The Teacher of The Law

Last time I looked at Shakyamuni’s enlightenment after overcoming temptation from the devil under the Pipal (Bodhi) tree, and this time I wanted to look at how he started to teach this profound wisdom and how his teachings developed until the time of his death.

Turning to Chapter 2 of the Lotus Sutra, we find that Shakyamuni wanted to teach people but worried they wouldn’t be able to grasp this profound teaching.  T’ien-T’ai believed from his research - and the following extract - that Shakyamuni tried to teach the Flower Garland Sutra and the interconnectedness of everything to the local people during this 21 day period, and their inability to understand gave him cause for concern.  In his earlier teachings Shakyamuni mentioned the re-appearance of Mara encouraging him not to teach this law to others as they wouldn’t understand it.  This was followed by the appearance of Brahma to encourage him to share this wisdom with the world.  In the Lotus Sutra we don’t have the appearance of Mara, but the text shows that Shakyamuni was struggling to think of how he could teach people and whether his efforts would be worthwhile or not. 

“When I first sat in the place of enlightenment and gazed at the tree and walked around it for the space of three times seven days I pondered the matter in this way.  The wisdom I have attained, I thought, is subtle, wonderfull, the foremost.  But living beings, dull in capacity, are addicted to pleasure and blinded by foolishness.  With persons such as this, what can I say, how can i save them?

 At that time the Brahma kings, along with the heavenly king Shakra, the four heavenly kings who guard the world, and the heavenly king Great Freedom, in company with other heavenly beings and their hundreds and thousands and ten thousands of followers, reverently pressed their palms together and bowed, begging me to turn the wheel of the Law.

Immediately I thought to myself that if I merely praised the buddha vehicle, then the living beings, sunk in their suffering, would be incapable of believing in this Law.  And because they rejected the Law and failed to believe in it, they would fall into the three evil paths.”  (LSOC2, p76 - 77)

Previous teachings mention that next Mara said to Shakyamuni that rather than live with the knowledge that he would be unable to save people he should take his own life and enter nirvana, but again in the Lotus Sutra we find this as an internal thought process that is quickly resolved, when Shakyamuni decides to break this wisdom down into more manageable chunks of information that would be easier for people to understand:

“It would be better if I did not preach the Law but quickly entered into nirvana.  Then my thoughts turned to the buddhas of the past and the power of expedient means they had employed, and I thought that the way I had now attained should likewise be preached as three vehicles.”  (LSOC2, p 77)

This internal dialogue is interesting because it shows that a Buddha, or someone enlightened to the reality of the universe, is not a God or someone who has escaped from the suffering and pain of everyday life.  They still face the same trials, temptations, desires and sufferings as others, but choose to make continuous efforts, drawing on this Buddhist wisdom, to make the right choices in their life.  

Throughout the rest of his lifetime, Shakyamuni taught thousands of sutra in an effort to lead people towards Buddhahood and to fulfil his “... vow, hoping to make all persons equal to [him], without any distinction between us.”  (LSOC2, p70).  Some of these sutra were very short and some very long, some were based on useful practices and skills, others based on useful knowledge.  Some were stand alone teachings, some refuted what had gone before and others confirmed that previous sutra were the true path to Buddhahood.  In 6th century China, T’ien-T’ai categorised all of these teachings into periods and he came up with the following: 

PERIOD	YEARS TAUGHT	SUTRA	NOTES
THE   FLOWER   GARLAND   PERIOD	21 DAYS	Avatamsaka Sutra (Flower Garland Sutra)	Shakyamuni’s first attempt to lead people to enlightenment proved too challenging at the time and he realised he would need to break the teaching down into smaller steps that people could understand.
THE   AGAMA   PERIOD	12  YEARS	PALI CANON	This was the start of the Hinayana, or Therevadan, teachings.  Both the Therevadan and Vinaya schools come from this period, as do the early schools of RITSU and  SHINGON.
THE   CORRECT   AND   EQUAL   PERIOD	8 YEARS	Early Mahayana Sutra, including Vimalakirti, Muryoju, Amitayus & Amida Sutras.  This period also included some of the esoteric sutras.	At this time Shakyamuni refuted the earlier teachings and started to teach the provisional Mahayana teachings.  Some of them focus on ways to be reborn into a perfect land in the next life.  The PURE LAND school comes from these teachings, as do some of the later ideas of the SHINGON and RITSU schools and the ZEN schools.
THE   WISDOM   PERIOD	22 YEARS	Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra	These refute the provisional Mahayana teachings and lead people to a higher level Mahayana teaching, such as supreme wisdom, non-substantiality, etc. in preparation for his final teachings.
THE   LOTUS   PERIOD	LAST 8 YEARS OF HIS LIFE	Immeasurable Meanings Sutra, Lotus Sutra, Sutra on How to Practice Meditation on Bodhisattva Universal Worthy and the Nirvana Sutra	The earlier teachings allowed followers to overcome the earthly desires that were understood to cause suffering and achieve a state of peace and calm, but Shakyamuni now felt the time was right to reveal in The Lotus Sutra how all people could acquire the same profound enlightenment he himself had attained.  These teachings are the foundation of the early Tendai schools and Nichiren Buddhism.

