Buddha Desana

And Essential Principles of Enlightenment

by Sayadaw U Pannadipa | 1998 | 17,153 words

Aggamaha Saddhamma Jotika Dhaja Dean, Faculty of Patipatti, I T B M U, Yangon 1998...

Chapter 2 - Life Of The Buddha

In this world cycle, the aspiring Buddha was born as a son of King Suddhodana and Queen Mahamaya in the sixth century B.C. about 566, in the state of Kapilavatthu of the royal Sakya dynasty, near the borders of present day Nepal in northern India. The prince was given the name of Siddhattha meaning wish fulfilled.

On the birth of the prince, the royal father invited eight Brahmins to predict the princes future. The youngest Brahmin Kondanna raised one finger and predicted precisely that the prince would certainly become a Buddha, while other seven raising two fingers and prophesied that the prince would become a great spiritual leader or a universal monarch.

Naturally the king desired his son to become a universal monarch rather than a Buddha. Therefore he brought up his son amidst worldly pleasures and luxuries as bountiful as possible. Then at the age of sixteen, he was not only provided with three magnificent palaces according to the three seasons, but also got married with his beautiful cousin Princess Yasodhara. In this way his royal father had showered upon him the utmost of all the pleasures of life. The kings purpose was to allure the prince to the mundane world in the fond hope that his beloved son and heir would not think of renouncing the World. In due course, the king hoped that his son would become the greatest king ruling over the whole world. Thus in a great voluptuous manner the royal prince lived in the fullest enjoyment of all the pomps and pleasures up to the age of 29 years.

One day the prince being desirous of visiting the Royal Garden went out in a chariot. On the way he saw an aged man, a sick man and a dead man. He was very much shocked and alarmed to observe the true nature of conditioned life, its impermanence, suffering and impersonality. Then upon seeing a holy hermit, he came to realize that it was the only way for escaping from these worldly miseries and attaining the supreme happiness. Again on his return, incidentally a messenger brought the news that a son was born to princess Yasodhara. Hearing thus his mind was more deplored and distressed by the thought that "a son is a mere fetter."

He realized his responsibilities as a married man with a son and also his position as a prince. He thought that if he remained a ruler he would have to spend his precious life absorbed in kingly duties rather than in searching for a way out of the universal sufferings of humanity. He therefore finally renounced all his royal including his wife and son, and went forth in search of Truth and Peace. Wearing the yellow robe and wandering about the valley of the Ganges for six years as an ascetic, he studied all the systems of philosophies and religious beliefs of his time.

First he practised under the sage Alara who could only teach up to a seventh mental absorption stage of the eight Jhanic trances. So he left him and went to practise under another sage Udaka who also could teach him only up to a still higher mental stage of the eighth ecstasy. The Bodhisatta then realized that these Jhanic states were only mundane and incapable of releasing him from the sufferings of old age, disease and death of ones life that he sought for. At most he might attain only one of the Formless Realms (Arupa) with life spans of 60,000 and 84,000 world cycles in each plane.

He therefore departed from these sages and continued the search for truth on his own accord. He practised many forms of severe austerities (dukkaracariya) for six long years. Yet he was still far from his goal. These misleading practices only reduced him physically almost to a skeleton with pale complexion, dry skin, sunken eyes and almost to the verge of death.

At this stage he reminisced over his past experiences and discerned the knowledge that he should give up these extreme ascetic practices and have some food to renew his strength in order to continue his search of Buddhahood. Thus he reverted to a normal diet and balanced mode of living by avoiding the two extremes, i.e. self indulgence in sensual pleasures and self mortification, and followed the new path known as the "Middle Way (Majjhima Patipada). Then one evening under the Bodhi Tree on the bank of the River Neranjara at Buddha Gaya (in modern Bihar), during his deep meditation on in breathing and out breathing, He first attained the higher Jhanic states and spiritual powers. The Bodhisatta then meditated on the arising and vanishing of the five groups of clinging (Pancupadanakkhanda) which again enabled him to penetrate into higher Insight and supreme knowledge. Finally at the age of 35 years, he gained the knowledge of Remembrance of innumerable past lives (Pubbenivasa nana), the Divine Eye which could see the birth and death of all beings (Dibbacakkhu nana) and the total exhaustion of all Passions (Asavakkhaya nana). Having realized perfectly the Four Noble Truths (the truth of Suffering, the Cause of Suffering, the Cessation of Suffering and the Way to the Cessation of Suffering), he at last became a Sammasambuddha which means the supremely Self Enlightened One or Fully Awakened One.

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