Buddhist Spectrum

Where the Blessed One trod

Text and pictures Sumanachandra Ariyawansa

Buddhist pilgrims and tourists of other religions, if they assemble at the Delhi Safdarjung railway station, usually receive red carpet welcome with flower garlands going around their necks and thilaka on foreheads. Typical of Indian tradition, two pretty Indian ladies will join them in a Buddhist circuit special train to visit where the Buddha lived.

The station has live Indian traditional music in addition to a cup of tea and other refreshment offered to the guests as a token of welcome. The luxury train, which cruises to the Buddha’s birthplace, is painted in red.

The pilgrims are from different countries: USA, Australia, Singapore, Italy, Korea, China, India and Sri Lanka. Following tea, everybody will hear the loud chant ‘Buddhan Saranan Gachchami’ (I go to the refuge of the Buddha) across the train’s berths, which offers a genuine feel of being in a Buddhist pilgrimage.

Everybody is now about to reach where the Buddha walked in calm serenity.

The whole night could be spent on the train with all types of cuisine of wide choice. It gave the impression of a top class hotel, where the interior was pure white linen. The bathrooms and toilets have been equipped with hot water to attract tourists.

I, with my delegation, reached Gaya station in the early morning and from the Gaya station, we were taken to a hotel. Following breakfast we reached the place where Prince Siddhartha attained enlightenment. Passing the famous river Niranjala, which is now known as river Falgu, Buddagaya is the most venerated and respected place of worship for Buddhists. Prince Siddhartha Gautama attained enlightenment under a tree which is located in this area.

We were scheduled to visit Rajgir and Nalanda the next day. It is in Rajgir where the Buddha made frequent visits and preached on Gijjhakuta rock (Vulture’s Peak). Atop this rock, several monks are said to have had attained the arahanthood. You would feel as if you have come to Adam’s Peak, roaming on this magnificent rock.

King Bimbisara’s jail is also found close to this rock.

Further down is Nalanda, which is a university that thought philosophy during the Buddha time. It had the capacity to accommodate more than 10,000 students with 2,000 lecturers.

On the fourth day, we reached the world’s oldest living city, which was earlier known as Baranasa. The ancient ruins still remain intact. The city of Varannasi is situated along the West bank of the Ganges in the North India state of Uttar Saranath. We could worship Isipathana Migadaya as well. This is where the Buddha delivered his first ever sermon ‘Damsak Pevatum’.

In the evening, organizers arranged a boat ride in the river Ganges help relieve all stress and tiredness. One could see from the boat that corpses are washed in this holy river, which is known as holy bath for the dead. One could also witness the worshiping of sunset from the boat.

On the fifth day, we reached Kushinngar, near the Hiranyavati River, where the Buddha attained the final Nibbana. All monks, who reach this place of worship, preach the Maha Parinibbana Sutta. This place is ideal for meditation.

On the sixth day, we went to Lumbini in Nepal, where all tourists and pilgrims stayed in a hotel called Lumbini Hotel. The significance of this place of worship is that the Buddha was born in this garden. This is one magnificent serene location, which gives relief to everyone’s heart and mind.

On the seventh say all of us rushed to Jetavna garden situated at Sravasti, which was once the Kingdom of Kosala where the Buddha preached and visited frequently.

We were also able to visit the famous Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders in the world. This edifice stands elegantly in Agra city in India. The Taj Mahal, finished in marble, is perhaps India’s most fascinating sight.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited organized the entire tour and Sri Lankan travel agent Hemas Travels (Pvt) Limited coordinated the tour under the patronage of its Senior Executive Senaka Wijesekera.

The beauty of this pilgrimage was that people from all over the world joined hands like one fraternity.

The fact of impermanence

Ven Piyadassi Thera

“Impermanent, subject to change, are component things. Strive on with heedfulness!” This was the final admonition of the Buddha Gotama to his disciples.

And when the Buddha had passed away, Sakka, the chief of the deities, uttered the following:

Impermanent are all component things, They arise and cease, that is their nature: They come into being and pass away, Release from them is bliss supreme. Aniccaa vata saÓnkhaaraa — uppaada vaya dhammino Uppajjitvaa nirujjhanti — tesa.m vuupasamo sukho.

— Mahaa-Parinibbaana Sutta (DN 16)

Even up to present times, at every Buddhist funeral in Theravada countries, this very Pali verse is recited by the Buddhist monks who perform the obsequies, thus reminding the congregation of the evanescent nature of life.

It is a common sight in Buddhist lands to see the devotees offer flowers and light oil lamps before a Buddha image. They are not praying to the Buddha or to any “supernatural being.” The flowers that fade and the flames that die down, speak to them of the impermanency of all conditioned things.

