In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;The Mahaparinirvana Suttaand#8221; Sangharakshita takes us through a beautiful retelling of the Buddhaand#8217;s last days. From the talk, and#8220;The Tantric Symbolism of the Stupaand#8221; by Sangharakshita, 1971, part of the series Creative Symbols of the Tantric Path to Enlightenment.
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The Mahaparinirvana Sutta
[music] Dharma Bites 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. For the second of these two events, for the Parinirvana, that is to say for the final passing away, there is indeed a special section of the scriptures devoted. We have a scripture, we have a text that is to say a sutra, which is called the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, sometimes translated as the book of the scripture of the great disease. Or rather, perhaps I should say sutras, because the text, the scripture exists in several versions, in several resentions. And this great work, this great scripture, the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, or Maha Parinirvana Sutra, or sutanta, as it's called in Pali, contains a very detailed, a fairly connected account of the last few months of the Buddha's earthly life. It follows him as it were step by step. It tells us where he went, who he met, how he discussed, what teaching he gave, and the whole story, the whole account contained in this Maha Parinirvana Sutra constitutes, we may say, a very solemn and a very moving story indeed. Because by that time, by the time he embarked upon that last journey, described in the Maha Parinirvana Sutra, the Buddha, was an old man. He was an old man of eighty. He had a long. He had a very eventful life. And he knew that he was going to die. He knew that he was going to pass away. He knew that in lightened, though he was, he was not exempt from the general doom of humanity that he had to die. But being the Buddha, being the enlightened one, he remained calm. He remained perfectly objective. He simply thought, inasmuch as I am going to die, and he knew apparently exactly when it was going to be, what should I do? What is it fitting for me to do? And he reflected, we are told, that it would not be fitting for him to pass away, for him to die, to attain Maha Parinirvana, without first having said goodbye to his friends and disciples and companions, and giving them his last words of exhortation and advice. So having observed what is called the rainy season retreat, that period of retreat during the rainy season, when, making as it were a virtue of necessity, one remains indoors in the monastery, in the Vihara, meditating or quietly talking with friends, having completed that rainy season retreat, his last rainy season retreat, the Buddha, with Ananda, as his sole companion, set out on a quite extensive tour of north-eastern India. And as the Maha Parinirvana sutra proceeds, as the story unfolds, as we get nearer and nearer to the end, we may say that the final episode of the story is particularly sublime and particularly moving. We see the Buddha and Ananda arriving at a place called Kusinagara. Kusinagara, the present-day deoria, is just a few miles now from the Nepalese border. And the Buddha and Ananda, on their arrival there, make their way to a grove of saltries. Saltries are particularly beautiful trees, they very tall, very straight smooth stems, rather short branches, not too many of them, and beautiful big pale green leaves. So the Buddha and Ananda make their way to a grove of saltries. And we're told that this grove of saltries belonged to a certain tribe, a republican tribe, well known to the Buddha, containing many of his disciples and followers known as the Mahalas. And when the Buddha and Ananda reach the salt grove of the Mahalas, the Buddha is very tired. He's been walking, perhaps every day, for many months. He's been exerting himself to the utmost, expending his last few answers to the sit-wear of energy, visiting his friends, visiting his followers, talking with them, giving his last words of exhortation and advice. So he's very, very tired. And he asks Ananda to prepare for him a couch, between two saltries. So this Ananda does, so apparently he takes off his own outer robe, which is rather thick. He makes a sort of rough couch from it, and on this couch, at the foot of the saltries, the Buddha lies down. And then, according to the Maha Para Nirvana Sutra, a sort of, we may say, almost miracle takes place. It's not the time for those saltries to bloom, but suddenly they break out into blossom. And saltries have beautiful, big, white flowers, pure white flowers, and usually plenty of them. So these saltries, these two saltries, above the Buddha, tarling above him, they break forth into untimely blossom. Not only that, we are told, or so the Maha Para Nirvana Sutra goes on, these white blossoms, these white flowers start raining down onto the Buddha's body. And the text says, the scripture says, it was as though the trees, the saltries were actually worshipping the Buddha, raining down these white flowers in worship, almost as though nature herself was worshipping the Buddha before his departure. And the text goes even further than it says, that down from the sky, down from the heavens, there came falling heavenly frankincense, so that a beautiful odor pervaded in all directions. And again, listening, one could hear, ethereal music sounding in the sky, the music of gods and goddesses floating upon the clouds, all worshipping the Buddha. But then, what does the text go on to say? What does the Maha Para Nirvana Sutra go on to say? It tells us that the Buddha was not in the least impressed by all these miracles. By the flowers raining down, the incense falling from the sky, the gods singing their songs and playing their instruments in the heavens. He wasn't in the least impressed by all these miracles. Perhaps we can say the Buddha, after five and forty years, was rather tired of miracles. And