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
  

The Buddha's first sutra

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly translation based on Ven. Piyadassi (ATI), "Setting in Motion the Wheel of Truth," Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11)

Golden Buddha on the River Kwai Giant Buddha Temple (Marc_Wisniak/flickr)

 

(ursulasweeklywanders.com)

Thus have I heard. On one occasion the Blessed One (Buddha) was living in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers (Isipatana) near Varanasi (Benares, India). There he addressed the group of five ascetics:

 

"Meditators, these two extremes ought to be avoided by one who has gone forth from the household life. What are the two?

"There is devotion (addiction) to indulgence of sense-pleasures -- which is low, coarse, the way of ordinary people, unworthy, and unprofitable. And there is devotion to severe asceticism (self-mortification, self-abuse beyond the 13 kinds of "sane" ascetic practices), which is painful, unworthy, and unprofitable [and the way of many penitents, hermits, and religieux].
 

Discourse (sutra) to the Five Ascetics (MT)

"Avoiding both of these extremes, the Wayfarer (the Tathagata, the Perfect One) has realized the Middle Path; it gives knowledge, gives vision, and leads to calm, to liberating-insight, to enlightenment, and to nirvana. And what is that Middle Path realized by the Wayfarer...?

It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: (1) right understanding, (2) right thought (intention), (3) right speech, (4) right action, (5) right livelihood, (6) right effort, (7) right mindfulness, and (8) right concentration (absorption).

This is the Middle Path realized by the Wayfarer, which gives knowledge and vision (knowing and seeing), and leads to calm, to insight, to enlightenment, and to nirvana.
 
I.
"The noble truth of disappointment (dukkha), meditators, is this: Birth is disappointing, aging is disappointing, sickness is disappointing, death is disappointing, association with the unpleasant is disappointing, separation from the pleasant is disappointing, not getting what one desires is disappointing -- in brief the Five Aggregates subject to clinging are disappointing.

II.
"The noble truth of the origin (cause) of disappointment is this: It is this craving (thirst), which produces re-becoming (rebirth) accompanied by passionate greed, finding fresh delight now here, now there -- namely, craving for sense pleasure, craving for [eternal] existence, and craving for non-existence (self-annihilation).

III.
"The noble truth of the cessation of disappointment is this: It is the complete cessation of this very craving, giving it up, relinquishing it, liberating oneself from it, and detaching from it (letting go by dispassion brought on by insight into the true nature of all phenomena).
 
IV.
"The noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of disappointment is this: It is the Noble Eightfold Path, and nothing else, namely: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration.

The Five Ascetics became the first monastic disciples (earthyogi)

 
"'This is the noble truth of disappointment' -- such was the knowledge, the vision, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before. 'This disappointment, as a noble truth, should be fully realized' -- such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before. 'This disappointment, as a noble truth has been fully realized' -- such was the vision, the knowledge, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before.
 
"'This is the noble truth of the origin (cause) of disappointment': such was the knowledge, the vision, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before. 'This origin of disappointment as a noble truth should be eradicated' -- such was the knowledge, the vision, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before. 'This origin of disappointment as a noble truth has been eradicated' -- such was the knowledge, the vision, the wisdom, the certainty, the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before.
 
"'This is the noble truth of the cessation of disappointment' -- such was the knowledge, the vision... the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before.
 
"'This is the noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of disappointment' -- such was the knowledge, the vision... the light that arose in me concerning things never heard before.

"As long as my knowledge of seeing things as they really are was not clear in these three aspects, in these 12 ways, concerning the Four Noble Truths, I did not claim to have realized the matchless, supreme enlightenment, in this world with its devas (fairies), with its maras (killers), and brahmas (divinities), in this [human] generation with its wandering ascetics and Brahmins, with its devas and human beings.

"But when my knowledge of seeing things as they really are was clear in these three aspects, in these 12 ways, concerning the Four Noble Truths, then I claimed to have realized the matchless, supreme enlightenment in this world with its fairies, with its killers and divinities, in this generation with its wandering ascetics and Brahmins, with its devas and human beings. And a vision of insight arose in me:

"'Unshakable is the deliverance of my heart. This is the final birth. Now there is no more re-becoming (rebirth).'"
 
This is what the Blessed One said. The group of five ascetics was gladdened, and they rejoiced in the words of the Blessed One.
 
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Buddha, ascetics, devas (sundaytimes.lk)

When this (first) discourse was expounded, there arose in Kondañña the passion-free, stainless vision of Truth (dhamma-cakkhu). In other words, he attained stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment, realizing: "Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing."
 
When the Blessed One set in motion the Wheel of Truth (Dharma), the earthbound devas proclaimed: "The matchless Wheel of Truth that cannot be set in motion by any (ordinary) wandering ascetic, Brahmin, deva, killer, divinity, or anyone in the world, is set in motion by the Blessed One in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers near Varanasi."
 
Hearing these words of the earthbound devas, all the devas of the Realm of the Four Great Kings (of the four quarters) proclaimed: "The matchless Wheel of Truth that cannot be set in motion by any ordinary wandering ascetic, Brahmin, deva, killer, divinity, or anyone in the world, is set in motion by the Blessed One in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers near Varanasi."

These words were heard in the upper deva realms, and from Realm of the Four Great Sky Kings it was proclaimed in deva Realm of the Thirty-Three... Contented... Tusita (Joyful)...Delighting in Creating... Delighting in the Creation of Others... and the Divinities of Brahma's Retinue... Brahma Ministers... Great Brahma... Limited Radiance... Limitless Radiance... Feeding on Delight (Splendid)... Limited Beauty... Limitless Beauty... Total Beauty... Of Great Fruit... Insensate... [The Pure Abodes:] Not Falling Back... Beautiful... Clear-Seeing... and Equal-in-Rank:

"The matchless Wheel of Truth that cannot be set in motion by any ordinary wandering ascetic, Brahmin, deva, killer, divinity, or anyone in the world, is set in motion by the Blessed One in the Deer Park at the Resort of Seers near Varanasi."
 
At that very moment, at that instant, the cry (that the Wheel of Truth had been set in motion) spread as far as Brahma world [in space], and the system of 10,000 worlds trembled and quaked and shook.

And an unbounded sublime radiance surpassing the effulgence (power) of (self-luminous) devas appeared in the world-system.
 
Then the Blessed One uttered this paean of joy: "Truly Kondañña knows, truly Kondañña knows (has penetrated these four ennobling truths)." So it was that Ven. Kondañña received the name Añña Knondañña -- "Kondañña who knows."

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