Sermon 27: Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma-Sambuddhassa

"Homage to the Exalted One, of true worth,
Perfectly Enlightened by himself."

(A. iii. 239)

Today, for the increase of awareness and wisdom and in celebration of Visakha Puja when awareness and wisdom were found first in this age of our world by the Exalted Buddha, these ancient words of homage will be expounded. We shall see how they are homage to the Great Peaceful One as He was called after Enlightenment and how this Sublime Peace shows itself variously as the Great Purity, the Great Compassion and the Great Wisdom of the Buddha.

In order to understand clearly about the Enlightenment of the Exalted Buddha, we should know well our own condition as very ordinary people. Gotama the Buddha was commonly known, after his experience of Enlightenment, as the Mahasamana, 'the Great One who calmed himself' or 'the Great Peaceful One.' We can appreciate something of the qualities of Enlightenment by knowing a little about this peace and calm. First, let us think about ourselves: We are mind and body, but which of these is calm and peaceful? Look into your own minds, see how they are full of rushing thoughts, a torrent of ideas, perceptions, memories, feelings, desires, fears, fantasies, and so on. When is this mind still, when is it truly at peace? How often is it disturbed by various desires? These may be desires for people, things, experiences or for more abstract things like fame. All this is getting, grabbing, grasping and falls under the heading of Greed. But having greed for some experience, one must also suffer aversion against other experiences. One is angry, annoyed, or dislikes, or has ill-will, or nourishes revenge all this falls under the heading of Aversion. Or one's mind goes dull, blank, does not want to learn or to know, refuses to understand and is blanketed over by stupidity, all of which falls under the heading of Delusion. Now, Greed and Aversion and Delusion never make for peace but always for strife and the more that they are encouraged in the mind, the more strife there will be, both inside people and reflected in their environment, We should be called therefore the not-peaceful, the untamed, the not-trained, because of the state of our minds. When our minds are disturbed by Greed, Aversion and Delusion in various forms, we cannot expect that our bodies either can be at peace. The body has to have its position changed frequently. From walking we must change to sitting, from sitting to lying, in order to try to find comfort. We are always changing the positions of our hands, feet and head because the body is uncomfortable and we to try to avoid this discomfort. Nor are our senses steady for our eyes must rove here and there and we crave for all the other sense-impressions, and all these in turn stir up the mind bringing more inner confusion, Not peaceful at heart, not peaceful in our senses or in our bodies, we create for ourselves an environment which is not peaceful. By intentional action called kamma through mind, speech and body, we create ourselves in the future and we create our future environment. Kamma has the power to persist and come to fruit when conditions are right for it, and evil kamma dehumanizing ourselves and harming others, will lead in this life or in future lives, to the experience of troubles and confusions. So in this way, by following the worldly path of craving and selfishness, we make for ourselves a future, which is bound to be full of grief and unwelcome, painful experience. Peace cannot be found through this path.

But now, let us look at some of the characteristics of our Great Teacher. We have examined the un-peaceful-ness of the ordinary human being in his mind, senses and body. But what of the Exalted Buddha in this respect? Before his Enlightenment, he had undertaken the training of his own mind, indeed he had cultured it not only in this life but also in many previous lives in which he developed many noble qualities. He had systematically increased all the tendencies to goodness, to virtue, in himself through the doing of many compassionate deeds, so that when in his last life, he practiced the Way of Dhamma it was possible for him to arrive at Enlightenment, which among other things, is the pacification of all thoughts, complete calm and tranquility of heart. It is also the pacification of kamma and one who has become a Buddha no longer makes any kamma of which he will have to receive the fruit. For this reason, the pacification of the mind and heart, our Teacher was known as the Mahasamana, the Great Peaceful One. Those who were more fortunate than ourselves and who were able to meet with Gotama in his life, were very impressed by one thing: the tranquility of his senses. If our senses tend to be like wild beasts roaming in the forest wherever they will, his senses were completely tamed and under an effortless control, like the well-disciplined horses of a state carriage. As his mind within was completely at peace, so there were no cravings to show themselves through the senses. His conduct as described by others, was most dignified and graceful and his body was moved only for what was necessary and never in the way of fidgeting. Yet this does not mean that he spent his life seated in meditative seclusion for we know that he traveled on foot nine months of the year and for forty-five years. Yet in spite of this, his body was at peace when compared with others. A peaceful mind naturally makes for a peaceful body. He could sit in perfect peace and enjoy the highest happiness for seven days without moving and in this no effort was required, for this peacefulness is natural to those who find Enlightenment. In his speech too, he was peaceful-in that the words spoken by him were all concerned with Dhamma, the Teaching based on Enlightenment, and Vinaya, the Way of Training oneself towards Enlightenment. His words never showed anger or sensual craving, they never betrayed ignorance for where in a Buddha could these evil qualities be found? He was the Mahasamana who had peacefulness of heart, peaceful speech, and a perfectly pacified body. For this peacefulness, He is praised with these words: "Namo tassa Bliagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa."

