This weeks FBA Podcast, “The Buddha’s Gift To The World” is brought to us by Vajratara. Vajratara condenses nearly 50 years of the Buddhas life, using stories from the Pali Canon to show how the Buddha built a spiritual community that lasts to this day. Transcending the conflict between the desire to withdraw and the desire to engage, the Buddha wanders northern India out of compassion, teaching the Dharma by his presence and his words.
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The Buddha’s Gift To The World
(upbeat music) This podcast is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for real life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, come and join us at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. Thank you and happy listening. - Okay, so on this very wet and windy evening, we're going to be carrying on with our theme of looking at the three jewels. So we're spending a year looking at the three jewels of Buddhism, which are the Buddha, the Buddhist teaching or the Dharma and the Buddhist community or the Sangha. And at the moment, we're looking at the life of the Buddha. So last week, we looked, Danny gave us a talk on the mythic stories around enlightenment, because as he said, you can't not talk about enlightenment mythically, because if you try to not mention myth and legend in the life of the Buddha in the enlightenment of the Buddha, you just end up with someone sitting under a tree for a very, very long time. So yeah, so we looked at the mythic stories of the Buddha's enlightenment. And we looked at the transformation of the Buddha's greed, hatred and delusion. And we were left with the image of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree. The eye of the Buddha had opened and he saw reality as it was, a reality unfolded before him. So there he is, under the tree, he's glowing. And it's not just 'cause he's even his ready wreck. It's also 'cause he's in mind. And the question I suppose is, well, what do you do after you're in mind? Which is a good question. I don't know if I'll ever really occur to me in this lifetime, but what do you do? Reality is unfolded before you. You're free of any negative emotion whatsoever. You're free of any taints. The veil of delusion has been lifted and you see the way things are. What do you do after that? It's quite a momentum and you couldn't remember the Buddha. I've been training for this moment for many, many years. In fact, many, many lifetimes. And there he was, all his energy went into this moment or into this actually period of time of enlightenment. And what was he to do next? Well, apparently what happened at that point was that the Buddha looked at the world, looked at the world with his Buddha eye. And what he saw was he saw a restless and passionate humanity. Well, he saw people in states of craving, people obsessed with getting what they can for themselves. And he saw that the world was burning. And that's his expression, the world was burning with greed and hatred and ignorance. It was on fire with greed and hatred and ignorance. And he must have thought about moment well, that state of mind, you know, burning with the burning desires and hatred and ignorance is so far away from the state of the Buddha. And he must have just seen an incredible gulf between him and the rest of the world. Because if you're in the midst of really caught up in greed, hatred and delusion, you're so far from living by reality. You're so far from the state of enlightenment itself. And at that moment, he thought he couldn't possibly teach them what he knew. He couldn't possibly get them to this state that he was in at that moment. Him, and he says apparently enough with teaching the Dharma that even I found hard to reach, but it will never be perceived by those who live in greed and hate. Those died in greed, wrapped in darkness, will never discern this mysterious Dharma, which goes against the worldly stream, subtle, deep and difficult to see. So there he is. He's seen the gulf between enlightenment and the usual state of ordinary reality, of ordinary men and women. And he questions to himself, well, can I really teach them to wait in enlightenment? Would they ever be able to see what I have seen? And maybe we can have some sort of sympathy with this initial thought of the Buddha. And we can have some sort of sympathy with it because it's reflected in our own lives. Because sometimes what can happen is you start the spiritual journey and you can feel really wonderful. You're in really expansive states of mind. And you've found something so precious and so meaningful. And at the same time, completely practical. You know, it really works. You know, you could do the mindfulness of breathing every day and it will completely transform your life. So you see, this is so wonderful. It really works. And at the same time, it's really practical. And sometimes you can think of yourself, well, this is it. In fact, I did actually say that on the top of the number 37 bus going through Brixton with my friend, sitting next to me. And it was in fact, for Daniel's book, but I didn't know it at the time, I was reading "Inducing Buddhism" by Chris Pauling. And I was so overwhelmed by reading the Dharma that I stood up on the top of that bus and I said to my friend, Ingrid, this is it, this is it. (laughing) But she didn't actually fully appreciate it. (laughing) So yeah, so you can feel like that. I mean, I don't think it's just me, but you can feel like that. You can feel like the traditional sort of expression for this is you feel as if a lump has been held up in the darkness, showing the way for those who can see. And you can really, really feel like that. And you want to tell others, I think that's the first impulse when you have that kind of experience, is you want to share it with, particularly with those people who you love and care for, who you think it will benefit. And you can kind of go through your evangelical phase. I don't know if I'm gonna have to go through this. Renowned in my family is the phase where I've had guitar and lost her sense of humor. (laughing) And they do refer to it quite often, yes. Well, that was the stage when you kind of lost your sense of humor and your time. Anyway, so what happens is