The Buddha's father King Suddhodana

(Buddha’s Stories) The story of King Suddhodana, the Buddha’s father

Men are dumb, Dad - I know. I❤️U.

It's easy to love mom, but what about dad? What has the Men's Movement done for males in this patriarchy? (There are feminist men?) In the U.S., whether or not to celebrate "Father's Day" nationwide is a matter of debate. In 1908, Grace Golden Clayton proposed a day to honor men who had died in a U.S. mining accident. It was rejected then.

But in 1909, Sonora Louise Smart Dodd, who along with her five brothers had been raised by a single father, attended "Mother's Day" in a church.

Men's empowerment hike on Father's Day

She then convinced the Spokane Ministerial Association to celebrate Father's Day nationwide [7]. In addition to Father's Day, International Men's Day is celebrated in many countries on Nov. 19th in honor of men and boys [8]: Father's Day

In the Pāli canon, there are only two discourses (sutras) that explicitly reference Suddhodana, the Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14) and in the verse prologue of the Nālaka Sutta (Sn 3.11). In each of these discourses, Suddhodana is represented simply as the Buddha's father and as a Sakyan ruler.

Father for a Buddha

Good father had a bad Buddha who abandoned his newborn son?

(Buddha's Wisdom) The Buddha's son: the forgotten story of Rahula: Why did the Buddha abandon his newborn son, leaving him on welfare in flat in the winter with no schooling or support?

Afghan chieftain Indo-Scythia, Gandhara

Who is Prince Siddhattha's father, the Gandharan (Afghan territorial chieftain?*) King Suddhodana? In Theravada Buddhism (a major branch) — Suddhodana is recorded in the ancient Pali canon.

He was a Saka, Sakka, Shakya, Scythian, Sakiyan raja ("king," "leader," "head," "royal") in Kapilavatthu, the father of Prince Siddhattha Gotama, who became the historical Buddha.

He was the son of Sihahanu and Kaccana. His brothers were Dhotodana, Sakkodana, Sukkodana, and Amitodana, and his sisters were Amita and Pamita.

Maya was his chief consort. After her death, her sister Pajapati was elevated to that position (Mhv.ii.15f.; Dpv.iii.45; J.i.15, etc.)

Asita's visit to Suddhodana

When soothsayers predicted that his son Siddhattha had two destinies awaiting him, either that of a universal monarch (cakkavatti, chakravartin) if he stayed in the world or a universal teacher (Buddhahood) if he renounced it, he exerted his utmost effort to provide the prince with all kinds of sensual luxuries and hedonistic pleasures to hold him to the household life.

It is said (e.g., J.i.54) that when Asita, who was his father's [Brahmin] chaplain and teacher, visited King Suddhodana to see the newborn prince, he paid homage to the infant by allowing his feet to rest on his head. Suddhodana was filled with wonder and also worshipped the child.

I wish for you to be a noble warrior, my son.

Seven years later, at the annual Ploughing Festival ceremony, Suddhodana saw that the shadow of the jambu tree under which the child had been placed in the shade when he spontaneously went into meditative absorption (jhana, samadhi) did not move even as the sun traveled overhead. Then the child, seated cross-legged without moving, levitated in the air. So he again worshipped him (J.i.57f).

Life in the luxurious house of Saka

Twenty-nine years later, when in spite of all his father's efforts, Prince Siddhattha renounced and left behind the household life and took to practicing austerities in the East, Suddhodana sent a messenger/private investigator to find his son and see what he was up to.

The investigator returned with news that his son had died, owing to the severity of his penances (tapas). But Suddhodana refused to believe it, saying that his son would never die without achieving his spiritual goal (J.i.67).

When this was afterwards related to the Buddha, he taught the Maha Dhammapala Jataka, showing that in the past, too, Suddhodana had refused to believe that his son could have died even when he was shown the heap of his bones.

I failed as a father. My son left.

Seven years after that, when news reached Suddhodana that his son had reached enlightenment, he sent a messenger to Veluvana in Rajagaha ("Bamboo Grove" in Rajgir, where King Bimbisara reigned) with many others to invite the Buddha to return home and visit the seasonal capital of Kapilavatthu.

But when the messenger and his companions heard the Buddha teach, they renounced worldly life, entered the Monastic Order, and forgot their mission. This happened nine more times with different messengers.