It is now the time to enquire into the meanings of these words, for in this way we shall get to know more of the Mahasamana. There are three words to examine here "Bhagavat", "Arahant" and "Sammasambuddha." Each one of these represents one of the major aspects of Enlightenment: Great Compassion, Purity and Wisdom.

First, let us look at the word "Bhagavat" which is associated with Great Compassion. "Bhagavat" can have many meanings but primarily it means 'one who is rich in blessed qualities' and so is often translated in English as the 'Blessed One.' It is also rendered as the 'Exalted One.' What sort of compassion does this Exalted One have? Let us think first about our own compassion. This arises sometimes in our hearts when we see or hear of sufferings and with it comes the desire to help the unfortunate beings who are suffering. At other times, specially when we are intent upon our own pleasure, we do not have compassion since self and selfishness block out the light of compassion. But supposing that there was some being who had done away with self and selfishness in every way, in him compassion could be present all the time. This being was the Great Peaceful One, the Mahasamana. In him compassion was constant and natural. It did not have to be cultivated but arose spontaneously at the time of Enlightenment. Nor did it need an object, such as a suffering creature, to stimulate it, for it was present even in the absence of anyone at all. This natural unobstructed quality of a Buddha is called his Great Compassion. The Buddhas see how attached beings are to evil and dangerous pleasure, which is the cause for their repeated sufferings, although they long for peace and happiness. They see that unenlightened people just do not know the Way out of their tangled troubles and very often their efforts to find peace and happiness are wrongly directed and result only in increased sufferings. An ancient Buddhist text explains in many verses about the Great Compassion of a Buddha.

"The Enlightened One, because he saw people drowning in the Great Sea of Birth, Death and Sorrow, longed to save them; for this he was moved by compassion. Because he saw them doing evil with hand, heart and tongue, and many times receiving the bitter fruits of evil, yet ever yielding to their desires; for this He was moved by compassion. Because he saw that though they longed for happiness, they made for themselves no Kamma of happiness: and though they hated pain, yet willingly made for themselves the Kamma of pain: and they coveted the joys of heaven; yet would not follow his Precepts on earth; for this he was moved by compassion. Because he saw them living in evil time, subjected to tyrannous kings and suffering many ills; for this he was moved by compassion. Because he saw them living in a time of ways, killing and wounding one another: and knew that for the riotous hatred that had flourished in their hearts, they had doomed themselves to aeons of retribution; for this was moved by compassion. Because he saw people of the world plowing their fields, sowing their seed, trafficking, huckstering, buying and selling, and in the end winning nothing but bitterness; for this he was moved by compassion."

This Great Compassion was exercised every day of the Exalted One's life. We are told that every morning between the hours of four and six, he would spread over the world what was called "The Net of Great Compassion." This super-sight enabled him to see any beings who could be helped. All beings who were ready to profit by Dhamma would be 'caught' in this net and having seen them and come to know their needs, the Exalted One would visit them and lead them to understand Dhamma. Even people who were temporarily deranged, or those who were upon their deathbeds, even these had their eyes opened to the Truth of Dhamma.

The Exalted One accomplished innumerable deeds of mercy during his life and it was a very strenuous life, needing great powers of endurance. He had often to sleep on bare, uneven ground, he who had slept in palace luxury, yet out of his Great Compassion he could do this easily. Sometimes he had to go hungry when Brahmin villagers would give no food, yet his Great Compassion to aid beings made this seem nothing at all. At other times in the winter, his thin, patched robes provided no warmth but he was better clothed in his Great Compassion. All this hardship was as nothing because of his Great Compassion. He had no need to live like this, his Sakiya family would have welcomed him back, or lay-supporters would willingly have provided him with all comforts, or again he could have let his body die and abandon farther life at the time of his Enlightenment, but seeing that some beings had "but little dust in their eyes" he decided out of this Great Compassion, to teach Dhamma.

