(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for Your Life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you and happy listening. - This is the last talk in this series. And I said it a few weeks ago. Well, if Daniel and I just thought, instead of making a kind of nice theme for all these stories and symbols and how are we going to communicate them, we just sort of thought, what's left that we really want to talk about? And while that got me thinking, and something that I wanted to bring across was that a lot of times when you look at stories and symbols in the Buddhist tradition, you know, we look at individuals. So we look at kind of, we've been looking at all these yiddhams, all these bodhisattva figures and, you know, so we've had Padma Samba and Manjigotya and White Tara. And we've been looking at the Buddha and the gestures of the Buddha. We've been looking about bad guys and what do we have, lost causes and bad guys? We've been looking at, well, last week, you looked at Millarepa. Am I right? Yes. So we've been looking at all these stories, all these symbols about, you know, there's this person who's often they're a bit rubbish, a bit like me, and then, you know, they go off in this spiritual journey and then they go to all these obstacles and then there they are and they get enlightened at the end. And you look at them in a kind of self-contained, in a self-contained way as an individual or as a single story or as a single symbol, the Vajra, the bell. But in a way, actually, if you're not careful, that can set up a bit of a wrong view about Buddhist practice. It can give the impression that the spiritual journey that the enlightenment experienced is about the individual alone, an experience that an individual will have. And actually, that's not how it is. Those individuals and those symbols are just facets in a greater jewel. And just as you can't talk about your own spiritual journey or just as you can't talk about your own life without reference to others, so it is with every story and every symbol, every story of every individual is a story about a network of relationships. And every symbol that we've looked at is actually just one symbol that's a part of a greater mandala, a greater range of symbols, a facet and a greater jewel. And every symbol is born out of relationship. You can't take one symbol or one story out of the Buddhist tradition and set it up to stand alone. It's not possible. And I was thinking about this also because I was talking to Pamma Vajra the other day and he was saying that the best thing that an order member can do is not to communicate their own spiritual experiences or even their own spiritual practice or even whatever has gone on in their meditation. But the best thing that an order member can do or a Buddhist teacher can do is to communicate their rootedness in the living spiritual tradition, the living spiritual tradition of Buddhism and communicate their rootedness in the spiritual community and then being part of that spiritual community. And it's the Buddhist tradition and it's the Buddhist community that gives confidence in the Dharma, in the truth of Buddhism. So, and that really got me thinking actually because well, the context that he put that in was that when he was in India and he was getting a lot, he was going around India, giving lots of talks, giving lots of Dharma teachings in India. People really wanted him to talk to him about their meditation practice but there was one slight snag which was that at that particular moment in time his meditation practice was really rubbish and he was having a really hard time. And then he thought, well actually, it's not a question of what's going on in my meditation. They've got confidence in me because I'm coming off the back of the vast spiritual tradition of my teachers' teachings from the spiritual community and it's that spiritual community and that's living tradition that I'm a part of that gives confidence. So, it's a way of seeing that actually it's not about your own individual, in a certain sense it's not about your own individual practice. Your own individual practice is just part of the living spiritual community and the tradition of which you're a part. So, going back to symbols, I'm taking a slight departure here from the parley canon but that's because they're more fun. So, I'll do that and then I'll come back to the parley canon. So, in the Gandhav you have Sutra which is definitely not in the parley canon, the Buddha gives the simile of Indra's net. So, Indra's net, Indra is one of the king of the gods and actually he's part of the Hindu tradition, not specifically Buddhist. But he's the king of the gods and he has this magical net, this magical net made of jewels and each jewel reflects all the other jewels and that jewel is reflected in each of those other jewels so that all the jewels are reflected in each other. And so, the Buddha says in the Sutra, in that way all the jewels shine in each and each of them shines in all. And the Gandhav you have takes that as a simile for everything in the universe but it's often also taken as a simile for the spiritual community. We're not individual entities working on our own process towards enlightenment. We're part of a living spiritual community and our collective practice shines in each one of us and our own individual practice shines in the collective. Without each other we're nothing. Without