 

As you can see, the final years of Shakyamuni’s life were dedicated to revealing the complete wisdom that he had awoken to more than 40 years before.  He now felt that he had laid all of the groundwork necessary and, although he still knew that “the door to this wisdom [was] difficult to understand and difficult to enter”  (LSOC2, p56), he decided the time was right to teach the complete truth of the universe, life and death and how to achieve absolute happiness in this lifetime.   This ultimate teaching was the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra, including it’s opening and closing sutra, and his final teaching, delivered on the day he died, was the Nirvana Sutra.  This DIDN’T replace the Lotus Sutra, but confirmed that the Lotus Sutra was his final teaching which contained the complete wisdom of his enlightenment.  He also wanted to warn his followers that Mara (the Devil King) would change his shape into that of a Buddha and try to destroy Shakyamuni’s correct teaching.  For this reason, the Nirvana Sutra also advised his disciples that they should continue to follow the Mystic Law of the Universe, rather than deifying or worshipping him (or any other future Buddhist leaders).  

NEXT TIME – A look at some of the early Buddhist teachings.

Breaking Dawn - Awakening

 

In previous posts I looked at the early part of Shakyamuni's journey in "The Prince and The Pipal", and the temptations he faced under the Pipal tree (which later became known as a Bodhi tree) in "The Devil and The Buddha" . Here, Daisaku Ikeda continues the story of Gautama's enlightenment:

“After overcoming the onslaught of devilish forces, Shakyamuni's mind was left fresh and invigorated, his spirit as clear as a cloudless blue sky.

Having secured an impervious inner state, Shakyamuni now focused on his past. No sooner had he looked back over his present life, than images of his immediately preceding life began to appear. As he continued this inner quest, memories of countless former existences came back to him vividly one after another. And further beyond that still, he recalled countless formations and destructions of the universe.

Shakyamuni realized that his present existence as he sat meditating under the pipal tree was part of an endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth, which had continued since time without beginning. He thus awakened to the eternal nature of life that spans past, present and future.

At that moment, all fears and doubts which had resided in the depths of his life like a heavy sediment since birth evaporated. He had arrived at last at the deep, unshakable roots of his own existence. He felt the darkness of illusion that shrouded him fall away as the brilliant light of wisdom illuminated his life. He had unlocked within himself a state of being akin to commanding a clear, unhindered view in all directions from atop a lofty mountain peak.

With this sharply focused inner vision, Shakyamuni turned his attention to the karma of all living beings. Images of all kinds of people undergoing endless cycles of birth and death passed through his mind. Some were born into misery while others, into fortunate circumstances. With single-minded concentration, Shakyamuni traced the cause of this discrepancy.

"Those burdened by the karma to be unhappy," he observed silently, "have in some past lifetime, through their actions, words or thoughts, committed evil deeds and slandered the practitioners of the Buddhist Law. Their attachment to erroneous views formed the basis for mistaken actions.

In contrast, those who were good and virtuous in their actions, words and thoughts, who did not slander practitioners of the Buddhist Law and conducted themselves correctly based on correct views, enjoyed happiness in later existences.

"The present life is determined by karma accumulated from past existences, while future existences are determined by our actions in this life."

Shakyamuni now clearly understood this. He plainly discerned the uncompromising law of cause and effect operating in people's lives throughout the unending cycle of life and death.

Dawn was drawing near. At the very moment the morning star began to shine in the eastern sky, something happened....

Like a limitless, penetrating beam of light, Shakyamuni's wisdom suddenly broke through to illuminate the eternal, immutable truth of life.

In that instant, Shakyamuni attained a profound awakening. He had finally become a Buddha--one enlightened to the supreme truth. It was as if a door within his life had been thrown open to the entire universe, and he was released from all illusion. He felt he could now move and act freely based upon the Law of life. It was a state he had never experienced before in this lifetime.