Compassion, even when exercised only occasionally by unenlightened people, makes naturally for some peace and happiness; but One who is Compassion itself, he will be an everlasting fountain of peace. But for the results of this cooling and cleansing to be seen in the world, how much more we should be troubled by the fires of desires and aversions. People have only to take the trouble to bathe themselves in it. Though his Compassion was unlimited, yet there were, and are, those who were not interested to benefit by it. The world is always like this, always afflicted by people who do not wish to train themselves in the ways of Moral Conduct and so on, but rather delight in evil doing. So this Great Compassion was not a power that could change all the world without the effort of people and the Exalted One knew that the world would not change much for the better or for the worse. For the benefit of those who did want to change themselves, he taught the various groups of Moral Precepts appropriate for different people, the various methods of concentrating the mind as medicines to cure the different kinds of mental sickness, and the various ways of arousing wisdom and awareness need by the different character-types. All this, Precepts, Concentration and Wisdom, naturally makes for peace. It is the Dhamma called 'peace-making' or 'santikaro' which springs naturally from the heart of One who has known the Sublime Peace or 'Paramasanti' of Nibbana. For all this our Buddha Gotama was known as the 'Mahasamana', the Great One become Peaceful. With such a Great Compassion he is known as 'Bhagavat', the Exalted One, and we should remember this when reciting "Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa."

Having seen something of his Great Compassion, we should now turn to his Purity, which is honored with the epithet 'Arahant' the One of True Worth, When we think about it, the things which are generally valued in this world are either transient or else connected with ability to arouse desire and envy. All the materialistic things are like this and yet ordinary worldly people value them highly. However, all religions place value upon things of the spirit rather than upon the treasures of this world. Lord Buddha has praised all sorts of kindly and noble deeds as the true treasure for people to accumulate and with this treasure; the heart is purified of all the grosser stains of greed, covetousness, attachment, envy, pride and anger. This is one step to purity. This kind of firm training of oneself to relinquish evil and to cultivate the kindly, helpful and noble in one's character can only be done with great effort. One tries hard to avoid evil and to increase in goodness, and this is called 'striving.' In his previous births, the Exalted One had made great efforts at this training and had turned away from all evil and cultured all goodness in himself. But the deep underlying tendencies to evil and the attachment to goodness were not overcome until the time of his Enlightenment. At that time, he came to know true Purity. Contrasted with this Purity, is our own moral purity, which has to be maintained by striving. We have to check ourselves constantly so that our precepts are not broken, whereas a Buddha or an Arahant has destroyed all tendencies to evil, which would lead to broken precepts, so he has no effort to make. Pure moral conduct is natural to one who finds Enlightenment because his heart is pure. We are told, in one discourse of Lord Buddha, that the Arahant is incapable of behaving in nine ways: "He cannot intentionally take the life of a living being; nor take by way of theft what is not given; nor indulge in sexuality; nor tell a deliberate lie; nor indulge in intoxicants; nor store up food for the indulgence of appetite as he did before when a householder; he is incapable of bias through aversion, or through delusion, or through fear". When we think about this list, we can see all the sufferings in the world come about through such actions as the Arahant is incapable of doing. Through an Arahant therefore, no troubles or sufferings of any sort can come about but on the contrary, only peace and happiness.

Lord Buddha once said in verse:

"Whether in the town or in the woods,
Whether in the vale or on the hill,
Wherever indeed Arahants abide
Exceedingly delightful is that place."

(Dhp. 98)

Real worth, real beauty and real delight, all arise through purity of heart. Real peace also arises through purity of heart. The stained and defiled heart corrupted by greed, aversion and delusion can only give rise to troubles and confusions. We know from the life of the Great One who has found Peace, that he brought only the different kinds of happiness to the various sorts to people.

In the case of the Buddhas and Arahants' purity of heart does not mean a lofty isolation from the world. On the contrary, having this Great Purity they are able to help the people of the world most effectively, without being dragged down by worldliness. The Buddha and Arahant are often compared with the lotus. Born in the mud of worldly lust and desire, they grow through the obscuring muddy waters of defilement, eventually to break through to the surface of light and air to see the sun of Dhamma shining for the first time, and then growing and swelling in all the excellent Dhamma-practices, they become matured and open wide the fragrant bloom of Enlightenment in their hearts. No muddy water can soil the lotus for no dirt will stick to it, nor can worldly dirt adhere to the Arahant who has won the true Purity. But dew or pure rain sometimes collects as jewels upon the leaves and in the hearts of the Lotus-flower. These are the shimmering jewels of priceless qualities found in the Arahant and with which he is able to benefit others. Our Teacher is honored with this title 'Arahant', one who had this Purity naturally and at all times, and spread about himself the Pure and peace-making Dhamma. We should remember this when we chant: "Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa".

