The Fruits of Recluseship (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Tipitaka Network (Digha Nikaya 2)

Golden Buddha cloth hanging on city street (Georgie_girl/flickr.com)

  

(Matthew Ahmet/dailymail.co.uk)

The Samannaphala Sutta [samana = recluse, shaman, hermit, wandering ascetic, Buddhist monastic; phala=fruit; sutta=sutra, discourse] is second among the Long Discourses of the Buddha. 

This sutra gives the background and explains how an ancient Indian royal, King Ajatasattu, became a Buddhist lay disciple. It starts with the king in his palace seeking advice from his Brahmin ministers about which wandering ascetic or Brahmin to go see.

 

Ignoring the recommendations of those six ministers, the king turns to the royal physician Jivaka Komarabhacca for advice. Jivaka informs him that the Buddha is staying at a Mango Grove in Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, and suggests visiting him there. 

Monks and novices in Theravada Thailand (T.O. Johnson/T.O.OtisPhoto/flickr.com)

Accepting this suggestion, Ajatasattu sets out on his royal mount together with Jivaka, a large number of women on elephants, and a procession of torch-bearing attendants.

 

Later, we learn that the king had already spoken to the other six ascetics his ministers recommended and was not pleased with their teachings.

 

According to the Buddha, on hearing the Dharma (the Buddha's teaching), King Ajatasattu would have become a stream-winner -- if it were not for his "heinous" karma, patricide, as he had recently killed and deposed his father, the beloved Buddhist King Bimbisara, who was himself a stream-winner. Such action is especially weighty karma with results that are certain to ripen in the very next rebirth. (Killing a stream-enterer is also very heavy karma to bear but is not among the Five Heinous Actions: harming a buddha, killing one's mother, killing one's father, killing an arhat, or creating a schism in the Sangha).

 

Japanese Zen (Arashiyama)

It is the night of Komudi, the full-moon day in the month of Kattika, at a time after Ajatasattu has already deposed his father Bimbisara, former king of Magadha, who was a devoted noble disciple of the Buddha (a stream enterer, the first stage of sainthood).

 

The dialogue is mainly between the Buddha and young Ajatasattu. Other personalities mentioned are Queen Vedehi, his mother, Prince Udayibhadda, his newborn son, and the six rival ascetic teachers of the Buddha's day. The six includes the founder of Jainism, Mahavira, who is known in Buddhist texts as the Nigantha Nataputta ["Possessionless Son-of-Nata"], whose family name is Aggivessana.

The Six Rival Teachers

The rival teachers mentioned are characterized as representative of various Indian philosophical movements at that time. They are Purana Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala, Ajita Kesakambala, Pakudha Kaccayana, Sancaya Belatthaputta, and Nigantha Nataputta (Mahavira, which like the name "the Buddha" is simply a title meaning "Great Hero," an epithet used for the Buddha in earlier times).

This discourse opens a window into their individual teachings, as reported by King Ajatasattu to the Buddha. Unfortunately, each of these accounts is very brief.

Respect of Ascetics

Novice with candle in Shwe Yan Pyay, Burma (UrsulasWeeklyWanders.com)

 

Indian culture respects ascetics. Here an "ascetic" (samana) refers to a person who has given up his or her family and social life to search for greater happiness by finding answers to the ultimate questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life?

 

This goal of asceticism was later expanded in Buddhism to include the greater happiness of the world. King Ajatasattu, one of the most powerful royals of the day in India, expressed his respect for recluses, even if that person was formerly his servant.

Prior to Mahavira and the Buddha accepting female disciples into their wandering ascetic orders (sanghas), all samanaswere male. Mahavira was first to admit them. But the Buddha, whose mission was to establish the Dharma with male and female monastics and male and female lay disciples, was the first to do so as a world-religion, a universal teaching that spread all around the world. 

Jainism, on the other hand, though slightly older, never traveled beyond India to become a universal teaching. Jains did travel and therefore there are communities elsewhere but not Mahavira's teaching itself. 

Females were given the same duties and responsibilities as their male counterparts  in the Buddhist monastic order. (The widespread belief that the Buddha imposed eight additional rules on his stepmother, the first Buddhist nun, is not the case, as a textual analysis of the Bhikkhuni Vinaya reveals, according to Ven. Ayya Tathaaloka).