each other we will be at home watching TV or something a lot worse in my case. (audience laughing) Leave you wondering if I'd have been alive at all actually. So, yeah, so our practice is the practice of the collective and the practice of the collective is our practice. This idea, this sort of, I think it probably being made big in the West. This idea of us as these kind of lonely journeys throughout the spiritual life is just nonsense. It's just nonsense. You can't have one person's spiritual life without reference to loads of other people's spiritual lives. Look at your own life, you know, where would you be without other people? Where would you be without a Sheffield Buddhist Centre? Where would you be without the people in the Sheffield Buddhist Centre? At home watching the telly, that's where you'd be. So, in the later tradition, this kind of idea came up in the symbol of the Bodhi Chitta, which we've also talked about in this series of talks. And the Bodhi Chitta is the collective aspiration to enlightenment, that's made up of every individual's enlightenment, aspiration to enlightenment. So, it's like everybody's individual aspiration towards enlightenment gathers a momentum. And that momentum in a way becomes incandescent and gives rise to this collective experience called the Bodhi Chitta, which is when your whole heart and mind is completely set on enlightenment, it's not just for yourself, but for all beings as well. And Sangharachtha often calls this, who says it's kind of a bit of a peculiar category. The spiritual community is a bit of a peculiar category, because it's not just about individuals on their own, but it's not just about being a group member, it's not just about just going along with a flow or whatever someone tells you to do. It's about individuals coming together with the same aspiration and doing something that's much larger than each individual can do on his own. So, there's this special thing called the Bodhi Chitta. And there's another story that's quite good that in a way describes what this might be like. And it's from the Vimalakirti Nadesha sutra. And the story kind of begins with the Buddha sitting surrounded by enormous assembly of the Sangha, of enlightened masters, of Bodhi sapphas, of practitioners, of gods and goddesses, all the Sangha sitting around the Buddha. And within this, 500 literally, now there's some debate about how you pronounce literally, but I'm gonna just say it like that, and I could be wrong, but I don't care. So, literally, apparently, there's a tribe. So, it's a bit like saying 500 Yorkshire youths. Maybe. (laughs) 500 literally youths are all this in this assembly around the Buddha. And they go up to him one by one to give him an offering. So, it's very beautiful. Give him an offering of a parasol made out of jewels. So, one by one, they all go up to the Buddha. They salute him, they give him their offering, they circumambulate him, and then they sit back down and they sit their seat. So, it could have taken quite a long time when it gets to the impression. But at the end, what it says is this. It says, suddenly, all the parasols were transformed into a single precious canopy. So great that it formed a covering for this entire billion world galaxy. The surface of the entire billion world galaxy was reflected in the interior of the great precious canopy, where the total content of this galaxy could be seen. Limitless munchions of suns, moons, and stellar bodies. The realms of the davers, or the gods, the dragons, demons, all the great mountains, oceans, rivers, bays, torrents, streams, brooks, and springs. Finally, all the villages, suburbs, cities, capitals, provinces, and wildernesses. All this could be seen clearly by everyone. And the voices of all the Buddhas of the ten directions could be heard proclaiming their teachings of the Dharma in all the worlds, the sounds reverberating in the space beneath the great precious canopy. So all their parasols, they give these offerings of the parasols to the Buddha, and the Buddha just turns them into one giant parasol, one giant canopy in which the whole universe, together with multitude of Buddhas, teaching the Dharma, is reflected on the inside of this canopy, the whole universe. So it's a very beautiful image, actually. You can just imagine them sitting there with this huge canopy, reflecting the entire universe and multitudes of Buddhas preaching within those universes. And Sanger actually makes two points about this story. I think it's a very important story, actually, in the Buddhist tradition. And he makes two points. The first is that the parasols represent the individual aspiration of each of the youths towards enlightenment. So if you like, it's like each person's individual practice, individual aspirations. One could say even your individual longing towards enlightenment offered up to the Buddha. But the Buddha doesn't end up with just an enormous pile of parasols, apart from that being a bit clumsy and messy. He unites them. And what does the unity of those parasols mean? It means that because the literally youths all have a common aspiration of each person's individual aspiration is towards enlightenment, a common goal. It means that their aspirations unite to become a single aspiration, which, in a way, is bigger than the sum of its parts. And Sanger actually says, to the extent that they are united into a single aspiration, to