The Age of the Sages

by Mark W Muesse

  The mind has great power and potential, but in its unawakened state, it is out of control. It is unruly and undisciplined. The Buddha likened it to an untamed horse. Until it is tamed, a horse is more likely to cause harm than do good. To bring it under control requires patience, skill, and persistent training.

  The characteristics of the undisciplined mind may sound familiar. It has a hard time staying attentive to one thing; it lacks the ability to concentrate for more than a few minutes, if that long. It craves stimulation, particularly the kind of things that will bring it pleasure or help it avoid uncomfortable thoughts and sensations. It tends to move from place to place, idea to idea, seeking new pleasures or stimuli. The conditioned mind has an inordinate love of thoughts, which is part of its attachment to stimulation. It constantly generates ideas and images, the vast majority of which are pure rubbish. Most of these thoughts pertain to either the past or the future, which means not much attention is given to the present. Dwelling in the past, we often regret what we did or did not do. Dwelling in the future, we become fearful and anxious about things that rarely come to pass. Ralph Waldo Emerson put it this way in a poem he translated from the French:

  Some of your hurts you have cured,

  And the sharpest you still have survived,

  But what torments of grief you endured

  From evils which never arrived![5]

  The mind spends a great deal of time pondering things over which we have no control. When the undisciplined mind does pay attention to the present, it is constantly passing judgments and generating opinions so that it is really more absorbed with itself than with the present situation. It is as if the mind produces a constant commentary as we experience life. Finally, the mind is a creature of habit. It easily finds itself returning to the same old patterns of thinking. This is how it gets conditioned in the first place. But the good thing about this tendency is that the mind can be trained to develop wholesome habits, and this is what the Buddha’s discipline of mental cultivation intends to do.

  The three disciplines of skillful effort, skillful concentration, and skillful mindfulness are ways of training the mind and harnessing its considerable powers for the benefit of others and ourselves.

  “The three disciplines of skillful effort, skillful concentration, and skillful mindfulness are ways of training the mind and harnessing its considerable powers for the benefit of others and ourselves.”

  Skillful effort means giving deliberate attention to developing positive qualities and thoughts and to letting go of negative ones. What counts as positive here are those states that promote the alleviation of suffering. These characteristics include generosity, friendliness, equanimity, and patience.

  Skillful concentration is the discipline of meditation; skillful mindfulness is the practice of meditative awareness undertaken in daily life. The Buddha advocated taking time each day to practice meditation to strengthen attentiveness and nonattachment. These and other Buddhist virtues were regarded as skills that anyone could develop and reinforce. As with learning the piano, it is essential to set aside time for practice regularly.

  The Buddhist practice of meditation is not intended to create extraordinary or mystical experiences, although that may happen. Rather, the Buddha meant meditation to be used to sharpen awareness of the world and ourselves by attending to the features of ordinary life in the present moment. The basic meditation practice taught by the Buddha was based on his own experiences under the rose-apple and bodhi trees. It involved simply attending to the breath and observing without judgment the rise and fall of thoughts, sensations, feelings, and perceptions. As these phenomena rise to awareness, the meditator notes them and allows them to fall away, without grasping or dwelling on them. The Buddha thought that by merely observing the mind, the body, and the world around, it is possible to gain insight into the true nature of the world and self and learn how to act and think accordingly. He believed this practice would reveal the illusory nature of the self and the source of suffering in the mind’s tendencies to grasp for new pleasures and avoid unpleasant experiences. He also thought meditation could restrain the mind’s inclination to make knee-jerk judgments and to become absorbed in thoughts about the future and the past, all of which are unwholesome habits.

  Awakened Understanding

  As suggested earlier, we can distinguish between two kinds of right understanding. The second form is awakened understanding, the content of the enlightenment experience. It means directly seeing reality the way it is, unencumbered by expectations, beliefs, or defilements of any kind. In the Buddha’s view, this form of comprehension meant to know for certain the authenticity of the Four Noble Truths without reliance on authorities other than one’s own experience. To realize the Dhamma at this level means to live one’s life in accord with its truth. One no longer aspires to nibbana. Nibbana has been seen.

  * * *

  Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra in The Portable Nietzsche, trans. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Penguin, 1982), 157. ↵

  Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma in Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of theSamyutta Nikaya (Boston: Wisdom, 2000), 1844.↵

  See The Shorter Discourse to Malunkyaputta in Bhikkhu Ñānamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of theMajjhima Nikaya (Somerville, MA: Wisdom, 1995), 533–36. ↵

  Setting in Motion the Wheel of Dhamma in Bhikkhu Bodhi, trans. The Connected Discourses of the Buddha: A Translation of theSamyutta Nikaya, 1844.↵

  Elon Foster, Cyclopaedia of Poetry, 1st series (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1872), 281.↵

  14

  From Buddha to Buddhism

  The five bhikkhus who first heard the Buddha expound his Dhamma were duly impressed by their former teacher’s new insights. According to myth, even the cosmos itself and the vast pantheon of devas recognized the supreme significance of this teaching: “And when the Wheel of the Dhamma had been set in motion by the Blessed One, the earth-dwelling devas raised a cry: ‘[I]n the Deer Park . . . this unsurpassed Wheel of the Dhamma has been set in motion by the Blessed One.’ . . . Thus at that moment . . . the cry spread as far as the brahma-world, and this ten thousandfold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glorious radiance appeared in the world surpassing the divine majesty of the devas.”[1] Kondanna, one of the five, instantly understood the Buddha’s message and realized nibbana shortly afterward. After a second discourse, the other four gained enlightenment. These five became the first arahants of Buddhism.

