Throughout his ministry of forty-five years, the Buddha, the Supremely Enlightened One, worked ceaselessly to expound the Dhamma, the Truth he had realised. This, he did out of compassion for the world, for the welfare and happiness of humanity. The Buddha's faithful attendant-disciple Ananda, endowed with almost superhuman powers of memory, had asked a boon that the Master would repeat every discourse that had not been uttered in the former's hearing. The Venerable Ananda has himself stated that he knew 84,000 utterances of the Buddha. There were of course some other disciples who were associated with the Buddha from the very beginning and who had also memorized faithfully the sayings of the Buddha with incredible devotion.
These
erudite and holy disciples had a historical sense in that they recognized the
importance of recording accurately not only the utterances but also the
circumstances under which the Enlightened One proclaimed the various aspects of
his Teaching. So great was their concern for authenticity that barely three
months after the Buddha's Maha Parinibbana (the Great Passing Away) they held a
Council where the noble members of the Sangha, the Consummate Ones (Arahants),
assembled to recite, codify and collate the sum total of the Buddha's
Teachings, so that they could be handed down for posterity with no room for
misinterpretation, distortion or adaptation.
Oral
Tradition
The
entire Teachings of the Buddha were recorded and handed down orally in an
unbroken chain by the members of the Holy Order until they were finally
committed to writing in Pali (Magadhi) in 80 B.C in Sri Lanka. The teachings of
the Master were publicly recited by congregations of monks so that there would
be no erroneous accounts or substitution of words.
However,
more than the Essence of the Teachings have been preserved for posterity. They
have recorded for us a vivid picture of the life and the preoccupations of the
ordinary folk who were alive in northern India during the time of the Buddha.
These folk were not very different from us. The kings, ministers, princes,
Brahmins, farmers, naked ascetics, outcastes, robbers, courtiers, bankers,
courtesans, husbands, wives, lovers, sons, daughters and so forth had the same
frailties that people today are subject to: greed, hatred, delusion, jealousy,
laziness, pride, foolishness etc. The early Buddhists also were gentle, caring,
devoted, intelligent, generous and dedicated.
The
stories recorded in the Dhammapada give us a vivid picture of the Supreme
Teacher. Among the Buddha's lay disciples were kings like Bimbisara and
Pasenadi; millionaires like Anatha Pindika, courtesans like Sirima, together
with a host of ordinary citizens: barbers, goldsmiths, elephant trainers,
acrobats, slaves, hunters, fishermen, florists, butchers, weavers and boatmen.
Many benefited from his teachings. Some went on their own way, unable to gain
anything.
The
stories of the Dhammapada have touched the hearts and minds of mankind because
they deal with true human feelings. They have pathos, as when Patacara lost her
whole family in a series of accidents: they have humour as when we are told
that a monk who repeatedly re-joined the Order had his head shaved so many
times that it was 'like a whetting stone'; they have romance, as when Nanda
pines for the bride he has left behind to join the Order; they have intrigue,
as when the heretics employ a courtesan to accuse the Buddha of adultery and as
when Magandiya successfully plots against the death of saintly queen who is a
follower of the Buddha; they have politics, as when the Buddha's relatives are
poised for battle on both sides of the Rohini river because of a quarrel over
irrigation and they have drama, as when Devadatta tries repeatedly to battle
the Buddha for supremacy and meets a woeful end.
The
Buddha's Compassion
The
Buddha had many enemies too. His own cousin, Devadatta, unsuccessfully
attempted to kill him three times, and rival religious leaders tried to defame
him by accusing him of adultery and falsehood. But the Buddha remained in their
midst, unpolluted like the lotus flower which has come to symbolize purity in
Buddhism. The Buddha was in the world, but not of the world.
The
Buddha's compassion knew no bounds. He had time to talk to scavengers and slave
girls, and he accepted the offerings of the humblest of citizens. Once he
accepted the half-finished meal of a brahmin because it had been offered with
humility, respect and devotion. The Buddha's Teaching has become a very rich
doctrine because many other religious teachers had many dialogues and debates
with him on the deeper aspects of controversial religious issues like the
existence of a creator god, soul theory, divine power, animal sacrifice,
austerity, rites and rituals and final salvation. As a result, the Buddha
personally clarified many of the controversies which are being argued about
even today by those who have different beliefs.
The
Buddha was the greatest teacher the world has ever known. Modern educationists
would do well to study his methods when they consider how to improve their
skills to impart knowledge to others. Not once in the closely recorded life of
the Buddha can we find an instance of his becoming angry or impatient with
those who could not or did not want to understand him. There was no occasion
when the Buddha spoke harshly to another person. His patience, tolerance,
all-embracing compassion and merciful wisdom cannot be equalled by any other
teacher.