that extent they are a force for the good. So there's something about these individual aspirations coming together, forming something much bigger than the sum of its parts, some of their parts, and forming a real force for good in the universe. And that's the second thing about this story. The second thing is that the whole universe is reflected in this enormous canopy. And in a way, well, you could look at it like if we unite all our aspirations, we can respond to the needs of all the galaxies, all the billion world systems, the whole universe. If we all unite our aspirations, we can fulfill the needs of beings in a way that an individual just can't, no matter how much I long for enlightenment, no matter how much I long for people's enlightenment, I can't do it on my own. I have to unite with the spiritual aspirations of other people and do it within a community. So in this whole world system, there's these multitudes of Buddha's teaching. And in a way, well, you can look at that as joining your aspirations together. You can become this force for good in the universe. There can be many people preaching to many different people, the truth. There can be people who are doctors, lawyers, people who work in the third world, people who teach the Dharma incentives. All the different needs of beings can be met if individual aspirations are joined. So those are two kind of symbols from the later Buddhist tradition about the spiritual community and the way in which the spiritual community can function. And I think it's very different from this symbol of a kind of romantic but lonely Buddhist hero or heroine setting off for the mountain with their backpack, gliding off into the hills, overcoming obstacles, but finally making it into this mountain top. And I think in a way, that's the image that often comes to mind for people with Buddhist spiritual journeys and Buddhist stories. But actually, I think that the images of the spiritual community are more important for us in the West. And they're more important for us in the West for two reasons. One of them is it's just highly unlikely that any of us are going to spend that long in solitary retreats. You might do. You might go off for periods on retreat. But it's-- don't think it's really going to be that picture of the lonely Buddhist hero or heroine gliding off into the mountains, you know, apart from the fact that if I try to die, I'll just die. Ginny will be all right, but I'll just die. But I also think that the image of the spiritual-- the symbols of the spiritual community are more important for us in the West because actually the idea of a lonely Buddhist hero or heroine just isn't reality. That's just not the way it is. If you look at any of those stories, if you look at Miller Epper, you know, well, OK, on one level, you can look at him leaving his master and going off into his cave and eating nettles and whatever he did. But actually, well, he did that in the context. He did that in the context of finding his teacher, spending a long time looking for his teacher, and also in the context of having a lot of support from his Dharma brothers. And I don't know quite what for Daniel went into last week. But, you know, Miller Epper really missed his Dharma brothers. He really, really-- he longed for his Dharma brothers. He longed for communication with his Dharma brothers, and he sorely, sorely missed them when he was in that cave. He wished he was with them. He wished they were there with him. And when Miller Epper realized enlightenment, you know, in a way got to the goal of the spiritual life, well, what did he do? He wandered about to bet, talking to people, singing the songs of truth to people. He didn't just stay there going, well, you know, that was pretty good. I ate some nettles, but now here I am, you know. He went around to teach, and he had to communicate his experience. And this is a very important point. Sangeratz makes this point in a very good talk called the case of dysentery. So if you don't know what that's about, you'll just have to read it. You won't forget its title in a hurry. But he makes this point that communication, relationship, spiritual friendship, is an integral part of the enlightenment experience itself. And an integral part of the spiritual life. In fact, friendship, communication, relationship is the spiritual path, and it is the spiritual goal. So what he says is this. He says, the enlightenment experience is not self-contained in a one-sided sort of way. The enlightenment experience itself contains an element of what we make all communication. It contains, therefore, an element of friendship, of spiritual friendship. That is to say, transcendental friendship, or friendship of the highest conceivable level. There exists within the enlightenment experience, within the heart of reality, an element of communication, an element of spiritual friendship, something that found expression later in the history of Buddhist thought as that rather mysterious concept of Sambo Gakaya. So I talked a bit about Sambo Gakaya a couple of weeks ago, but I'll mention that again. So the enlightenment experience and the spiritual path itself is a path of friendship, and the goal is friendship itself. It's an integral part of the spiritual life. It's not just something added on as some sort of opiate for the people or whatever you think it is. It's an integral part of the spiritual life itself. So I'm