you want to tell others and what you find is, you know, there's you, completely evangelical. And they don't really listen. Or they, sometimes they feel quite upset and angry because they feel criticized. Sometimes they just play in board and sometimes they're a bit embarrassed. I remember when I came back for my first weekend retreat and I was so overwhelmed and my brother was watching the football and I came in and I said, "Oh, you did this, what did this?" (laughing) And he just went, "Can you get out of the way?" (laughing) So that was my first moment of meeting that wall of indifference to the Dharma. So that can happen. Or you're spending your time on a retreat or at the Buddhist Center in it. And for a while, it can seem like a kind of God realm. You know, you come into the Buddhist Center and everyone, hopefully, is so positive and friendly. And you go on a retreat and you have these wonderful, kind of meaningful conversations. And sometimes you have conversations that you've never had with anyone. You know, even your closest friend or your family. And you feel really, really overwhelmed by that. That's just so wonderful. It's such a precious opportunity. And you step outside that realm, the Buddhist Center or the retreat. And what you, your face with is just aggression. You know, sort of simmering aggression or hardened faces or craving. I know that sometimes when I come off a retreat, people just look a bit gray and hard. Like their faces are set. You know, and that can be quite upsetting, actually. My second retreat, when I was coming back, it was at Dhana Koshan in Scotland, and I came back and I was coming through Brixton. A lot of these things happen in Brixton. So I mean, it's quite an intense sort of place, Brixton. And then I come back from my second retreat and I sort of fight in Brixton, which actually isn't that uncommon. And the bus driver came out of the cab to go and hit someone. And I just remember feeling so crushed, you know. And so upset that this could happen because you've seen something so beautiful. And then the reality of that coming up against the reality of what else can happen in the world is very, very brutal sometimes. And it's very easy to find it all a bit much. And then what happens is you kind of long for peace, actually. You see, well, I just can't, I can't transform this world. I mean, it's a mad world. You put on the radio, there's been one suicide bomb in Istanbul, two found on cargo planes coming from Yemen. You know, oh yes, and then a load of people killed in a church in Iraq. And sometimes you can think this world is just so difficult. It's so hard to bring positivity here. And you have a longing for what's called the jewel. You have a longing to actually go to a place of peace and to experience real peace away from the world. In the words of Kukai, he's a Japanese teacher. He says, "Futile will be my stay in the capital. Away, away I must go. I must not stay there. Release me. For I shall be master of the great mystery. I have never tired of watching the pine trees and the rocks at Mount Kuiar. The limpest stream of the mountain is the source of my inexhaustible joy. Discard pride in earthly gains. Do not be scorched in a burning house. Discipline in the woods alone lets us soon enter the eternal realm." And sometimes you can feel that very strongly. Well, it's discipline in the woods alone that lets us soon enter the eternal realm. And we have a longing for peace. And this is the trend, it's called the trend of withdrawal. And it's essential for the spiritual life. It's essential for the spiritual life that you do have at least some periods of withdrawal, some sort of sense of protection from the world. Because otherwise you're just jumping into that fire and you'll be consumed by it. You don't have enough resources to be immune from that fire. And unless you have some sort of trend of withdrawal in your life, you'll just become consumed. You'll just become consumed with worldly problems. But equally important is the trend of engagement. So I'll pick up the story of the Buddha again. He's wondered whether he can really communicate the Dharma, really communicate what he has seen to others. And at that moment, Brahma Sahampati appears, who's this sort of ancient figure, in a way he's the archetype of the wise old man. And sometimes he appears in Buddhist texts to petition on behalf of humanity. And he asked the Buddha to teach the Dharma. He says, "There are beings with little dust in their eyes who are lost through not hearing the Dharma. I send the palace of the Dharma, open the doors of the deathless, let them hear the Dharma that the stainless one has found." So he asked the Buddha, he entreats the Buddha to ascend the palace of the Dharma and open the doors of the deathless. Which in the expression, which means make it possible, make it possible for us to completely leave this world of birth and death, the wheel of life, the endless round of suffering. Make it possible for people to go through that door and into that palace. And at that point, the Buddha looks again at the world. And instead of seeing the world on fire and burning, he sees that all beings are like lotuses in a lake. Some are immersed in mud, some are immersed in the water, some are resting on the surface of the lake, and some are standing completely clear of the lake itself. So he sees an image of growth, he sees an image of potential of all beings. And it's said at this point, he trembles for the welfare of all beings. The word is Anucampa, and it means, literally it means that he trembles, he shakes. Another translation will be compassion arises. And this is clearly what it means. That somehow he can see all the potential of humanity and he is profoundly moved. He's profoundly moved so much that he shakes, and he replies to Brahma Sahapati, "Open for them are the doors to the deathless. Let those who hear now show their faith." So this is the central vision of the Buddha's compassion. He sees that all beings have the potential for growth. All beings are in some way reaching towards the light. And with that vision, the Buddha trembles. And this in a sense is the further unfolding of his compassion. His compassion, his enlightenment has unfolded in all sorts of