Life of the Buddha 2

         21. The Bodhisatta undertakes self torture with the Group of Five; Indra plays the lute as an analogy

         This picture depicts the Great Being undertaking his practices of self-torture. The men sitting in front of him are the Group of Five, consisting of Kondanna, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahanama and Assaji. They had all followed the Great Being to serve him. The being sitting in the clouds holding the lute is Indra, King of the Gods.

         The leader of the group was Kondanna. He was one of the eight Brahmins who had given predictions based on Prince Siddhattha's attributes. At that time he was young, but by this time he was very old. The other four were sons of the other seven Brahmins.

        Self-torture was one kind of practice undertaken by recluses at that time. It ranged from mild through to moderate to extreme, death-defying austerities beyond the ability of ordinary men. "Death defying" means that they required clenching of the teeth, holding of the breath and fasting.

         The Great Being experimented with all of these, until, at some times, such as when he had gradually reduced his food intake until he stopped eating altogether, he almost died. His body was haggard, his hair fell out. All that remained was skin and bones, and when he walked he swayed from side to side with weakness.

         After experimenting with these practices he realized something. The truth he realized was that described by the poet in the allegory of Indra playing a three-stringed lute to the Bodhisatta. The first string was too tight and as a result snapped. The second string was too loose and didn't make any sound. The third string was neither too loose nor too tight, and when plucked it made a pleasant, resonant sound.

         Indra's plucking of the third string (the Middle Way) also told the Bodhisatta that there is no way that wet wood lying in water can be used to rub and start a fire. Even wood that is not lying in water, but is wet, cannot be used to start a fire. Only dry wood on dry land can be used to start a fire. The first kind of wood is like people with defilements living the household life; the second is like people who have gone forth from the household life but whose minds are still "wet" with defilements. The third is like people who have gone forth from the household life and whose minds are "dry" of defilements.

        Hearing this, the Great Being gave up his practice of self-torture, which was a physical kind of effort, and began to eat more food in order to begin a more mental kind of effort. When the Group of Five found out they became disillusioned with the Great Being, feeling that he had renounced the practice and reverted to a life of indulgence, so they gave up serving him and left him to go elsewhere.

         22. The morning of the enlightenment: Sujata offers milk rice, believing the Bodhisatta is a deva

         From the day the Great Being had gone forth from the household life until the day depicted in this picture, six years had elapsed. Here he has resumed eating normal food and his body has returned to a normal state. This day was the fifteenth of the waxing moon of the sixth lunar month, 45 years before the Buddha's passing away [parinibbana]. The lady offering things to the Great Being in the picture is Sujata. She was the daughter of a householder in a village in Uruvela Senanigama. She is offering a dish of milk rice [madhupayasa], rice cooked with pure cow's milk. It was a vegetarian food, containing no meat or fish, used especially as an offering to deities.

         The Pathamasambodhi states that Sujata had made a prayer to the deity of a certain banyan tree for a husband of equal status and for a son by him. When she had obtained what she wished for, she cooked the milk rice as an offering in thanks. Before the day she was to cook the rice, Sujata had some of her servants lead the herd of 1,000 cows to a forest of licorice grass so that the cows could eat their fill. Then she divided them into two herds of 500 head each, and milked the 500 cows of one herd and fed that milk to the 500 cows of the other herd. She then continued to divide that herd and feed half on the milk of the other half until there were only eight cows left. She then took the milk from those eight cows to make her milk rice.

         When the rice was cooked, Sujata sent a slave girl to clean up the area around the banyan tree. The slave girl came back to Sujata with a report that the deity [deva] who was to receive the offerings had materialized, and was already sitting at the foot of the banyan tree. Excited, Sujata lifted the tray of milk rice to her head and carried it to the banyan tree, together with her slave girl. Seeing that it was as her slave had told her, she came forward and proffered the tray of milk rice. The Great Being received it and looked at Sujata. She understood from his look that he had no bowl or any other dish with which to eat the food, and so she made an offering of both the rice and the dish.

         Having offered the rice, she walked back to her house, full of happiness, believing that she had made offerings to a deva.

         23. The Bodhisatta floats the tray, and it falls into the river at the very same place as three previous trays; a Naga king realizes that a Buddha is to be enlightened

         When Sujata had returned home, the Great Being rose from his seat with the golden tray of milk rice and went to the bank of the Neranjara River. He bathed, then climbed up and sat on the river bank. He made the milk rice into 49 mouthfuls, which he then ate. The Pathamasambodhi states that "it was a meal that would nourish him for seven days."

         Having finished his meal, he floated the tray on the river and made a vow that, if he was to attain Buddhahood, the tray should float upstream. When he released it, the tray did indeed float upstream for a distance of 80 sork [forearm-lengths] where, having reached a deep area, it sank down into the realm of Kala, the Naga king, falling on top of the trays of three previous Buddhas with a "clunk."

           The three past Buddhas who had floated those trays were Kakusandha, Konagamana, and Kassapa. The Great Being would be the fourth who had been enlightened at this place.

         Kala the Naga king had been sleeping since the time of the previous Buddhas. He would wake every time he heard the sound of a tray falling. Each time he heard that sound, he would know that another Buddha had arisen in the world. On this occasion it was the same: hearing the sound of the Great Being's tray falling on top of the others, he drowsily mumbled to himself, "Yesterday a Great Victor [the Buddha Kassapa] arose in the world. Now another one is arising!" And with that he arose, made obeisance to the new Buddha, and went back to sleep.

         The episode of the Great Being floating the tray, the tray floating upstream, and Kala the naga king, in his subterranean realm, is an allegory which can be explained thus: the tray is the Buddha's teaching (sasana); the river is the world or worldly beings: the teachings of the Buddha will lead people against the stream of the world to the stream of Nibbana. That is, to the transcendence of suffering in which there is no birth, no aging, no sickness and no death, unlike the stream of the world which flows to birth, aging, sickness and death. The naga king sleeping in his subterranean world is a symbol for worldly beings who are still thick with defilements-when a Buddha arises in the world they know it is a Buddha, but still they go back to "sleep" due to the power of their defilements.

         24.The Bodhisatta receives sheaves of grass from the Brahmin Sotthiya
         By the time he had floated the golden tray it was getting later in the morning and the sun was getting hot. The Great Being moved from the bank of the Neranjara River into the shade of a sal tree not far from the river. There he stayed for the whole of the day until the late afternoon, when he went to the Great Bodhi tree.
         The Great Bodhi tree was a bodhi tree just like the bodhi trees seen in Thailand. They can be found in forests but most are in monasteries. Before the Buddha's enlightenment no one referred to the tree as the Great Bodhi tree. Instead it was referred to in the local dialect by two names: one was the name used by the villagers-"pipal tree," and the other was a more formal name, "assattha" tree.
         After the Buddha's enlightenment it was referred to as a bodhi tree, meaning the tree under which the Buddha was enlightened. It was later given the name "great" (maha) and sometimes holy (sri). It was also one of the sahajata of the Buddha, being "born" on the same day as Prince Siddhattha.
         While he was walking to the Great Bodhi tree, the Great Being passed by a man of the brahmin caste by name of Sotthiya. Sotthiya was holding in his hands eight handfuls of kusa grass, which he offered to the Great Being. The Great Being received the grass and placed it on the ground, forming a "sitting cushion" under the bodhi tree.
        There the Great Being sat, in meditation posture: his right foot over his let and his right hand over his left, facing the east with his back to the trunk of the Great Bodhi tree. He made a firm vow to himself:
         "Until I have attained Perfect Self Enlightenment, I will not rise from this seat, even if my flesh and blood should dry up and only skin, sinews and bones remain."

         25. The Bodhisatta takes his seat upon the "bodhi seat" of grass; at night Mara brings his army to drive him from his quest

         The event depicted in this picture is called "Mara's challenge." It occurred on the day of the full moon of the sixth lunar month, not many hours before the Buddha's enlightenment. The sun was just setting behind the trees. The four-legged creature making as if to gore the Great Being is known as Naragirimekhala, the elephant of King Vassadi Mara, the commander of the army. The woman who is squeezing her hair is "Mother Earth," Sundharivanida.

         Mara had already confronted the Great Being once before, when he was just leaving the city gates on his great going forth, but this time the confrontation was the greatest of all Mara's attempts to overthrow the Buddha. The army assembled by Mara on this occasion was of such size that the entire earth and sky were darkened by it. It came in from the sky, from across the earth and from beneath the earth, and was so fearsome that the devas that were guarding the Great Being all fled in terror to their palaces.

         The Pathamasambodhi described the scene of Mara's army thus: "... some of the beings had red faces and green bodies, some had green faces and red bodies; some of them manifested as white bodies with yellow faces ... some of them had striped bodies and black faces ... some of them had serpent lower bodies and human upper bodies ..."