going to go back to the Buddha, because I did say that this was going to be about the polycanid. But we realized when we were deciding the next series, we realized we wanted to do a whole series on Buddhist texts and explaining certain things about some of the great Buddhist texts, in a way, great stories of the Buddhist tradition. And unpacking some of those things from the different Buddhist tradition, which will be good, because it'll give you a bit of a grounding in the texts of the different Buddhist traditions. And also, just show they're so inspiring, so inspiring some of the Buddhist texts. And they contain real gems, real gems about the spiritual life. But what we realized is that, actually, there's so much in the polycanid, which is the kind of original discourses of the Buddha. There's so much in there about friendship and meta that we're actually going to do a whole series of talks on that, and it will probably end around Christmas time. So instead of trying to pack from now until Christmas into one evening, you could just look at this as a bit of a kind of taster session. There's so much in the polycanid. I mean, if you start reading the polycanid, there's so much about friendship and meta, so many stories about people's friendships. It's so inspiring that we just thought, well, no, we can't do this in one night. We're going to do it in a whole series of talks. But I'll just make a few points about the Buddha and the Buddha's experience. So the first thing is-- well, it's an obvious point, and we've sort of said it about a million times, I should imagine-- that the Buddha did not do it on his own. He didn't do it on his own. He did it within a community. So when he went forth from his luxurious life in the palace, he joined out with different spiritual teachers. And in different spiritual communities. And the group that he was in before his enlightenment were what's called the five ascetics. And he was within this group of five people. And he was really renowned for being the most hard core of them all. Now, the most hard core of them all meant that he just didn't eat anything. He just ate the very minute one grain of rice about every six months just to sustain his body ever so slightly, because that was their spiritual practice. They were real self-mortification. He didn't eat anything he just sat all day. And he was the most hard core. And in a way, he had got the furthest of any of them. So he was really, really looked up to you by the five ascetics. In other words, I can't pronounce, but no mind. And what happened was he realized that actually that wasn't the way to go. That wasn't going to take him to buddhisthood. He'd got as far as he could go with that path. And actually, it wasn't revealing the truth. It wasn't the path to truth. It wasn't the path to enlightenment. So he decided to start eating again. And his friends were disgusted. They were disgusted. They said, look, he's eating again. And left him with their noses in the air. Well, you know, we thought you were hardcore. We thought you were the greatest of all of us. But look, you're just self-indulgent. You just had some right pudding. And it wasn't ambrosia, either. So his friends abandoned him in disgust. And the Buddha went off on his own. And what they think he did was the mindfulness of breathing. And he had a whole series of experiences that formed part of his enlightenment experience. But the interesting thing is after that, after his enlightenment, after we had a talk about a vision of lotuses, after he realized that other people could actually gain what he had gained, could see the truth in the way that he had seen the truth. After he decided to go and teach, he starts thinking, well, who shall I go and teach? And he thinks, well, I'm going to go back to the five ascetics. And it's really interesting why he chooses to do that. He chooses to do that not because they're the most advanced people, not because he knows them better than anyone else, not because they're the nearest, not because they're the most intelligent, not because they've got the most money, nothing like that. He goes to those five ascetics because he says, they helped me. They helped me in my struggle to enlightenment and I must go and repay my debt. So I think that's really interesting that that's what the Buddha thought. He actually said those things. They helped me in my struggle to enlightenment. Which is him saying, I didn't do this on my own. I did this as part of a community. And it's my duty to share my practice with the community. So there's this lovely little story where he goes, he finds them, and they're all sitting there and they see him coming. And they all kind of go, well, he's so self-indulgent. Well, we'll make him a seat ready, but we're not going to stand up and greet him. We're not going to pay homage to him and we're not going to take any of his things when he comes along. He can sit down if he wants, but we're not going to pay homage to him and we're not going to take any of his stuff. They all sit there. With their noses in there, you can see they're a bit, you know, well, they all kind of got in a bit of a half. And the long comes the Buddha. And then they just can't contain themselves. It's obviously that they just have such affection for the Buddha, that they all jump up and say, oh, here, let me take your robes and sit down here and hear some water for washing. And they all