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The Buddha's encounter with darkness: the serial killer Aṅgulimāla
(Asangoham) The life of Siddhartha Gautama, who later became known as the Buddha or the "Enlightened One," is full of stories.
They offer profound insights into the ethical (sila) teachings of Buddhism.
These stories, passed down through generations, serve as parables that elucidate the core principles of Buddhist thought, philosophy, and ethics.
Among these tales, the story of a serial killer in the Buddha's time named Angulimala [not a name but a title to remember him by like everyone else in Buddhism] stands out, not just for its dramatic elements but for its deep philosophical and ethical implications.
This narrative not only underscores the transformative power of compassion and understanding but also offers a unique lens through which we can explore and contrast Buddhist ethics with Western ethical systems.
Siddhartha Gautama: The Man Behind the Legend
Before we begin the tale of Angulimala, it's essential to understand the man who would become the Buddha.
Born into royalty, Siddhartha Gautama's life was one of luxury and privilege [in the land of Scythians].
However, a series of encounters with the harsh realities of life – old age, sickness, death, and wandering asceticism – led him to renounce his life as a prince to search for answers to the suffering inherent in human existence.
After years of meditation and rigorous ascetic practices, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, thereby becoming the Buddha, the "Awakened One."
His teachings, known as the Dharma (Dhamma), are packed into the Four Ennobling Truths and the Ennobling Eightfold Path [noble = enlightened]. These, as we shall see, lay the groundwork for Buddhist ethics.
The Buddha came to help him awaken.
[FURTHER EXPLANATION: The Buddha did not meet Angulimala by accident. The Buddha went to find Angulimala because on that day, being in need of the 1,000th finger for his trophy collection, which he had been gathering because of a jealous teacher from Taxila University who set him on this perilous course of killing to destroy his reputation, as he was brighter than his teachers, he was going to take the life of his mother. Had he done that, he would have been doomed, as it is one of the Five Heinous Deeds with immediate result in the very next rebirth. The Buddha, however, saw that Angulimala -- in spite of being a killer, who already had done so much harm -- was ripe for awakening. His past store of good karma made him ready for awakening, so long as he did not fall into the bad karma of the heinous deed he was heading toward. To save him, the Buddha put himself in danger by going through the woods where Angulimala hunted his victims. He used his spiritual powers to evade being killed, and to guide Angulimala away from his mother, who out of love had also entered the woods to try to reason with him, until he became frustrated as to why he could not catch up to the Buddha, who looked like an ordinary wandering ascetic in the forest. The Buddha was able to find Angulimala in the first place because it was his custom to wake up early in the morning and scan the world or at least his region for those he could help bring to enlightenment. He converted Angulimala to peace and brought him out of the woods. The king and his men wanted to seize him and put him to death, but the Buddha intervened, vouched for him, and said Angulimala would no longer harm anyone. He became a monk, but every time he went on alms round, people attacked him by throwing rocks and other things at him, bloodying him. The Buddha told him to persevere and never mind the sticks and stone. He was told he should constantly reflect on what was going to happen to him in the future when his karma ripened and how it would have trapped him if he had carried out the heinous deed of matricide he was on the verge of committing. This humbled Angulimala, who instead of becoming angry at those angry with him, radiated loving kindness, compassion, joy in their joy, and equanimity until he awakened in this very life, thereby sparing himself the doom of subhuman rebirths in accordance with his karma. What people should take away from this is that karma (stored up actions, deeds, need not of necessity come to fruition. We do not need to exhaust all previous karma before liberation, awakening, enlightenment. With just normal faculties as human beings we have the potential to realize the Truth and escape woeful states of rebirth inferior to the human world, which are wiped away at stream entry. There is no time to waste. The results of karma come upon us. What can be done must be done today, now, taking advantage of the existence of three remarkable treasures currently in the world that are almost never found in the world: a Buddha, the Dharma, and a Noble Sangha. So the question may arise, what will become of Angulimala's bad karma? The results will not be experienced by Angulimala in subsequent rebirths. Like seeds thrown on barren land, they will not come to fruit. This is the natural order of things, the miracle of the Dharma that leads to the end of karma, the end of ignorance, the end of rebirth, and the end of all suffering. If it could not do this, the Buddha would not have declared it as "awakening" and "nirvana." Other traditions that try to call their goal, their sunnum bonum, "nirvana" or "enlightenment" in a generic sense are very mistaken and should choose other terms because what the Buddha discovered and taught are radically different from Vedic Brahmanism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Christianity, for all their superficial similarities.]
#angulimala #buddha #spirituality #buddhism
Script: Matt Mackane. Edit: Harsh. Voiceover: Matt Mackane. Score: Epidemic Music.
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