On the tenth occasion, King Suddhodana sent Kaludayi (Sanskrit Kālodāyin) who had advance permission to join the Sangha on the express condition that he give the king's invitation to the Buddha.

Kaludayi kept his promise, the Buddha consented, and seven years after having left home to embark on a massive spiritual quest, he returned home to visit Kapilavatthu, staying in Nigrodharama. There, in reference to a rain shower that fell, he taught the Vessantara Jataka.

• The Buddha returns home, visits Kapilavatthu (Wisdom Library)

Life of the Buddha (Archaeological Museum of India, Sarnath, Gallery 1)

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The next day, when King Suddhodana remonstrated his royal (noble, warrior) son, the Buddha, because he was seen "begging" (going on almsround) on the streets of Kapilavatthu, the Buddha told him that surviving on offerings was the custom of all buddhas. Hearing this, King Suddhodana became a stream enterer (sotapanna, the first stage of enlightenment).

Son, at 16, you shall marry the beautiful Bimba.

He then offered to feed his new teacher the Buddha, inviting him to visit the palace, where he entertained him. At the end of the meal offering, the Buddha further taught the king, who became a once returner (sakadagami, J.i.90; cf. DhA.iii.164f).

• This was when the Buddha was reunited with Princess Bimba (Yasodhara) and his 7-year-old son Rahula, both of whom were "saved" in that they were inspired to renounce their worldly lives in the palace and take up the path-of-practice the Buddha taught as wandering ascetics. In no long time, they both became enlightened. Many Saka/Shakya/Scythian relatives were inspired to follow suit, join the Sangha (spiritual community), and make an end of all suffering.

The king then became a nonreturner (anagami, the third of four stages of awakening) after hearing the Maha Dhammapala Jataka (DhA.i.99; J.iv.55).

Suddhodana was the Bodhisatta or Buddha-to-be’s father in numerous previous births, but he is mentioned as such by name in only a few birth (jātaka) tales, namely:

1. Kaṭṭhahāri Jātaka
2. Alīnacitta Jātaka
3. Susīma Jātaka
4. Bandhanāgāra Jātaka
5. Kosambiya Jātaka
6. Mahādhammapāla Jātaka
7. Dasaratha Jātaka
8. Hatthipāla Jātaka
9. Umaṅga Jātaka
10. Vessantara Jātaka.

• *Where is the real Kapilavatthu (Sanskrit Kapilavastu)? There were three seasonal capitals (with three palaces, one for each season) of the Sakas, Shakyas, Indo-Scythians of Gandhara, which we speculate were Kabul, Bamiyan, and Mes Aynak. Was Suddhodana really a "king" as we understand the term? A janapada is the "foothold of a family clan," in the case the Sakas. More likely he was a tribal leader as of the Pashtun's loya jirga. While the Pashtuns may be new to the area of Bamiyan, the tradition of leadership "councils" seems to be longstanding.
• SuttaVinaya.com: Appreciation of Parents' Love
• Nakula's dad the householder Nakula's mom the householder
• Buddhism for All - (Discussion & Learning) | Blessing #11 from the Mangala Sutta
• G. P. Malalasekera, Buddhist Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, via WisdomLib.org, edited, clarified, and expanded by Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha and his father, who was right?

The newborn prince

Son, I will be reborn a monk in the Pure Abodes

When the Buddha-to-be (the Bodhisatta) was born, his father, King Suddhodana, and all the other Scythian (Shakyian) princes were educated by a very wise and virtuous Brahmin named Asita.

Asita was a sage who lived in the jungles close to the Himalayan foothills. He spent his days meditating in a hut there, when one morning he saw and heard the woodland fairies (devas) rejoicing by singing and dancing. 

Inquiring, he learned that a baby boy had been born to King Suddhodana and Queen Maya and that this prince would one day become a supremely enlightened teacher surpassing all other beings. Hearing this, the sage Asita was delighted and hurried to Kapilavatthu to see the king.

When King Suddhodana saw Asita, he was very happy that his old teacher had come to see his baby, even before a message was sent informing him of the birth of his firstborn son. The king brought the prince to show him to the wise old sage so the sage could examine him and make a prediction about the little one’s future.

However, when he held the baby, his little feet touched the Brahmin’s head dress (jathah). Surprised at this, the sage took hold of his tiny feet and saw by the lines of his soles that this baby will definitely become a supremely enlightened one.