         As for Mara, he appeared with a thousand arms on each side, each arm brandishing a different weapon-swords, spears, bows and arrows, javelins, wheel blades, hooks, maces, rocks, spikes, hatchets, axes, tridents, and more.

         The reason that Mara confronted the Great Being on many occasions was that he hated to see anyone excelling him. Thus, since the Great Being was making efforts to be the "best" person in the world, he opposed him. But he always lost. On this occasion, he was defeated in the first round, so he tried some trickery, accusing the Great Being of usurping his seat, the "bodhi" seat, which he claimed to be his. Mara named as witnesses members of his own entourage. On his part, the Great Being could find no witnesses to support him, the devas having all fled, so he stretched out his right hand from under his robe and pointed his finger to the earth, upon which Mother Earth rose up to be his witness.

         All of the above is an allegorical account. Its meaning will be given in the next chapter.

         26.Mother Earth squeezes her hair, making a great ocean which sweeps away Mara's armies

         The place at which the Great Being sat in order to carry out his training of the mind and seek enlightenment, the foot of the bodhi tree, is called the "Throne of Enlightenment." Mara tried to claim that it was his own, but the Great Being countered that it had arisen as a result of the accumulated perfections of his previous lives, for which he called Mother Earth to witness.

         The Pathamasambodhi states: "The great earth was incapable of remaining inactive ... It sprang up from the earth in the form of a young maiden..." and served as witness for the Bodhisatta. Thereupon, [the maiden] squeezed water from her hair. That water is referred to as daksinodaka, which is all the water that the Great Being had used to consecrate the vows made in his previous lives, which Mother Earth had kept in her hair. When she squeezed her hair, all that water flowed out.

        The Pathamasambodhi states: "It was a great flow that flooded all the land, like a great ocean.... The armies of Mara were powerless to stop it and were swept away and entirely carried off by the current. As for Girimekhala, Vassavadi Mara's elephant, it was swept off its feet and, unable to maintain its balance, was carried off to the ocean. ...Thus Mara was eventually defeated."

        Now I will explain the meaning of this allegory. Mara is the defilements within people; they are what opposes the mindfulness and understanding that lead to knowledge of good, evil, benefit and harm. Defilements take delight in misdeeds, so that when a person is going to do something good the defilements try to interfere. Before the Great Being was enlightened as the Buddha, he still had defilements, but they were in the process of falling from his mind. His defilements were the fondness and attachment for his royal treasures and the country he had left behind, but he was able to defeat them due to the great perfections [paramita] he had accumulated.

        A perfection is goodness. The Great Being reflected that the lives, hearts and eyes he had sacrificed to others as wholesome deeds of charity, if gathered together, would be greater than the fruits in the forest and greater than the number of stars in the sky.

         Good deeds do not disappear: even if no one sees them, the sky and the earth, Mother Earth, see them.

         27.The Buddha is enlightened at dawn; the devas dance in his honor

         By the time the Bodhisatta had conquered Mara, the sun was setting and night was falling. The Great Being sat motionless on his bodhi seat underneath the bodhi tree. He began to make his mind concentrated through the method known as jhana, absorption concentration, and attained nana.

        Jhana is a method of concentrating the mind, making it one-pointed, not thinking restlessly of this and that as people ordinarily do. Nana is gnosis, clear realization. It may be simply illustrated thus: the still light of a candle in a windless room is like jhana, while the illumination from the candle is gnosis (nana).

          The Great Being attained the first realization (nana) in the first watch of the night (about nine PM). The first nana is called "pubbenivasanusatinana," meaning clear realization of the past lives of both oneself and others. During the middle watch of the night (about midnight) he attained the second nana, known as cutupapatanana, meaning, clear realization of the passing away and arising of beings in the world, and their differences due to kamma. In the last watch of the night (after midnight), he attained the third nana, known as asavakkhayanana, meaning clear realization of the extinction of defilements and the Four Noble Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering and the way leading to the cessation of suffering.

          The Great Being's attainment of these three nana is known as his enlightenment as the Buddha, which occurred on the full moon night of the sixth lunar month. From this point on, the names "Siddhattha" and "Bodhisatta," and the term "Great Being" newly coined before his enlightenment, all become things of the past, because from this point on he is known as arahantasammasambuddha, one who has on his own become enlightened and transcended all defilements.

          This event is thus a great miracle. The poet has allegorized the episode in the Buddha's honor by stating that at that time all animals, people, and devas throughout ten thousand world systems were relieved of their suffering, sorrow, despair and danger, and all beings were imbued with goodwill to each other, free of enmity and hatred.

         All the devas played music, danced and sang the Buddha's praises as an act of reverence and honor to the Buddha's virtues.

        28.The Buddha goes to a banyan tree; the daughters of Mara try in vain to lure him

         After the enlightenment, the Buddha sat under the Great Bodhi tree, imbibing the bliss of deliverance, for seven days. The term "imbibing the bliss of deliverance" is used to refer to those who are enlightened. In ordinary terms, we may say that the Buddha was resting after his heavy labors.

         After the seven days he went to the ajapalanigrodha tree, which was situated to the east of the Great Bodhi tree. A nigrodha is a banyan tree. The letters "ajapala" mean "place for herding goats." According to the legend, this banyan tree had long been a resort of goatherds, and goatherds in the local area had long used the shade of this banyan tree to graze their goats.

         The compilers of this story, who lived in the time of the Commentaries, many hundred years after the Buddha's passing away, have written an episode in honor of the Buddha, stating that while he was staying here, the daughters of Mara, who had launched his armies against the Buddha just before the enlightenment and been defeated, volunteered to try to seduce the Buddha into Mara's power. Mara had three daughters: Tanha, Raga, and Aradi.

         The three of them approached the Buddha and did everything in the way of sensual enticement to try to attract him, such as taking off their clothes, transforming themselves into young maidens on the verge of maidenhood, fully grown ladies, and women of various ages, but the Buddha's mind was already utterly purified and he exhibited no reaction, not even opening his eyes to see.

         The episode of the attempted seduction by the daughters of Mara is an allegory. The three daughters of Mara are allegories for defilements. The first is delight, the second is aversion or hatred. Delight is further analyzed into tanha, craving, endless desire; another is raga, lust; aversion or hatred here is expressed in aradi, which here means jealousy.

         That the Buddha showed no reaction, even opening his eyes, refers to the fact that the Buddha was utterly removed from all those defilements.

          29. The Buddha repairs to the mucalinda tree; a rain storm; a naga king coils himself around the Buddha to ward off the rain

         Just after his enlightenment, having not yet decided who to first teach the Dhamma to and so begin his mission, the Buddha moved from place to place, seven days in each place. In this picture we see him in the third week, at the third place he stayed, which his the mucalinda tree, which stood to the southeast of the bodhi tree.

         The mucalinda is a tree that grows commonly in India, and figures in much Indian literature, such as the Jatakas and elsewhere. In the Vessantara Jataka the mucalinda is the tree to which the Bodhisatta resorted when he was banished to the forest.

         In Thailand we call the mucalinda the "jik" tree. This seems to be right, as the places in which the two trees tend to take root are similar: both tend to arise in damp places, such as on river banks, near ponds, along canals and lakes. Its wood is resilient, its flowers hang down, and are white and red in color. The leaves are about the same size as roseapple leaves. The tender leaves are astringent and are tasty used as a vegetable and dipped in chili sauce. The flavor is similar to the leaves of the roseapple tree. Usually the tree has rich foliage and offers good shade.

         When the Buddha arrived at the tree, a heavy rain and cold wind arose and continued for seven days continuously. The writer of the Pathamasambodhi says of this event that a naga king, by name of mucalinda, came up out of the nearby pond, wound himself around the Buddha seven times, then spread his hood over the Buddha to prevent the wind and the rain from blowing at him and soaking him. When the storm subsided and the sky cleared, the naga king unwound himself and transformed himself into a young man standing to the north of the Buddha.

         The statue depicting the Buddha protected by the naga is a depiction of this event in the Buddha's life. The image is believed to have special powers in terms of metta, loving kindness, because it indirectly teaches the benefits of developing loving kindness: even a great naga king living at the bottom of a pond went to the Buddha and provided protection for him as a result of the powers of the Buddha's great compassion.

