Three Pivotal Buddhist Sutras

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ven Nanamoli/Osbert John S. Moore (trans.), "Three Cardinal Discourses of the Buddha," Wheel No 17 (BPS.lk)

The Buddha with Dharma chakra , wheel of truth, above in Thailand (Nippon_newfie/flickr)

Not doing any kind of harm,
Perfecting profitable skill,
And purifying one’s own heart:
This is the Buddha’s teaching.
—Dhammapada 183

Afghan Buddha, Gandhara (BBC)

The message of the Awakened Ones, so stated as it is in the Dhammapada ("Dharma imprint" or "Path of Truth") in the plain terms of good and evil, upholds the same values that every great compassionate religion shares. But the seed of good (skillfulness) has to grow in the soil of truth. How the tree grows depends on the nature of the soil in which it is planted, which is where it draws its nourishment.

With humans as the custodians of the true, the fulfillment of the good depends on how truth is conceived by us to be. By our acts we verify it. A wandering ascetic called Siddhartha Gautama, it seems, a son of the Sakyans (Scythians, Afghans, Central Asians) who went forth into homelessness from a Sakyan clan (tribe), has come… Now a good report of Master Gautama has been spread to this effect:

“That Blessed One is such since he is accomplished and fully enlightened, perfect in true knowledge and conduct, sublime, knower of worlds, incomparable leader of persons to be tamed, teacher of devas and humans, awakened and blessed… He teaches a Dharma that is good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good in the end, with its own special meaning and phrasing; he exhibits a supreme life that is utterly perfect and pure.” Now it is good to see such Accomplished Ones (MN 41).

So it was said of him at the time. But what, then, was the fundamental basis of that Dharma? Of the many ways that such a question might be answered, perhaps this is the simplest and best: “He expounded teachings peculiar to buddhas: suffering, its origin, cessation, and the direct path to its cessation” (MN 56).

These four fundamentals are known as the Four Noble or Ennobling Truths in that they lead to spiritual nobility, that is, the various ariyan stages of enlightenment.

This, with the cognate teaching of no self (the impersonal characteristic of ultimate reality), may be said to constitute the distinct and unique ground of the teachings of buddhas; this is what marks them, sets them apart, and entitles them to the unique epithet “Buddha,” distinct from the “noble ones,” which refers not only to buddhas (teaching and nonteaching) but to disciples who awaken from the illusion (become enlightened) by the path-of-practice, the Middle Way, made known by buddhas.

The three discourses here presented display precisely, in all its incomparably serene simplicity, without assumptions, those special fundamental teachings, from which all Buddhism branches, and to which it all points back.

 

The first discourse displays these Four Noble Truths as something to be realized and verified for oneself here and now; the second discloses the contradictions which infect all “self” or “ego” conceits; the third echoes the second from another angle.

The circumstances that led up to the discovery of these Four Noble Truths and to the delivery of these three sutras or discourses were briefly as follows. The Bodhisatta -- as the Buddha refers to himself while striving and developing the Ten Perfections leading up to his great enlightenment -- was 29-years-old when he left the householder life, where he enjoyed the extreme of luxury. He went forth into wandering asceticism in order to find not a palliative but the true and incontrovertible way to make a complete and final end of all suffering for himself and all living beings.

This world is surely full of woe, because it is born and ages gets sick and dies. But to fall from one kind of existence only to reappear in another, again and again without end, compounds the problem exponentially. Yet, the world knows of no actual escape from this suffering, from aging and death. There are temporary respites to be sure with sojourns in various heavens (sagga). Is there an escape from disappointment and dissatisfaction, from ageing and death? (SN 12:65).

The Bodhisatta studied and practiced under two of the foremost teachers of samādhi (concentration, the absorptions, mental collectedness, calm, and serenity), and reached the highest meditative attainments possible thereby. But that was not enough: “I was not satisfied with that as a dharma; I left it and went away” (MN 36).

The Bodhisatta Siddhartha (Lahore Museum)

He then spent the better part of the next six years in the practice of meditation and asceticism, eventually trying every sort of extreme self-mortification.