stand up and salute him. And they're really, really friendly. And I really love that story, 'cause it just shows, well, they just couldn't contain their affection for the Buddha. Even though, you know, he'd gone and he'd eaten some rice pudding or whatever, they just couldn't contain their love for him. Even though they've made this pact, we're just going to sit here and we're not going to take his stuff and we're not going to stand up and say hello. They just couldn't contain themselves. They loved the Buddha. They had affection for the Buddha. He was their friend. And no matter what he'd done, they couldn't contain that love for him. So the Buddha, there is a very short passage actually in the Pali Canon, where he talks about, in where he says who he is and what relationships he has with people. And he says, "I've got a chief attendant, Ananda, "and I've got two chief disciples, "Sari Putra and Mokilana." So I'll just say a bit about those kind of major relationships in the Buddha's life. So the Buddha, after his enlightenment, it spends pretty much all of this time communicating with others because as we've seen, communication is the very fabric of the path and the goal itself. And one particularly important relationship he had was with Ananda, who was his attendant for the last 20 years of his life. And Ananda was his cousin. So it said that Buddhas always have chief attendants. They always have chief attendants. They always have two major disciples. And his chief attendant was Ananda, but Sanger actually makes the point, well, it's not just that the Buddha needed a servant. It's not that the Buddha thought, well, you know, all Buddhas have a personal attendant, yeah, I don't know, to get their food and wash their feet and whatever they do. So I'd better have one too. It was something much, much more than that. The Buddha needed a friend. The Buddha needed someone he could communicate his experience to, who he could, in a way, just delight in communicating, delight in sharing his experience with. And the whole relationship with Ananda was set up that if Ananda was ever away on an errand and the Buddha gave a discourse, the Buddha would always repeat that discourse to Ananda. And we're very lucky that he did because Ananda apparently had this fantastic memory. And it's due to him remembering all the discourses of the Buddha that they eventually came to be written down and we can look at them even now. So there's this relationship with Ananda, with the Buddha just delighting in communicating the experience that he's found, delighting in sharing his enlightenment experience. And you get the impression that the Buddha, well, he just needed to do this. It wasn't enough to just dwell in his own enlightenment experience. He had to express that experience and he had to pass it on. And he had this very beautiful relationship with Ananda where you get this sense of real affection between them both, real affection. And there's this very famous story when the Buddha was dying. And Ananda was found, he said he was leaning against the door, crying. And they said, well, why are you crying? And he said, well, you know, I've got so much to learn. And my teacher is passing away. He who was so kind to me. And Sanger actually makes the point, well, he didn't say he who was so wise, he who knew the truth, he who was really good at teaching. He didn't say any of those things. Ananda had been with him for 20 years and the main thing that he could say was he who was so kind to me. And the Buddha knew that he was saying this and called Ananda to him. And he says to Ananda, for many a long day, Ananda, that's a Thargata, that is to say the Buddha, has been waited on you with kindly bodied service that is profitable, ease giving, undivided and unstinted, weighted upon with kindly service of speech that is profitable, ease giving, undivided and unstinted, with kindly service of thought that is profitable, ease giving, undivided and unstinted. So the Buddha again rejoices in Ananda, who's been his friend for 20 years and just says, well, you've just waited on me with kindly speech, with kindly action and with a kindly mind, which is profitable, ease giving, undivided and unstinted. And I think that's quite famous because it's so beautiful. You know, that after all of it, after all this kind of, you know, who's got insight, who's the stream engine, who's a non-returner, blah, blah, blah, all of that thing, what really remains between the two, the friendship between these two men is just kindness. And so the Buddha also has two other chief disciples, Sherri Putra and Mogulana. And in a way, they've got a very, very interesting relationship in the polycanum because they're both of them of friends themselves. And they both made this pact that whoever found the truth first was to tell the other one. So one day, Sarah Putra is out and he sees this follower of the Buddha walking along and something about him really strikes him. Something about this follower of the Buddha. He's got this very beautiful complexion. He's walking along very mindfully, very peacefully. And it really, really touches Sherri Putra. And he thinks to himself, well, who is this person? 