Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, we highlight a major new series of talks by Vishvapani to mark the launch of his new book: and#8216;Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened Oneand#8217; (Quercus, 2011). and#8220;The Buddhaand#8217;s Time and Placeand#8221;, is an excerpt from the first talk, and#8220;Searching for the Buddhaand#8221;, from a major new series by Vishvapani to mark the launch of his new book: and#8216;Gautama Buddha: The Life and Teachings of the Awakened Oneand#8217; (Quercus, 2011). Vishvapani is a well known figure in the Triratna Buddhist Community and is a regular contributer on the BBCand#8217;s and#8216;Thought for the Dayand#8217;.
Here we meet the Buddha set firmly in his own historical context, with space too for the legendary and particular reference to the natural world. The Buddha discovered the natural world and made it accessible to his disciples. If we return the Buddha to his time and place then we can find out the lessons that are relevant now: Life is uncontrollable and we find Wisdom in opening to that; To heal our relationship with nature, we must first heal ourselves, and that the transformation that occurs is on every level, not just the conscious.
Ancient India comes alive as we wander with the Buddha, facing his fears amongst the ghosts of the jungle. There is much that is important for reflection here and#8211; the Dharma made fascinating by dint of the authorand#8217;s depth of engagement with Buddhist practice and the sheer breadth of his cultural reference.
Talk given at the Manchester Buddhist Centre, January 2011.
[music] Dharma Vites 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. Tara Vada, which is a school which follows these particular suitors, usually has a rather problematic relationship with the world of nature and natural beauty. They have forgotten their own texts and the testimony of the early monks in a text which I really come to love called the Tara Gata. The Tara Gata, which is the songs of the nuns, is quite well known because it's a unique document being just about the only religious poetry or religious scripture created by women. But the Tara Gata isn't nearly so well known and it's full of beauties. It's the Buddha's enlightened disciples recalling their experience, particularly the things that made the difference for them when they found their own awakening. So Chitika says, "The call of the crested, blue-necked peacocks in the core of vivia forest, urged on by the cool breeze, awakens the sleeper to meditation." Or Talupata says, "When the sky-daver has rained, sky-god, when the sky-daver has rained, when the grass is four fingers high, when the grove is in full flower, I shall lie in the forest like a tree. It will be soft for me, like cotton, but I shall be master." So we have these wonderful evocations of the life that these monks, following the Buddha's example, and following his urging of them to see nature in a different way wasn't something they had to fear. We have these wonderful evocations of what it was like to discover you could feel at home there and to become part of the natural world's beauty. And this is mixed with the emotion of metah or love and kindness, which encompasses all life and is an open-hearted response, which is particularly important to practice if you're in the jungle and this life was considering eating you. And this is not about attachment to natural beauty. That's made clear in the text, but nonetheless it's powerfully emotional. So what do we draw from this story? It's a story really about someone making a breakthrough for themselves so that the world of nature opens up for himself and for his disciples and go to the Buddha, becoming intimate with his mind, enables him to find the roots of terror which had colored entirely his relationship with the natural world. That I think is something that's very accessible and it's not something I've ever heard or read about but the Buddha discovered the natural world and made it accessible to his disciples. That's very clear in East Asian poetry, much later Buddhists were very clear about that, but it's lost in the early tradition. And I think there's something about the value of seeing the Buddha as being different from us, of unearthing the society and the culture in which he lived, that shows us things that are actually very meaningful and significant. The value of changing our states of mind and how that creates a whole world view and the value of facing even the most difficult and dangerous, fearful aspects of our experience. The Bodhisattva that the Mahayana tradition, that later Buddhism, when later Buddhists came to tell the story of the Buddha, they increasingly came to imagine that he'd already been enlightened in effect or very nearly enlightened by the time he was born. So they had to skate over these passages which are very clear that he was actually capable of feeling intense fear. They just ignored all of that in the Mahayana. So if we don't do that, then the Buddha becomes as much fuller figure. And I don't think that that reduces him to the merely historical, which is another issue if you're approaching a figure like the Buddha. It probably applies to any religious figure in historical terms, because you can imagine that that means simply seeing him as another person, the product of his time and place. I think that if we return the Buddha to his time and place, then we can find out the lessons that are relevant now. That life is uncontrollable and we find wisdom by opening to that. That to heal our relationship with nature, we must first heal ourselves and that the transformation that occurs is on every level, not just the conscious. We hope you enjoyed the talk. Please come and help us keep this free at freebuddhistaudio.com/community. And thank you. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
