The World Rulers (Buddhist "chakravartins")

Seth Auberon, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; G.P. Malalasekera; John Kelly

Asia 200 BC showing outlines of "great footholds of clans" (maha-janapadas) and empires (consolidated lands), like the Greco-Bactria Kingdom in Indo-Greek Afghan Gandhara.

Afghan (Gandharan) Buddhist monks with Greek King Menander (Milinda), Bactria (WHP)

 

Chakra at center of Indian flag

The special name given in Buddhist texts to a world ruler or monarch is cakka-vatti. It means "Turner of the Wheel," the Wheel (cakka, chakra) being the well known Indian symbol of empire. 

More than 1,000 sons are his; his dominions extend throughout the Earth to its ocean bounds (sāgarapariyantam) [a reference either to space and the planet in the Milky Way ocean or to the subcontinent of India bounded by seas]; and [the ruler's empire] is established not by the scourge nor by the sword, but by righteousness...

 

...When the world monarch is about to die, the Wheel slips down from its place and sinks down slightly. When the king sees this he leaves the household life, and retires into homelessness, to taste the joys of contemplation [meditation], having handed over the kingdom to his eldest son. At the king's death, the Elephant, the Horse and the Gem return to where they came from, the Woman loses her beauty, the Treasurer his divine vision, and the Adviser his efficiency (DA.ii.635).

 

Golden Buddha (Boddo) coin (miami.edu)

The world monarchs (cakka-vattis) are rare in the world, born in ages/aeons (kalpas) in which buddhas do not arise (SA.iii.131).

The Cakkavattisīhanāda Sutta gives the names of seven who succeeded one another. In the case of each of them, the Wheel (cakka, chakra) disappeared. But when his successor practiced the noble (ariyan) duty of a world monarch, honoring the Dharma and following it to perfection, the Wheel reappeared.

In the case of the seventh, his virtues gradually disappeared through forgetfulness; crime spread among his subjects, and the Wheel vanished forever. More

King Milinda questions Ven. Nagasena

John Kelly (trans.) Milindapañha or "Questions of King Milinda" (excerpts)

The metallic Milinda/Menander I coin

The Milinda-pañha, the 18th book of the Khuddaka Nikaya (Burmese version of the Pali canon), consists of seven parts (see further on).

The conclusion states that it contains 262 questions, but the editions available today only contain 236. Although not included as a canonical text in the traditions of all the Theravada countries, this work is much revered throughout and is one of the most popular and authoritative Buddhist works in Pali [a uniquely Buddhist language very similar to Sanskrit].
 
Composed around the beginning of the common era and of unknown authorship, it is set up as a compilation of questions posed by King Milinda [Greek King Menander I] to a revered senior monk named Ven. Nagasena.

Nagasena answers the king's many questions

Milinda is identified by scholars with considerable confidence as the Greek King Menander of Bactria, a dominion founded by Alexander the Great.

The area corresponds with much of present day Afghanistan. King Menander's realm would have included Gandhara, where Buddhism was flourishing at that time.
 
What is most interesting about the Milindapañha is that it is the product of the encounter of two great civilizations -- Hellenistic Greece and Buddhist India [which in ancient times included all of modern Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan, which is what Gandhara was]. So it is of continuing relevance as the Wisdom of the East meets the modern Western world.

• [NOTE: It is more likely that Buddhism co-arose in Afghanistan because the Buddha was from there. The evidence for this is more archeological than anything. Afghanistan contains the earliest anthropomorphic depictions of the Buddha, the largest Buddha figures, the richest and most massive temple complexes, such as the incomprehensible finds at 2,600-year-old Mes Aynak near the modern capital of Kabul. Buddhism is currently thought to be 2,600-years old. Is it reasonable to believe that the first year the Buddha began teaching in India, someone thought to found a massive temple with monastic residences?]

King Milinda poses questions about dilemmas raised by Buddhist philosophy that we might well ask today. And Ven. Nagasena's responses are full of wisdom, wit, and helpful analogies. More

• Other translations from I.B. Horner and Andrew Olendzki
  

REBIRTH and Family Guy's Brian (cartoon)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson, Wisdom Quarterly; Seth MacFarlane (FOX.com)

Brian, while alive, once appeared on Bill Maher's talk show with Huffington Poster Ariana.

