The Life of the Buddha: The Search for The Way of Escape.
The Bodhisatta remained for a week in the Mango-grove of Anupiya, and thereafter he proceeded to Rajagaha, the chief town of Magadha. He begged his food from door to door, and the beauty of his person cast the whole city into commotion. When this was made known to the king Bimbisara, he went to the place where the Bodhisatta was sitting, and offered to bestow upon him the whole kingdom; but again the Bodhisatta refused the royal throne, for he had already abandoned all in the hope of attaining enlightenment, and did not desire a worldly empire. But he granted the king's request that when he had found the way, he would preach it first in that same kingdom.
It is said that when the Bodhisatta entered a hermitage for the first time (and this was before he proceeded to Rajagaha) he found the sages practising many and strange penances, and he inquired their meaning, and what was the purpose that each endeavoured to achieve and received the answer "By such penances endured for a time, by the higher they attain heaven, and by the lower, favourable fruit in the world of men; by pain they come at last to happiness, for pain, they say, is the root of merit." But to him it seemed that here there was no way of escape here too, men endured misery for the sake of happiness, and that happiness itself, rightly understood, consisted in pain, for it must ever be subject to mortality and to rebirth. "It is not the effort itself which I blame," he said, "which casts aside the base and follows a higher path of its own; but the wise in sooth, by all this heavy toil, ought to attain to the state where nothing then needs to be done again. And since it is the mind that controls the body, it is thought alone that should be restrained. Neither purity of food nor the waters of a sacred river can cleanse the heart; water is but water, but the true place of pilgrimage is the virtue of the virtuous man."
And now, rejecting with courtesy the king's offers, the Bodhisatta made his way to the hermitage of the renowned sage Alara Kalama and became his disciple, learning the successive degrees of ecstatic meditation. Alara taught, it is clear, the doctrine of the Atman, saying that the sage who is versed in the Supreme Self, "having abolished himself by himself, sees that nought exists and is called a Nihilist; then, like a bird from its cage, the soul escaping from the body, is declared to be set free; this is that supreme Brahman, constant, eternal, and without distinctive signs, which the wise who know reality declare to be liberation." But Gautama (and it is by this name that the books now begin to speak of the Bodhisatta) ignores the phrase "without distinctive signs," and with verbal justification quarrels with the animistic and dualistic terminology of soul and body; a liberated soul, he argued, is still a soul. and whatever the condition it attains, must be subject to rebirth, "and since each successive renunciation is held to be still accompanied by qualities, I maintain that the absolute attainment of our end is only to be found in the abandonment of everything."
And now leaving the hermitages of Rajagaha the Bodhisatta, seeking something beyond, repaired to a forest near to the village of Uruvela and there abode on the pure bank of the Nairanjana. There five wanderers, begging hermits, came to him, for they were persuaded that ere long he would attain enlightenment; and the leader of these was Kondanna, the erstwhile Brahman soothsayer who had prophesied at the festival of the Bodhisatta's name day. And now thinking: "This may be the means to conquer birth and death," Gautama for six years practiced there an austere rule of fasting and of mortification, so that his glorious body wasted away to skin and bone. He brought himself to feed on a single sesamun seed or a grain of rice, until one day, as he paced to and fro, he was overcome by weakness, and fainted and fell. Then certain of the Devas exclaimed "Gautama is dead!" and some reported it to Suddhodana the king at Kapilavatthu. But he replied: "I may not believe it. Never would my son die without attaining enlightenment." For he did not forget the miracle at the foot of the Jambu-tree, nor the day when the great sage Kala Devala had felt compelled to offer homage to the child. And the Bodhisatta recovered, and stood up; and again the gods reported it to the king. Now the fame of the Bodhisatta's exceeding penances became spread abroad, as the sound of a great bell is heard in the sky. But he perceived that mortification was not the road to enlightenment and to liberation "that was the true way that I found beneath the Jambu-tree, and it cannot be attained by one who has lost his strength." And so again the Great Being resolved to beg his food in towns and villages, that his health and strength might be restored. This was in the thirtieth year of the life of Gautama. But the Five Disciples reflected that Gautama had not been able to attain enlightenment even by six years of the most severe austerities, "and how can he do so now, when he goes and begs in the villages and eats of ordinary food?" and they departed from him and went to the suburb of Benares called Isipatana.
