20 MINUTES TO MASTER … BUDDHISM. Kulananda

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      In the final watch of that full moon night in May, complete Enlightenment had finally dawned. Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha.

      And the moon, like a maiden’s gentle smile, lit up the heavens, while a rain of sweet-scented flowers, filled with moisture, fell down on the earth from above.3

      Siddhartha spent several weeks absorbing this profound experience. He pondered for some time whether or not he could make his discovery of Enlightenment known to others – it was so subtle. To penetrate into it required calm and great concentration, people were so caught up in their petty desires, getting and spending; so attached to family, friends, wealth and reputation.

      Then, the legend runs, a celestial being appeared and begged him to teach, for there were some beings in the world ‘with but little dust on their eyes’ who were perishing for want of the teachings.

      With the eye of his imagination, the Buddha surveyed all the beings in the world. He saw all living beings as a vast bed of lotus flowers. Some flowers were sunk deep in the mire, others had raised their heads to the level of the water, and yet others had risen quite above the water – though they had their roots in the mud they were reaching up towards the light. There were beings who would understand what he had to say. The Buddha decided to teach.

      Leaving the place we now know as Bodh Gaya, he walked the hundred or so miles to Sarnath, near the ancient city of Varanasi, where some of his former disciples were staying in a deer park. As he approached they looked to one another in disgust – here was the backslider Gotama, the former recluse. What did he want? They were certainly not going to receive him with respect. But as the Buddha approached they were so taken with his calm, radiant demeanour that they couldn’t help but defer to him.

      These were stubborn men. Hardened by years of asceticism, full-timers in the spiritual quest, they thought they had heard it all. But the Buddha seemed to be approaching life from an entirely new dimension. There was something inexplicably different about him. They got down to debate – tough, straight talking, going to the very heart of things. Their discussions went on for days. Every now and again someone would leave to beg alms for the others, and then return to the fray. The Buddha’s conviction and confidence was absolute. He had found the skilful Middle Way to Enlightenment, a path leading between the extremes of hedonism and asceticism; nihilism and eternalism.

      Finally, the ascetic Kaundinya broke through. He saw what the Buddha was driving at, not just intellectually – he had the same kind of experience that the Buddha had under the tree at Bodh Gaya. His attachment to his own limited personality dropped away and he, too, was now free from the bondage of craving.

      The Buddha was delighted – ‘Kaundinya knows!’ he exclaimed, ‘Kaundinya knows!’ What the Buddha had discovered could be made known. If Kaundinya could understand, then others could too. Humanity would benefit from these teachings. Over the next few days the other ascetics also became Enlightened. Then a young man called Yasa came by. Engaging the Buddha in discussion, he was convinced of the truth of the teachings, and so brought his family and friends along to hear them. In this way a new spiritual community – a Sangha – came into being. Soon there were 60 Enlightened beings in the world, and the Buddha sent them out to teach ‘for the welfare and happiness of the many, out of compassion for the world’.

      For the next 45 years the Buddha wandered around northern India. Sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by members of the growing community that was coming into being around him. As he wandered, he taught. Kings, courtesans, sweepers and householders; all kinds of people came to hear the Buddha teach. What he taught was the Dharma.

      Dharma is a complex Sanskrit word (in Pali, the other main language of the ancient Indian Buddhist texts, it is ‘Dhamma’). It can mean law, or way, or truth. Here, it stands for all those teachings and practices which lead one towards Enlightenment. Over time, the Dharma which the Buddha taught came to be systematized. Repeated for hundreds of years in a purely oral tradition (the Buddha himself, like most of his kinsmen, was probably illiterate) the Dharma eventually formed the basis of an immense literary tradition, but at the start of it all there was just the Buddha, wandering about, trying to get people to see things more clearly, freely sharing his wisdom for the sake of all living beings, helping others to move towards the transcendental insight which he himself had attained.

      Over the course of his life, the Buddha’s fame as a teacher spread throughout northern India, an area of 50,000 square miles, encompassing seven different nations. He was known as Shakyamuni – ‘the Sage of the Shakya Clan’ – and there was an immense general interest in what he had to say. Enlightened at about 35, he lived until about 80, and all of those 45 years were given over to teaching. Except in the rainy season, when he and whatever followers were with him retired into retreat, he walked the hot and dusty roads, passing through villages and cities, living on alms, taking only what was freely offered to him, and addressing himself to all who wanted to hear what he had to say, irrespective of sex, caste, vocation or religion. Amongst his followers were two of the principal kings of the region, members of most of the leading republican families, and some of the wealthiest merchants. On his travels he came into close personal contact with wandering ascetics, peasants, artisans, shopkeepers and robbers. People of all castes poured into his Sangha, where they lost their separate designations of caste and class – becoming simply ‘followers of the Buddha’.

      Wherever he could, the Buddha tried to help people to see things as they really are, responding to every situation out of the depths of his wisdom and compassion. One day, for example, a woman called Kisa Gotami came to see him. Her child had died and she was distraught. Clutching the dead baby to her breast, she rushed about, looking for that medicine which would restore the child to life. Thrusting the dead child up at the Buddha, she wailed – ‘Please, please! Give me medicine for my baby!’

      ‘Very well,’ said the Buddha, ‘but first you must bring me a mustard seed.’

      A mustard seed! How easy!

      ‘But,’ the Buddha added, ‘it must come from a house where no one has died.’

      Kisa Gotami rushed off to beg for her mustard seed. She dashed from house to house. People were very willing to help her, but whenever she asked ‘Has anyone ever died in this house?’ the answer was the same. ‘Alas, yes. The dead are many and the living are few.’

      Kisa Gotami was utterly beside herself. Where was she going to find the mustard seed she so badly needed? As she passed from house to house the message gradually began to sink in. Death comes to all. There is no getting away from it. She returned to the Buddha and laid down her dead child. ‘I know now that I am not alone in this great grief. Death comes to all.’

      Kisa Gotami joined the Sangha and, in due course, became Enlightened.

      Another time the Buddha found himself in a part of the country which was being terrorized by a bandit called Angulimala – ‘Finger Necklace’ – who, after killing his victims, had the gruesome habit of cutting off one of their fingers and adding it to a string of them which he wore around his neck. His ambition was to acquire 100 such fingers. At the time we are speaking of he had 98, and he was so desperate to reach his goal that he was just beginning to think that he might have to kill his old mother, who lived with him and did the cooking.

      As the Buddha came to the area where Angulimala lived, the terrified villagers begged him not to go any further, for the danger was immense. But the Buddha quietly ignored their pleas and set out at a steady pace, calm and alert as ever.

      Angulimala saw a figure approaching. ‘Who dares to come like this into СКАЧАТЬ