(Family Guy) ''Brian's Death'' the full story

Bertram confronts Stewie's predecessor

Just in "time" for the holidays, Brian is back! But how? He died just last week. Genius Leonardo da Vinci descendant Stewie rebuilt his time machine and averted catastrophe, or sent himself and others down a different timeline. Is creator Seth MacFarlane growing tired of his greatest creation (next to Roger the talking Grey alien on "American Dad")? 

(JB) Brian Griffin's FUNERAL. With the dissolution of the body, after death,

one continues in accordance with one's just desserts, that is, those

actions willed, performed, and accumulated (karma).

I am Death, and I will kill 'em all!

Or, or is MacFarlane such a genius that nothing and no one is beyond reach of his pencil and voice. It's a soap opera after all, and anyone can be brought down and raised again. So it go us to thinking about rebirth (patisandhi, "again becoming"). Many articles will follow on the subject, so let's begin with a formal definition. 

Brian the hack publishes self-help secrets

NOTE: Buddhism never means "reincarnation," which would suggest that something or someone is again enters flesh. In fact, that is not what happens. As unbelievable as it may sound in the face of all of our assumptions, an impersonal process continues. We do not "die" at death but die at every moment, and this cyclical process continues in spite of physical "death," which does not even slow the process down one tiny bit. All things -- but most notably form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness -- are unsatisfactory, impermanent, and insubstantial (not-self). And when and if we directly see this liberating-truth, we will see these three universal "marks of existence."

(JB) "Family Guy" - Brian is Back ! (Stewie Saves Brian Griffin)

Issa and Lord Vishnu on a heavenly cloud

REBIRTH (patisandhi, literally, "reunion, relinking") is one of the 14 functions of consciousness (viññāna-kicca). It is a karma-resultant type of consciousness and arises at the moment of conception, that is, with the forming of new life in a mother's womb. 

Immediately afterwards it sinks into the subconscious stream of existence (bhavanga-sota). It is conditioned thereby, again and again, with corresponding states of subconsciousness. It is really the rebirth-linking-consciousness that determines the latent character of a person.

 

"Neither has this (rebirth-) consciousness transmigrated from the previous existence to this present existence, nor did it arise without such conditions as karma, karma-formations, propensity, object, and so on. That this consciousness HAS NOT come from the previous existence to the present existence, yet that it HAS come into existence by means of conditions included in the previous existence, such as karma and so on, this fact may be illustrated by various things: such as an echo, the light of a lamp, the impression of a seal, or the image produced by a mirror. 

"For just as the resounding of the echo is conditioned by a sound and so on and nowhere a transmigration of sound has taken place, just so is it with this consciousness. Further it is said, 'In this continuous process, no sameness and no otherness can be found.' For if there were full identity (between the different stages), then also milk never could turn into curd. And if there were a complete otherness, then curd could never come from milk....

"If in a continuity of existence any karma-result takes place, then this karma-result neither belongs to any other being, nor does it come from any other (karma), because absolute sameness and otherness are excluded here" (The Path of Purification, VisM, XVII 164ff).

 

The enlightened Ven. Nagasena answers the great King Milinda, Bactria (Central Asia)

King Milinda (King Menander I)

In "The Questions of King Milinda" (Milindapanha) the Greek King Menander I has this discussion with an ancient enlightened Buddhist monk:

KING: "Now, Ven. Nāgasena, the one who is reborn, is that person the same as the one who has died, or is that person  another?"

MONK: "Neither the same nor another."

"Give me an example."

"What do you think, O king: Are you now, as a grown up person, the same that you had been as a little, young, and tender baby?"

"No, venerable sir. Another person was the little, young, and tender baby, but quite a different person am I now as a grown up."...

"Is perhaps, in the first watch [portion] of the night, one lamp burning, another one in the middle watch, and again another one in the last watch?"

"No, venerable sir. The light during the whole night depends on one and the same lamp.''

