(Buddha's Wisdom) Jesus the Christ (the Anointed One) vs. Siddhartha the Buddha (the Awakened One): Who forgives what we cannot undo?
- If there's a God who can forgive "sin," who can erase "karma" (our deeds that ripen in pleasant and unpleasant resultants)
- Aṅgulimāla: from serial killer to saint
- Aṅgulimāla Sutta (MN 86)—translated by Ven. Nyanamoli
- Jesus and Buddha on Karma, Sin, and the Ending of Suffering | by Siri Perera | Medium
There is this beautiful inspirational saying in Christianity that goes, "Ever saint has a past, every sinner a future." 😇👹
Angulimala Discourse (MN 86)
On that occasion there was a serial killer in the King Pasenadi's kingdom of Kosala by the name of Aṅgulimāla (“Finger-garland”). He was a murderer, bloodyhanded, given to beatings and violence, without mercy for living beings.
Villages, towns, and whole districts were being laid waste by him. He was constantly murdering people, and he wore their fingers (aṅguli) like a garland string (māla) [as a gruesome trophy].
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| Angulimala and the Buddha |
Cowherds, shepherds, and ploughmen passing by saw the Buddha taking the road to Aṅgulimāla. Seeing him, they shouted, “Do not take that road, wandering ascetic!
"On that road is the serial killer Aṅgulimāla, who's a murderer, bloodyhanded, given to beatings and violence, without mercy for living beings.
"Villages and towns and districts are being laid waste by him. He is constantly murdering people, and he wears their fingers as a garland. Men have come along this road in groups of 10, 20, 30 and, even 40 from time to time, but they have all fallen into Aṅgulimāla’s bloody hands!”
When this was said, the Blessed One continued on in silence. More
Is this mass murderer a historical figure?
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| Making an act of truth to a pregnant woman |
The first is the Psalms of the Brethren (Theragāthā), probably the oldest of the two,[5] and the second is the Aṅgulimāla Sutta in the Middle Length Discourses (Majjhima Nikāya) [9]. Both offer a short description of Aṅgulimāla's encounter with the Buddha without mentioning much of the background information, which of course is the work of Indian commentaries to provide).
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| Returning to monastery bleeding from attack |
Apart from the Pāli texts, Tibetan and Chinese texts that originate in Sanskrit also describe the life of Aṅgulimāla [10, 7].
The Sanskrit collection called Saṃyuktāgama from the early Mūla-Sārvastivāda school, was translated in two Chinese texts (in the 4th–5th century CE) by the early Sarvāstivāda and Kāśyapīya schools and also contains versions of the story [11, 7, 12].
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| Aṅgulimāla calmed by the Buddha |
Apart from these early texts, there are also later renderings that appear in the commentary to the Middle Length Discourses attributed to Buddhaghosa (5th century CE) and the commentary to the Theragāthā attributed to Dhammapāla (6th century CE) [10].
The two commentaries do not appear to be independent of one another: It appears that Dhammapāla copied or closely paraphrased Buddhaghosa, adding explanation to some of the inconsistencies [6, 7], which is of course the job of the sub-commentaries.
The earliest accounts of Aṅgulimāla's life emphasize his fearless violence and, by contrast, the peacefulness of the Buddha. More
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