Buddha as communicator

Upali PALANGASINGHE

Ascetic Siddhartha went to three religious teachers and learnt very quickly as much as his teachers. He found that the teachers could not teach him how to stop suffering, old age and death either, and he had never heard of anyone who could solve these problems. Once again the Ascetic Siddhartha was disappointed and left those teachers, making up his mind to struggle by himself until he found the cause of all the suffering of life.

Picture by Saman Sri Wedage

He then began to practice the austerities and self-mortifications practiced by a group of five ascetics. For six years he struggled and tortured his body, but the answers to his questions were not forthcoming. He redoubled his efforts, refusing food and water until he was in a state of near death. Then Siddhartha realized that these extreme practices were leading him nowhere, that in fact it might be better to find some middle way between the extremes of the life of luxury and the life of self-mortification.

Giving up the extremes

At 35, after six years of study and meditation he sat under the Bodhi tree and finally found 'the middle path'. He finally understood the cause of all evil and suffering and how to be released from it. When he understood how to end sorrow, unhappiness, suffering, old age and death, he became the Buddha, which means 'he who is awake'.

The Buddha teaches to the world, giving thanks and gratitude to the tree that had sheltered him during his struggle for Buddhahood. The Buddha stood without moving his eyes as he meditated on the Bodhi tree.

The Buddha wanted to teach others what he understood about the suffering. So he reached the five ascetics and explained the Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Path. Buddha told his disciples not to enquire into the origin of the world, into the existence and nature of God. He said to them that such investigations were practically useless and likely to distract their minds.

Increase of disciples

The number of Buddha's followers gradually increased. Nobles, Brahmins and many wealthy men became his disciples. The Buddha paid no attention to caste. The poor and the outcastes were admitted to his order. Those who wanted to become full members of his order were obliged to become monks and to observe strict rules of conduct. The Buddha had many lay disciples also. Those lay members had to provide for the wants of the monks.

The Buddha spent the rest of his life as a homeless, itinerant teacher. His life and needs were simple. For nine months of the year he traveled on foot, offering his teachings to any that were interested. He went from village to village, and from town to town, using his alms bowl as a means of obtaining food.

In this way he came into contact with all levels of society, relating the same message to all those he met, the four noble truths: life is suffering, craving is the cause of this suffering, there is an end to suffering, and there is a means to bring this suffering to an end.

The Buddha's teaching spanned forty-five years, and at the age of 80 his unique journey came to an end. The Buddha continued to travel and teach, finally coming to a small village called Kusinara and went into a deep meditation under a grove of Sal trees and passed away. His last words were: "Impermanent are all created things. Strive on with awareness."

Proper employment

The Buddha defined righteous employment as engagement in agriculture, trade, dairy farming, defence services, government services and professional services. He prohibited trade in weapons, in slaves, in rearing animals for slaughter, in liquor, and in poisons, drugs and narcotics. So the Buddhists use this principle to fulfill their economic development together with the elimination of poverty.

The Buddha has been the only religious teacher to have visited a battlefront in person and acted as a true mediator in averting war between Sakyan and the Koliyan Kingdoms, who fights for the water of the Rohini River.

As he travelled he gathered followers of those who wanted to take up the same life of simplicity in the hope of gaining enlightenment. Such followers came from all strata of society, rich and poor. The only requirement was a sincere desire to follow the Buddha's teaching.

The commitment had to be total. It meant leaving one's family - just as the Buddha himself had done - and leading a life of celibacy and strict morality. It also meant having few possessions and maintaining a simple lifestyle. Gradually, the number of followers increased and eventually a definite community of monks, and later nuns, was formed to be known as the Sangha.

Effective teachings

The Buddha's teaching of the five precepts is very much effective to the people who follow his footstep.

His Four Noble Truth and the Eighth-fold Path helped people to develop their wisdom. He teaches that wisdom should be developed with compassion. And true wisdom does not simply believe what we are told but instead experiencing and understanding truth and reality. Wisdom requires an open, objective, unbigoted, mind and the path requires courage, patience, flexibility and intelligence.

Following those principles, many of the bad people were converted to good people and joined the Buddha's community as Sangha. For example the prince called Ahinsaka, who became a cruel and nasty murderer, killed 999 people and cut their fingers to fulfill a vow to his teacher. When the Buddha approached him, he was chasing after his own mother to cut the 1000th finger. Interfering on him at this stage, the Buddha could convert him to a superior person who later became an Arahath.

More than 2550 years ago prince Siddhartha began his greatest journey to become the greatest communicator, religious leader and the greatest philosopher existed in history of mankind. He taught millions of people around the world the art of communication with people and within themselves by developing the powerful human mind.