During this time he was helped along by five fellow ascetics, who hoped that if he discovered the “deathless state” (nirvana, final liberation) he would be able to communicate his discovery to them. This extreme asceticism also failed to gain enlightenment and glimpse nirvana (deliverance from suffering).

“By this grueling penance I have attained no distinction higher than the human ideal worthy of a noble one’s knowing and seeing. Might there be another way to awakening?” (MN 36). 

He decided to try again the path of concentration, attained through mindfulness of breathing, though this time not pushed to the extreme of serenity, but guided instead by ordered consideration (mindful-contemplation).

Calm/insight meditations (Ezioman/flickr)

He remembered, “While my Sakyan father [King Suddhodana] was busy and I [as a child of 7-years-old] was sitting in the shade of a rose-apple tree, then quite secluded from sensual desires, secluded from unprofitable ideas, I had direct acquaintance of entering upon and abiding in the first absorption (jhāna) -- meditation, which is accompanied by initial application and sustained attention, with happiness and pleasure born of seclusion. Might thisbe the way to enlightenment?”

And following upon that memory came the recognition: “This is the way to enlightenment” (MN 36). He now gave up self-mortification and took food again in order to restore to his emaciated body strength sufficient for his purpose. Then his five fellow ascetics left him in disgust, judging that he had failed and was merely reverting to what he had forsaken.

Gaining Enlightenment

Big Buddha Tian Tan, Lantau island, Hong Kong (Michael Jevons/flickr.com)

 
But now abandoned and in solitude, his new balanced effort rooted in virtue, based on unifying strong concentration (absorption), and guided by the ordered (mindful) consideration of insight brought about by contemplation (anussati, mindfulness in the sense not just of bare attention, vigilance, and wakefulness but of careful consideration of the question, "Why is there this suffering?" which is contemplated in terms of directly seeing Dependent Origination), at length brought success. He discovered the way to the goal -- the complete end of all suffering -- he had sought for so long. 

"So I, too, found the ancient path, the ancient trail, travelled by the Enlightened Ones of old” (SN 12:65). Five faculties in balance had brought him to his goal: they were the four, namely, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding (wisdom), with confidence (faith) in the efficacy of the other four -- the five that "merge into the Deathless” (SN 48:57).

According to tradition, the Buddha's “great enlightenment” took place on the night of the Vesākha-month full moon (corresponding to our April-May).

After invitation by first Sakka then Brahma, the Buddha resolved to communicate his discovery of liberation through wisdom (insight) to humans and devas. For his first audience he considered his two teachers of the previous six years, but they had passed into brahma worlds where liberation would not be possible for aeons (kalpas).

Teaching the five ascetics (mahathep.exteen.com)

So he chose the five ascetics who had shared his self-mortification before abandoning him. He realized that they were now at Benares (Varanasi) -- India’s “eternal city.” So in due course he went there to rejoin them. Just two months after his great awakening he delivered his sutra -- the “Setting Rolling of the Wheel of the Dharma” or “Bringing into Existence the Blessing of the Dharma” -- with the five ascetics as his human hearers and many more devas.

Tradition says it was the evening of he Āsālha full moon (July-August), the day before the rainy season (vas) begins, and he began to speak at the moment when the sun was dipping, and the full moon simultaneously rising.

This, his first discourse, made one of his hearers, the ascetic Kondañña, a “stream-enterer” [one who entered the "stream," sota, a word which also means "ear," as in one who entered upon the path-and-fruits by hearing] with his attainment of the first of the four progressive stages of enlightenment. The four other ascetics soon followed in his footsteps.

The second sutra or sermon, on the impersonal characteristic of not-self (anatta), was delivered to the same five, and it brought them to the fourth and final stage, that of arhatship, full enlightenment: “and then” as it is said, “there were six arhats in the world” (Vinaya Mahāvagga 1).