The Bodhisatta remained for a week in the Mango-grove of Anupiya, and thereafter he proceeded to Rajagaha, the chief town of Magadha. He begged his food from door to door, and the beauty of his person cast the whole city into commotion. When this was made known to the king Bimbisara, he went to the place where the Bodhisatta was sitting, and offered to bestow upon him the whole kingdom; but again the Bodhisatta refused the royal throne, for he had already abandoned all in the hope of attaining enlightenment, and did not desire a worldly empire. But he granted the king's request that when he had found the way, he would preach it first in that same kingdom.
It is said that when the Bodhisatta entered a hermitage for the first time (and this was before he proceeded to Rajagaha) he found the sages practising many and strange penances, and he inquired their meaning, and what was the purpose that each endeavoured to achieve and received the answer "By such penances endured for a time, by the higher they attain heaven, and by the lower, favourable fruit in the world of men; by pain they come at last to happiness, for pain, they say, is the root of merit." But to him it seemed that here there was no way of escape here too, men endured misery for the sake of happiness, and that happiness itself, rightly understood, consisted in pain, for it must ever be subject to mortality and to rebirth. "It is not the effort itself which I blame," he said, "which casts aside the base and follows a higher path of its own; but the wise in sooth, by all this heavy toil, ought to attain to the state where nothing then needs to be done again. And since it is the mind that controls the body, it is thought alone that should be restrained. Neither purity of food nor the waters of a sacred river can cleanse the heart; water is but water, but the true place of pilgrimage is the virtue of the virtuous man."
And now, rejecting with courtesy the king's offers, the Bodhisatta made his way to the hermitage of the renowned sage Alara Kalama and became his disciple, learning the successive degrees of ecstatic meditation. Alara taught, it is clear, the doctrine of the Atman, saying that the sage who is versed in the Supreme Self, "having abolished himself by himself, sees that nought exists and is called a Nihilist; then, like a bird from its cage, the soul escaping from the body, is declared to be set free; this is that supreme Brahman, constant, eternal, and without distinctive signs, which the wise who know reality declare to be liberation." But Gautama (and it is by this name that the books now begin to speak of the Bodhisatta) ignores the phrase "without distinctive signs," and with verbal justification quarrels with the animistic and dualistic terminology of soul and body; a liberated soul, he argued, is still a soul. and whatever the condition it attains, must be subject to rebirth, "and since each successive renunciation is held to be still accompanied by qualities, I maintain that the absolute attainment of our end is only to be found in the abandonment of everything."
And now leaving the hermitages of Rajagaha the Bodhisatta, seeking something beyond, repaired to a forest near to the village of Uruvela and there abode on the pure bank of the Nairanjana. There five wanderers, begging hermits, came to him, for they were persuaded that ere long he would attain enlightenment; and the leader of these was Kondanna, the erstwhile Brahman soothsayer who had prophesied at the festival of the Bodhisatta's name day. And now thinking: "This may be the means to conquer birth and death," Gautama for six years practiced there an austere rule of fasting and of mortification, so that his glorious body wasted away to skin and bone. He brought himself to feed on a single sesamun seed or a grain of rice, until one day, as he paced to and fro, he was overcome by weakness, and fainted and fell. Then certain of the Devas exclaimed "Gautama is dead!" and some reported it to Suddhodana the king at Kapilavatthu. But he replied: "I may not believe it. Never would my son die without attaining enlightenment." For he did not forget the miracle at the foot of the Jambu-tree, nor the day when the great sage Kala Devala had felt compelled to offer homage to the child. And the Bodhisatta recovered, and stood up; and again the gods reported it to the king. Now the fame of the Bodhisatta's exceeding penances became spread abroad, as the sound of a great bell is heard in the sky. But he perceived that mortification was not the road to enlightenment and to liberation "that was the true way that I found beneath the Jambu-tree, and it cannot be attained by one who has lost his strength." And so again the Great Being resolved to beg his food in towns and villages, that his health and strength might be restored. This was in the thirtieth year of the life of Gautama. But the Five Disciples reflected that Gautama had not been able to attain enlightenment even by six years of the most severe austerities, "and how can he do so now, when he goes and begs in the villages and eats of ordinary food?" and they departed from him and went to the suburb of Benares called Isipatana.
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place time topic people language
India - Ancient - Religion/philosophy - Indians/Buddhists - English
India - Ancient - Religion/philosophy - Indians/Buddhists - English
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