I am sure he will choose his Quest.

He was so happy at this that he got up from his seat and, holding his hands in front of his heart (anjali mudra), he paid respects to the baby. When the king saw this teacher venerating the baby, he too held his hands together and venerated his son. (This was the first time the king, the father of the Buddha-to-be, paid homage to his son).

However, Asita’s delight quickly changed into sadness when he realized that by the time this baby would become fully awakened, he himself would have passed away from the human realm to an Immaterial Sphere world known as the “realm of neither perception nor perception” or neva-sagna na-sagna yathana.*

• *The mind is so subtle at this stage of absorption (jhana) that the karma of attaining it leads to rebirth in this realm. See the 31 Planes of Existence. Consciousness here is so subtle that it can hardly be said to be perception at all, but it is certainly not non-perception. The meditative practice of jhana, later classified by the Buddha as "right concentration" or samma-samadhi (extreme stillness of mind) brings this rebirth about. However long lasting such a rebirth is, it is not permanent and is not nirvana.

Nevertheless, the prediction was made that this baby would one day become a supremely enlightened teacher, a buddha. The prince was named Siddhattha (Sanskrit Siddhartha, which literally means “Doing good to the world” or “Wish fulfilled”).

On the seventh day after Prince Siddhattha’s birth, his mother Queen Maya passed away.

• Thereafter, her younger sister and second wife of the king, Queen Pajapati, adopted the prince and looked after him like her own son. (She eventually had two children of her own, Nanda and Sundari Nanda, but always gave Prince Siddhattha the most attention over his siblings).

What happened 29 years later?

After 29 years of living in luxury, spoiled rotten, carefree, Prince Siddhartha sees Death.

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The Bodhisatta was on a mission to awaken

Other soothsayers told the king that his son might become a world monarch (cakkhavati), but if he saw the downside of life, he would likely turn away and renounce the world.

So to ensure that he went on to exercise rule over the whole known world (at least Jambudipa), it was advisable to protect the prince from hardship.

The father so loved his son and so wanted him to be a great king that he decided to shelter him and dote on him and give him everything he could want, spoiling him for 29 years.

At 29, Prince Siddhartha left it all behind.

But all of this had the reverse effect because, eventually, when the prince saw how the world really was -- beset by old age, sickness, and death -- it made such an impact that he had to go in search of a solution. This led him on spiritual quest. He abandoned the good life and went in search of the pure life of yoga (with first one yogi named Alara Kalama then another named Uddaka Ramaputta), meditation, and yogic austerities (tapas) to win complete enlightenment. These all failed him to win him the ultimate goal.

• IMAGES of The Great Renunciation (รูปภาพ - พระพุทธศาสนา :: Dhammajak.net)

Letting go into absorption, he practiced insight

So he settled down, cared for his body, and undertook the Middle Way, avoiding extremes of hedonism as he had pursued in the palace and self-mortification as he had pursued on his own in the forest. Instead of rejecting the pleasure and rapture of the initial meditative absorptions, he pursued them to ever more refined states of stillness, practicing all eight jhanas.

Now his mind was temporarily released from the defilement, purified, and ready to practice clear seeing (vipassana) through mindfulness of the body, feelings, mind, and mind-objects. He took of his initial question that led him on this quest, "Why is the cause of suffering?" Practicing Dependent Origination, he traced back present suffering to its causes and conditions in previous lives, on account of karma and its results, all the way back to ignorance.

Forward and back, he went until he made a breakthrough in understanding, in knowledge and vision, directly knowing-and-seeing for himself. He awakened to the utmost under his bodhi ("enlightenment") tree and eventually agreed to teach after doubting if anyone would understand or put in the effort to purify their knowledge and vision and thereby gain the same liberation he had won.

• Dhammajak.net; Gotama the Buddha | Vipassana Research Institute; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation) (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mother's Day: The Buddha's Three Mothers

Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly (AN 2.32) UPDATED

Mother's Day in America in 12 comics from The New Yorker (newyorker.com)

 

The birth of Siddhartha with Mother Maya

The historical Buddha Prince Siddhartha Gautama had three mothers in his final rebirth when he made an end of all further rebirth and suffering.