  The Development and Function of the Sangha

  Not long after, the number of arahants grew to sixty-one. These individuals were the first members of the Sangha, the monastic community. The Buddha commissioned these enlightened disciples to tour the Gangetic plains and preach the Dhamma, as the scriptures say, “for the welfare of the many, out of compassion for the world, for the good . . . of gods and men.”[2] The Buddha told his followers to teach in the language of their listeners, in contrast to the Brahmins, who still taught in Sanskrit, a language understood only by the upper castes.

  These missionaries found a receptive audience among many of the inhabitants of the burgeoning cities in the region. At a time when so many of the traditional political, social, and economic institutions were rapidly changing, the Buddha’s message of the impermanency of existence certainly had the ring of truth. With populations increasingly concentrating in urban areas, the suffering and frustration that the Buddha spoke of were probably more and more evident to the city dwellers. The Buddha’s emphasis on spiritual independence rather than reliance on tradition or the Brahmin priests appealed to citizens who were becoming accustomed to accepting individual responsibility for their daily well-being and ultimate destiny.

  The Buddha and his disciples spoke to people from all walks of life, without discrimination: men, women, and children, aristocrats and peasants, rich and poor, ascetics and priests, thieves and
murderers, high castes and low castes. The Buddha’s openness to all was inspired by his conviction that spiritual attainment was not limited by caste or social status, as many believed. Awakening was possible for anyone. He subverted the word Aryan—a noble one—which customarily indicated a member of the upper castes, by using it to refer to anyone who lived a wise and holy life. One need not be of high caste or social standing to follow the Buddha’s Noble Truths.

  “The Buddha and his disciples spoke to people from all walks of life, without discrimination: men, women, and children, aristocrats and peasants, rich and poor, ascetics and priests, thieves and murderers, high castes and low castes. The Buddha’s openness to all was inspired by his conviction that spiritual attainment was not limited by caste or social status, as many believed. Awakening was possible for anyone.”

  As the Buddhist Dhamma spread, local monastic communities were established throughout the area. The Sangha served many purposes for the emerging new religion. First, it was intended to provide an ideal setting for individuals seeking to follow the Buddha’s way. It was never essential that one join the Sangha in order to find enlightenment and realize nibbana. The Suttas report that many ordinary householders attained the end of suffering even as they maintained their home and work lives, but the demands of social and domestic life often made the quest difficult for others. Joining the Sangha relieved one of obligations and responsibilities that might hinder progress toward the ultimate goal; with a simpler life, the monastic could focus on the pursuit of liberation.

  The Sangha also furnished a structure that assisted many in maintaining the discipline necessary to practice the Dhamma. If monastic life was simpler, it was also more restricted, in some senses, than domestic life. Members of the Sangha were expected to adhere to five additional precepts. These extra precepts included not eating after midday; not watching secular entertainment such as dancing, singing, or theater; not using perfume or jewelry; not using a luxurious couch or sleeping on a soft bed; and not handling money. The intent of these precepts was to keep practitioners within the Middle Way by disallowing luxuries or distractions. Beyond these additional precepts, the monastics followed a daily routine of meditation, study and discussion, and begging for food. Other rules of communal life were added as the Sangha grew and new situations arose that demanded guidelines to maintain order. Eventually, the Pali scriptures came to include well over two hundred regulations for monastic life.

  The Sangha was also the principal means by which the Buddha’s message was disseminated. As Buddhism became more firmly established and as the Sangha became more settled, the role of the monastic as missionary gave way to that of teacher and custodian of the Dhamma. Accordingly, the members of the Sangha were responsible for preserving the Buddha’s teachings and interpreting them to the laity. After the Buddha’s death, the Sangha met on occasion to discuss and settle doctrinal and polity disputes. At times, these quarrels led to actual schisms within the community, which eventually gave rise to the different varieties of Buddhism. But despite the disagreements and divisions, the Buddhist Sangha has endured for 2,500 years and is the longest-continuing institution of its kind in history.

  Five years after the founding of the Sangha, women were admitted as ordained members of the order, at the request of the Buddha’s stepmother, Queen Prajapati, and the bhikkhu Ananda, the Buddha’s personal attendant and close disciple. Queen Prajapati had raised Siddhattha after his natural mother and Prajapati’s sister, Queen Maya, died seven days after the child’s birth. Prajapati became the first Buddhist nun, or bhikkhuni. Later, Yashodhara, the Buddha’s wife from his palace years, and his son Rahula also joined the community. The Buddha’s consent to accept women into the Sangha was a radical step for the time. Many believed that women, like members of the lower castes, simply did not have the necessary intellectual abilities and were too vain to achieve enlightenment. The Buddha rejected that belief.