These are the first two discourses presented here, and they were the first two sutras ever uttered by the Buddha. The third, the “Fire Sermon,” was delivered some months later to an audience of 1,000 forest ascetics converted from the heaven-bent practice of fire-worship. All three discourses deal only with wisdom/understanding (paññā), among the faculties mentioned above as required to be balanced.

Walking Buddha (Nippon_newfie/flickr)

But understanding, in order to reach perfection, has to be aided by and brought into balance with the other four factors. In other words, it has to be founded upon concentration (collectedness, nondistraction, the unified or unscattered mind/heart), which is founded upon virtue (non-remorse, “habit without conflict,” a mind/heart free of misgivings, worries, remorse).

A high degree of concentration (though not necessarily developed to the fullness of all the absorptions, but lightly just the first four, not necessarily mastering them fully but being acquainted with them and able to enter and emerge; later this certain course was expanded with the more uncertain development of lighter versions or "access-concentration"). Only in this way can insight-wisdom reach the ultimate goal of unshakable liberation.

Virtue and concentration alone -- without the guidance of wisdom/understanding -- can do no more than suppress the defilements, but they cannot of themselves alone lead to final liberation. Now the hearers of all these three discourses were, like the Buddha himself, all ascetics already expert in the techniques and refinements of both virtue (sīla) and concentration (right samādhi, sometimes defined technically as the first four absorptions).

So the Buddha had no need to instruct them about what they already knew very well. Similarly he had no need to expound the doctrine of action (karma) and its ripening (vipāka, phala), with which they were already acquainted through the ancient teachings or their own insight by way of having developed the divine eye through the absorptions.
 

What he had to do was first to show how it is possible to go astray toward the opposite extremes of sensual-indulgence and self-torment and second to describe the facts, to show how things are, clearly and succinctly enough to stir his hearers to the additional spontaneous movement of understanding essential and indispensable for the final discovery of liberation, each for oneself. (“A 'Perfected One,' a samma-sam-buddha, is one who shows the way” MN 70).

 
Now let us let these three sutras speak for themselves. Their incalculable strength rests on their simplicity and in their actuality. The profound truth is here, discoverable even through the foggy medium of translation. More

Nirvana as Living Experience

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Prof. Lily de Silva, Nibbana As Living Experience, Buddhist Publication Society (Wheel No. 407/408); news inserts by CC Liu

Monastic robe, Songkhla, Thailand (Homam Alojail/flickr/Bird_beckham77/500px.com)

 

Prof. Lily de Silva approaches the age-old question "What is nirvana?" from a fresh angle: “What does the attainment mean in terms of the living experience of one who has reached the ultimate goal?” She discovers in the Pali texts four outstanding attributes of this experience. It is spiritual freedom to be experience here and now. In a second essay she examines the two types of individuals who have realized the ultimate goal, the Buddha and arhat disciples, distinguished by the breadth of knowledge but experiencing the same nirvana and liberation. She is Professor Emeritus of Pali and Buddhism at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka and a frequent contributor to scholarly and popular journals as well as the editor of the Pali Text Society's "Long Discourses of the Buddha" (Digha Nikaya).

 

Nirvana is freedom for those who practice

Nirvana (Pali nibbana) is the culmination of the Buddhist quest for perfection and happiness. 

In order to understand the meaning of this term it is useful to refer to the verse attributed to Kisa Gotami when she saw Prince Siddhartha returning to the palace from the park on the eve of his great renunciation.

She declared: Nibbuta nuna sa mata, nibbuto nuna so pita, Nibbuta nuna sa nari, yassayam Idiso pati [Note 1]. “Happy (contented/peaceful), indeed, is the mother (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the father (who has such a son); happy, indeed, is the woman who has such a one as her husband.”

 

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Nibbuta (from nir + v) is often treated as the past participle of the verb nibbayati, and nibbana is the nominal form of that verb.

It means happiness, contentment, and peace. Nibbayati also means to extinguish, to blow out -- metaphorically, as in the blowing out of a lamp [2]. Nirvana is so called because it is the blowing out of the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion [3].

When these metaphorical fires are blown out, peace is attained. One becomes completely cooled (sitibhuta) [4]. 