It is this single and simple word Impermanence (anicca) which is the very core of the Buddha’s teaching, being also the basis for the other two characteristics of existence, Suffering and No-self. The fact of Impermanence means that reality is never static but is dynamic throughout, and this the modern scientists are realizing to be the basic nature of the world without any exception. In his teaching of dynamic reality, the Buddha gave us the master key to open any door we wish. The modern world is using the same master key, but only for material achievements, and is opening door after door with amazing success.

Change or impermanence is the essential characteristic of all phenomenal existence. We cannot say of anything, animate or inanimate, organic or inorganic, “this is lasting”; for even while we are saying this, it would be undergoing change. All is fleeting; the beauty of flowers, the bird’s melody, the bee’s hum, and a sunset’s glory.

Suppose yourself gazing on a gorgeous sunset. The whole western heavens are glowing with roseate hues; but you are aware that within half an hour all these glorious tints will have faded away into a dull ashen gray. You see them even now melting away before your eyes, although your eyes cannot place before you the conclusion which your reason draws. And what conclusion is that? That conclusion is that you never, even for the shortest time that can be named or conceived, see any abiding color, any color which truly is. Within the millionth part of a second the whole glory of the painted heavens has undergone an incalculable series of mutations. One shade is supplanted by another with a rapidity which sets all measurements at defiance, but because the process is one to which no measurements apply,... reason refuses to lay an arrestment on any period of the passing scene, or to declare that it is, because in the very act of being it is not; it has given place to something else. It is a series of fleeting colors, no one of which is, because each of them continually vanishes in another.

— Ferrier’s Lectures and Remains Vol. I, p. 119, quoted in Sarva-dorsana-Sangraha, London, p. 15

All component things — that is, all things which arise as the effect of causes, and which in turn give rise to effects — can be crystallized in the single word anicca, impermanence. All tones, therefore, are just variations struck on the chord which is made up of impermanence, suffering (unsatisfactoriness), and no-self nor soul — anicca, dukkha, and anattaa.

Camouflaged, these three characteristics of life prevail in this world until a supremely Enlightened One reveals their true nature. It is to proclaim these three characteristics — and how through complete realization of them, one attains to deliverance of mind — that a Buddha appears. This is the quintessence, the sum total of the Buddha’s teaching.

Although the concept of anicca applies to all compounded and conditioned things, the Buddha is more concerned with the so-called being; for the problem is with man and not with dead things. Like an anatomist who resolves a limb into tissues and tissues into cells, the Buddha, the Analyzer (Vibhajjavaadi), analyzed the so-called being, the sankhaara pu~nja, the heap of processes, into five ever-changing aggregates, and made it clear that there is nothing abiding, nothing eternally conserved, in this conflux of aggregates (khandhaa santati). They are: — — material form or body; feeling or sensation; perception; mental formations; consciousness.

The Enlightened One explains:

The five aggregates, monks, are anicca, impermanent; whatever is impermanent, that is dukkha, unsatisfactory; whatever is dukkha, that is without attaa, self. What is without self, that is not mine, that I am not, that is not my self. Thus should it be seen by perfect wisdom (sammappa~n~naaya) as it really is. Who sees by perfect wisdom, as it really is, his mind, not grasping, is detached from taints; he is liberated.

— SN 22.45

Naagarjuna only echoes the words of the Buddha when he says: When the notion of an Aatman, Self or Soul cease, the notion of ‘mine’ also ceases and one becomes free from the idea of I and mine (Maadhyamika-Kaarikaa, xviii.2)

The Buddha gives five very striking similes to illustrate the ephemeral nature of the five aggregates. He compares material form to a lump of foam, feeling to a bubble, perception to a mirage, mental formations to a plantain trunk (which is pithless, without heartwood), and consciousness to an illusion, and asks: “What essence, monks, could there be in a lump of foam, in a bubble, in a mirage, in a plantain trunk, in an illusion?”

Continuing, the Buddha says:

Whatever material form there be: whether past, future, or present; internal or external; gross or subtle; low or lofty; far or near; that material form the monk sees, meditates upon, examines with systematic attention, he thus seeing, meditating upon, and examining with systematic attention, would find it empty, he would find it insubstantial and without essence. What essence, monks, could there be in material form?

The Buddha speaks in the same manner of the remaining aggregates and asks:

What essence, monks, could there be in feeling, in perception, in mental formations and in consciousness?