'Cause it looks like he's found the truth. So he goes up to this person. Asajee. And says, well, you know, who's your teacher? And what does he teach? And Asajee says, well, look, I've only just become a follower of the Buddha. So I can't tell you all the details, but maybe I could just give you a bit of the meaning of what he teaches. So he sits there for a while and thinks about the Buddha's teaching. And he says his very, very famous passage, which is the perfect one has told the cause of causally arisen things. And what brings their cessation to? Such is the doctrine preached by the great renunciant. So is anyone in line? Maybe. Who knows? But he just says that small phrase. And it's enough, it's enough for Sherri Putra to, in a way, just show him a vision of reality. So he says that Sherri Putra at that moment gains a spotless, immaculate vision of the Dharma that all is subject to arising and subject to cessation. So basically, he has an insight into impermanence just from that little phrase of Asajee's. And I think actually, I won't say a lot about this, but I think it's really important for us that because it just shows that you don't have to be a spiritual whiz kid. If you just communicate a bit of the Buddhist tradition to people, it will have an effect. And you don't know what effect it will have. You know, you can just say this little thing. And your actions will have a huge effect on other people. If you think of yourself as, you know, amazing Buddhist or not, it doesn't matter all the time we're having an effect on other people. And we can have a very, very positive effect depending on what we say. So I'll just say that anyway. 'Cause I feel a bit like Asajee most of the time. Well, I don't know much. And I don't really know the details, but I hope it just gives you a little bit of the tradition, you know. So anyway, so Sarah Butcher has this vision of the Dharma and he goes back to his friend, Mogulana. And Mogulana says, well, you know, there's something really happened to you. He says, "Your faculties are serene, friend. "The color of your skin is clear and bright." So immediately his friend looks at him and he thinks, "There's something going on with him. "I don't know what it is." And then he says, "Well, have you seen the truth?" And then Sarah Butcher replies, "Well, yes, I have." And I found the teacher and the teacher is the Buddha, or Siddhartha Gautama. So they both decide to go off and become the Buddha's followers, but they don't go alone because they're part of another spiritual community. And obviously they're very, very popular. And they go back to their friends of which there are 250, apparently, and say, listen, we've found the truth. There's this guy and he's told the truth and we've had this vision of the Dharma. We've had the vision of the truth. And we're going to go off and find this guy and become his followers. And all of the rest of them say, well, yeah, okay, if you think you've found it, we'll come with you. So off they go, and all 252 of them, I assume, come to find the Buddha and say, you know, well, here we are, and the Buddha's very delighted and accepts them as their followers. And thus begins a great relationship between the Buddha and his two chief disciples. And the wonderful thing about these stories, you get loads of stories about them all in the parley canon. But the one that I've been looking at that really inspires me is the delight that they have in each other, and the delight they have in their friendship. And in a way, because what is insight without delight? What would insight into the inseparability of ourselves and others be without delight in others? You know, I just don't get this picture of a kind of cold individual enlightenment. Actually, if you read the stories, there's just delight, so much delighting in each other. And this mutual delight is summed up in the late tradition as the Sambo-Rakaya, which means body of mutual delight. And also in the aspect of the Buddha's enlightenment experience, which is called discriminating wisdom, the wisdom of the deep red Buddha of compassion, Amitabha, which sees all beings as unique, all beings as beautiful and delights in all beings. And you really get a sense of that aspect of the Buddha's enlightenment experience in his stories about him and his friends. So they have this long, lifelong friendship. And at the end, Shari Putra comes up to the Buddha and he knows he's going to die. And he says to the Buddha, you know, this is my last minute, I'd like permission for you as he prostrates to the Buddha's feet and says, you know, this is our last meeting. I'm going to die, and I'd like your permission that I can go off to a suitable place and die. And the Buddha gives him his position and permission. And Shari Putra says to him something really interesting. He says to the Buddha, I was happy when I saw you first. I am happy to see you now. I know this is the last time I will see you. I shall not be able to look at you again. So he was happy when he saw him first, and he was happy to see him now, even though he was going to die. So unfortunately, around the same time, Mogulana also died, but he was murdered. I don't know much about that story, but anyway, he was murdered. And Dr. Ambeka makes the point that actually the Buddha was very deeply affected by his death, and he could not remain where he was. He had to move on because everything where he was reminded him of his two chief disciples. And there's a passage just after they die, where he's surrounded by the Buddhist community, and he looks at the assembly. And he says, now the assembly seems to me as if it were empty. The