different directions. He's seen all sorts of different aspects of reality and revealed him over quite a long period of time. And now the enlightenment falls into this great compassion and has this sort of emotional reflux. So when we look at this story, it's important to understand that the Brahma Sahapati didn't have to kind of ask, it's not like someone had to go and persuade the Buddha to teach. Go on, go on, help me really good with the people. He really good for you, go on, good with the people. (audience laughing) It's not quite like that. I think it's making a bit of a different point, which is it's the awakening of the Buddha's compassion. So enlightenment isn't one experience. It's not just like, oh, snap, you know, I've got it. It's an unfolding experience. And this is the compassion dimension. This is the compassion dimension to enlightenment. And with that compassion, with the compassion dimension to enlightenment, the Buddha transcends the conflict between the desire for withdrawal and the desire for engagement. So there's no longer any conflict in the Buddha at this point, because he knows what he has to do. And in a sense, of course he does, because when you really, really see that all beings can progress, when you see that some people even, they just need a little bit more and they'll get it, how could you not teach the Dharma? How could you just leave them? Well, of course you couldn't. You know, so if you really see that people have the potential to hear the truth, then you've got to make it available to you. You're compelled to make it available to them. And maybe we even get a sense of this in our own lives. It's definitely why I have spent my life trying to help spread the Dharma. Because in some ways, doing the metabhavana and saying every day to myself in my metabhavana, I say may all beings progress, may all beings be free from suffering, may all beings progress. And if I think that, if I can see that it's possible for people to be free from suffering, and if I see that it's possible for people to progress, then how could I not devote my life to making that possible? How could I not devote my life to helping people become free from suffering and to helping people progress? So yes, so the Buddha talks of himself as having unified or even transcended these two trends, the trends to withdrawal and the trend to engagement. He says at one point, he says, two reflections often occur to the perfect one, awakened and fully enlightened. The reflection on peace for others and the reflection on solitude. There's quite interesting, this is another way of putting it in this, for those who like Pali. Okay, so it wasn't you good. With your all in this sense is solitude or vivega. And engagement in this sense is looking for what's called cane work for others, which I'm sure came soon to tell you all about the word, (laughing) so yes. So it's these two things, the desire for the peace, for others people's peace or freedom from suffering even. And also the reflection on his own freedom from suffering, his own solitude from the difficulties of the world. So he goes on to say that he enjoys and delights in both reflections. He says he enjoys thinking that he benefits others. He doesn't oppress others in any way. In a way you could say he enjoys thinking that he gets out of people's way, that he's not a problem for people, that he helps people attain peace. And he enjoys thinking about how he's free and secluded from any kind of negative emotion whatsoever. He enjoys thinking he's secluded from the ways of the world. So it's really lovely that he said, and you should enjoy these things too. He's talking to his followers and he says, you should enjoy these things too. Enjoy withdrawal, enjoy engagement, enjoy them both together. And it's clear because he uses those words actually enjoyment and delight, that he's no longer in any conflict, because both of those trends are perfected in his beings. Both of those trends are in harmony in his being, and he's transcended the difference between both. But it still remains, it still remains okay. How is the Buddha actually going to communicate to others the Dharma? You know, there's the problem of, okay, he's still sitting under the tree at this point. How does he actually make the Dharma manifest in the world? And he describes the Dharma as being hard to see, and hard to understand, peaceful and sublime, unattainable by mere reasoning, subtle to be experienced only by the wise. Now how is he going to communicate something, that's subtle, that hard to understand to all beings? How is he going to help people grow? He's seen that it's possible. How is he going to actually help them? And I have to say, I find there's a very difficult talk to write because there's like nearly 50 years here of the Buddha's life to tell. And there's quite a lot of stories in that Buddha's 50 years. You know, if you go into the library, there's probably about two bookshelves of that thick each, describing the early stories of the Buddha, and to most of them take place in those 50 years. So I was thinking, well, how can I sum this up, you know? And I realized that actually the story of these 50 years of the Buddha, or nearly 50 years of the Buddha, is not a story about the Buddha just kind of going and hiring out a lecture hall or something and just getting people those are teachings. Really, it's a story about how he builds a Sangha, how he builds a fellowship of people who follow his teachings, how he gathers people around himself and his teachings. So how did he do this? Well, the first thing to say is it's not, he didn't just sort of set up, you know, if he's sitting under the tree and he's got a hole, he's got it all maps out. You know, he's got his whole theory. Yeah, you know, his five-year plan. Year one, go ahead. Year two, go ahead. You know, he doesn't have it all mapped out like that. Actually, what he does is he just gets up and moves. And what you get the impression is, instead of from a five-year plan, it's more like there's an incredibly creative mind meeting the world. You know, so you're talking about someone who's completely perfected compassion and wisdom and energy, and they're meeting the world. And even said of himself, he says, it's not possible