It is sometimes conjectured that nirvana is called "cool" because the Buddha preached in a hot and humid country, where cool was appreciated as being much more comfortable. Had he taught in a cold and bitter climate, nirvana might have been described in terms of warmth.

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But it is certain that the term “cool” was chosen to convey a literal psychological reality [5]. Anger makes us hot and restless. We use expressions such as “boiling with anger,” clearly expressing the intensity of aggressive emotion.

When such negative emotions are completely uprooted never to arise again, one's temperament must be described as cool. Nirvana is a state to be attained here and now in this very life [6] not a state to be attained after death.

 

In terms of living experience, nirvana can be characterized by four special attributes: 

1. happiness
2. perfection of virtue
3. realization
4. freedom. 

Happiness

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Looking at these one by one, nirvana is described as the highest happiness, the supreme state of bliss [7]. Those who have attained nirvana live in utter bliss, free from hatred and mental illness among those who are hateful and mentally ill [8].  

Sukha in Pali, being the opposite of dukkha (disappointment, suffering, unsatisfactoriness) denotes both happiness and pleasure. In English, happiness denotes more a sense of mental ease and well being, whereas pleasure denotes physical excitement (pleasant agitation, arousal).

The Pali word sukha extends to both these aspects, and it is [2] certain (as shown below) that mental and physical bliss is experienced by one experiencing nirvana. The experience of supersensual yet physical bliss for limited periods is possible even before the attainment of nirvana through the practice of the meditative absorption (jhana, samadhi).

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The "Fruits of Recluseship" discourse (Samaññaphala Sutta) describes these physical experiences with the help of eloquent similes [9]. When bath powder and water are kneaded into a neat wet ball, the moisture touches every part of the ball but does not ooze out. Similarly, the body of the adept in the first absorption is suffused and drenched with joy and pleasure born of detachment from sense pleasures (viveka-jam piti-sukham). 

The experience in the second absorption is also elucidated: When a deep pool is filled to the brim with clear cool water fed by underground springs, its waters do not overflow, and no part of the pool remains untouched by the cool. Similarly, joy and pleasure born of concentration in the second absorption pervade the body of the meditator. 

 

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The simile for the third absorption is that of a lotus born in water, grown up in water, fully submerged in water, drawing nourishment from water, with no part of it remaining untouched by water. In the same way, happiness/pleasure permeates, suffuses, and drenches the entire body of the adept in the third absorption.

These are the experiences of supersensual pleasure even before the attainment of nirvana. On attainment, more refined supersensual pleasure is permanently established. The "Discourse to Chunky" (Canki Sutta) specifically states that when a monastic realizes the ultimate truth, one experiences that truth “with the body” [10].

Regarding the experience of the arhat, the oldest discourses (Sutta Nipata) state that by the undoing of all feelings/sensations [through insight], one lives desireless and at peace [11].

  

I see you made an effort (Gurwitch)

Once Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male disciple foremost in wisdom (counterpart to the nun Khema), was asked what happiness there can be when there is no feeling/sensation [12]. He explained that the absence of feeling/sensation itself is happiness (contentment/peace/ease) [13].

It is relevant to note here that the Buddha states that he does not speak of happiness only with reference to pleasant feelings/sensations. Wherever there is happiness and pleasure, he recognizes that as happiness and pleasure [14]. More

• NOTES: (1) J I 60. (2) Nibbanti dhira yathayam padipo: Sn 235. (3) S IV 19. (4) Sn 542, 642. (5) A I 138, III 435. (6) D I 156, 167. 18 (7) Nibbanam paramam sukham: Dh 203. (8) Susukham vata jivama verinesu averino/aturesu anatura: Dh 197-99. (9) D I 74. (10) Kayena c’eva paramasaccam sacchikaroti: M II 173. (11) Vedananam khaya bhikkhu nicchato parinibbuto: Sn 739. (12) Kim pan’ettha n’atthi vedayitan ti: A IV 415. (13) Etad eva khv’ettha sukham yad ettha n’atthi vedayitam. (14) S IV 228.