Most people will have heard of Prince Siddhartha's second mother, his biological mother, Maha Maya Devi ("Great Queen Maya"). She was a queen among the Scythians/Shakyians, the first wife of his father [the rich Gandharan/Afghan chieftain] King Suddhodana, whose riches derived from the Silk Road Route through Kabul/Bamiyan that brought wealth, merchants, and spiritual travelers to the ancient faraway capital of Kapilavastu, the Buddha's hometown.

Birth mother: Queen Maha Maya Devi

Maya's beauty was like a "dream" or "magical illusion"; in fact, the name maya derives from the Sanskrit and Pali word for "illusion" (taken in Mahayana-Hinduism as māyā, two religions that so influenced one another as to be the same thing with different names for the same deities, one buddhas and the other avatars].

The Buddha goes up to Tavatimsa or the celestial World of the Thirty-Three to see his deceased mother, Maya, who descends with others from Tusita (the "Contented Heaven") to hear him teach.

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We had a son! - Now the drama really begins.

Any illusion, of course, is fleeting. Queen Maya passed away seven days after giving birth to her only son Prince Siddhartha. It was no accident. There are reasons given for this in the back story -- the most spiritual being that she only volunteered for a human birth to give birth to him.

That motherly task done, Maya Devi returned to a more comfortable existence in the Tusita World. She benefitted greatly for this act (karma) in the World of the Thirty-Three, where the Buddha went to preach to her until she and the other beings present were awakened and freed from suffering. The Buddha was able to repay her for her generosity and help. As it turns out, we enter life knowing, on some deeper level, those individuals who play the role of parents, partners, relatives, friends, and enemies. But this is a truth bigger than most of us can easily digest or would be willing to accept. So the drama (lila) goes on.

• 

  Buddhism reached the Maya of Mesoamerica.

  The words "Maya" -- the Mexican Native Americans from Mesoamerica and Central America who crafted the Mayan Calendar -- and "Guatemala" both derive from the name of the Buddha's mother, whose surname is Gautama and mala (garland).
• Reference: American Rick Fields' How the Swan Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America where these and many more connections are drawn showing Buddhism's arrival in the Americas long before the Conquistadors, Catholicism, and European Christianity.

Maya, Mariah (Mary), a queen in heaven

Mother Maya was reborn as a devaputra ("deva-offspring" or "reborn among devas") back in the Tusita World. Her former son, Prince Siddhartha, who years later became the Buddha, thanked and repaid her for her help in this very life by teaching her the liberating-Dharma, in the legendary narrative account of how the Abhidharma ("Higher Teaching") came to be.

Other devas from Tusita and elsewhere who were present in Sakka's celestial realm in space also got to hear the teaching. King Sakka, a stream-enterer and therefore a devoted follower of the Buddha, was most happy to host, the legend goes.

Our parents do so much for us that, according to the Buddha, the only way we can ever repay them is by teaching or leading them to the ennobling Dharma.

The Other Mothers

Foster mother: Maha Pajapati Gotami

Many will also have heard of the Buddha's foster or stepmother related by blood, Queen Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami (Sanskrit Gautami). As Mother Number 3, she was Queen Maya's sister and co-wife. She is famous because she became the world's first Buddhist nun then an enlightened one.

Both sisters were married to King Suddhodana. Pajapati stepped forward to care for the newborn Siddhartha to the detriment of her own two children -- her son, Nanda, the Buddha's brother (who shared a father, with sister-mothers, who nursed and adopted Siddhartha at the age of 7 days, which would seem to make her a little more than a foster mother or Nanda and Sundari Nanda half-siblings) and daughter, the Buddha's rarely mentioned half-sister, Beautifuld (Sundari) Nanda.

Queen Pajapati was the mother of these two royals, but it is said she gave up primary care of her biological children to nurse, care for, and raise Prince Siddhartha (the future Buddha), the firstborn heir to the Scythian throne in Kapilavastu.

 

Mother of his child: Princess Bimba (Yasodhara)

She is much more famous in this world than Maya because Pajapati (Sanskrit Prajapati) went on to become the first Buddhist nun. The Buddha's brother and sister also ordained and became enlightened.

This was in addition to Siddhartha's wife, Rahulamata ("Rahula's mother"), Princess Bimba Devi, much more popularly known as Yasodhara.

Rahula, Bimba, and Siddhartha

What we are never told as we hear the story of the Buddha's life repeated is the fact that Prince Siddhartha did not "abandon" his family.