for anyone to know everything and to see all possibilities in one moment. And I think that's quite an interesting comment because what he's saying is you don't have it all mapped out even if you're enlightened in one moment. Actually, reality has to be explored. Reality unfolds. All the possibilities unfold. It's not that you just know everything in one moment. He kind of learned that he went along to some extent. So last week we looked at how a Buddha conquered Mara. And Mara is taken in that context as a personification of our unskilled full states of mind. So it's all those little Mara in this we looked at last week sort of represents all the sneaky thoughts of greed, selfishness, hatred, and doubt that happen, that sort of crop them in your mind just as you're getting somewhere. So you know, he's just sort of, you know, he's done a really great metabarva. And then the post-meta irritability comes on. You know, and you've done away sort of meditation on love and compassion. And then people are just writing what you are. Why do they have to do that, you know? And then you just think, I always think Mara comes in with me as the, I can't bothered. You know, it's really cold and I haven't had a lot of sleep with, lately it's just one, you know, just staying bed 10 minutes later. It's that kind of thing, you know, Mara can be sort of kind of quite comical sometimes. Sometimes quite serious. I mean, it's those kind of states of mind, it's a kind of demon that represents those little states of mind, those sort of unskillful impulses. So you think that once the Buddha had conquered Mara and has conquered all unskillful states of mind at the root that he would no longer see Mara. But in fact, he does. He sees Mara again and again. In fact, once Mara comes up to me and he says, some, he says, look, would go to Mara, actually, 'cause it was a bit disrespectful to Mara, 'cause it was a bit, this is go to Mara. If you've truly found a path that leads in safely to the deathless depart, but go by it alone, what need to let any other know? What need to let another know? So the bit Mara is basically saying, okay, you know, you're enlightened, fair enough, depart, I can't have any influence over you anymore, but why do you have to go and tell other people? Can't you just keep it to yourself? You know, so the Buddha, apparently, you know, because the Buddha obviously is not gonna be fooled by Mara at this point. And he says, well, the thing is, if people want to know, I will tell them. So the Buddha can't be conquered by Mara, but still Mara comes back again and again in the Buddha's life, even up until the Buddha's death. Even though he says of himself, as Mara is saying of himself, he says, I've followed the Buddha, I've watched every step he's made, and not once have I had access to him, who's him completely enlightened, Michael. I remember once seeing a crow hovering above a lump of fat on the ground below. Ah, food, it's odd. But the lump turned out to be rock, hard and inedible, and the crow flew away disgusted. We've had enough. It's like that crow eating rock for us. We're finished with Gautama. And at that point, he's so upset, he drops the fruit and disappears. So it's a bit of a strange thing, 'cause here you've got the Mara. The Mara knows he can't be defeated. He can't defeat the Buddha. And yet he comes back again and again and again. So who is Mara in this context? Does it mean that the Buddha still has imparted the greed, hatred, and delusion? Does it mean that he still has unskilledful thoughts? I don't know, I mean, I've often reflected on it. But I wonder whether Mara in this context is the actual demon, 'cause sometimes he's described as an actual demon called David Putamara, who's the kind of demon, an actually existing demon in the world. And I wonder whether what the scriptures are trying to tell us at this point, is that the Buddha still had to face the forces of the world. He still had to face greed, hatred, and delusion in the world. So he might have had an incredibly creative positive aware mind, but he still had to come up against the world. And as we know, the world isn't always full of love and compassion. So the Buddha still has to work against Mara. He still has to work against greed, hatred, and delusion. Even if he doesn't have to work in his own mind, he still meets it in the mind of others. His creative mind has to meet the reactive world and the reactive mind of others. So yes, so the Buddha starts his work of building a sangha. And he starts, it's interesting because the early stories of the Buddha's first disciples are by and large, the Buddha, if you like to use this language, conversing communities of people and usually friends. So he doesn't, the early stories about the Buddha and his disciples is he's not talking to individuals so much as to communities of people. So the first thing he does is that out of gratitude, he goes to his old companions who were following the path of self-mortification or extreme renunciation with him. And it's interesting that those the first people he goes to and out of gratitude towards them because he thinks to himself, well, they've helped me so I must help them. And off he goes, teaches them about the Dharma. I'm not gonna tell you what he says 'cause we've got a whole, I don't know, four months or something on the Dharma. But anyway, he teaches them something really, really important that you're just gonna have to keep coming to find out. And they become enlightened just as you will do if you come back to the Dharma. (audience laughing) Yeah, exactly what's wrong with the disciples. So they all become enlightened and they all become his followers. The second story is he wanders off at that point and he talks to a young man who's basically got fed up with a life of party. And again, this man, young man called Yasser becomes enlightened. And then Yasser brings all his friends and his family to the Buddha who all become followers of the Buddha. And he's got 50 friends, Yasser, and they all become enlightened. So it says, with Yasser and his friends, there are 61 enlightened beings in the world. And it's interesting, 'cause, okay, this is quite early on in the Buddha's kind of career as it were as an enlightened being. And he's