The
admonition given by the Buddha in the first verse of the Dhammapada that the
human mind is responsible for everything we do - good or evil, is reiterated
and embodied in the preamble to the UNESCO Charter of Human Rights which
states: 'Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that
the defence of peace must be constructed.'
But
the Buddha had some supreme faculties which made him greater than any other
teacher. He was able to effect 'miraculous' changes of heart and attitudes even
in the most antagonistic, obstinate, dull or weak-minded individual because he
had the infinite faculty of knowing the past lives which conditioned the
peculiar behaviour of a certain individual. He knew for example that a young
bhikkhu could not meditate on the loathsomeness of the body because, having
been a goldsmith in successive previous existences, he could best respond only
to beautiful objects. When the Teacher gave him a golden lotus, he quickly
gained one-pointedness in concentration of the mind. Again when his listeners
gazed at the sky, scratched the earth or shook a tree instead of paying
attention, the Buddha was understanding because he knew their behaviour was
conditioned by their previous existences as an astrologer, a subterranean
creature, and a monkey. The Buddha was the first teacher who recognised the
importance of knowing the aptitude and psychological makeup of a learner before
effective teaching can take place.
That
the Buddha was a peerless teacher can be proved by the fact that he did not use
the same approach or method when instructing different disciples. The Buddha
always suited his teaching to the age, temperament, character, status or mental
state of his listeners. He delayed giving a sermon to a congregation until a
hungry cowherd was fed because he knew that a hungry man could not concentrate.
There were times when he even remained silent because he knew the answers would
only confuse the questioner more. As in any community, there were the very
highly intelligent like Ven. Sariputta who was intellectually endowed to
comprehend the most abstruse teachings as embodied in the Abhidhamma. On the
other hand, the Compassionate Master used different methods for the
unintelligent and unskillful, as when he instructed Cula Panthaka to simply
think about mental defilements while he rubbed a clean piece of white cloth,
facing the East. When Kisa Gotami, distracted with grief, approached him asking
for a medicine to restore her dead son, the Buddha asked her to fetch him
some mustard seeds from a family where no one had died. She could not find in
the village a home where Mara (death) had not stalked. Truth dawned upon her
and she realised the universality of death. Because of the Buddha's method of
instruction, Kisa Gotami, the mother who had walked about clutching the body of
her infant son was able to realise the truth as depicted in the verse:
"Uninvited
he came, Uninformed he went,
As
he came so he went,
What
avails weeping?"
The
Great Books
Later
disciples who were entrusted with the task of elucidating the Dhamma also
emulated the Great Teacher's methods. Thus in Buddhism we have the texts
pertaining to the Higher Teachings, the Abhidhamma, which deal with the
psychological aspects of the Dhamma for the intellectually well-endowed.
Then
there is the Sutta collection which is a complete record of the Lengthy, Middle
Range and Short Discourses uttered by the Buddha which can be read by a larger
community of disciples. It is here that we witness a great part of the Buddha's
Teachings. In this section of the TIPITAKA (The Buddhist Canon) can be found
teachings which are suitable for almost any type of human mind and for all
characters and temperaments. The Dhammapada belongs to the fifth and last
section of this particular canon. This selection of the Buddha's sayings is
most suited for a much wider range of people, and its stories rank among the
greatest achievements of human endeavour in literature, poetry and story
telling anywhere in the world. (The third 'canon' consists of the Rules of
Conduct, the Vinaya, and is meant solely for the guidance of monks and nuns who
have joined the Holy Order.)
Along
with the Jataka (Birth stories of the Buddha in his previous existences), the
Dhammapada is certainly among the most widely read and quoted books in all of
religious history. The culture, manners and thoughts of whole nations have been
partly shaped by the sayings in the Dhammapada over many centuries. Throughout
South and East Asia, in Thailand, Burma and Sri Lanka especially, the
Dhammapada stories have been breathed into infants by doting mothers and they
have been told and retold by the most learned monks to instruct, gladden and
enlighten people from different walks of life. It is impossible to estimate how
many human beings have refrained from telling a lie, killing an insect,
spreading a rumour, bearing false witness, or taking what is not given, by
calling to mind a story from the Dhammapada at the right moment. If the world
has experienced moments of compassion and wisdom in the face of greed, hatred,
and delusion, the Dhammapada must be given its due share of credit for it.
Achema - 2005
No comments:
Post a Comment