Far from becoming a deadbeat dad, taking up a good ol' time in the wilderness as an extreme ascetic, he actually saved his family the only way he could: He first had to go off in search of enlightenment then come back awakened with answers and a solution to the problem of suffering. Then he led and encouraged his

• biological mother (Maya),
• biological father (Suddhodana),
• cousin-wife (Princess Yasodhara/Bimba Devi),
• second-son (Rahula [Ananda being the first, as some Buddhist traditions record]),
• half-brother (Nanda),
• half-sister (Sundari Nanda),
• foster mother (Pajapati),
• cousins (Scythian relatives referred to as Shakyian princes),
• extended family members (other Scythians in the palace compound of King Suddhodana) to liberation (moksha), to enlightenment or full awakening, and nirvana (complete freedom).

He remembered his biological mother and visited her where she was reborn. Such was the reverence of the Buddha for his parents, and many monastics followed suit. For example, there is the famous case of one of the Buddha's chief male disciples, the Brahmin Maha Moggallana, visiting his mother in hell to help her. The other chief male disciple, the Brahmin Ven. Sariputta, also had a whale of a time convincing his unbelieving mother who placed no faith in the Buddha.

The Buddha's former wife became an enlightened Buddhist nun and famous disputant called by various names to disguise her greatness: Rahula-mata, Bhaddakaccānā, and so on. is not the Buddha's mother. How could she be the Buddha's mother? She was their son Ven. Rahula's mother.

The First Mother: Nakulamata

Questionable quote (Lotusing/Flickr)

The Buddha's "first mother," Nakulamata, is a strange story of rebirth. One day the Buddha was walking down a road with his monastic disciples when he passed an elderly couple. The man, Nakulapita, called out to him, "Son! Your mother and I have been missing you! It has been a long time since you visited us!"

Kwan Yin as Mother Goddess (D)

The monastics thought this was very strange. Stranger still, the Buddha approached them and spoke to them in a very kindly way like a son full of gratitude. The monastics were confused.

Why is the teacher letting these strangers talk to him this way, addressing him as "son"?

The Buddha later explained that for 500 (which actually just means "many") lives this couple had indeed been his parents. Over and over, the karma of the three being such, they were born together. This woman raised him over and again. And here she was in his last life running into him apparently by chance but not really. This meeting was no accident; it was brought about by the force of karma.

The nuns and monks may have been surprised to hear who this couple was but, in fact, the Buddha taught something far more mindboggling:

So long is this "continued wandering on" through births and deaths called samsara that it is difficult to ever meet anyone with whom one has not already shared all relationships.

• Nakulamata ("Nakula's mother") was the wife of Nakulapitā ("Nakula's father"), householders from Suṁsumāragiri in the Bhagga country. When the Buddha visited their village and stayed at Bhesakalāvana (the forest grove nearby), they went to see him. They immediately fell at his feet, calling him “son,” asking why he had been away so long. It is said that they had been the Bodhisatta’s parents for 500 (which is figurative for "many") rebirths and his close relatives for many more. The Buddha taught them, and they became stream enters (the first stage of enlightenment, sotāpannas). The Buddha visited their village once more when they were old. They entertained him, speaking of their devotion to one another in this life and asking for a teaching to keep them likewise together (in a loving relationship) in the afterlife (in future lives). The Buddha referred to this in the assembly of the Monastic Saṅgha, declaring them to be the foremost in intimate companionship among his disciples. AN.i.26, AN.ii.61… (G.P. Malalasekera rom Pali Proper Names, edited by Wisdom Quarterly).
• Wisdomlib.org definition: Nakulapita
• Happily ever after and even after that (dharmatown.org)

Goddess of Compassion Kwan Yin (pinterest.com)

Look around; all those people have already been one's mother, father, and so on... How much gratitude do we have for them? How much do we owe them?

While this seems preposterous, it seems so only because we do not fathom or comprehend how long an aeon (kalpa) is, how many there have been, or how many times we have already been reborn, how many existences we have already lived and are yet to live, and how much we have already suffered as we yearn for more and more rebirth.

We have no idea what has been. For if we knew, we would not be so eager to continue to cycle and revolve in ignorance again and again.