Now Shakyamuni understood:   The entire universe is subject to the same constant rhythm of creation and change. This applies equally to human beings. Those now in infancy are destined to grow old and eventually die and then to be reborn again. Nothing, either in the world of nature or human society, knows even a moment of stillness or rest. All phenomena in the universe emerge and pass into extinction through the influence of some external cause. Nothing exists in isolation; all things are linked together over space and time, originating in response to shared causal relationships. Moreover, a Law of life permeates the entire process."

Shakyamuni had grasped the wondrous truth of existence. He was convinced that he could develop himself limitlessly through this Law he had awakened to. All criticism, obstacles and hardships would be nothing more than dust before the wind.

Shakyamuni thought:  "Unaware of this absolute truth, people live under the illusion that they exist independently of one another. This ultimately makes them prisoners of their desires, estranging them from the Law of life, the eternal and unchanging truth of existence. They wander about in darkness and sink into unhappiness and suffering.  But such darkness stems from delusions in one's own life. Not only is such spiritual darkness the source of all evils, but also the essential cause of people's suffering over the realities of birth, aging, sickness and death. By confronting this delusion and ignorance in our own lives, we can open the way to true humanity and indestructible happiness."

As the sun rose over the horizon, its bright light began to dispel the morning mist. It was truly a radiant dawn of happiness and peace for all humankind.
Bathed in the joy of his awakening to the Law, Shakyamuni watched the light of a new morning spread across the land.”

(These extracts come form the website http://www.sgi.org/sgi-president/writings-by-sgi-president-ikeda/on-shakyamuni.html and are from Daisaku Ikeda's history of the SGI "The New Human Revolution: Vol. 3" (SGI-USA, 1996).  The picture "Exploding Sun" is credited to schnuffibossi1 and comes from http://magicpineapples.wordpress.com/.)

Once enlightened, Siddhartha Gautama became more commonly known as Shakyamuni  (meaning "Sage of the Shakyas") and Shakyamuni Buddha.  But now that he had awakened to the Law, would he teach it to others?  And if so, how would he teach it so they could fully understand this profound wisdom?   (To be continued ...)

      

The Devil and The Buddha

(Continued from the previous post "The Prince and the Pipal".)

Most of the information we have about Gautama’s enlightenment comes from a combination of word of mouth and his own teachings, but these are not always infallible.  We will look at this in a future post about Shakyamuni as a “Teacher of the Law”, and how when he came to teach others about the way to achieve enlightenment he had to break the reality of his enlightenment into stages, so that people would be able to understand the profound truth he had awoken to.  In the same way, some of these early teachings also serve as an approximation  of the Buddha’s enlightenment, but as these were also adapted to the people’s understanding at various stages of his teaching, and are a combination of fact, verse, and allegory, as Nichiren Buddhists we need to view them in terms of the knowledge we have from the Lotus Sutra.   These early teachings, as we shall see later, are not essential to our practice, but they do give us an insight into how Shakyamuni attempted to lead his followers and disciples during the early years of his teaching to the Mystic Law of the Lotus Sutra.
 

 

One of the most famous sutra that outlines Gautama’s enlightenment is the Padhana Sutra in which he talks about “Mara”, “Namuci” (another name for Mara meaning “He who does not let go of his hold over other beings easily”) and “O Evil One”. 

So, returning to Gautama’s spiritual journey, in this sutra, we join him cleansed, refreshed and nourished sitting beneath the Pipal tree meditating.  Shakyamuni then mentions the arrival of Namuci, who “encourages” him to give up his fast and meditation and instead choose to live, explaining that if he chooses life he can achieve great things: 

"When, near the river Nerañjara, I exerted myself in meditation for attaining to security from bondage,  there came Namuci speaking words of compassion:

"'You are emaciated and ill-looking, you are near to death! A thousand parts of you belong to death and only a fraction of you is alive. Live, good Sir! It is better to live. Living you may perform meritorious deeds. ... It is difficult to enter the path of exertion, it is difficult to do, difficult to maintain.'"

Gautama asks the Devil why he has come to him, a person with faith, energy, wisdom and purity:

"You who are the friend of the negligent, O Evil One, for what reason have you come here? Those who still have use for merit Mara may consider worthwhile addressing. I have faith and energy and wisdom. Being thus bent on striving why do you ask me to live? ... In me, who abides enduring such an extreme experience, the mind does not long for sensual pleasures. See the purity of a being!”