         30. The Buddha stays at the ket tree; the Four Great Kings offer him a bowl; a devata tells two merchants to go and see the Buddha
        After the Buddha had stayed under the jik or mucalinda tree for seven days, he journeyed on to a tree known in Pali as the rajayatana. It was situated down to the left of the Great Bodhi tree. Rajayatana is usually translated as "Mai Ket" It is a tree of the pikul family. The writer has seen one in the area surrounding the Pathoma Cetiya in Nakhon Pathom, planted by the government during the reign of Rama V. The trees are now big. They look like pradoo trees.
         While the Buddha was staying here he was visited by two traveling merchants, who also made offerings to him. One of these merchants was named Tapussa, the other Bhallika. They were traveling in a caravan of many hundreds of carts (500 according to the Pathamasambodhi) and had come from the Ukkala country. Seeing the Buddha sitting under the ket tree, the two merchants were inspired and offered to him some of the dried rice cakes they had brought along as provisions for their journey.
         The Buddha received the food from the two caravan merchants in a stone bowl which had been offered to him by the Four Great Kings. When he had finished his meal, the two caravan merchants declared themselves to be followers of the Buddha, taking the Buddha and the Dhamma, his teaching, as refuge.
        In brief, the two merchants declared themselves to be Buddhists. Thus the two merchants were the first Buddhists, or followers of the Buddha, in the world. That the merchants declared themselves to have taken refuge in these two refuges [the Buddha and his Teaching, rather than the now traditional three refuges of Buddha, Teaching, and Order of Buddhist followers] is because at that time the third refuge, the Sangha, or monastic order, had not yet come into existence, as the Buddha had not yet begun to teach.
         The Pathamasambodhi relates how after the two caravan merchants had declared themselves to be Buddhists, they asked the Buddha for a memento of some form before taking leave. The Buddha lifted his right hand and stroked his hair. The text continues, "Then eight strands of hair of the color of the wings of a carpenter bee ... fell down onto the palm of his hand."

         The Buddha then offered those eight strands of hair to the caravan merchants to use as objects of worship. Delighted, the two merchants bowed and took their leave.

         31. Two merchants offer dried rice cakes to the Buddha and become the first lay people to declare themselves Buddhists

         The picture shown here depicts the events that occurred at the time the Buddha was staying under the ket tree, related in the caption to Picture 30. The place is the rajayatana or ket tree, and the time is during the fourth week after the Buddha's enlightenment.

         During the first week the Buddha stayed under the Great Bodhi tree; on the second week he stayed under the goatherds' banyan tree; in the third week he stayed under the mucalinda tree, and in the fourth week he stayed here.

         In the picture we see one of the two traveling merchants offering dried rice cakes to the Buddha. The Buddha is receiving them in the stone bowl offered to him by the Four Great Kings, as already related.

        The Four Great Kings are powerful devas who have the duty of protecting the world. They live in the four directions. King Dhataratha is the Lord of the gandhabbas [gandharva, heavenly musicians]. He lives in the east. King Virulhaka is the Lord of the [earth] devas. He lives in the south. King Virupaka is the Lord of the nagas and lives in the west, and King Kuvera is the Lord of the yakkhas and lives in the north.

         These four deva kings had each brought a bowl to offer to the Buddha. The Buddha received the four bowls and through a vow made them all into one. Then he received the food from the two caravan merchants.

         The Pathamasambodhi relates that the Buddha's first bowl, which had been offered to him together with robes by Ghatika Brahma when he first went forth from the home life and which he had used up until arriving at the banks of the Anoma river, disappeared when he received the meal of milk rice from Sujata, just before his enlightenment.

        When the two traveling merchant brothers brought the provisions to offer to the Buddha, there was no bowl for the Buddha to receive them in, so the Four Great Kings offered the four bowls already described. It is a tradition among Buddhas not to receive food offerings in their hands, but only to receive them in a bowl.

         32. Returning to the banyan tree, the Buddha is disinclined to teach; Sahampati Brahma makes a request
         Having stayed at the rajayatana or ket tree for seven days, in the fifth week the Buddha moved back to the ajapala nigrodha, or goatherds' banyan tree.
While he was staying there, the Buddha reflected on the truth (dhamma) that he had been enlightened to. Realizing how subtle and profound it was, he felt disinclined to teach, wondering whether there would be anyone who could understand his teaching. Thus, part of him was inclined to contentment [merely with his own enlightenment], to not bothering to teach others.
         The compiler of the texts dealing with the Buddha's story have devised an allegory at this point, relating how the thoughts of the Buddha became known to Lord Sahampati Brahma in the Brahma world. Lord Sahampati was gravely concerned about those thoughts, and declared out loud three times, "Now the world is lost."
         The Pathamasambodhi writes: "That sound resounded throughout the ten thousand world systems. Lord Sahampati, together with a retinue of devas, approached the Buddha and formally made a request to him to teach the Dhamma."
         For the time when Lord Sahampati came down to formally invite the Buddha to give a teaching to the world, the poet has composed a verse in Pali:
 Brahma ca lokadhipati sahampati
 Katanjali andhivaram ayacatha
 santidha sattapparajakajjatika
 desetu dhammam anukampimam pajam
         It translates as "Lord Sahampati Brahma, hands together, bowed and invited the Buddha, he who is endowed with excellent qualities, saying, 'There are beings in this world who are free enough of defilements to understand the Dhamma. May the Lord please teach the Dhamma to help the beings of this world.'"

         This Pali verse has become the ceremonial passage for asking for a Dhamma teaching in Thailand up to the present day. 

         33. Reflecting on the different natures of beings, compared to the four kinds of lotuses, the Buddha accepts the invitation
         The story of Lord Sahampati Brahma coming to invite the Buddha to spread his teaching to the world, as explained in Picture 32, is an allegorical teaching. Translated into a factual statement, we might interpret Sahampati Brahma as being the Buddha's own compassion.
         Even though the Buddha was inclined not to teach the Dhamma, another part of him, which was stronger, decided to teach. Having made up his mind, the Buddha reflected on the different natures of beings in the world and saw that they could be divided into four levels or groups:

First group: Extremely clever-merely listening to the name of a teaching they immediately understand it.

Second group: very clever: after listening to an explanation of the teaching, they understand it.

Third group: moderately clever: the "veneyya" beings. They must devote a lot of time to training their minds before they can understand.

Fourth group: the "padaparama," the fools, the idiots, who are unteachable. In other words they are the people the Buddha had nothing to do with.

         The first group are like lotuses that have grown and risen above the water level. As soon as they contact sunlight, they open out. The second group are like lotuses that are just under the surface of the water, ready to rise above it. The third group are like lotuses that are deeper down in the water, which will at a later time grow up and rise above the water level. The fourth group are like lotuses that are very deep down in the water, so deep that there is no way they will rise above the surface because they fall food to fishes and turtles. The Buddha saw the different levels of wisdom among people like this.

         Then the Buddha began to reflect on who would be the best person to first impart his teaching to. He saw in his mind the images of the two ascetics who he had previously studied with, but both of them had already passed away. Then he came to know that the Group of Five (pancavaggiya) were still alive, and so he made up his mind to first give his teaching to them.

         34. The Buddha goes to find the Group of Five; he meets Upaka the ascetic along the way

         From the sixth to the eighth weeks after the enlightenment the Buddha spent his time going back and forth between the Great Bodhi tree and the goatherds' banyan tree. On the fourteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month, in the eighth week after the enlightenment, the Buddha took leave of the area of the enlightenment to make his way to the Deer Park, nowadays known as Sarnath, in the vicinity of Varanasi. At that time the         Group of Five who had once followed the Buddha in his renunciation and lived with and tended him had come to live at this place.

         On the way, specifically when he reached the Gaya River on the border of the district in which he had been enlightened, the Buddha met a matted-hair ascetic (ajivaka) by name of Upaka coming the opposite way. An ajivaka is one of the kinds of ascetics who were common in the Buddha's time.

         From afar, this ascetic first noticed the rays of light radiating from the Buddha's body. These rays are called the "Sixfold rays." They are

         1. Nila: green like the flower of the butterfly pea

         2. Pita: yellow like golden realgar

         3. Lohita: red, the color of the sun low in the sky

         4. Odata: white, like silver

         5. Manjetha: red like a cockscomb flower

         6. Pabhassara: shiny like a pearl

       In later times, when Buddha images with the sixfold ray were built, the rays were known as "pabhamandala," meaning rays that shoot up above the Buddha's head in a conical shape.

        As the Buddha drew nearer, the ascetic saw the source of the rays, and was inspired by the sight, so he approached the Buddha and asked him who his teacher was. When the Buddha answered that he had no teacher, that he was a ayambhu, fully self-enlightened, the ascetic responded to his statement in two ways-shaking his head and lolling his tongue-then walked off.

         35. The Buddha arrives at the Deer Park; the Group of Five see him approaching from a distance and decide not to receive him, but change their minds.

         The Buddha traveled to the Deer Park on the evening of that same day, according to the time and date recorded in the Pathamasambodhi.