Fruits of becoming a Buddhist recluse

Theravada Buddhist nuns of California, with Ayya Tathaaloka, fourth on the right (AFB)

 
The title of the sutra literally means "recluseship-fruits," the benefits of becoming an wandering ascetic, a Buddhist monk or nun.

Basic rewards

When asked what these fruits are, the Buddha provides the king with satisfactory answers on the many rewards of practicing in accordance with the Buddha's Dharma and (Monastic) Discipline.

• One is respected even by kings, as well as being provided with one's basic necessities, safety, and protection.
• One is endowed with restraint and virtue (as explained in the The Net of All-Embracing Views).
• One remains with guarded sense faculties.
• One is mindful and clearly aware (sati-sampajana).
• One is contented.

Intermediate rewards

Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist nuns with prayer wheel and beads (colunas.epoca.globo.com)

 

By withdrawing and detaching from the Five Hindrances, further spiritual benefits arise as one succeeds in the practice of "meditation" (bhavana, jhana, jhaneti, kammathana):

1. the first four meditative absorptions (rupa-jhanas),
2. insight-knowledges (vipassanā-ñāṇa),
3. advanced capacities.

The Highest reward

The highest reward, which is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path, is the realization and full penetration of the Four Noble Truths, which leads to enlightenment and NIRVANA, which is complete freedom from samsara (the otherwise endless round of death and rebirth and suffering).

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The title of this sutra is from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation. Other translations are "The Fruits of the Homeless Life" (Maurice Walshe), "The Fruits of the Life of a Recluse" (Rhys Davis), "The Fruits of the Life of a Samana" (BPA), and "The Rewards of Spiritual Practice" (by Ayya Khema in German as Die Früchte des spirituellen Lebens and Visible Here and Now in English), another German version is available from Pali Kanon.

Mahayana: "The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections"

Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Amber Larson, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Ling-Yen Mountain Temple, Canada, "The Sutra in Forty-Two Sections"; Master Miao Lien (PURE LAND BUDDHISM)

Kwan Yin Bodhisattva, Goddess of Mercy, at the seaside of Sanya (HawkDisplays/flickr)

 

OPENING VERSE

The unsurpassed, profound, and wonderful Dharma

Is difficult to encounter in hundreds of millions of aeons.

I now see and hear it, receive and uphold it,

And I vow to fathom the Tathagata's true meaning.

 

PREFACE

When the World Honored One had attained the Way, he [is said in Mahayana Buddhism to have] thought, "To leave desire behind and to gain calmness and tranquility is supreme." 

He abided in deep meditative concentration and subdued every demon and externalist.

• [Externalist: six non-Buddhist wandering-ascetic (shramana) traditions led by: Pūraṇa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, Nigaṇṭha Nātaputta (Jainism's Mahavira), and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta].

In the Deer Park he turned the Dharma-wheel of the Four Noble Truths and took across Ajnata-kaundinya [led Añña Kondañña to enlightenment] and the other four [first] disciples, who all realized the fruition of the Way.

Then the bhikshus expressed their doubts and asked the Buddha how to resolve them. The World Honored One taught and exhorted them, until one by one they awakened and gained enlightenment. After that, they each put their palms together, respectfully gave their assent, and followed the Buddha's instructions.

SECTION 1

Leaving Home and Becoming an Arhat

Shakyamuni Buddha walking (sdhammika)

The Buddha said, "People who take leave of their families and go forth from the householder's life, who know their mind and penetrate to its origin, and who understand the unconditioned Dharma [i.e., asankhata, nirvana, what is not conditional, not dependently originated] are called shramanas [wandering ascetics as distinguished from Brahminical temple priests]. 

"They constantly observe the 250 [monastic] precepts, and they value purity in all that they do. By practicing the four true paths [likely a reference to the four analytical knowledges], they can become arhats."

"Arhats [equipped with abhinnas or siddhis] can fly and transform themselves. They have a life span of vast aeons, and wherever they dwell they can move heaven and earth."

 

"Prior to the arhat is the anagamin [non returner]. At the end of his life, an anagamin's vital spirit will rise above the nineteenth heaven, and one will become an arhat."

"Prior to the anagamin is the sakridagamin [once returner], who ascends once, returns once more, and thereafter becomes an arhat. 

"Prior to the sakridagamin is the srotapanna [stream enterer], who has [at most] seven [more] deaths and seven births remaining, and then becomes an arhat. Severing [attachment] and desire is like severing the four limbs; one never uses them again."