got 61 enlightened disciples. And what he does is he says, "Well, you've got to help in this task of building the Sangha. "You've got to spread the Dharma." So he says quite a famous phrase, which is, "Go now and wander for the welfare "and happiness of many, out of compassion for the world, "for the benefit, welfare and happiness of gods and men. "Teach the Dharma that is beautiful in the beginning, "beautiful in the middle, and beautiful in the end, "with the meaning and the letter. "Explain a holy life that is utterly perfect and pure. "There are beings with little dust in their eyes "who will be lost through not hearing the Dharma." So that's what he says to Yasser and his friends. And they go off to teach people about the Dharma. But it's interesting, 'cause at this point, they get so many people coming back to the Buddha, and apparently they come from all different countries. So I assume that actually just means countries within the area that we now call the India, but they bring all these people from far and wide, and they, you know, at this time, it would have been walking by much, so they walked all these places, all these people become followers of the Buddha, and then they have to take more back to the Buddha so that the Buddha can all ordain them, to be our wanderers, followers of the Buddha, who our wanderers. And after a while, the Buddha thinks, "Well, this isn't quite working." So he says to Yasser and his friends, he says, "Well, you now have the power "to ordain them yourself." So if someone wants to lead the homeless life, someone wants to become a homeless follower of the Buddha, then you can take them in and give them ordination yourself. So it's all working well, you know, everything's kind of setting off. Always people in a different direction, so they're starting to ordain people themselves. The Buddha obviously has a lot of confidence in them. And then the Buddha wanders on further, and he comes to the matted hair, esquetics. So dreadlocked esquetics, presumably. And the first of these that he comes across is Kasheper of the Uruvella River, who's the head it says of 500 disciples. There's 500 disciples of Kasheper of the Uruvella River. And they're all sitting by the river, and they're all engaging in sort of whatever practices they did with fire. I know it gives bold fire, I don't know exactly what it did. And it involved dreadlocks. The dreadlocks and fire esquetic practice. This one's quite good actually. (audience laughs) I'm gonna change it in a bit more detail about it, but I know. So the Buddha wanders up, and he says, would you mind if I stayed here for a while? They said, no, no, that's fine. There's the Buddha, a wanderer. Come and join us so it works. And then the Buddha says, can I stay in your fire chamber? So obviously something involved in fire chamber at this point. And this, they looked a bit alarmed, and Kasheper of Uruvella said, well, no, well, you can stay in fire chamber, but the thing is, there's a dragon in the fire chamber, a naga who lives there, and he's very powerful and poisonous, and he'll kill you if you stay in the fire chamber. And the Buddha, being the Buddha said, well, perhaps he will, perhaps he won't. So, off the bits, they were all looking a bit like, oh my gosh, this bloke's gonna die. Oh well, you know, off he goes into the fire chamber. And he says, he sits cross legged with mindfulness established in front of him, meditating this fire chamber, and the naga's really annoyed. You know, who is this wandering bag of bones? He's just wandered into my chamber. The naga's very angry and starts to produce smoke. So the Buddha thinks to himself, well, suppose I counter his fire by fire without injuring him in any way. So the Buddha starts producing smoke. And at this point, the dragon, the naga, it's getting really annoyed, because, you know, there's the Buddha, since I don't know how he's producing smoke, maybe out of his nose, maybe out of his ears. And then there's the Buddha producing smoke. There's the naga producing smoke. So there's no other things that I'm gonna have him. And he starts producing fire. And the Buddha starts producing fire also. And at this point, what happens is, Catherine, all the disciples of Catherine who were outside the fire chamber, just see this kind of glow of lights going on in this fire chamber, this massive glowing burning brightness. And they think, it's quite funny actually this point, 'cause they just say, that's a real shame. He was so beautiful. (laughing) There he goes, you know, he was so beautiful. As this chamber sort of blazing and burning, it's kind of like a whole fireworks party in the middle of ancient India fire chamber before they've invented gunpowder. So it must have been pretty exciting. So there he goes, they think, oh well, this great monk got to know he's had it. And they all sit down, carry on with what they're doing. And the next morning, the Buddha comes out and he's got the naga, the dragon, curled up in his begging bowl. So you think, well, that is pretty impressive. He's got a dragon curled up asleep in his begging bowl. You know, we'll take them. (laughing) - Thank you, beautiful. - And you think, well, that is a pretty smooth trip, you know, to believe it. They're all gonna go for the Buddha now. But no, Kashabir, Uvella says, well, this monkey certainly mighty and powerful, but he's not enlightened like me. And Kashabir goes on thinking this. He goes on thinking, well, yes, he's very my go-to-ner. The Buddha is very mighty and powerful, but he's not enlightened like me. And he goes on thinking that even when the divine kings come to worship the Buddha and stand around him like pillars of fire in the middle of the night, the Buddha at one point is worshiped by the king of the gods who comes down and creates ponds and stones, just doing the Buddha needs them. He carries on thinking that when the Buddha starts reading Kashabir, Uvella's thoughts, he carries on thinking that when the Buddha starts sort of zipping around, like I've heard of zipping around the site and travels at superhuman speed so that he goes up in a different direction and gets to the destination before Kashabir. And there's one thing where they're all, so they're all firewatches, and they're all