         At that time the Group of Five, led by Kondanna, were talking among themselves. The subject of their conversation directly concerned the Buddha: they were conjecturing on where the Buddha might have been staying in the long time since they had forsaken him, and whether he thought of them at all.

         At that moment, the Group of Five, Kondanna, Vappa, Bhadiya, Assaji and Mahanama, noticed the brilliant light of the sixfold rays, and, following back along the rays, found the Buddha approaching them from afar.

         The five agreed among themselves that they would not formally receive the Buddha or show the customary signs of respect: that is, they would not get up and receive his bowl and robe, that they would only lay down a mat for him to sit on, and not pay reverence to him, but sit still and pretend not to notice or be interested that the Buddha had arrived.

         However, when the Buddha actually arrived at their place, the Group of Five all forgot their agreement, getting up to receive him, paying respects, receiving his bowl and robe respectfully just as they used to do. The only difference was that when they addressed the Buddha, they did not use the words they used to use.

         The Group of Five used familiar terms, calling the Buddha "friend," or simply "Gotama." The second word, Gotama, was the Buddha's clan name. "Friend" [avuso] is the same word that Thai people use nowadays, except that its meaning is the opposite to Thai usage. In Thai, avuso is used to refer to a senior and learned person, whereas in Pali it is used to refer to a person young in both age and learning. It is the word a senior person would use to refer to a junior person. Avuso is the Pali equivalent to the Thai word "khun."

         The Buddha admonished the Group of Five, asking them whether they had ever used such words with him before. The Group of Five heeded his admonishment, so the Buddha told them about himself, that he had attained Buddhahood, and that he had come to teach them the Dhamma.

         36. The Buddha gives the first Sermon, the Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma, to the Group of Five, opening the eye of Dhamma in them

         The day on which the Buddha gave his First Sermon (pathamadesana) was the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month. It was the day following the day he had arrived and met the Group of Five. It is now known as Asalhapuja Day.

         There were five people listening to the teaching, the "Group of Five." The subject of the Buddha's teaching was a denunciation of that which the religious practicers of that time were prone to, the extreme of ascetic practice, and also the extreme of sensual indulgence. The Buddha rejected these two extremes. He had experienced and experimented with them already and found that they were not the way to enlightenment. He then recommended the Middle Way (majjhima patipada), the proper practice in accordance with the Noble Eightfold Path, which in essence consists of morality, concentration and wisdom.

         When the Buddha had passed away, the disciples who convened the Great Council for finalizing the Buddha's teachings called this first sermon the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, or just Dhammacakka Sutta, comparing the Buddha's teaching on this occasion to a Universal Emperor wielding his wheel weapon or chariot and spreading his great power. The difference here was that the wheel or chariot used by the Buddha was the Dhamma, the "Wheel of Dhamma."

         When the teaching came to an end, Kondanna, the leader of the Group of Five, attained the Eye of Dhamma, that is, he attained Stream Entry. Seeing Kondanna attaining this fruit as a result of listening to the teaching, even though it was only a lower level of enlightenment, the Buddha joyously uttered, "Annasi vatabho kondanno, annasi vatabho kondanno," meaning "Oh, Kondanna has realized, Kondanna has attained the truth!" From that time on, Venerable Kondanna became known as Anna Kondanna, "Kondanna who Knows."

         Having listened to the teaching, Kondanna asked the Buddha for permission to go forth under him, and so the Buddha gave his permission for Kondanna to become a monk, uttering the invitation, "Come, bhikkhu." The remaining four also in time attained enlightenment and became monks like Kondanna.

         37. Yasa wearies of his wealth and wanders into the Deer Park; meeting the Buddha, he receives a teaching
         The Buddha, together with the five noble disciples, spent the rains retreat at the Deer Park at Isipatana, the place of his first teaching. That was the first rains retreat. At this stage the Buddha did not yet travel around to teach others because it was the rainy season, but a young man named Yasa did come to see him.
         Yasa was the son of a rich man in Varanasi. His parents had built three mansions for him, one for each of the seasons [hot, rainy and cool], and in each of the mansions there were a great number of dancing girls to entertain him. One day, at midnight, Yasa awoke and saw the dancing girls sleeping in various ungainly postures (here the story is just the same as for the Bodhisatta on the day he left home for the homeless life) and became wearied of his life.
       Yasa ran away from his home in the dead of night, and made for the Deer Park, muttering to himself as he went, "Upaddutam vata upasaggam vata": "Here it is confusing, here it is oppressive!" He was referring to the confusion and oppression he felt inside.
          At that time a sound came in response from the edge of the forest: "No upaddutam no upasaggam": ("Here it is not confusing, here there is no obstruction!"). It was the Buddha.
          At the time of this exchange it was very late, almost dawn in fact. The Buddha had been pacing up and down in cankamma. Cankamma is pacing up and down, a kind of mild physical exercise for stretching the muscles and overcoming sleepiness.
         The Buddha said to Yasa, "Come, come here and sit down. I will teach you."
         Yasa approached the Buddha and bowed to his feet, then sat down to one side. The Buddha gave him a teaching, at the completion of which Yasa attained Arahatship, full enlightenment. He asked for admission to the Buddha's order as a monk.

         Not long after Yasa had become a monk, a great number of his friends, 54 of them, having heard of his going forth, went to see the Buddha, listened to the teaching and were all, like Yasa, fully enlightened. Thus within the first vassa, or rains retreat, there were altogether 61 Arahats in the world.

         38. The Buddha goes to see the ascetic Uruvela Kassapa; ignoring the ascetics' warnings of a fierce naga, he stays at the fire house

         After the rains retreat, on the 15^th waxing day of the twelfth lunar month, the Buddha convened a meeting of his 60 disciples (savaka) at the Deer Park in Isipatana. All of those disciples were Arahats. The Buddha's intention in calling the meeting was to send these disciples out to spread the teaching to other places.

         At the meeting, the Buddha addressed the monks (bhikkhus) as follows:

        "Monks! Released am I from all bonds. Released are you from all bonds. Go ye forth to declare the teaching in other lands for the benefit and happiness of the many. Go each of you alone. Give the teaching that is beautiful in the beginning, in the middle and in the highest levels, which is pure, and which I have declared to you. Monks! There are in this world people with only few defilements and with sufficient intelligence to understand the Dhamma. But because they have had no chance to hear the Dhamma they do not obtain the benefit that they rightly should obtain. Go forth. I myself will go to declare the teaching at Uruvela Senanigama."

        Thus on the morning of the first waning moon of the twelfth lunar month, the 60 disciples split up, each going alone to spread the teaching according to the Buddha's instructions. The Buddha himself journeyed to Uruvela Senanigama, which was where he had gained his own enlightenment. Reaching there, the Buddha proceeded to the ashram of a group of famous ascetics there by name of "the three brother ascetics."

     The oldest brother's name was Uruvela Kassapa. He had 500 disciples and had an ashram for performing religious practice, worshipping fire on the banks of the northern Neranjara River. The middle brother's name was Nadi Kassapa. He had a following of 300, while the youngest brother's name was Gaya Kassapa, with a following of 200. They had established separate ashrams on sand banks just south of the oldest brother.

        The Buddha went first to the ashram of the oldest brother. Approaching the leader, he asked for a place to stay. The ascetic leader told the Buddha that the only place left was the fire house, but that a ferocious and dangerous Naga was living there.

         39. The Buddha subdues the ferocious naga king and presents the naga to the ascetic coiled up in his bowl, but the ascetic is still not convinced

         The three ascetic brothers, especially Uruvela Kassapa, the eldest, were all leaders of sects that the people of Rajagaha held in high esteem. Uruvela Kassapa had announced that he was an Arahat, fully enlightened. He dwelt as a fire worshipper.

When the Buddha arrived at his ashram and asked to stay at the fire house, which the ascetics held to be a very holy place and dangerous to live because of the naga king of great venom and power, the ascetic thought to himself that the Buddha was being very foolhardy in not heeding the danger.

         According to the story in the Pathamasambodhi, when the Buddha entered the fire house, the naga king was furious, and spat venom at the Buddha. The Buddha entered the concentration on the fire kasina (a certain kind of jhana or absorption concentration wherein he could emit fire from his body). The venom from the naga king and the fire coming from the Buddha's fire meditation produced such a great light that it seemed as if the fire house were consumed in flames and would be burnt to the ground.

         The ascetics, seeing the light from the fire, thought that the newcomer (the Buddha) had surely been burnt to a crisp by the naga king's fury.

          The Pathamasambodhi states: "At the end of the night, with the arrival of the dawn, the All-Knowing One stripped the power from the naga king and caused the naga king to coil himself up into his bowl. He then showed the naga to Uruvela Kassapa, saying, 'This naga has been stripped of his powers by the Tathagata.'" ...

