(papercraftsbyk/flickr.com)Voices
Narrator One. A commentator of the present time, who introduces the others and who represents a dispassionate onlooker with some general knowledge of the events.
Narrator Two. A commentator who supplies historical and traditional information contained only in the medieval Pali commentaries (mainly those of the 5th century by Ven. Buddhaghosa). His functions are to give the minimum of such material needed for historical clarity and, occasionally, to summarize portions of the Canon itself.
First Voice. The voice of the Elder Ananda, the disciple and personal attendant of the Buddha, who recited the Discourses (or sutras) at the First Council, held at Rajagaha three months after the Buddha's attainment of final nirvana.
Second Voice. The voice of the Elder Upali, disciple of the Buddha, who recited the Discipline (Vinaya) at the First Council.
Publisher's Note
The present Wheel booklet contains Chapter 12 of Bhikkhu Ñanamoli's classic compilation, The Life of the Buddha according to the Pali Canon. The purpose of that book, now in print for 27 years, had been to construct a biography of the Buddha by piecing together all the relevant material scattered throughout the Monastic Disciplinary Code and the Collection of Discourses. Since the Buddha's life was in many respects inseparable from his teaching, Ven. Ñanamoli had included, in the middle of the book, an anthology of texts dealing with the teaching, which he entitled "The Doctrine." In his introduction he described his purpose:
In Chapter 12 the main elements of doctrine have been brought together roughly following an order suggested by the Discourses. No interpretation has been attempted… but rather the material has been put together in such a way as to help the reader make his own. A stereotyped [repetitive] interpretation risks slipping into one of the types of metaphysical wrong view, which the Buddha himself has described in great detail. If Chapter 12 is found rather forbidding, let the last words of Anathapindika be pleaded in justification for its inclusion.…
The last words of Anathapindika, the Buddha's chief patron, were: "Let such (profound) talks on the Dharma be given to the lay followers. There are some with little dust in their eyes who are wasting through not hearing such talks on the Dharma. Some of them will gain final knowledge [liberation] of the Dharma."
Several readers had suggested to the publisher that Chapter 12 of Life of the Buddha could well stand on its own as an excellent little handbook of the Buddha's teachings, useful for study, reflection, and meditation. With this aim it is being issued as a separate Wheel series booklet. The structure of the anthology is based on the formula of the Four Noble Truths and the factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, which the Buddha announced in his First Sermon at Benares [Varanasi, India] and returned to again and again throughout his ministry. Within this framework Ven. Ñanamoli has incorporated a wide variety of texts which throw new and illuminating spotlights on the subtle implications of these familiar formulas.
We hope this will fulfill the purpose for which it is being published.
Narrator One. What is the "Dharma" that was "well proclaimed" by the "Supreme Physician"? Is it an attempt to make a complete description of the world? Is it a metaphysical system?
First Voice. The Buddha was once living at Savatthi in Jeta's Grove. A deity called Rohitassa came to him late in the night, paid homage to him and asked: "Lord, the world's end where one neither is born nor ages nor dies nor passes away nor reappears: is it possible to know or see or reach that by traveling there?"
"Friend, that there is a world's end where one neither is born nor ages nor dies nor passes away nor reappears, which is to be known or seen or reached by travelling there—that I do not say. Yet I do not say that there is ending of suffering without reaching the world's end. Rather it is in this fathom-long carcase with its perceptions and its mind that I describe the world, the origin of the world, the cessation of the world, and the way leading to the cessation of the world.
SN 2:36; AN 4:46
"It is utterly impossible
To reach by walking the world's end;
But none escape from suffering
Unless the world's end has been reached.
It is a Sage, a knower of the world,
Who gets to the world's end, and it is he
By whom the holy life has been lived out;
In knowing the world's end he is at peace
And hopes for neither this world nor the next."
The Blessed One was once living at Kosambi in a wood of simsapa trees. He picked up a few leaves in his hand, and he asked the monastics: "How do you conceive this, monastics, which is more, the few leaves that I have picked up in my hand or those on the trees in the wood?"
"The leaves that the Blessed One has picked up in his hand are few, Lord; those in the wood are far more."
"So too, monastics, the things that I have known by direct knowledge are more: the things that I have told you are only a few. Why have I not told them? Because they bring no benefit, no advancement in the holy life, and because they do not lead to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana. That is why I have not told them. And what have I told you? 'This is suffering; this is the origin of suffering; this is the cessation of suffering; this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.' That is what I have told you. Why have I told it? Because it brings benefit, and advancement in the holy life, and because it leads to dispassion, to fading, to ceasing, to stilling, to direct knowledge, to enlightenment, to nirvana. So, monastics, let your task be this: 'This is suffering, this is the origin of suffering, this the cessation of suffering, this is the way leading to the cessation of suffering.'"
SN 56:31
Narrator One. It is not, then, an attempt to make some complete description of the world, either internal or external. Is it a metaphysical system—a consistent logical construction—and if so, what premise is it based on?
First Voice. Once when the Blessed One had gone into Rajagaha for alms the naked ascetic Kassapa went up to him, and after greeting him, he said: "We would ask Master Gautama [a respectful way addressing the historical Buddha, whose name was Siddhartha Gautama] something, if Master Gautama would consent to give an answer." — "It is not the time for questions, Kassapa; we are among houses." He asked a second and a third time and received the same reply. Then he said: "It is not much we want to ask, Master Gotama." — "Ask, then, Kassapa, whatever you like."
"How is it, Master Gautama, is suffering of one's own making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering of another's making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering both of one's own and another's making?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is suffering neither of one's own nor another's making but fortuitous?" — "Do not put it like that, Kassapa." — "Then is there no suffering?" — "It is not a fact that there is no suffering: there is suffering, Kassapa." — "Then does Master Gautama neither know nor see suffering?" — "It is not a fact that I neither know nor see suffering: I both know and see suffering, Kassapa."
SN 12:17
Once too the wanderer Uttiya went to the Blessed One, and after greeting him, he sat down at one side. Then he asked: "How is it, Master Gautama, the world is eternal: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the world is not eternal: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "The world is finite: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the world is infinite: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "The soul is the same as the body: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then the soul is one and the body another: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "After death a Perfect One is: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One both is and is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya." — "Then after death a Perfect One neither is nor is not: is only that the truth and everything else wrong?" — "That too is not answered by me, Uttiya."
"But why does Master Gautama decline to answer when I ask him these questions? What then is answered by Master Gautama?"
"I teach the Dharma to disciples from direct knowledge, Uttiya, for the purification of beings, for surmounting sorrow and lamentation, for ending pain and grief, for attainment of the true goal, for realizing nirvana." More
Abbreviations
| AN DN Iti Khp Mn | Anguttara Nikaya Digha Nikaya Itivuttaka Khuddaka-patha Majjhima Nikaya | Sn SN Ud Vin | Sutta Nipata Samyutta Nikaya Udana Vinaya |
Further Chapters
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