SECTION 2

Eliminating Desire and Ending Seeking

The Buddha [allegedly] said, "Those who have left the home-life and become [wandering ascetics] cut off desire, renounce [attachment], and recognize the source of their minds. They penetrate the Buddha's profound principles and awaken to the unconditioned Dharma. 

"Internally they have nothing to attain, and externally they seek nothing. They are not mentally bound to the Way, nor are they tied to karma. They are free of thought and action [are not storing up karma]; they neither cultivate nor attain certification; they do not pass through the various stages, and yet they are highly revered [reverence-able, worthy of reverence]. This is the meaning of the Way." 

SECTION 3

Severing [Attachment] and Renouncing Greed

The Buddha said, "Shaving their hair and beards, they become shramanas who accept the Dharmas of the Way. They renounce worldly wealth and riches. In receiving alms, they accept only what's enough. They take only one meal a day at noon, pass the night beneath trees, and are careful not to seek more than that. Craving and desire are what cause people to be stupid and dull."

The Buddha's life in panels, Jing'an Temple wall, Shanghai, China (Wisdom Quarterly)

 

SECTION 4

Clarifying Good and Evil

The Buddha said, "Living beings may perform Ten Good Deeds or Ten Evil Deeds. What are the ten? Three are done with the body; four are done with the mouth; and three are done with the mind.

"The three done with the body are killing, stealing, and lust [sexual misconduct]. The four done with the mouth are duplicity [slander], harsh speech, lies [perjury], and frivolous speech. The three done with the mind are jealousy [craving], hatred [aversion], and stupidity [tenaciously holding wrong views].

"Thus, these ten are not in accord with the Way of sages and are called the Ten Evil Deeds. To put a stop to these evils is to perform the Ten Good Deeds."

SECTION 5

Reducing the Severity of Offenses

The Buddha said, "If a person has many offenses and does not repent of [turn away from] them, but cuts off all thought [intention, aspiration] of repentance [of changing one's way], the offenses will engulf [one], just as water returning to the sea will gradually become deeper and wider. If a person has offense and, realizing they are wrong, reforms and does good, the offense will dissolve by themselves, just as a sick person who begins to perspire will gradually be cured."

SECTION 6

Tolerating Evil-doers and Avoiding Hatred

The Buddha said, "When an evil person hears about your goodness and intentionally comes to cause trouble, you should restrain yourself and not become angry or blame [that person]. Then the one who has come to do evil will do evil to him/herself."

SECTION 7

Evil Returns to the Doer

The Buddha said, "There was a person who, upon hearing that I observe the Way and practice great humane kindness, intentionally came to berate me. I was silent and did not reply. When [that person] finished abusing me, I asked: 'If you are courteous to people and they do not accept your courtesy, the courtesy returns to you, does it not?' 'It does," [that person] replied. I said, 'Now you are scolding me, but I do not receive it, so the misfortune returns to you and must remain with you. It is as inevitable as an echo that follows a sound, or as a shadow that follows a form. In the end you cannot avoid it. Therefore, be careful not to do evil.'"

The Four Perversions

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; BPS.lk; Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines (vipallāsa)

To see things as they are NOT is distorted delusion springing from ignorance. To see reality just AS IT IS is enlightenment springing from having rightly cultivated liberating-wisdom.

 

''There are four perversions or distortions (vipallāsa), which may be either of perception, consciousness, or of views. What are these four distortions? They are to regard:

1. what is actually impermanent as permanent,
   
2. what is actually unpleasant as pleasant (capable of yielding lasting happiness),
   
3. what is actually without a self as a self,
   
4. what is actually foul (ugly) as beautiful" (AN.IV.49).

• See Manual of Insight (Ledi Sayadaw, Wheel 31/32, p.5).

We don't have that in Iceland (Bjork)

According to the Path of Purification, the following perversions are eliminated by the first path-knowledge (stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment): the perversions of perception, consciousness, and views that the impermanent is permanent or that what is not a self is a self, and furthermore the perversion of views that the unpleasant is pleasant and that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the third path-knowledge (non-returning) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the foul is beautiful.

 

By the fourth path-knowledge (full enlightenment) are eliminated the perversions of perception and consciousness that the unpleasant is pleasant (Vis.M. XXII, 68).