"Just so, O king, is the chain of phenomena linked together. One phenomenon arises, another vanishes, yet all are linked together, one after the other, without interruption. In this way one reaches the final state of consciousness neither as the same person nor as another person." TO BE CONTINUED

Why become a Buddhist ascetic? (King Milinda)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, "The Questions of King Milinda" [Menander] (Miln), Milindapañha (as.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/Milinda)

Indo-Greco art from Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"), Afghanistan (irtiqa-blog.com)

 

Lay Life vs. Monasticism

Greek King Milinda (Menander 1) coin

King Milinda (Greek, Menander) asked the Buddhist sage: "Venerable Nagasena, the Blessed One has said:
 
"‘Right spiritual progress is praiseworthy for householders and wandering ascetics alike. Both householders and wandering ascetics, when progressing rightly, can accomplish, because of their right progress, the right method, the Dharma, which is wholesome.’ 

"If, Nagasena, a householder, dressed in white, enjoying the pleasures of the senses, inhabiting a house overcrowded with spouse and family, using fragrant sandalwood of Benares, as well as garlands, perfumes, and creams, owning gold and silver, wearing a turban ornamented with gold and jewels, can, if s/he progresses rightly, accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome, and if a wandering ascetic, bald-headed, clad in saffron robe, dependent on alms offerings for a livelihood, careful to fulfil correctly the four sections of monastic virtue, submitting to the 150 path-to-liberation (pratimoksa) rules, and observing all 13 Sane Ascetic Practices (dhutanga), without omitting any, can also, if progressing rightly, accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome -- then, venerable sir, What is the difference between the householder and the wandering ascetic? 

 

"Fruitless is your austerity, useless is the homeless (wandering ascetic) life, barren is the observation of the monastic rules, in vain do you observe the sane ascetic practices! What is the use of inflicting pain upon yourself if you can gain nirvana while remaining at ease?"

UCLA: Save Buddhist-Afghan site (WQ)

Nagasena replied: "You have quoted the Blessed One's words correctly, your majesty. To make right progress is indeed the most excellent thing of all.

"And if the wandering ascetic, in the consciousness of being a wandering ascetic, should fail to progress rightly, then one would be far from the state of an ascetic, far from a supreme life. Still more so would that apply to a householder dressed in white.

"But both the householder and the wandering ascetic are alike in that, when they progress rightly, they accomplish the right method, the Dharma, the wholesome.

Wish-fulfilling gem

"Nevertheless, your majesty, it is the wandering ascetic who is the master of the pure life. To be a wandering ascetic has many and numerous, even infinite, virtues (benefits). To measure the virtues of being a wandering ascetic is not at all possible. It is like a [chintamani] jewel that fulfills all one's wishes; one cannot measure its value in terms of money and say that it is worth so much.

 

Like the waves in the great ocean, one cannot measure and say that there are so many. All that the wandering ascetic still has to do, one succeeds in doing rapidly and without taking a long time over it. And why is that? It is because the wandering ascetic, your majesty, is content with little, easily pleased, secluded from the world, not addicted to society, energetic, independent, solitary, perfect in conduct, austere in practice, skilled in all that concerns inner purification and spiritual progress.

 

Beautiful Buddhist jewelry recovered from the Mes Aynak monastic complex/town archeological site, Afghanistan, suggesting that beauty, baubles, and sensual delights were quite popular. Treasure dated from 500 AD to 700 AD (Kadir/Salam Viking).

 

Such a person is like your javelin, your majesty -- smooth, even, well polished, straight, clean, and shining. When it is well thrown, it will fly exactly as you want it to. In the same way, whatever the wandering ascetic still has to do, one succeeds in doing it all rapidly and without taking a long time over it."

 

"Well spoken, Nagasena. So it is, and so I accept it."

Nagasena continued: "In any case, your majesty, all those who as householders, living in a home and in the enjoyment of sensual pleasures, realize the peace of nirvana, the highest good, they have all been trained in former lives in the 13 Sane Ascetic Practices peculiar to [Buddhist monastic] disciples, and through them they have laid the foundations for their present realization and attainment. It is because they had purified their conduct and behavior by means of them then that now even as householders, living in a home and in the enjoyment of sense pleasures, they can realize the peace of nirvana, the highest good.

