when a person profoundly and precisely realises Four Noble
Truths.
Omniscience
In depth analysis of the suttas suggests that Buddhahood also means
all-knowing. Elsewhere in the sutta literature, Buddha claims to know
all sciences and subjects.
However, he did not teach them to the world because he found them
futile and not conducive to detachment and liberation from suffering.
In the Ariyapariyesana sutta an ascetic by the name of Upaka who
encountered the Buddha on his way to Benares was amazed to see him
radiating with inner-calm and bliss.
Buddha’s new blissful personality led Upaka to ask some questions
about his teacher, his proclamation of Buddhahood, and his knowledge.
Buddha replied that he gained Buddhahood without a teacher and became
omniscient and omnipotent through dint of self-exertion. As explained in
numerous suttas, the attainment of sainthood (Arhathship) or Buddhahood
is possible by eradicating taints (asavas; a+sava: inflow or influence).
Before the eradication of taints, Siddhattha Gotama had total
understanding of all sentient beings how they are bound to the cycle of
life on account of these taints.
Taints of sensual pleasure, continued existence and ignorance are the
causes and conditions for the attachment to the cycle of life. When the
Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths to his first five disciples, he
pointed out the root cause of suffering: Craving/desire (Tanha in Pali,
literally thirst.)
There are three types of thirst: thirst of sensual desire (kama-tanha),
becoming (bhava-tanha) and non-becoming (vibhava-tanha). Eradication of
thirst produces undying bliss not based on any conditioned or
conditioning experiences.
According to sutta literature Buddhahood means undying bliss.
This is the end goal for all those who aspire to become Buddhas.
Such bliss arises from total letting go of thirst and from
eradication of taints. In Buddhist terms this bliss is called ‘Nibbana’
which means extinction of thirst/desire. If a mind is conditioned by
lust, anger and delusion, such a mind cannot produce bliss. The primary
source of such bliss is mind. The mind has been tied up with taints and
desires from time immemorial. It is through cleansing of the mind that
this bliss arises.
The mind filled with Nibbanic Bliss remains unshakable and
imperturbable. Some have termed this bliss as enlightenment and some as
awakening.
When Buddhists celebrate Vesak around the globe what they are
celebrating is not merely the physical birth of Siddhattha Gotama but
also the birth of Nibbanic Bliss. Buddha means developing and
cultivating aforesaid five characteristics.
Therefore, Vesak is a celebration of the Threefold Knowledge together
with the realisation of Four Noble Truths, omniscience, destruction of
taints and desires and undying happiness and bliss.
In conclusion, may we always remember if man is the zenith of
evolution of living beings, Buddha indeed the highest achievement any
human can aspire to simply because man can fulfill himself/herself only
in the bliss of Buddha-hood - open to the entire human family!
May your spiritual riches be plentiful! May all beings be happy and
free from fear!
The writer is a monk and meditation teacher - West End Buddhist
Centre, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada Buddhist Chaplain - University of
Toronto. |