trying to split their locks and none of the locks would split. And someone goes and tells the Buddha and then he goes ha ha. And then splits 500 locks in a second. There's a bit where they go into a bit cold and they go in to do this, so which was also involved bathing in the river. So they all go and bathe in the river. And then the Buddha manifests 500 fires for each follower of Kashabir so that they can warm themselves when they come out. So this is pretty good. If I could do that, I think Sheffield would be mine. (audience laughs) And there's also a bit where all the site gets flooded and the Buddha thinks, oh well, the site's flooded, I better part the water. And then just starts walking in the water, just parts before they're a bit like Moses. You know, and then Kashabir sees him coming. And what does he think? He says, oh, it's very mighty and powerful, but he's not enlightened, like me. (audience laughs) And the Buddha at this point thinks, something's not working here. And it's really interesting because he thinks, okay, this isn't a way to do it. And in the end, he converts Kashabir very, very quickly and simply because he confronts Kashabir with the truth. He says, you are neither enlightened nor on your way to becoming enlightened. There is nothing that you do by which you might become enlightened or enter into the way to becoming enlightened. So basically he tells Kashabir straight up, you're not on the path, you're not enlightened. And it's very interesting in that point, Kashabir just says, oh, you're right, I'm gonna straighten himself for the Buddha's truth. (audience laughs) And not only did that his 500 followers all become followers and bidders, but also his friend Kashabir of the river and Kashabir of Gaia, and all sort of obviously down the river, they all become followers of the Buddha as well. So that's all it took. And I think this is really interesting. I find this story of the Buddha very interesting, partly just 'cause it involves dragons. And as far as I can learn, anything involves dragons is interesting. But also because the Buddha was showing, realized at that point that he could, you can't show people the way to enlightenment by the use of just power alone. He couldn't even show them the way to enlightenment, even by the power of the Buddha, even by showing him the kind of all the attainment of the Buddha, he couldn't convert them by that means. He couldn't just give them the kind of majesty of the Buddha himself, and that that will be in love for them to be enlightened. He had to guide others, to guide the followers of Kashabir and other people. He had to give them the path and the example of someone who's followed it. He had to give them the truth and the man who has attained the truth. You've got to give in a sense both the word and the man. You can't have just the man and you can't just have just the word. You've got to give them both. And in the sense this is what the Buddha did throughout the rest of his teaching, he gave people both his words. He gave people a clear explanation of the path and how to achieve enlightenment, but he also gave them the embodiment of someone who had attained enlightenment for himself. At one point he says, as the Tathagata says, so he does, as the Tathagata does, so he says. And in a way that is how he communicated the truth to people. That's how he communicated the path to enlightenment both by his being and by his doctrine. And in another place he says, well I've rediscovered an ancient pathway to an ancient city. He says it's just like someone was wandering in the mountains and came across an ancient pathway and cleared away all the bracken and the jungle, all the roots and all the shrubs and trees. And came to this ancient city and restored all the fountains and all the beautiful palaces. And then came and told other people the way. And I think it's quite good to sort of analogy of what the Buddha did because he was showing people the path to the ancient city, but he also gave them confidence because he himself had gone there. And I think that people need both. They need both the path, explain to them, and they also need the example of someone who's gone there, or at least gone a little bit further than they have. So the Buddha showed the way to others, not through power, through sort of dry lectures every week. You know, you just said they're uneven on the trees, they're like you set up the thing and then you give people a lecture and then you go home. He didn't do it like that. He didn't just give mass talks. Sometimes you get these great scripts for teaching our days and you hire out sort of stadium and then you give people a talk. You don't immediately meet any of them and then you just go off. The Buddha didn't do that, the Buddha didn't do that. He showed people the way through friendship, through both his being and through what he said. And it's this friendship that united in him, both the path that he showed and himself as the exemplar. So some of you will know the story, which goes something like, well, the Buddha was with Armandor, who's his chief attendant or actually in a way, his chief friend in some sense. You see, it was his companion. Armandor was his companion. And Armandor really comes across as a really nice guy, actually, really, really loving, really genuine and very, very devotional to the Buddha. And the Buddha's just sitting there and Armandor sitting there is the Buddha and they're having it, so you talk about something. And the Buddha, and Armandor just looks at the Buddha and you can just tell it, he's really devoted. He says, you know, I've been thinking, I've been thinking that spiritual friendship is half the spiritual life. And the Buddha says this turns around and says, say not so on and say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life. And then what's interesting is the Buddha goes into the reasons why spiritual friendship is the whole of the life, the spiritual life. Because he explains that it is independence on me as a spiritual friend that being subject to birth has gained release from birth, that being subject to aging have gained release from aging, that being subject to death have gained release from death, that being subject to sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief and despair have gained release from sorrow, lamentation, grief and despair. So the Buddha's saying that independence on him as a spiritual friend, the spiritual life has been made possible. And the Buddha quite clearly saw himself in a network of spiritual friends. And he cared very deeply, he get an impression of a man who cared very, very deeply about the Sangha, the community of the followers of the Buddha. And he cared about what happened to them. He cared very much about his friendships, but he also cared very much. You get the impression that he felt it very, very keenly when the Sangha quarreled. So there's often instances as there are now, we're not that different from ancient Indians and there's numerous examples of the Sangha coming to a big fight, a big schism, a big quarrel. And the most famous of these is the quarrel at Kasambi. And at that point, the Buddha tries to help, but he realises that they're so obsessed with their own point of view, they're so obsessed with their own being in the right and thinking that the other people are wrong. But the monks at Kasambi won't even listen to the Buddha. And when he realises this, that even he can't convince them to be in harmony again, he just leaves. He gets up and he walks away. And the first thing that he does is he goes to look for a functioning Sangha, he goes and finds his cousin, Ali Ruda, and his friends all living in peace and harmony. And then he goes to the forest alone. And he sits down there in the middle of the forest on his own. And he says, ah, you know, I've been pestered by those Kasambi bikus who quarrel, brawl, wrangle, harang, and litigate in the midst of the Sangha. But here I am at peace and alone. And at that point, an elephant who's got thoroughly fed up by being pestered by the other elephants who brawl and harang and wrangle, comes kind of crashing through the jungle and he's pretty fed up with the other elephants who's gone storming off. And finds the Buddha sitting there. And he says, I thought it was an lovely exchange with the Buddha sitting there, just wanting to be on his own. And the elephant there, just wanting to be on their own. And they just stay there, tusker and tusker, elephant in the elephant, the elephant of men and the elephant to the animal, just staying in peace and seclusion and delighting in that peace. So the Buddha really felt disharmony very keenly and, but he also felt his friendships very keenly. I just wanted to mention about his two chief disciples, Sari Pritter and Moggillana. So Sari Pritter and Moggillana were a followers of another teacher and they had a pact that whoever found enlightened the first with the waiting light and the first would tell me ever. And Sari Pritter goes walking one day on his arms round and comes across a follower of the Buddha called Asaji. And Asaji is obviously very, very impressive and Sari Pritter's really overcome with his mindfulness. He's very, very beautiful to watch, very calm, very serene, very mindful. And Sari Pritter knows that Asaji has something. So he asks him questions and Asaji talks to him about the Dharma which we will go into later. (audience laughs) And that really important Dharma teaching which you'll find out about later. Convinces, Sari Pritter, that the Buddha, the teacher of Asaji is the one who holds the key to enlightenment. So he goes back to get Moggillana and off they go actually win all the followers of the previous teacher. He's not very pleased about the experience. Yeah, they go off with all the other followers, all the other disciples and go to find the Buddha. And as soon as they came into the view of the Buddha and as soon as the Buddha sees them, he says he knows who they are. He names them actually by name, even though he's never met them before. And he says, well, they're very auspicious pair. They're going to be my chief disciples. It's very interesting because how does he know these two people are going to be his chief disciples? And what the Buddha says at this point, he says that all the Buddha's of the past and all the Buddhas of the future and him himself always have two chief disciples, such as Sarah Putter and Moggillana. And it's very interesting common that, you know, so why, why does he have, or why do Buddhas always have to have two chief disciples? You know, is it so that they can just sit in the side of the Buddha and just tell him how wonderful he is all the time? I don't know, make his sandwiches or something. Well, actually there's nothing to do that, obviously. It's because, and this is the point that Bhante makes, Sankarachtha makes. He says that the Buddha has a need to communicate and that this is part of the enlightenment experience itself. So Sankarachtha says, the enlightenment experience is not self-contained in a one-sided way. The enlightenment experience contains an element of communication and contains therefore an element of spiritual friendship, even transcendental friendship, or friendship at the highest conceivable level. So the Buddha, there's something in enlightenment that contains an element of communication and contains an element of friendship. And even the Buddha realized he couldn't do it alone. Even the Buddha realized that he needed others to help him consolidate and teach the Dharma. You even get in the text that the Buddha needed, so I put him a model on it, sometimes explain what the Buddha has just said when it was a bit obscure. So sometimes the Buddha gets teaching and then just, he's a bit tired or something, he goes off. And all the monks kind of go, "What did that mean?" And Sankarachtha says, "Oh, wow." And explains it. So he needed people to do that for him, the Buddha. He needed other people to be models. I think this is very important in the Sankar to have different models of different temperaments. People at different stages of the past. And he needed other people to help train the other followers of the Buddha, especially when the Buddha went away for periods of solitude. Because as we've seen, the Buddha did go on, he obviously needed to have some periods of solitude. And he did go off alone into the forest to reflect. And there's a lovely thing with Sarah Kutcher and Magalana that what happened was that they would follow