Child plays with novice monk, Leh, Ladakh, Buddhist India (Vincenzo Rossi/flickr.com)

 

House or Monastery? 

Bad dog! Check your motives.

"But whoever enters the Monastic Order bad motives -- from covetousness, deceitfully, out of greed and gluttony, desirous of gain, fame, or reputation, unsuitably, unqualified, unfit, unworthy, unseemly -- that person shall incur a twofold comeuppance, which will prove ruinous to all one's good qualities.

In this very life, one shall be scorned, derided, reproached, ridiculed, and mocked. One shall be shunned, expelled, ejected, removed, and banished. 

What could account for Sam winning the "Ugliest Dog in the World" contest? (EIT)

  

Aw, poor baby! (ugliest dog in the world)

In the next life, like foam which is tossed about, up and down and across, one shall cook for many hundreds of thousands of aeons (kalpas, which also be interpreted as meaning "ordinary lifespans") in the great Waveless Deep (Avici) hell, which is a hundred leagues big, and all ablaze with hot, scorching, fierce, and fiery flames. 

"And when one has been released thence, one's entire body will become emaciated, rough, and black, one's head swollen, bloated and full of holes. 

As hungry as a ghost or preta (WP)

Hungry and thirsty, disagreeable and dreadful to look at, one's ears all torn, eyes constantly blinking, entire body one putrid mass of sores, dense with maggots, bowels afire and blazing like a mass of fire fanned by a breeze, helpless and unprotected, weeping, crying, wailing, and lamenting, consumed by unsatisfied longings -- that person who once was a religious wanderer shall then as a large hungry ghost roam about on the earth bewailing that fate.
 

"But if, on the other hand, a person enters the Monastic Order (Sangha) suitably, qualified, fit, worthy and seemly, content with little, easily pleased, secluded (withdrawing and protecting the senses) from the worldly, not addicted to society, energetic and resolute, without fraud or deceit, not gluttonous, not desirous of gain, fame, or reputation, devout and with confidence (saddha, faith), out of a desire to free oneself from old age and death and to uphold the Buddha's dispensation (sasana), then one deserves to be honored in two ways, by both devas and humans.

 

The devas find one dear (wallpaper.365greetings.com)

  

Beauty pageant

"One is dear and pleasing to them. They love and seek after one. One is to them as fine jasmine flowers are to a person bathed and anointed with oil, or good food to the hungry, or a cool, clear, and fragrant drink to the thirsty, or an effective medicine [antidote] to those who are poisoned, or a superb chariot drawn by thoroughbreds to those who want to travel quickly, or a wish-fulfilling jewel to those who want to enrich themselves, or a brilliantly white parasol, the [spaceship-like] emblem of royalty, to those who would like to be rulers, or as the supreme attainment of the fruit of enlightenment (arhatship) to those who wish for Dharma.

The 37 Requisites of Enlightenment

 "In that person

• The Four Foundations (Posts or Pillars) of Mindfulness reach their full development, as do
• The Four Right Efforts,
• The Four Roads to [Psychic] Success,
• The Five Faculties,
• The Five Powers,
• The Seven Factors of Enlightenment, and
• The Noble Eightfold Path.

"One attains to calm and insight, and one's progressive attainments continue to mature, and one becomes a repository of the Four Fruits of the Spiritual Life (Samana Phala), of the Four Analytical Knowledges, the Threefold Knowledge, and the Six Super Knowledges, in short, of the whole Dharma of the spiritual life, and one is consecrated with the brilliantly white parasol of emancipation." More

Buddhism in ancient Greece (King Milinda)

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly, "The Questions of King Milinda" [Menander] (Miln), Milindapañha (as.miami.edu/phi/bio/Buddha/Milinda)

Ancient Greek influence expanded to ancient India's northwestern frontier (Indo-Greeks)

Greek King Menander I (Milinda) engages Ven. Nagasena on the Dharma in Bactria

 

Gold Greek Buddha coin (as.miami.edu)

Because of his Greek (Western) heritage, the king of Bactria asks many questions that occur to Westerners today, which makes this work particularly valuable to modern readers. These are not normally raised in an Indian (Eastern) context.