          40. The Buddha's dwelling miraculously escapes a heavy flood; the ascetics are amazed and ask to go forth

         The reason the Buddha made a journey to teach the three ascetic brothers, as already explained, was because these three brothers were famous teachers widely respected in those times. Bringing famous ascetics into the fold of his own ministry was an important strategy in spreading his own teaching, which was new. If he could convince these powerful ascetics, his spreading the teaching would be much easier and more effective.

         Thus the Buddha had gone to the ashram of the three ascetic brothers, who believed themselves to be Arahats, and he tamed them by showing or proving to them that they were not in fact Arahats as they believed. The Buddha gradually showed them that the qualities they believed to be so special were not in fact so.

         They believed that the naga king was of mighty power, but the Buddha had made him coil up in his bowl. When a great flood arose, the ascetics thought that the Buddha must have surely drowned, and took boats to go and find him, only to find that he was walking meditation under the surface of the water.

      The Pathamasambodhi states: "The Buddha spent two full months converting the ascetics, after which the ascetic who led the largest group, Uruvela Kassapa, becoming disillusioned, realized that he was not an Arahat as he had at first mistakenly believed. His realization was a result of the power of the Buddha's silent teaching.

         Thus the leader of the ascetic group floated his fire-worshipping gear on the Neranjara River, bowed at the Buddha's feet and asked for acceptance as a disciple. The two younger brothers who lived downstream, seeing their older brother's gear floating down the river, thought that some accident must have befallen him and went to see what had happened.

         When the two brothers found out what had happened they also became followers of the Buddha. The Buddha gave a teaching to the assembled ascetics and all of them became Arahats. And so the Buddha received a further 1,000 monks to his Order.

Life of the Buddha 1

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        1. Devas from all the celestial realms convene to invite the Bodhisatta to take rebirth in order to become enlightened as the Buddha

         When the Bodhisatta Vessantara passed away he was reborn, just a little before the birth of the Buddha, in the Dusita deva realm. Devas of the many different realms convened to discuss who would become the enlightened Buddha. They all agreed that the Bodhisatta residing in the Dusita heaven would be so enlightened, and accordingly invited him to leave (cuti) the deva world and take birth [in the human realm] in keeping with his vow, in accordance with which all the perfections he had developed throughout countless lifetimes were for no other purpose than the attainment of Buddhahood.

         2. Accepting the invitation, the Bodhisatta descends to take conception among a royal family in Kapilavatthu

         This picture depicts the Bodhisatta, later Prince Siddhattha and the Buddha, coming down from the Dusita heaven in order to enter the womb of his mother. The day he came down and took conception was the fifteenth day of the waxing moon of the eighth lunar month, at which time King Suddhodana, his father, and Queen Mahamaya, his mother, were newly married.

         On that same night, as Queen Mahamaya lay sleeping on her bed, she dreamt that she was in a forest in the Himalaya Mountains, and a white elephant descended from the mountains and approached her. In the Pathamasambodhi this event is described thus:

         "There was a white elephant ... who lifted its trunk, in which was held a freshly blooming white lotus of wafting fragrance, roared loudly and entered into the golden palace. It reverently circumambulated the sleeping Queen three times and then seemed to enter into the Queen's belly on the right side ... "

         Later the palace seers predicted that it was an auspicious omen, foretelling the birth of a son. And when the Queen became pregnant, the Pathamasambodhi describes the Bodhisatta in his mother's womb as follows:

         "... like a yellow thread wound around a clear jewel. When she wanted to, she could see her son sitting in meditation posture, with his face toward the surface of her belly, like a golden statue lying in a bud of lotus petals. But the Bodhisatta did not see his mother...."

         The day the Bodhisatta descended to his mother's womb, the poet who composed the story in his honor stated that the same kind of miracles arose as on the occasion of the Buddha's birth, enlightenment, and first eaching, differing only in minor details. For example, a celestial drum resounded throughout the heavens, blind people regained their sight, and deaf people regained their hearing.

         If we were to bring the story from the tradition of literature into the historical tradition, we may interpret the "magical drum" of this story as being a sign of the Buddha's glory, which would cover the entire world. The blind and deaf people are symbols of people with defilements who, on hearing the Buddha's teaching, would lose their "blindness" and "deafness," obtaining wisdom of the way out of suffering.

         3. The Bodhisatta takes seven steps on his birth in the Lumbini forest

         This picture illustrates the Bodhisatta's birth. Those who have read the Pathamasambodhi and seen the wall paintings in the uposatha halls will recognize the picture clearly.

         The baby we see in the picture is Prince Siddhattha, the future Buddha. As soon as he emerged from his mother's womb he took seven steps, holding up his right hand and making a declaration as he did so. Lotuses sprang up beneath his feet to receive his steps. The words he uttered on that occasion are recorded by the poet in the Pali language. Here I translate them into Thai:

         "I will be the greatest person in this world, with no equal. This will be my last birth, I will not be born again in future."

         The ladies sitting and kneeling around the infant are the attendants of Queen Maya. She is the lady standing behind the Prince with her back to the tree. Her right hand is holding one of the tree's branches. The big tree is a sal tree, which we used to translate into Thai as "rang" or "teng rang," a tree commonly found in   Thai forests, but which we have now come to know is not the "rang" tree and in fact is not to be found in Thai forests. It is a tree which is found in India and used by Indians to build houses, common in the Himalaya foothills.

         The place where the Bodhisatta was born is known as Lumbini, outside the town of Kapilavatthu. It is now in the country of Nepal.

         Here I will insert a small aside. The Buddha's relatives came from two cities, Kapilavatthu and Devadaha. Kapilavatthu was the city of the Buddha, while Devadaha was the city of his mother. The Buddha's father lived in Kapilavatthu, while his mother originally lived in Devadaha. The kings and relatives of these two cities were related as a result of the royal marriage.

         As the time for Queen Mahamaya's delivery drew near, she took leave of her husband, King Suddhodana, to give birth to their child in the city of her own family. She had gone only part of the way when the labor pains began, and she gave birth then and there.

         The date of the Prince's birth was the full moon day of the sixth lunar month.

        4. Asita the ascetic pays a visit; seeing the baby's auspicious features, he pays reverence

         This picture depicts the infant not long after his birth, when his father had heard the news that Queen Maya had given birth to a son at the Lumbini garden and asked her to come back.

         The man with the turbaned hair and hands raised to his chest is Asita the ascetic, also known as Kaladevin. This ascetic was as a recluse living in the Himalaya mountains. He was revered by King Suddhodana and the royal family and was a familiar face to them.

         When he heard that King Suddhodana, the king of Kapilavatthu, had a new son, he left his ashram in the Himalayas and went to visit the palace to give his blessings. King Suddhodana was overjoyed when he heard that the ascetic had come to visit, and immediately invited him to take a seat while he fetched his son to pay reverence to the ascetic.

         As soon as the ascetic saw Prince Siddhattha, he did three things that are unusual for a homeless one (samana): he smiled, or, according to the poetic description given in the Pathamasambodhi, laughed, then he cried, and then he owed at the feet of Prince Siddhattha.

         He smiled because he saw that the features of Prince Siddhattha conformed with the legend of the "features of a Great Being" (mahapurisalakkhana). He knew that with such features, if Prince Siddhattha stayed on in worldly life he would be a Universal Emperor of great power, but if he left the worldly life he would become the greatest religious founder in the world. He cried because he believed that Prince Siddhattha would certainly leave the worldly life and, thinking of this, and reflecting on his own advanced age, was saddened at his lack of fortune in not having the chance to listen to the Buddha's teaching. He bowed to the newly born Prince for the same reason.

         When the heads of the royal families heard the news that the ascetic had bowed to the infant Prince, they all felt even more reverence for the infant, and so offered their sons as attendants to Prince Siddhattha, 

one from each family.

         5.The Brahmins perform a ceremony for the infant Prince, naming him Siddhattha

         When the infant Prince had been born five days, King Suddhodana called a great meeting. At the meeting were the royal relatives, both on the father's and mother's sides, the royal advisers, ministers, and Brahmins who were versed in the Vedas. The meeting was held to perform two auspicious ceremonies for the infant Prince: a naming ceremony and a prediction ceremony. There were altogether 108 Brahmins to conduct the ceremony, but only eight of them were to actively perform the ceremony. The others were present as observers. The eight Brahmins were named as follows:

1. Rama 2. Lakkhana 3. Yanna 4. Dhuja 5. Bhoja 6. Sudatta 7. Suyama 8. Kondanna

         The meeting passed a resolution that the child was to be named "Siddhattha", an auspicious name having two meanings. One meaning is "He who attains everything he wishes." Another interpretation is, as the first-born son, "fulfilling the wishes" of his father. In simple terms, King Suddhodana had obtained his first son in fulfillment of his wishes. In India during that time people were not usually referred to by their give names but by their clan names (gotta), which correspond with the surnames of our times. Thus the Prince was usually referred to as Prince Gotama, or simply Gotama.

