Recollecting the Buddha's 9 Virtues

Francesca Painter and Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha in ancient Theravada Buddhist Thailand (Hendry Niveo/flickr.com)

 

(mitjoruohoniemi/flickr.com)

The Buddhist calendar begins with the final nirvana of the historical Buddha.
  
According to that event this is "Buddhist Year" 2556. It began on the full moon day of May (May 6, 2012).

 

The greatness of the Buddha was measured in terms of his virtue, concentration, and wisdom. But he is remembered as a guide because of the effectiveness of the teachings, the Dharma, he made known.

  

Cave-temple, Sri Lanka (hellotravel.com)

The virtues of the Buddha are reckoned as incalculable, immeasurable, unfathomable. They are like waves in the ocean, redounding through time and imponderable. Nevertheless, the larger waves may be counted.
  
Therefore, the Buddha's virtues are sometimes condensed for the sake of reflection (Buddhanusati, recollection and contemplation) into nine great virtues:

1. worthy (of honor and hospitality, gifts and praise, veneration and respect)
2. self-awakened (enlightened through his own trailblazing efforts rather than benefiting from the discovery of another fully enlightened teacher)
3. endowed with knowledge and conduct (six unparalleled aspects of superknowledge and ethical personal behavior in accordance with wisdom and compassion)
4. well gone (attained to the supreme, the unexcelled, nirvana)
5. knower of the world (who fully knew both inner and outer worlds, the dimensions and paths of karma)
6. supreme trainer of persons to be tamed (a master physician for the physical pain and, moreover, the mental suffering of living beings)
7. teacher of devas and humans (guide of "shining ones," sometimes called "gods," who are subtle-unseen beings of various kinds, as well as ordinary human beings)
8. awakened (buddha, awake and able to awaken others by inspiring and pointing out the path-of-practice that brings about the realization of liberating truth)
9. blessed (holder of great virtues). 

It is on account of these that so many revered and held as sacred the advice and instructions of Siddhartha Gautama who became the "Buddha." His enlightenment is thought to have happened 2,600 years ago.

  

Other virtues include the Ten Perfections that led to buddhahood.