In that final existence, the Bodhisattva (or Buddha-to-be) had taken rebirth in a special way to accomplish his goal of becoming a world-teacher, a Supremely Enlightened Teaching Buddha, and Maya had volunteered to serve this world-system in the capacity of giving birth to such a great being.

Chinese Madonna and child (Macao)

But here in the world, already existing, was the Bodhisattva's long-time mother, his mother many times over, and now she had again found him. Our mothers, even when they do not give birth to us this time, are all around (fathers, too).

Our nurturers are here, and still they nurture us -- sometimes they attack us perhaps due to their lack of understanding or our lack of gratitude -- and stranger still we, too, are former mothers and fathers of countless others. Such is the incomprehensible working out of karma (deeds), an imponderable (acinteyya) thing.
 
Happy Mother's Day to all the moms -- and we mean ALL of them including YOU, you dummy, from from Wisdom Quarterly. (You, yes you, male and female readers. We have all been a mom countless times!)

The Buddha's father shows off his son

Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells (eds.), based on Ven. Thanissaro aka Geoffrey DeGraff (trans.), Nalaka Sutra: "Message to Nalaka" (Sn 3.11, PTS Sn 679-723), 6/21/20, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha did this for his father: guided him to the second stage of enlightenment.

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Asita the seer in his midday meditation saw

the shining ones (devas) of the Thirty-Three

— exultant, ecstatic, dressed in pure white,

honoring Indra (Sakka),

holding up banners, cheering wildly,

and seeing them thus joyful and happy,

he paid his respects and asked:

"Why is the community of shining ones

wildly elated, holding up banners

and waving them around?

Even after the war with the titans (asuras)

— when victorious having defeated them —

there was no excitement like this.

Seeing what marvel

are the shining ones this joyful?

They shout, sing, play music,

clap their hands, and dance.

So I ask those who live on the summit of Mt. Meru,

Quickly dispel my doubts, please, dear sirs."

My son, my heir, Prince Siddhartha!

"The Bodhisattva, foremost jewel,

gem unequalled, has been reborn

for the welfare and gain of the human plane,

in a town in the Scythian countryside,

the garden grove of Lumbini.

That's why we're all wildly elated. He, the highest

of all beings, the ultimate person,

a bull among humans, foremost of all people,

will set rolling the Wheel [of the Dharma]

in the Grove of Seers, like a roaring lion,

conqueror of beasts."

Hearing these words, Asita quickly descended

[from a celestial world] and went to [the Buddha's

father] King Suddhodana's dwelling. There,

taking a seat, he said to the Scythians:

"Where is the prince? I, too, wish to see him!"

The Scythians then showed the child

to the seer Asita -- this their son, the prince,

like gold aglow, burnished by a skillful smith

in the mouth of a furnace, blazing with glory,

flawless in color.

On seeing the prince ablaze like flame,

pure as the bull of the stars moving across the sky

— the burning sun, released from autumn clouds —

Asita was exultant and abundantly filled with rapture.

The shining ones kept aloft in the sky

a thousand-spoked disk of a thousand circles.

Gold-handled whisks waved up and down,

but those holding the whisks and the disk

could not be seen.

.

The matted-haired seer named Dark Splendor,

seeing the boy, like an ornament of gold

on a red woolen blanket,

a white parasol held over his head,

received him, happy and well pleased.

Receiving the bull of the Scythians,longingly,

the master of mantras and signs

exclaimed with a confident mind:

"This one is unsurpassed, highest

of those with two feet."

Then, foreseeing his own imminent passing,

dejected, he began to shed tears.

Seeing him weeping, the Scythians asked:

"Surely there will be no danger for the prince?"

Seeing the Scythians' concern he replied,

"I foresee for the prince no harm.

Nor for him will there be any danger.

This one is high-born, rest assured.

This prince will touch the ultimate awakening.

He, seeing the utmost purity, will set rolling

the Wheel of the Dharma out of sympathy

for the welfare of the many. His version of the 

supreme-life will spread far and wide.

But as for me, my life here has little remaining;

my passing will take place before then.

I will not get to hear the Dharma of this one

with a peerless role. That's why I'm stricken,

afflicted, and pained."

Having brought the Scythians abundant rapture,
the follower of the supreme-life left the inner
chamber and, out of sympathy for his nephew [Nalaka],

urged him on toward the Dharma of the one
with the peerless role: "When you hear
from another the word 'Awakened One,' or
'Attaining self-awakening, he lays open
the path of the Dharma," go there and ask him
yourself. Follow the supreme-life under that
Blessed One."