         Also at the ceremony, the eight Brahmins made predictions based on the features of the infant Prince. Their predictions fell into two groups. Seven of the Brahmins, from the first to the seventh named above, were in agreement in their provisional predictions that if the Prince stayed to oversee his royal estate he would become a Universal Emperor of great power, but if he left the worldly life and became a homeless religious mendicant he would become enlightened as a Perfectly Self-enlightened Buddha (sammasambuddha), the foremost teacher of the world. Only one of the Brahmins, the younger one, gave the definite prediction that the Prince would leave the home life and become a Buddha. This Brahmin later became the leader of the "five ascetics" (pancavaggiya) who became religious mendicants in the Buddha's footsteps, and this Brahmin became the Buddha's first enlightened disciple, familiar to students as "Anna Kondanna." The remaining seven Brahmins did not become mendicants because they were all of advanced age and did not live to see the Buddha leave the palace.

         6. Sitting under a jambolan tree at the royal plowing ceremony, the Bodhisatta attains first jhana

This picture depicts Prince Siddhattha at seven years of age. The King had ordered the digging of three pokkarani ponds within the palace grounds for the pleasure of his son. A pokkarani pond is a pond planted with decorative lotuses. The king also had arranged sandal for spreading on the head cloth, shirt, and trousers, all of which were of the finest cloth from Kasi.

         This picture depicts the occasion on which the Prince sat in meditation under a tree referred to in the Patๅhamasambodhi as Jambupikkha, which we know as the jambolan tree. The Prince came to be sitting at this particular tree because his father had, in accordance with royal tradition, declared that a royal plowing ceremony was to be held in a field outside of Kapilavatthu. The King, who was to perform the ceremony himself, had his son the Prince accompany him.

         Again, we see in this picture that the Prince is sitting alone. His attendants and pages are nowhere to be seen, because they had all gone off to watch the ceremony. The Prince, sitting by himself under the jambolan tree, which the poet says "was endowed with lush branches and leaves like a mountain indanil, with broad spread, a shady place..." The prince's pure heart, endowed with the potential for the future attainment of Buddhahood, was moved to calm and naturally went into the level of concentration (samadhi) known as first absorption (jhana).

         In the afternoon, when the plowing ceremony was over and the royal attendants rushed to find the Prince, they found that the shadow of the tree under which he sat had remained where it was at midday, not following the movements of the sun. Amazed, they reported the matter to King Suddhodana, and when the royal father came to see for himself, he too was amazed, and exclaimed, "When he was born, and I brought him to pay reverence to the ascetic Kaladevin, he performed the miracle of standing on the ascetic's headdress. I bowed to him for the first time on that occasion. Now I bow to him for the second time."

         King Suddhodana made reverence to the Buddha on three important occasions. The first was just after his birth when the ascetic came to visit and, seeing the ascetic make reverence to his son, he followed suit. The second was when he saw the miracle under the jambolan tree. The third was after the Prince had left home, become enlightened as the Buddha, and returned for the first time to teach his father. 

         7. The Prince strings and fires a heavy arrow at the contest of arms, the sound resounding around the city

         When Prince Siddhattha had become a young man, his father sent him to study the arts [of warfare] at the well-known center of learning, "Visvamitta." The Prince readily learned how to use and a bow and arrow and the art of administration, so that he quickly learned all that the teacher had to teach him.

         In this picture, Prince Siddhattha is 16 years old and has finished his studies. His father had ordered the building of three palaces, one for each of the three seasons, for his son to live in at his pleasure. The first palace was ideal for the cold season, the second was ideal for the hot season, (what methods were used to control the temperature in these palaces is unknown), while the third was ideal for the rainy season.

         The King then had the relatives on both sides of the royal family send their eligible daughters for selection of the prince's future wife. This was because the King wanted to have his son look after the royal estate rather than leave home and become a religious teacher.

         But the relatives felt that the Prince should be allowed to demonstrate his prowess at his newly learned arts for the benefit of his kinsmen, so the King invited all the kin of the royal family to a gathering in front of a newly built pavilion in the center of the city to watch the prince's demonstration of his archery skills.

         The prince's bow was called "Sahasthama", meaning "the bow that is so heavy it takes a thousand men to lift." But the Prince could lift it, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "as a woman might lift a bobbin." When the relatives gathered there saw this they were full of praise. Then when the Prince drew the bow, the sound of the stretched bow resounded throughout Kapilavatthu, so that people who had not come to the display and did not know that the Prince was firing an arrow, asked each other what the sound was.

        The target that the Prince was aiming for was the fur of a yak's tail placed some distance away. The Prince fired the arrow right into he center of the target, as it is said, "with an eye that was clear and aided by the five senses purified of stains." All the relatives gladly offered their daughters, from among whom the Prince would choose his wife. Among them was Bimbayasodhara.

         8. The king holds the wedding of Prince Siddhattha and Princess Bimbayasodhara

         As already stated, the Buddha's relatives were of two sides, the mother's and the father's side, and each of those sides was from a different city. The Rohini River flowed between their two lands. The mother's side of the family was known as the Koliya clan [vamsa] and ruled the city of Devadaha, while the father's side was known as the Sakya clan and ruled the city of Kapilavatthu.

         The two cities were closely linked and were like brothers and sisters of the same family. They had intermarried often. In the Buddha's time, the ruler of Devadaha was King Suppabuddha, while the ruler of Kapilavatthu was King Suddhodana.

         The wife of King Suppabuddha was Queen Amita, and she was the younger sister of King Suddhodana. On the other hand, the wife of King Suddhodana, the Buddha's mother, was Queen Mahamaya, and she was the younger sister of King Suppabuddha. The two kings had each married each other's younger sisters. King Suppabuddha had one son and one daughter to Queen Amita. The son was Prince Devadatta, the daughter was Princess Bimbayasodhara.

         The Pathamasambodhi states that Princess Bimbayasodhara was one of seven people who are known as "sahajata" of the Buddha. Sahajata means "that which is born on the same day." The seven sahajata are:

        1. Princess Bimbayasodhara. 

        2. Venerable Ananda. 

        3. The Advisor Kaludayi. 

        4. Channa, the royal page. 

        5. The horse, Kanthaka. 

        6. The bodhi tree. 

        7. The four golden treasures (the shell treasure, the cardamom treasure, the blue lotus treasure, and the white lotus treasure).

         The relatives of both sides were agreed that Princess Bimbayasodhara was replete with the all the necessary qualities and was the right choice as wife for Prince Siddhattha. The royal marriage ceremony thus took place when bride and groom were both sixteen years old.

         9. The trip to the pleasure grove and the four "divine" messengers : the old man, the sick man, the dead man and the religious mendicant

         King Suddhodana, the prince's father, and all of the royal relatives, wished to see Prince Siddhattha stay on and rule the royal estate, not leave the home life and become a religious mendicant as some of the Brahmins had predicted, so they sought ways to tie the Prince to all kinds of sensual pleasures. But Prince Siddhattha was of a philosophical nature, befitting a man who was born to become a great religious teacher, and found pleasure in these distractions for only a short time. When he reached the age of 29 he began to feel wearied of them.

        An important reason for the arising of this feeling in the Prince was his sighting of what are known as the four "divine messengers" while touring the royal gardens outside the city on his royal chariot. Of the four divine messengers - an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a religious mendicant- the Prince saw the old man first.

The Pathamasambodhi describes the old man thus: "His hair was gray, his sides crooked, his body bent forward. In his hand he held a stick and while walking along the way he shook and swayed pitifully ..."

         The Prince was saddened at the site, just as he was when he saw the sick man and the dead man on his second and third trips to the royal garden. He reflected that he would one day have to be like them. Then he thought how in this world there are always pairs of opposites, such as darkness and light, and heat and cold, and so since there was suffering, there must be a way out of suffering.

         On his fourth visit to the royal garden, the Prince saw a religious mendicant, "wearing the ochre robe and with restrained bearing..."

         At the sight of the religious mendicant, the Prince became inspired to leave home. He thought or exclaimed to himself, "Sadhu pabbaja!" which means in simple terms, "To become a monk, that would be good!" And he made up his mind on that very day to leave the home life.