followers of the Buddha. First of all, they would send the followers of the Buddha to, sorry, for training. And sorry, Kutcher would take them to irreversible insight. And at the point of irreversible insight, he would hand them over to his friend, Magalana, who would teach them and take them all the way to enlightenment. That's great, isn't it? We could have that in Sankar. We could have, I'm looking at Murga Murga. (audience laughing) You could take him onto stream entry and then you could take him onto enlightenment. You could fight him. (audience laughing) So yeah, so it's the kind of lovely little thing, you know? They take them up, see, Sarah Kutcher takes them to irreversible insight and smokes his friend, Magalana. So the Buddha knows, sorry, Kutcher and Magalana, but he also knows, sorry, Kutcher and Magalana, because in the tradition, he says, well, I've been with them for lifetimes. Lifetimes upon lifetimes upon lifetimes. And they've all been striving together for enlightenment over many, many, many lifetimes. So there's the Buddha, there's Sarah Kutcher, there's Magalana, and again and again, they take rebirth together as a kind of community, whereas a kind of band of friendship, all trying to reach enlightenment. And it was only in this life that the Buddha got enlightened with his chief disciples, Sarah Kutcher and Magalana, but they had actually been together for lifetimes. And the bonds between them are so strong that they're strong enough to survive death, and their spiritual momentum is so strong, it's strong enough to survive death. And when they died, the Buddha was visibly moved, and he says he had no grief, but he was invisibly moved. There's a point where he looks around in the assembly, and he says this assembly seems empty to me without Sarah Kutcher and Magalana here. Who's quiet, I find that very, very moving because it's very simple. This assembly seems empty to me without my friends. It's what he's saying. So the Buddha rejoices again and again in his friendships, he rejoices again and again in the Sarah Kutcher and Magalana, he rejoices in Ananda, and all his close disciples. There's a story which I've said before, but I'll say again, the lovely story where the Buddha sees in the distance, he sees 10 of his senior disciples, and they're all walking along together. And the Buddha looks at them, and I've got a very good imagination. So I think the Buddha, looking at them with such affection, with such affection and love, and also respect for his disciples. And he's looking at them in the distance, and he says to the monks who are sitting around them, he says, those are Brahmin to a coming. Those are Brahmin to a coming. So when the Buddha says Brahmin at this point, we mustn't think of it as a kind of cast term as it usually is meant, because not all of those disciples were for the Brahmin cast. He's talking about greatness. So he's using the word, originally in his teaching, he used the word Brahmin to mean a great man. He was trying to redefine the word Brahmin, away from his cast associations into a kind of ethical association. He calls the Brahmin's, those who have expelled unskillful states into fair, forever mindful, the awakened ones who have destroyed all bonds, they are the Brahmin's in the world. So he was looking at his disciples, and he was saying, they're great people, they're great men, they're perfected men, they are men who have expelled unskillful states, they are mindful men, they are awakened ones who've destroyed all bonds, they are the Brahmin's in the world. And it's very rare, I think that you get a spiritual teacher who really, really rejoices in his disciples and who gives them so much responsibility. And also who often said when someone gives a talk, and the Buddha said, well, they've roared the Buddha's roar, they've spoken with the word of the Buddha, I have nothing else to add, and he rejoices in their qualities. And I think that's very beautiful about the Buddha, 'cause he obviously sees himself in this kind of network into a community. Okay, there's so many stories to tell, there are so many stories to tell about the Buddha, and over the next few weeks and in the New Year, we'll be exploring some of the qualities of the Buddha through different stories about the Buddha. I suppose the main point of this evening is that the Buddha spent nearly 50 years wandering India, unifying or even transcending the difference between the qualities of solitude or withdrawal and the quality of engagement. So there's always something slightly mysterious and ungraspable about the Buddha. And at the same time, he operates after this great compassion that really, really engages with the world. And he unifies those qualities in his ability to be a Kalyana Mitra. So Kalyana Mitra means a spiritual friend or a good friend or a beautiful friend. And he taught the other people, not just by what he said and the word he used, but also by who he was. There's another bit where he says, "You are my own children, born from my lips, born of Dhamma, fashioned by Dhamma, heirs of Dhamma, not heirs of material things." So I found it healthy, actually. You are my own children, born from my lips, born of Dhamma. And in some way, we can also remember this in our own lives. Using the example of the Buddha, it's no use berating other people. It's no using your sense of humor and just trying to hit people over the head with the truth, or using power to make other people grow. What we've got to do is unite our words and our actions. We've got to represent the truth faithfully, but we've also got to embody the truth in all our actions. We've got to represent the Buddhist tradition faithfully, but we've also got to embody that tradition in our own lives. We've got to unify our words and our being in order to really exemplify what's possible. And it's important that we do so because there's so much suffering in the world. The world is on fire. It's burning with greed, hatred, and ignorance. And if we want to be a force for the good, who must do this, we've got to delight in seclusion and engagement, and we have to unite our words and actions, and we have to be our friend ourselves to the world. We hope you enjoy the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]