— SN 22.95

Thus we see that a more advanced range of thought comes with the analysis of the five aggregates. It is at this stage that right understanding known as insight (vipassanaa) begins to work. It is through this insight that the true nature of the aggregates is grasped and seen in the light of the three characteristics (ti-lakkhana), namely: impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and no-self.

It is not only the five aggregates that are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and without self, but the causes and conditions that produce the aggregates are also impermanent, unsatisfactory, and without self. This point the Buddha makes very clear:

Material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness, monks, are impermanent (anicca). Whatever causes and conditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they, too, are impermanent. How monks, could aggregates arisen from what is impermanent, be permanent?

Material form... and consciousness, monks, are unsatisfactory (dukkha); whatever causes and conditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they too are unsatisfactory. How, monks, could aggregates arise from what is unsatisfactory be pleasant or pleasurable?

Material form... and consciousness, monks, are without a self (anattaa); whatever causes and conditions there are for the arising of these aggregates, they, too are without self. How, monks, could aggregates arise from what is without self be self (attaa)?

The instructed noble disciple (sutavaa ariyasaavako), monks, seeing thus becomes dispassionate towards material form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness: Through dispassion he is detached; through detachment he is liberated; in liberation the knowledge comes to be that he is liberated, and he understands: Destroyed is birth, lived is the life of purity, done is what was to be done, there is no more of this to come [meaning that there is no more continuity of the aggregates, that is, no more becoming or rebirth].

— SN 22.7-9, abridged

It is always when we fail to see the true nature of things that our views become clouded; because of our preconceived notions, our greed and aversion, our likes and dislikes, we fail to see the sense organs and sense objects in their respective and objective natures, (aayatanaana.m aayatana.t.ta.m) and go after mirages and deceptions. The sense organs delude and mislead us and then we fail to see things in their true light, so that our way of seeing things becomes perverted (vipariita dassana).

The Buddha speaks of three kinds of illusion or perversions (vipallaasa, Skt. viparyaasa) that grip man’s mind, namely: the illusions of perception, thought, and view (sa~n~naa vipallaasa; citta vipallaasa; di.t.thi vipallaasa). Now when a man is caught up in these illusions he perceives, thinks, and views incorrectly.

He perceives permanence in the impermanent; satisfactoriness in the unsatisfactory (ease and happiness in suffering); self in what is not self (a soul in the soulless); beauty in the repulsive.

He thinks and views in the same erroneous manner. Thus each illusion works in four ways (AN 4.49), and leads man astray, clouds his vision, and confuses him. This is due to unwise reflections, to unsystematic attention (ayoniso manasikaara). Right understanding (or insight meditation — vipassanaa) alone removes these illusions and helps man to cognize the real nature that underlies all appearance. It is only when man comes out of this cloud of illusions and perversions that he shines with true wisdom like the full moon that emerges brilliant from behind a black cloud.

The aggregates of mind and body, being ever subject to cause and effect, as we saw above, pass through the inconceivably rapid moments of arising, presently existing, and ceasing (uppaada, .thiti, bhaÓnga), just as the unending waves of the sea or as a river in flood sweeps to a climax and subsides. Indeed, human life is compared to a mountain stream that flows and rushes on, changing incessantly (AN 7.70) “nadisoto viya,” like a flowing stream.

Heraclitus, that renowned Greek philosopher, was the first Western writer to speak about the fluid nature of things. He taught the Panta Rhei doctrine, the flux theory, at Athens, and one wonders if that teaching was transmitted to him from India.

“There is no static being,” says Heraclitus, “no unchanging substratum. Change, movement, is Lord of the Universe. Everything is in a state of becoming, of continual flux (Panta Rhei).”

He continues: “You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.” Nevertheless one who understands the root of the Dhamma would go a step further and say: The same man cannot step twice into the same river; for the so called man who is only a conflux of mind and body, never remains the same for two consecutive moments.”

It should now be clear that the being whom for all practical purposes we call a man, woman, or individual, is not something static, but kinetic, being in a state of constant and continuous change. Now when a person views life and all that pertains to life in this light, and understands analytically this so-called being as a mere succession of mental and the bodily aggregates, he sees things as they really are (yathaabhuutam). He does not hold the wrong view of “personality belief,” belief in a soul or self (sakkaaya di.t.thi), because he knows through right understanding that all phenomenal existence is causally dependent (pa.ticca-samuppanna), that each is conditioned by something else, and that its existence is relative to that condition. He knows that as a result there is no “I,” no persisting psychic entity, no ego principle, no self or anything pertaining to a self in this life process. He is, therefore, free from the notion of a microcosmic soul (jiivaatma) or a macrocosmic soul (paramaatma).

To be continued