         10. While the Prince is bathing in the royal pond, a royal attendant informs him that Princess Bimba has had a son

         After Prince Siddhattha had seen the fourth divine messenger, the religious mendicant, and had made up his mind to go forth from the home life and become a religious mendicant himself, he proceeded in his royal chariot, which the Pathamasambodhi states was "teemed with four noble steeds the color of red lotuses," to the royal pleasure garden.

         Arriving there, the Prince, surrounded by groups of Sakyan damsels, went down to bathe in the lotus pond which was filled with the five kinds of lotuses.

         He stayed at the royal pleasure grove almost the whole day, then, when it was almost evening, an official came from the palace and King Suddhodana with news for Prince Siddhattha, informing the Prince that Princess Bimbayasodhara had given birth to a son.

       Buddhaghosa, the author of the commentaries to the Dhammapada, says of this episode that when Prince Siddhattha heard the news that his consort had given birth to a son, a new kind of feeling arose within him that he had never felt before, and that was the love of a child.

       That love that had arisen within him weighed on his heart and bound it more than anything else in the world. He exclaimed, "Bandhanam jatam rahulam jatam."

         This translates as "A bond has arisen." The word translated here as "bond" in Prince Siddhattha's exclamation is rahulam or rahula, and this word later became the name given to Prince Siddhattha's son.

         Prince Siddhattha's exclamation, "A bond has arisen," refers to the decision he was in the process of making to leave the home life and become a religious mendicant. Just when he had cut off other attachments to the lay life, a new attachment had arisen.

         11. The Prince offers a necklace to Kisa Gotami

         This picture follows on from the previous one, after the Prince had toured the royal pleasure gardens, but here he is shown coming back to the palace together with his entourage. The lady we see standing at the palace window is, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "a Sakyan damsel of the town of Kapilavatthu by the name of Kisa Gotami. It does not say in what way she was related to Prince Siddhattha.

         However in the Commentary to the Dhammapada, Buddhaghosa, its Indian author, states that she was the daughter of one of the Buddha's aunts, who were Pamita and Amita, both of whom were younger sisters of King Suddhodana. However, he does not state which lady was Kisa Gotami's mother.

         Kisa Gotami saw Prince Siddhattha coming back, radiant and resplendent, from his bathing in the lotus pond and, filled with delight at the sight, uttered a spontaneous verse in praise of Prince Siddhattha. In the original Pali the verse was as follows:

          Nibbuta nuna sa mata

          nibbuto nuna so pita

          nibbuta nuna sa nari

          yassayam idiso pati

         It means: "Quenched and full of joy are they who are the royal mother and royal father of Prince Siddhattha; quenched and full of joy is she who is his wife."

Prince Siddhattha was pleased at her verse, and the word he liked most was the word "quenched," which he interpreted to mean "nibbuta" or Nibbana. He took off his pearled necklace, valued at a hundred thousand "kahapana," and handed it to one of his attendants to give to Kisa Gotami. She interpreted this as meaning that the Prince was attracted to her, a thought that filled her with joy.

         12. The Prince awakens late at night and sees the ladies of the harem lying in disarray; he becomes despondent and decides to leave the home life

         From the moment Prince Siddhattha had seen the four divine messengers and definitely resolved to leave the home life, his resolution was unwavering, in spite of the bond on his heart that had just arisen, in the form of his new-born beloved son.

   That night, after coming back from his trip to the royal pleasure grove, the Pathamasambodhi states that "... the Prince the Bodhisatta was particularly moved to the homeless life. This, together with his excellent wisdom devoid of attraction to sensual pleasures, caused him to take no delight in the dancing of the dancers that were so attractive, and in spite of them he drifted off to sleep for a moment ..."

         The prince's palace was lit up within by lanterns which, "fed by aromatic oils, illuminated the palace jewels and gold." The maidens doing the singing and dancing, seeing the Prince fall asleep, themselves lay down their instruments and also went to sleep then and there.

         Not long after, the Prince awoke from his slumber and saw the ungainly postures of the sleeping maidens. The Pathamasambodhi says, "He saw the group of maidens sprawling, saliva drooling, some of them snoring loudly with sounds like crows, some of them gnashing their teeth, some of them murmuring in their sleep, some of them with mouths open weirdly, some of them with clothes shed, revealing their narrow places..."

         The Prince alighted from his bed, got up and looked around the palace. Although it was brightly lit by the lanterns and beautifully decorated, it seemed to him to be dark, like a charnel ground. The living beings who were still breathing and sleeping in unguarded postures, the singers and dancers, seemed to the Prince to be like so many corpses in a charnel ground. He uttered, "I will leave the palace and take to the homeless life this very night," and, going to the palace door, cried out to the pages guarding the door, "Who is there?"

         13. The Prince goes to see the sleeping princess Bimba as a way of taking leave

         As soon as Prince Siddhattha had cried out, a voice came in answer. The owner of the voice was Channa, a close servant of Prince Siddhattha and also one of the sahajata, born on the same day as the Prince.

        If we were to compare the Buddha's life story to a play, Channa would be one of the main characters. His importance is in the role he played in the Buddha's leaving of the home life. He is also well known in the time after the Bodhisatta left the home life and became the Buddha, when he became a monk. Channa was a very stubborn monk who would listen only to the Buddha, because he held that he was the Buddha's former servant. He referred to the Buddha, even after he had ordained as a monk, as "Young Prince."

         At this point in the story, Channa was sleeping outside the prince's room, his head resting on the doorstep. When Prince Siddhattha ordered him to go and prepare his horse, Channa immediately complied by going to the stables.

        As for the Prince, who had firmly made up his mind to leave home, he went to the sleeping quarters of Princess Bimba, his wife. Arriving there, he parted the curtain to her bed. The scene of his wife sleeping soundly, her arm resting around the head of Rahula, his newly born son, filled the Prince with love and longing for his wife and the son he was only now seeing for the very first time.

         At first he thought to himself, "I will lift up her arm and hold my son," but then he was afraid that by so doing he would wake her, thereby obstructing his plans to leave the palace. So he suppressed his desire, thinking, "No, only after I have become a Buddha will I come back and gaze on my son's face."

Then he left the room and went down from the palace to Channa, who had prepared the horse already.

         14. The Prince awakens Channa to prepare Kanthaka, the steed that would lead him on his going forth

         The horse that Prince Siddhattha was to ride on his great going forth was named Kanthaka. It was another of the sahajata, born on the same day as the Prince. The Pathamasambodhi says of the size of this horse that it was "about eighteen elbow lengths [sork] from neck to tail," but it does not say how tall the horse was, stating only that "its height was in proportion to its length." It also describes it as being "of purest white, like a freshly polished conch shell, its head black, the color of a crow. The hair on its face was white like the pith of Johnson grass. It was possessed of great trength and stood on a jeweled pedestal."

          According to this description, the poet makes the horse bigger than ordinary horses and very special. In ordinary terms we might say that Kanthaka was a very tall, white horse, like the steed of a great Emperor or movie star.

          Approaching the horse, Prince Siddhattha lifted his right hand and stroked Kanthaka's back. It is said that this pleased Kanthaka so much that the horse neighed loudly, the sound traveling all over Kapilavatthu for a distance of one yojana (about 16 kilometers). If this was so, then why did not the people of the city wake up? The author of the story states "the devas suppressed the sound and made it disappear"-he used the devas as a muffler for the horse's cries.

         If we were to translate this from poetic to more realistic terms, we might say that Prince Siddhattha was very skilled with horses and was able to calm the horse so that it did not cry out.

      The Prince then mounted the horse and headed toward the city gate, known as Phrayabaladvara, with Channa as page walking behind him. The day of his going forth, according to the Pathamasambodhi, was the full moon of the eighth month. The author states, "The moon waxed bright in a sky that was clear of clouds. The whole of the heavens were bathed in the white light of the full moon."

        15. Mara tries to prevent the going forth, telling the Prince that in seven days he will inherit an empire; the Prince does not listen

         When Prince Siddhattha had ridden the horse through the city gate into the moonlit night, a voice like music arose from close to the city gate. That voice forbade the Prince from going forth.

         The Prince asked, "Who are you?"

        The sound answered, "My name is Vassavadi Mara."

Mara [the Buddhist personification of evil or obstruction to goodness] informed the Prince that in seven days from that day, the Wheel treasure would arise, and the owner of that Wheel Treasure would be the Prince. The "Wheel Treasure" referred to by Mara was a term meaning that he would become Emperor.

         The Prince: "I know this already."

         Mara: "In that case, for what purpose do you go forth?"

         The Prince: "For complete knowledge (sabbanutanana)."

The sabbanutanana referred to by the Prince was attainment of Buddhahood. All the above is given according to the description of the Pathamasambodhi and Buddhaghosa's Commentary to the Dhammapada. The story is rendered in the form of a allegory (puggaladhitthana).