Life of Siddhartha before Buddhahood (Sims)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Eliroc, Sims Fiction (Chp. 4)

Charioteer Cunda and Prince Siddhartha see a pyre (simsfiction.wordpress.com)

Prince Siddhartha, 29, on the verge of quest

...Although Siddhartha's father ensured that the prince was provided with everything he could want or need, Siddhartha was always a little troubled and dissatisfied.
 
As much as he tried, the opulent life in the palace could not fulfill him. It was disappointing and so had to get bigger and bigger. Siddhartha was growing tired of his lavish lifestyle.

 

At night, he had dreams he could not explain. He sensed something was off, but he did not know what.

Yasodhara (Bimbadevi, Rahulamata...)

“What is the meaning of these dreams? Is there something beyond these walls?” he thinks aloud.

“What is it, My Lord? What’s going on?” asks (Bimbadevi who is known as) Yasodhara trying to comfort him.

 

“Nothing, a bad dream, don’t worry,” Siddhartha replies, while sitting up and covering his face with his hands.

 

“But you look so troubled, My Lord. Is it something I have done? Please, tell me what is bothering you. Let me help!” Yasodhara insists.

“Everything is all right. You’re the perfect wife, and I love you very much. I just need fresh air. Go back to sleep. I’ll go for a walk in the garden. The sun is almost up,” the prince answers gently, while getting up and walking toward the door.

 

But Yasodhara is too worried to fall asleep again. She changes and follows him to the garden.

She finds him mesmerized by the sound of a beautiful song. As she approaches, his gaze still resting upon the female musician, he asks, “Yasodhara, what is this song? I've never heard it before. It’s so melancholic and beautiful.”

 

“It is a song from a far away land, My Lord, evoking the beauty of a country she knew as a child. The mountains and the lake she can never forget.”

 

“How strangeDo such places exist? Places as beautiful as here?” Siddhartha asks.

 

“There is only suffering beyond these walls, My Lord.”

 

“You speak like my father. What do you mean suffering?”

 

“Your father loves you very much. He’s given us everything we could ever want. There’s no need to go anywhere else when there is such beauty around us.” Yasodhara insists, trying to bring his thoughts back to the beautiful life of the palace.

 

“It’s true. We have everything, and everything is perfect. So what is this feeling I have, Yasodhara? My dreams? If the world is so beautiful, why have I never seen it? I’ve not even really seen my own country. My father will not stop the chariot and allow us to walk in the villages, see the common life, talk to the people. I must see the world, Yasodhara, with my own eyes!”

 

With these words, Siddhartha goes off. Yasodhara lingers a while, lost in her thoughts. She is familiar with the prophecies and fears the day Siddhartha sees the real world, which may be closer than the king imagined.

Overcome by curiosity, Prince Siddhartha orders Channa, his faithful charioteer and friend, to show him the world beyond the palace walls. Unnoticed by his father, they set upon a series of rides through the countryside.

 

On this first journey, Siddhartha notices an old man painfully making his way. He had never ever seen old age of such decrepitude. And not understanding what is wrong with the man, he asks Channa, “What is the matter with this good man? Why is he walking like this? And why is his face all shriveled?”

Aging, the first sign/divine messenger

“That’s an old man, My Lord.”

 

“Old? What do you mean?” asks the prince as he approaches the man to study his features.

 

“Old age destroys strength, memory, beauty...”

 

“Why? What did he do to become old?”

 

“Do, My Lord? He was born. Everybody becomes old eventually. It is natural and belongs to life.”

 

“It happens to everybody? Even you?” Siddhartha asks alarmed, still resting his gaze upon the old man.

 

“Yes, My Lord. Even a prince cannot avoid it. It is a natural aspect of life. No one avoids it at all.” More

Life of the Buddha (video)

Mindah-Lee Kumar (EnthusiasticBuddhist.com); Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Four Signs (smith.edu)

The Buddha (the "Enlightened or Awakened One") was born Prince Siddhartha Gautama, future king of the Shakyas. He is also known as Shakyamuni, the "Sage (muni) from the Shakya Clan."
 