he just looks up as it were, and he tells Ananda that all this, that's happening, the white flowers falling down, the incense falling from the sky, the heavenly music in the sky. He says, all this does not truly constitute worship of the Buddha, of the enlightened one. And he says to Ananda, he who would worship me, let him simply follow my teaching. That is the true worship. This is what the Maha Para Nirvana Sutra tells us, what the Buddha said in this connection. And after a while, the Sutra goes on to say, Ananda asks, it's a practical question, he's a practical man. He can't help thinking ahead, he asks, Lord, when you are dead, when you have attained a Para Nirvana, what should be done with your body? How should it be disposed of? And what does the Buddha say? He says, Ananda, don't bother about that. Don't worry about that. He says, get on with your own spiritual development. That is far more important. And he says that there are faithful lay followers, priests and nobles and traders, they will attain to the disposal of the Buddha's physical remains. So we see how objective, in a sense, how severe was the Buddha's attitude. He wouldn't tolerate any sentimentality. He wouldn't tolerate in for a moment losing sight of what was really and truly of importance, namely one's own spiritual development. But Ananda, who is not yet enlightened, finds it very difficult to adopt this kind of objective attitude. And we are told by the Mahaparindavan of Sutra that Ananda was in fact very upset, but it disturbed the prospect of the Buddha's departing from the world. And we are told that he was so upset and so disturbed he could not even remain with the Buddha. He went away. He went a short distance away. And he was leaning on a post or maybe leaning on the trunk of a tree. And he was weeping. And he was saying to himself that I still have so much to learn. And my teacher, who was so kind to me, he is about to depart. And saying this he was weeping, leaning up against the post or the tree. And meanwhile we are told that other disciples had arrived. Other disciples had gathered around the Buddha, knowing he was about to depart. And the Buddha noticed that Ananda was absent. The Ananda was no longer there. And Ananda, normally, was always with him. So the Buddha asked, "Where is Ananda?" So the other said, "He's gone a little distance away. He's upset and he's disturbed and this is what he's saying. He's weeping." So the Buddha said, "Let Ananda be sent for." So they sent for Ananda. One of them went, talking by the hand, brought him into the presence of the Buddha. And the Buddha consoled him. The Buddha said, "Ananda, don't feel any regret that you haven't yet gained enlightenment, that you're not yet enlightened as I am. You will be before very long." Shortly after my parent, Ananda, in fact, you too, will gain enlightenment. And turning to the other disciples, the Buddha phrased Ananda for his various qualities, the tact with which he handled visitors, especially. And by this time, by the time all this had happened, it was the middle of the night. And everybody knew that the Buddha was about to depart. It was only a matter, perhaps, of hours. So they were all sitting round, very silent, very solemn, in the middle of the night, in the sour growth of the marlas, waiting for the paren nirvana. And as they were waiting in the midst of the silence, in the midst of the solemnity, an unexpected visitor arrives. A Buddha can't even die in peace. A visitor arrives and wants to see the Buddha, even at that moment. But Ananda prevents him. Ananda said, "What are you asking? The Buddha is about to pass away. No one can see him now. It's too late." But it's so happened that the Buddha overheard this conversation. And he called to Ananda, and he said, "Ananda, let that man approach." His name, by the way, was Subhadra. He was known as Subhadra the Wandra. Let him approach. He's a simple man, a straightforward man. As soon as I explain the truth to him, he will understand. So let him come near. So Subhadra approached. He had a brief discussion with the Buddha, and he developed a result of that discussion, spiritual insight. And he was the last of the Buddha's personal disciples, Subhadra the Wandra. And by this time, the end was fast approaching. The Buddha, as it were, rising himself, gave his final exaltation to his disciples. And especially he told them, especially he insisted on the fact that they should not think that they had lost their teacher. Many of them were thinking. As he knew, many of them were even saying, "Our teacher is about to depart. We will not have any teacher after the Buddha has passed away." But the Buddha says, "You should not think like that. I have left a teacher with you. I am leaving a teacher with you. A teacher that will be with you all the time." And that teacher is the teaching itself. The Dharma itself will be your teacher, the Dharma that I have talked. And the Buddha suggests, as it were, that he is spiritually present in the teaching, in the Dharma, so that when you're in contact with the Dharma, when you're in contact with the spiritual tradition, you're in contact with the Buddha himself. And having given them that exaltation, he reminded them that all things were impermanent. It's not just the Buddha who has to die. The Buddha who has to pass away all beings, all things. Everything is trungent. Everything is impermanent. Everything one day will pass away. Everything conditioned. Everything phenomenal. Just like the water of a great river, everything is impermanent. Therefore, he said, "O monks, develop mindfulness. Develop awareness. Do not, as it were, fall asleep." And then the Buddha passed into a state of deep meditation. And from that state of deep meditation, he passed away. And that is the parinirvana. The parinirvana, the final passing away of the Buddha, the final dissociation of the enlightened consciousness from the physical organism. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]