         An "allegory" is the rendering of something not visible to the eye or cognizable by the senses, an "abstract" [namadhamma], into a scene or an action by a person, just as a writer of stories expresses feelings through the characters in his story. If no such example were give people would not understand and the story would fall flat.

         The allegory given above, if rendered into realistic terms [dhammadhitthana], would be: "Having passed through the city gates, the Prince, who was still an unenlightened being, although firmly bent on his resolve to become a Buddha, was also, in another part of his mind, still worried about the city."

      The poet gave his worry the concrete form of Mara trying to prevent the Prince's departure, but the Prince defeated him. That is to say, he defeated Mara, or defeated the worries which were his inner enemies.

         16.The Bodhisatta cuts off his hair and goes forth on the banks of the Anoma River; Ghatikara the Brahma offers the recluse's requisites

         Prince Siddhattha, followed by Channa, rode his royal steed all through the night, greeting the dawn at the river, which bordered the three cities of Kapilavatthu, Savatthi, and Vesali. He asked Channa what the river was called, and Channa answered, "Young Prince, this river is called the River Anoma, sire."

          The Prince led the horse and his page across the river, then dismounted and sat on the sand of the river bank, which was the color of silver. In his right hand he held his sword, in his left he held his top knot, which he cut with the sword, leaving only a circle of hair turning to the right, two inches long.

       Having done that, he took off his royal garments and put on the yellow robe which Ghatikara Brahma had offered him together with other requisites of one gone forth. Then he made a resolution, committing himself to the life of a homeless one on the banks of the Anoma River.

         He gave his garments and horse to Channa to take back to the palace and inform the King of the news. Channa loved his master. He cried and lay at his feet, not wanting to leave him, but he could not disobey his master's wishes.

       The Prince, or as he is referred to in the biography from that moment on, the "Great Being," stroked the back of the horse which was going now to leave his master and go back to the city. Tears ran down the horse's face, and it licked its master's feet.

        The horse and Channa, tears streaming down their faces, crossed the river and made their way back to the city, but once they had escaped the Great Being's sight, Kanthaka's heart broke into seven pieces- it had a heart attack- and it died. Channa took off the horse's rigging, placed some wild flowers on the body of the dead steed, and then proceeded to walk, carrying both his master's clothing and the horse's saddle, alone back to the city.

         17.The Bodhisatta walks through Rajagaha; the people talk wildly about him all over the city

         While Channa the loyal page was going back to inform Kapilavatthu of the news, the Great Being, who had once been Prince Siddhattha, journeyed from the sandy bank of the Anoma to a district in which there were many mango forests, known as Anupiya Ambhavana. This district was in the district of Malla. He stayed there for one week and on the eighth day journeyed into the state of Magadha, eventually making his way to Rajagaha, which at the time was the capital of this kingdom.

        Magadha was a big and prosperous state, with many people and power equal to another great state of that time, Kosala, the capital of which was Savatthi.

The King of Rajagaha in Magadha at that time was King Bimbisara. Being the same age as the Great Being, he was at that time still a young king.

         In the morning the Great Being entered the city. The people of the city were moved to a state referred to be the Pathamasambodhi as "great excitement" which spread over the city at the sight of the noble-featured recluse. No one could tell whether a deva, a naga [serpent-deity], a garuda [bird-deity], or some other kind of divine being had entered the city for alms. The talk buzzed all over the city.

         Prince Siddhattha, the Great Being who would later become the Buddha, had been born into the Khattiya clan, of noble birth on both sides of the family. His complexion was referred to in the Pali texts as kancanavanno", meaning of golden complexion. His features were handsome. Even though he had shaved off his hair and beard and was wearing the yellow robe of a homeless one who has given up the beauty of the worldling, his bearing as he walked, more stately than that of a normal person, clearly belied his noble birth.

         Thus, when the people of Rajagaha saw him they were filled with excitement, and the news eventually reached the ears of King Bimbisara, the King of Rajagaha.

         18.King Bimbisara pays a visit, and asks the Buddha to come back to teach him if he becomes enlightened
         King Bimbisara heard that the people were all saying that a young, noble recluse, unlike other recluses, had entered the city, and so he ordered some of his attendants to look into the matter. The Pathamasambodhi gives the words of King Bimbisara at this point as:
         "Go and follow him and see: if he is a deva he will fly into the air; if a naga he will go down into the earth; if he is a human being he will sit and eat his alms food in moderation. Go and see just what happens."
          The Great Being, having received sufficient alms food from the people of Rajagaha, left the city and went up to a cliff just outside the city, where he sat and mindfully set about eating his alms food. The food he had obtained was that known as "masikabatta"-all mixed together, the good and the bad, the dry and the wet, the salty and the sweet.
         Seeing the food, the Great Being felt, according to the Pathamasambodhi, "as if his gut were to come out of his mouth," since he had only ever eaten fine foods, like celestial foods, but, controlling his mind with the virtue becoming of a recluse, he ate the food as normal.
      King Bimbisara and the Great Being were "aditthasahaya," friends who had only previously heard of each other by name, but never met. Hearing of the Great Being's whereabouts from his attendant, King Bimbisara went to see him. When he heard that he was the Prince from the Sakya clan, he invited him to stay on in the city and help him rule it, but the Great Being declined his offer, informing him of his firm resolve to achieve enlightenment.

         King Bimbisara then asked to, if he did attain enlightenment, come and teach him. The Great Being accepted his request.

         19.The Bodhisatta goes to study with the recluse Alara; finding it not to be the way to enlightenment, he journeys on
         At this time, the country of Magadha had many famous recluses who had established themselves as teachers with ashrams. Each of these ashrams had many followers and adherents. Rajagaha was one place through which these sect-leaders passed to spread their teachings.
         During the time of Prince Siddhattha's going forth, there were two teachers more well known than the others in that country: the group belonging to Alara Kalama, and that of Udaka Ramaputta. Both of these ashrams were established in the forest outside the city.
         The Great Being went here to study and see whether their paths led to enlightenment. He first went to the ashram of Alara Kalama. He stayed there and learned all that the teacher had to teach, and then, finding that it still did not lead to enlightenment, went to study at the ashram of the second teacher. He obtained a little more knowledge there, but only up to the level of the eighth level of concentration [samapatti].
         Samapatti is "absorption" [jhana], a method of making the mind concentrated. It ranges from coarser levels up to the most refined. Altogether there are eight levels. The Great Being saw that the mind even in these states was still on the mundane level. An unenlightened being was capable of experiencing them, but they could decline. They were not the level of lokuttara, transcendence.
         The teachers of both of these centers invited the Great Being to stay on and help them teach their followers. Both of them praised him as having a knowledge equal to their own. However, the Great Being declined their invitations.

        Having tried out the teachings of both of these teachers, who were regarded by the people to be possessed of the highest knowledge, and found them through his own wisdom to be not the way to enlightenment, the Great Being thought of trying out a mode of practice resorted to by many recluses of that time to see whether it led to enlightenment. That was the practice of asceticism, the strict and rigorous practice beyond what an ordinary person could do referred to as "self-torture."

         20. The Bodhisatta arrives at Uruvela Senanigama, deciding to undertake his practice at the peaceful forest there
         The Great Being took leave of the two teachers and journeyed in search of a place to try out the ascetic practices so favored by the recluses of that time. He traveled to a certain district, also in the country of Magadha, by name of Uruvela Senanigama. Uruvela means "sand hill," while senanigama means "district" or "village."
        The area of this district was flat and blessed with a green and delightful forest. The clear waters of the River Neranjara ran through it and there was a place to bathe and villages in the vicinity, not too far and not too near, suitable as a resource for alms food for a recluse intent on practice.
         Uruvela Senanigama might in modern times be called "Sandhill Town."
        The commentarial text, Samantapasadika, volume 3, written after the Buddha's passing away (parinibbana) by the Indian commentator Buddhaghosa, relates the history of the sandhill at this village as follows: In the past the area had been a forest in which lived many recluses undertaking ascetic practices. The ascetics, observing that wrongs expressed through body and speech were easily seen, but not the wrongs of the mind, which were left unpunished, made a regulation that any of them who committed a mental wrong, such as a thought of lust, should punish himself by taking his bowl and scooping out some sand and pouring it out onto the bank, one bowl-full for each person, each time. It was a kind of self-inflicted penance. Thus came into being the hill of sand, "uruvela", a monument to the mountain of defilements of the ascetics of old.
        In the time of the Buddha the area of this district was still known as Uruvela Senanigama, but in later times it came to be known as Bodhgaya, where at present the Bodhgaya Thai Temple is established.

         The Great Being chose this district as the place to undertake the ascetic practices that would comprise his next experiment on the search for the path to enlightenment.