As a consequence of the conquest of the Persian empire, the Greeks gained control of Bactria -- modern Afghanistan -- together with northern India. The local Greek rulers managed to establish their independence from the Seleucid Empire, which first held control over the area. 

 

Greek rule of Bactria continued until about 165 BC when the Shakas destroyed the Bactrian kingdom. Greeks continued to rule, however, in southern Afghanistan and northwestern India (Gandhara) for another 150 years. The most important of these kings was Menander I, known as "Milinda" in Buddhist sources, who ruled about 115-90 BC. Buddhism had reached the area [due to early converts in the Shakya clan, the Buddha's extended family, which was likely from this wealthy frontier area along the Silk Road even as the Buddha taught far to the east in India (Afghanistan has Buddhist art and architecture such as monastic complexes and statues as old as Buddhism, such as Mes Aynak)]. In addition, missionaries [were sent out by the Buddha] and later by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka more than a century earlier.

Buddhists in ancient Greece

Afghan Buddhist artifact from Mes Aynak, Afghanistan. This archaeological site is set to be destroyed by Chinese miners eager to extract mineral deposits (Jay Price/Getty Images/TheGuardian co uk)

  

Why did Ven. Nagasena go to Bactria? In the land of the Bactrian Greeks there was a city called Sagala, a great center of trade. Rivers and hills beautified it, delightful landscapes surrounded it, and it possessed many parks, gardens, woods, lakes, and lotus-ponds. Its king was Milinda, a man who was learned, experienced, intelligent, and competent. At the proper times he carefully observed all of the appropriate Brahminical rites with regard to things past, future, and present. As a disputant he was hard to assail, hard to overcome, and he was recognized as a prominent sectarian teacher.

 

One day a large company of enlightened disciples (arhats) of the Buddha living in a well-protected area in the Himalayas sent a messenger to Ven. Nagasena, who was then residing at Ashoka Park in Patna, asking him to come, as they wished to see him. Nagasena immediately complied by vanishing and miraculously appearing before them.

 

The arhats said to him: "That King Milinda, Nagasena, constantly harasses the Sangha (monastic order) with questions and counter-questions, with arguments and counter-arguments. Please go, Nagasena, and quench him!" 

 

"Save Mes Aynak" demonstration, UCLA/Westwood Federal Building, summer 2013 (WQ)

  

Nagasena replied: "Never mind one king, this King Milinda! If all of the kings of India would come to me with their questions, I could well dispose of them, and they would be no more trouble after that! You may go to Sagala without any fear whatsoever!" The elders (theras) went to Sagala, lighting up the city with their saffron robes, which shone like lamps, and bringing with them the fresh breeze of the sacred mountains.

 

Ven. Nagasena stayed at Sankheyya Hermitage together with a great number of monastics. King Milinda, accompanied by a large retinue of Greeks, went to him, greeted him in a friendly and courteous manner, and sat respectfully to one side. Nagasena returned these kind greetings, and his courtesy pleased the king's heart.

The king said, "Ven. Nagasena, will you converse with me?"

"Your majesty, if you will converse with me as the wise converse, I will, but if you converse with me as kings converse, I will not."

"Ven. Nagasena, how do the wise converse?"

"Your majesty, when the wise converse, whether they become entangled by their opponents’ arguments or extricate themselves, whether they or their opponents are convicted of error, whether their own superiority or that of their opponents’ is established, nothing in all this can make them angry. Thus, your majesty, do the wise converse."

"And how, venerable, do kings converse?"

"Your majesty, when kings converse, they advance a proposition, and whoever opposes it, they order that person’s punishment, saying, ‘Punish this person!’ Thus, your majesty, do kings converse."

"Venerable, I will converse as the wise converse, not as kings do. Let your worship converse in all confidence. Let your worship converse as unrestrainedly as if with another monastic, novice, lay disciple, or a keeper of the monastery grounds. Be unafraid!"

"Very well, your majesty," said the elder in assent. More