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