Instructed by the one whose mind was set on his benefit,

Such, seeing in the future the utmost purity, Nalaka,
who had laid up a store of merit, awaited the Victor
with great expectations, guarding his senses.

On hearing word of the Victor's turning of the foremost
wheel, he went, he saw the bull among seers. Confident,

he asked the foremost sage about the highest wisdom,

now that Asita's forecast had come to pass.

[Nalaka:] Now that I know Asita's words to be true,

I ask you, Gautama, you who have gone beyond
all things: I'm intent on the homeless life;

I long for the alms round.

Tell me, sage, when I ask,

the utmost state of wisdom.

[The Buddha:] I'll explain a wisdom hard to do,

hard to endure. Come now, I'll make know to you.

Be steadfast. Be firm. Practice even-mindedness,

for in a village there's praise and blame.

Ward off any flaw in the heart. Go about calmed
and not haughty.

High and low things will come up

like flames of fire in a forest.

Women seduce a sage.

May they not seduce you [Note 1].

Abstaining from sexual intercourse,

abandoning the variety of sensuous pleasures,

be unopposed, unattached to beings moving and still.

'As I am, so are these. As are these, so am I.'

Drawing the parallel to yourself,

neither kill nor urge others to kill.

Abandoning the wants and greed

where ordinary, uninstructed people are stuck,

practice with vision, cross over this hell.

Stomach unfull,

moderate in food,

having few wants,

being ungreedy,

not hankering after desires:

one free of hankering

is one who's quenched (nirvanered).

Having gone on alms round, a sage

should then go to the forest,

standing or taking a seat

at the root of a tree. The enlightened one,
intent on meditative absorption,

should delight in the forest,

should practice meditative absorption
at the root of a tree, attaining satisfaction.

Then, at the end of the night,

one should go to the village,

not delighting in an invitation

or gift from the village.

Having gone to the village,

a sage should with care, not carelessly,

go among families.

Cutting off idle chatter, not uttering
a scheming word. 'I got something,

that's fine. I got nothing, that's fine.'

Being impartial with regard to both,

one returns to the very same tree.

Wandering with alms bowl in hand

— not dumb, but seemingly dumb —

one does not despise a small gift

nor disparage the giver.

High and low are the practices

proclaimed by the wandering ascetic.

They do not go twice to the further shore.

This [nirvana] is not sensed but once [2]. 

In one who is free of clinging —

the monastic who has cut off the stream,

abandoning what is and is not a duty —

no fever is found.

I'll explain wisdom: be like the razor's edge.

Pressing tongue against palate,

restrain stomach.

Neither lazy in mind

nor having many thoughts.

Commit to taintlessness, independent,

having the supreme-life as the aim.

Train in solitude and the wandering ascetic's task,

Solitude [mental withdrawal] is called wisdom.

Alone, truly delight and shine in the ten directions.


On hearing the fame of the enlightened

— those who practice absorption,
relinquishing sensual pleasures —

a disciple should foster all the more

confidence and conscience.

Know from the rivers in clefts and caves:

those in small channels flow noisily,

the great flow silent.

Whatever is unfull makes noise.

Whatever is full is quiet.

The fool is like a half-empty pot;

one who is wise is like a full lake.

A wandering ascetic who speaks a great deal

endowed with meaning, knowing,
one teaches the Dharma, knowing,
one speaks a great deal.

But one who, knowing, is restrained,

knowing, does not speak a great deal,

such a one is a sage worthy of sagehood;

one is a sage with sagehood attained.

NOTES

1. For an instance of a man who tried to seduce a nun, see Therigatha XIV.

2. According to the Commentary, the high and low practices taught by the Buddha are, respectively, the mode of practice that is pleasant with quick attainment, and the mode of practice that is painful with slow attainment. (See AN 4.162; The Wings to Awakening, Passage 84). These modes of practice do not "go twice to the further shore" in the sense that each of the four paths — to stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and full enlightenment — abandons whatever defilements it is capable of abandoning once and for all. There is no necessity of repeating the path. Nirvana is not attained "only once" in the sense that it is contacted as the result of each of the four paths.

• See also AN 3.120