Last among the Great Qualities of a Buddha is Wisdom. This has been explained under numerous lists of qualities, for truly a Perfectly Enlightened One is possessed of innumerable special qualities, more numerous than grains of sand beside the Ganges. It was said of the Perfectly Enlightened Ones: "The objective field of Enlightened Ones is unthinkable, it cannot be thought out; anyone who tries to think it out would reap madness and frustration." Their knowledge and wisdom go far beyond the very limited range of our unenlightened minds hedged about with Greed, Aversion and Delusion. So we shall not try to fathom the unfathomable but instead shall briefly consider the heart of this wisdom, which is the Teachings peculiar to the Buddhas: that is, the Four Noble Truths.

These Truths apply or can apply to our lives now. Two Truths do apply now, they are the Truth of Un-satisfactoriness and the Truth of the Cause for this un-satisfactoriness. The clumsy word 'un-satisfactoriness' is an effort to translate the Pali term 'dukkha'. This dukkha means all experience of mind or of body, which is unwanted, undesired. It may be physical pain from the slightest discomfort to the most severe agony, or it may be mental pain from the slightest mental affliction- liking or disliking or dullness, to the gravest mental derangement in which understanding is completely overthrown by the strength of the defilements. Our very personality itself is not satisfactory and while we cling to the elements of this personality believing it to be 'mine' we shall not find true peace and happiness. We go through life, together with all beings, trying to avoid this un-satisfactoriness or dukkha but we rarely understand how this is to be done and search more intensively for sensual enjoyments in the belief that in them we shall find true happiness. But the Exalted Buddha says that dukkha is to be "fully understood", that is, it must not be run away from but faced squarely by anyone who wants to practice. This first Noble Truth of Dukkha which we can verify all the time from our own experience, shows the great Wisdom of the Buddha. He has so clearly summarized this trouble found everywhere in life but his analysis must be investigated.

When this is done, the second Noble Truth of the causal Arising of Dukkha becomes clear. This cause is called craving-for sensual pleasures, for life, or for death, and this craving in our own hearts for continued experience ensures that we shall continue revolving in the wheel of birth and death, death and birth, in which there is so much dukkha. This origin of dukkha is to be "abandoned", that is, craving is to be given up by disciplining oneself, by renunciation. The more craving can be renounced, the more happiness will oneself and all other beings in this world experience. This Noble Truth can also be seen and understood in one's own life now. The more that a person sees this craving in himself, the more he will wish to abandon it, for its abandonment brings peace. The great Wisdom of the Exalted Buddha may be discerned here by those who are interested to investigate for themselves.

Now, abandonment of craving, if thorough, means the Third Noble Truth, called Cessation. This cessation of craving is to be "realized" in one's own heart. It is also called Nibbana, the highest goal of striving in Dhamma, which means the quenching of the fires of greed, aversion and delusion in ourselves, the end of self and selfishness and the experience of the Sublime Peace. This Third Noble Truth is not seen in our lives now, it is to be discovered after we have "fully understood dukkha" and "abandoned the origin of dukkha"-or craving.

But most people will require a way to abandon craving, they will ask how this is to be done? So the Exalted One has formulated with his great Wisdom, this Noble Truth of the Practice-path leading to the Cessation of Dukkha. And the Way to practice is broadly: Moral Conduct, Concentration of mind, and purification of the heart by Wisdom. This Fourth Noble Truth is to be seen in the lives of sincere Buddhists who strive towards that Sublime Peace for themselves, knowing that when they experienced it, they will be able to help others.

These Four Noble Truths discovered as the very heart of Wisdom, are easily spoken, quite easily remembered, but not so easy to put into practice and far from easy for the ordinary person to see in himself.

To gain this great Wisdom oneself calls for devoted effort, perhaps for many years and it is only those who truly value peace and happiness who will be prepared to make this effort. Peace and happiness should not be only the abstract qualities of Lord Buddha, his Dhamma and of the Community of Noble Ones, they must be found in the lives of Buddhists now. This Wisdom, remembered when we praise the Exalted One with the epithet 'Perfectly Enlightened One', helps to bring about peacefulness in people's lives.

We cannot now know the Great Compassion, Purity and Wisdom, for our hearts are not yet free enough but we can make a start and try to grow in acts of compassion, in sincere undertaking of moral conduct and precepts, and in wise discernment and greater awareness of what we do in our lives. By doing so, we take a step away from the chaotic world created by the defiled mind, and towards the ideal shown to us in the person of the Mahasamana, our Teacher who has found the Great Peace. The more people practice, the more are purified at heart, the greater will be the peace and happiness for all beings in whatever state they dwell.

Let us bring compassion, purity and wisdom into our own hearts, thinking of the Great Compassion, Great Purity and Great Wisdom of the Perfectly Enlightened One as we chant:

"Namo tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma-sambuddhassa."

EVAM

Thus indeed it is.