And then Gautama reveals that he is not easily deceived by the Devil and exposes the many faces that Mara uses to try and trick people:

"Sensual desire is your first army, the second is called discontent, the third is hunger and thirst, the fourth craving, the fifth sluggishness and laziness, the sixth fear, the seventh indecision, and the eighth disparagement of others and stubbornness: gain, fame, honor, prestige wrongly acquired and whoever praises himself and despises others -- these, Namuci, are your armies ... A lazy, cowardly person cannot overcome them, but by conquering them one gains bliss.”

Finally Gautama proclaims that he will defeat this Devil, and then teach others how to do the same:

"It is better for me to die in battle than to live defeated ... I am going out to fight so that [Mara] may not shift me from my position. This army of yours, which the world together with the devas is unable to subdue, I will destroy with wisdom, like an unbaked clay-bowl with a stone. Having mastered the mind and firmly established mindfulness I shall wander from country to country guiding many disciples."

Mara then admits defeat and disappears disappointed:

"For seven years I followed the [Buddha] step by step but did not find an opportunity to defeat that mindful Awakened One.  Overcome by sorrow ... thereupon the unhappy spirit disappeared from that place.”

We can see from this sutra that Mara had been constantly by Gautama’s side for the last seven years, and there are other reports of other temptations by Mara (the Devil King of the Sixth Heaven), including an attempted seduction by three female devils (manifestations of Mara) and other challenges to renounce his spiritual journey in favour of returning to the political realm of being a leader of his people, rather than allowing them to suffer under the control of a less humanistic ruler. 

In these teachings, Mara and his army of spiritual demons represent a personification of evil, but within Buddhism, especially Nichiren Buddhism, these devils and demons are the functions in life and the fundamental darkness that resides in the hearts of people.  They are the negative thoughts that creep into our minds, especially when we are tired or feeling low, making us doubt ourselves, lose confidence or procrastinate.  They can attach themselves to some of our basic desires such as hunger, thirst, and the instant gratification of sensual desires to try and interrupt our practice of Buddhism.   And they are also the destructive emotions that reside in the hearts and minds of other people (or indeed ourselves!) such as anger, arrogance, jealousy, hatred, lust, pride, vanity and egotistical tendencies that lead to belittling others to boost one's own standing, ridicule, persecution, torture and murder.   (To be continued ... )

The Prince And The Pipal

Siddhartha Gautama, who later become known as Shakyamuni Buddha, was born about 2,500 years ago to King Shuddhodana and Queen Maya, rulers of the Shakya people, a small tribe located at the foot of the Himalaya mountains.  His family’s kingdom was small, but as a prince, he wanted for nothing and lived a life of luxury.  

Within Buddhist tradition the story goes that Gautama’s journey of enlightenment began with four meetings outside the Eastern, Southern, Western and Northern palace gates with an old man, a sick person, a dead body and an ascetic (someone who has renounced material comfort and leads a life of austere self-discipline often as an act of religious devotion).  Whether this story is true or not, or whether he was just aware of the suffering of people in general, Gautama decided to embark on a search to understand how to overcome the sufferings of life and death.  His father was against this, but Siddhartha managed to sneak out of the house and embarked on his quest.

Indian society was generally following the Brahmanic traditions, based on the Hindu texts, the Vedas, but new religions were also gaining in popularity which rejected these traditions.  Some were based on lives of hedonism and complete materialism and others on lives of extreme self-denial and fatalism.   None of these seemed to provide answers to the questions he had about the reality of life and even after studying with a couple of masters of yogic meditation and achieving the same level as them, he felt that meditation had become the purpose of their life, rather than a method to discern the answers he was looking for.  He also joined a community of ascetics and endured several years of some of the severest austerities including long periods of fasting,  sleep deprivation, and other endurances.  But, even after pushing himself to the very limits of human endurance, his tortured body was no closer to a solution.
 

Turning his back on this community of ascetics he went to a river to bathe and a young girl from a nearby village offered him a bowl of rice and milk.  Feeling refreshed he sat beneath a pipal tree with his legs crossed in the lotus position.  Gautama then made a determination.  Combining the two practices of self-denial and meditation, he vowed to remain in this position, even if he were to die, until he attained enlightenment.  Gautama started to meditate, reflecting on his life, and his journey to this point.  And, as a result of this single-minded reflection and his battered body’s renewed energy and focus from being cleansed and nourished, his meditation took him deeper than he had ever gone before...   (to be continued ...)