He was born approximately 2,600 years ago into a royal family. Where is disputed, likely in what is now Afghanistan, on the northwest border of Gandhara, India. But earlier British archeological work determined it was Nepal, just north of India, and the controversy has been on ever since.  (See ranajitpal.com).

Prince Siddhartha lived a protected and carefree life of luxury, until one day he came face to face with the harsh realities of life he had always been protected from seeing: old age, sickness, and death. (The fourth sign was the sight of renunciation offering a possibility of escape from certain suffering). It is believed that the devas (fairies) contrived it all, ensuring that he would eventually see these four momentous signs.

 

The Buddha, wandering teacher (WQ)

The four sights or signs changed the course of Siddhartha's life. Rather than becoming king as he had been raised, he embarked on a spiritual QUEST on behalf of all beings to find liberation from the suffering of the world.

He would eventually discover the truth of suffering (disappointment) and how to bring about its end. He achieved enlightenment, a profound and irreversible awakening, under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, India.

And from that moment on he was known by the title "the Buddha." (See also the BBC documentary Life of the Buddha, which tells the story very well in less than 50 minutes. Here is a condensed collage version set to music that takes even less time).

If I were the Buddha (video and cartoon)

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Great Buddha, central Buddhist Island, Kandy, Sri Lanka (Tam Church/flickr.com)

 

Photog Tam Church in Sri Lanka

If I were a buddha the first thing I would do is enjoy it. When the historical Buddha gained great enlightenment -- maha bodhi, the awakening of a supremely enlightened teacher rather than just the liberation of a disciple arhat -- he is reputed to have said:

"I who wept with all my brothers' tears laugh and am glad for there is liberty!" There is a way to the "end of all suffering," to nirvana.

There is a problem: things are unsteady, unreliable, aching, heart breaking, disappointing, unfulfilling, lacking any kind of lasting satisfaction. That is a big problem. Is there a bigger solution? If there is there has to be a cause(s) of all this disappointment (dukkha).

(SubscriptionFreeTV) David Grubin documentary, narrated by Richard Gere, about the Buddha's life, full of great art and sculptures across two millenia. There are insights into the ancient narrative by contemporary Buddhists, including Pulitzer Prize winning poet W.S. Merwin and the Dalai Lama. Learn more about meditation, the history of the Dharma, and how to incorporate the Buddha's teachings on compassion and wisdom into daily life.

Buddha drawing (Arkiharha/flickr.com)

The ascetic Siddhartha rediscovered that there is a cause (craving rooted in ignorance) and therefore a way out. There is a solution: nirvana, freedom, liberation (moksha), emancipation.

If I were a buddha, the second thing I would do is formulate my own Four Ennobling Truths. Real nobility is not a Boston Brahmin birthright. It is based on one's actions in this life. Some karma ennobles us, some debases, some is neutral and leaves us just the same.

• What's a Boston Brahmin? (Slate) The Boston dialect

Sanskrit, Pali, Prakrit, Magadhi -- the Buddha's languages and dialects might have readily understood negatives. English cannot. Their connotations are too pessimistic, gloomy, emphasizing the wrong thing. For example, when in English we say, "It's not that we don't like you..." we don't like you, even as we're saying we don't dislike you. Double negatives confuse the mind, which does not seem to happen in these Asian languages. So my Four Noble Truths would become:

1. There is liberation from suffering.
2. There is a Way to liberation.
3. There is a big problem (suffering).
4. There is a cause of the problem.

The medical establishment of the day, Ayurvedic or Allopathic, might not like it. But I think the people would appreciate the emphasis on liberty.

The Buddha cartoon

The third thing I would do after enjoying it and formulating my Dharma dispensation in a nutshell is start kicking some reptilian (naga) butt and demonic (yaksha) derriere like Saint Sakka/Saint Michael, not violently but rather like Maha Moggallana's display to subdue a disgruntled dragon when the Buddha and others ascended into space.