assembly is empty for me now that Shari Putra and Mogulana are dead. So it's very evocative the Buddha looks at this huge community of followers, and just says, this seems to me empty, empty because my two chief disciples are gone. And then he starts saying how all Buddhas have a pair of chief disciples. And then he just rejoices, he rejoices in Shari Putra and Mogulana. He says, how wonderful, how marvelous, how they continue their teachers' teaching, and put into practice what he says. How wonderful, how marvelous, how they are dear to the sangha, loved and respected and revered by the sangha. So he really rejoices in them. And rejoices about how much they were loved, how much they respected, how much they continued the Buddhist tradition. And there's also a story about Ananda when he says that Shari Putra was dead. And he says that he was very, very upset, and he came to the Buddha to tell the Buddha. And he says to the Buddha, I felt as though my body were quite rigid. I could not see straight, and all my ideas were unclear. I thought, how helpful he was to his friends in a spiritual life, advising, informing, instructing, urging, inspiring and encouraging them. How tireless he was in teaching them the Dharma. So again, you know, Ananda's deeply moved. It was his friend, and his friend had died. And he starts rejoicing in both Shari Putra's part in the Buddhist tradition, but also his part in that community of friends, and how he inspired his friends. He urged them, he instructed them, he encouraged them. So you can see that Ananda's really, really upset. And the Buddha gives this little discourse about the way that all things that are born must die, and you can't expect otherwise. And then he says something quite interesting. He says, "It is as if a main branch of a great tree standing firm and solid had fallen. So too, Shari Putra has attained final nirvana in a great community that stands firm and solid." So what he was saying was that each of us are branches in a much greater tree, and Shari Putra was a great branch. He was a major branch, but his falling will not make the sangerfall, because they are all united in the same aspirations. And in a way, this is the final point. The final point is that all symbols, all stories are just one branch on a mighty tree, and we are just one branch on a mighty tree. And our practice is reflected in the health of that tree, and we are nourished by that tree. Our practice is also nourished by that tree. We're all part of the same whole. And even the Buddha's spiritual life took place within the context of friendship. Even his life took place within the context of kindness. His life was friendship, and it was kindness. It was just one part of a great tree. And in a way, well, that's what we should aim at. That's what we should aim at in our practice, to really spark each other off, to really nourish this great tree, if you want to carry on with that analogy. And in a way, it's not easy, because friendship is not a right. Friendship is a practice in itself, and friendship is also the goal of that practice. So I think you can kind of get this idea when we talk about friendship at the Buddhist center, that you've got, you know, you come to the Buddhist center and you go, "Okay, well, I'll have my quota of friendship." You know, you talk about friendship, so here I am, where's my friendship? Well, it's not that easy, I'm afraid. Much as it would be great to give everybody their quota of friendship as soon as they walk in the door. Actually, friendship is a practice. It's something that we all have to strive to cultivate. And the Buddha gave very, very detailed instructions, actually, about friendship, about how to cultivate friendship, and about how friendship was the path. And to insight, and what the path of friendship contains. So what we'll do is we'll look at the, in the next series talks, we'll look at the Buddhist teaching on friendship, and the Buddhist teaching on meta, and see what the path of friendship is, and see how to cultivate friendship. But I'll just say now, the thing about friendship is, as Sangarachita says, if you want friends, you have to be a friend. So actually, the path of friendship is not about what you can get, it's about what you can give, and what you can provide for others. And if we can do that, if we can cultivate friendship in the Sangar, in a way, it's the most sublime goal of the spiritual life. And I personally find it a lot more inspiring than some kind of, you know, individualistic enlightenment, not that there's anything, any such thing, but, you know, much more inspiring than just sitting on my own in a cave, and getting to know the truth. I kind of think with that, well, so what? So what, so you're sitting in the cave, and you know the truth? What's the use of that until you express it? And there's one thing that the Buddha said is, in the dharma pada, he said, "Happy is the unity of the spiritual community, the blaze of spiritual practice of those on the same path is blessed." So you can look at spiritual friendship as a tree, or you can look at it as a fire, and in a way the spiritual community is a fire. And we're all sparks in that fire, and we're all necessary sparks in that fire. But if we all come together, we can provide something that's actually incandescent. We hope you enjoyed this week's podcast. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [Music] [Music]