  The Buddhist texts record many examples of women overcoming particular hardships to follow the Buddha’s teaching and become members of the bhikkhuni order. One particularly poignant story is that of Kisagotami, a young woman of wealth and high status. After she was married, Kisagotami gave birth to a son, who died as a toddler. She was devastated. In her grief, she began carrying the lifeless body of her son from house to house and village to village, asking for medicine to bring the boy back to life. One wise man advised her to see the Buddha, who, he said, had the medicine she needed. The Buddha told her to get some mustard seeds from a household that had not been touched by death. Thinking the mustard seeds would be used to make the remedy, Kisagotami, still carrying her dead child, went from house to house to make her request. Everyone was willing to help, but she could not find a single family untouched by death. Soon she realized that hers was not the only family that had faced death. Her attitude toward her deceased son immediately changed. She left the corpse in the forest and returned to the Buddha to report her experience. Then the Buddha said, “Gotami, you thought that you were the only one who had lost a son. As you have now realized, death comes to all beings; before their desires are satisfied death takes them away.” On hearing this, Kisagotami fully realized the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and insubstantiality of life. She was accepted into the Sangha and went on to become one of hundreds of female arahants in the Buddha’s time.

  Parinibbana

  In his eightieth year, as the Buddha was on one of his teaching expeditions, he became mortally ill near the village of Kushinagara. When he became aware of his impending death, he told his attendant Ananda to prepare an outdoor bed situated between two sala trees. (Once again, notice the appearance of trees at key moments of the Buddha’s life.) Ananda had served him for decades and was greatly upset. But the Buddha made even his own death a lesson for his followers. He told Ananda, “Enough . . . do not weep and wail! Have I not already told you that all things that are pleasant and delightful are changeable, subject to separation and becoming other? So how could it be, Ananda—since whatever is born, become, compounded is subject to decay—how could it be that it should not pass away?”[3] The Buddha had grown tired. As his death approached, he asked his disciples three times if there were any doubts about the teachings or the disciplines. The bhikkhus and bhikkhunis all stood silent. The Buddha then uttered his final words: “All conditioned things are of a nature to decay—strive on untiringly!”[4] Then he passed into a deep meditative state and entered mahaparinibbana, the great final release.

  It was on the full moon of the month of Vesakha when this occurred, and the year was around 410 bce, according to modern reckoning. Tradition says it was also on the full moon day in Vesakha when he was born and was enlightened. Today, the chief Buddhist holiday is Vesak, which celebrates on a single day the birth, awakening, and parinibbana of the Buddha.

  Stupas

  After his death, the Buddha’s body lay in state for the next six days. On the seventh day, the remains were consumed on a funeral pyre of fragrant wood. When the cremation was completed, the ashes and unburned remains were collected as relics. The relics were then divided into eight portions and distributed to representatives of eight city-states that were connected in some way to his life, including Lumbini, his birthplace; Gaya, the site of his awakening; Banaras, the location of his first discourse; and Kushinagara, the place where he realized parinibbana.

  The relics were interred in stupas, the burial sites of royalty from pre-Buddhist times. The earliest stupas were essentially great mounds of earth, shaped into hemispheres or domes and faced with brick or stone. Atop the stupas were poles with a series of disks, a stylized representation of a parasol, an object associated with royalty. For Buddhists, the parasol-shaped structure also represented the bodhi tree.

  Almost immediately after their establishment, the stupas became pilgrimage sites. Both laypersons and monastics began to travel great distances just to glimpse these reliquaries and to come into physical proximity to them. The stupa came to be regarded as a phys
ical representation of the Dhamma. For some, coming to the stupa and walking around it was meritorious and could help ensure a favorable rebirth. For others, the stupa was the Buddha himself, containing his bodily relics that perhaps could confer release from suffering or actual healing. Eventually, stupas were built all over South and East Asia as Buddhism migrated throughout the continent. With the spread of Buddhism, the stupa’s design assimilated the aesthetics and architectural features of its host cultures but retained its basic structure and function. Stupas also took on new names in different parts of Asia. In Sri Lanka they were known as dagobas and in East Asia as pagodas.

  Interestingly, the Buddha was never represented in human form until several centuries after his death. Now, his likeness is one of the most common images in the world. In early Buddhist history, the Buddha was represented by such things as an empty throne, footprints, the bodhi tree, the wheel of Dhamma, and the parasol. Because he was regarded as transcending the physical world and as superior to the gods, who of course were represented by images, any anthropomorphic icon of him was considered profane. It was not until after the Axial Age, between 200 and 100 bce, that images of the Buddha as a person began to be created in the region of Gandhara, now occupied by the nation of Afghanistan. This area had been conquered by Alexander the Great in the fourth century, so it was under the influence of Greek artistic ideals that the first sculptures of the Buddha took shape. To anyone familiar with Hellenistic art, the influence is unmistakable. Several of the Gandharan Buddha images recall ancient Greek representations of Apollo.