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| Awakening under a tree |
Buddhism began in the forest -- the woods, the jungle, the wild wilderness -- when the ascetic Siddhartha had had it with the company of yogis and set off to practice more extreme austerities alone in breathtaking groves.
Five fellow wandering ascetics followed him. He increased his penance, punished the body (for what turned out to be the mind's doings) and fell flat on his face while going to pee. It was no way to live. He ate less and less, shriveled up, and stopped taking air. Not breathing, air (and life-giving
prana) entered through his ears. He fainted and fell to the forest floor exhausted.
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| How did you do it? We thought you gave up! |
Invisible woodland fairies (
bhumi-devas), seeing him, said to each other that they would feed him their food through his pores. He overheard them and refused, thinking it would be a form of lying if others thought he was fasting but was secretly being fed manna (or whatever energy sources it is those
devas ate). He abandoned his companions and tucked deeper into the woods to find a tree.
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| What is at the heart of a tree? Heartwood |
Under a magnificent big sal tree, he determined to make a breakthrough. But it didn't work. Instead, a woman named Sujata came and offered him food. He accepted it from her hand, her maidservant looking on. They thought he was a dryad, the spirit of that tree manifesting in human form to receive their offering of gratitude. Sujata had wished on the tree to become pregnant, and it had worked. She and her servant had prepared the special offering as a thank you.
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| Massive Japanese Buddha built in Bodh Gaya |
Bringing him home in a barrel, according to some versions of the story, they nursed him back to health to help him regain his strength. His fellow ascetics turned their back on him for these "sins" -- talking to females, receiving things from their hands, breaking his fast, reverting to a life of luxury and ease. Siddhartha was washed up among the forest tradition of spiritual seekers.
Restored to health, he returned to the woods and found another tree, a nearly 35-year-old pipal tree (Ficus religiosa), enormous with beautiful flowers soon to bear tiny figs.
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| Trees are easy to love and respond well = vibes. |
It was spring, the month of May, his birthday approaching. We know this because that tree was born on the same day he was (Vesak, the full moon day in the month of
Vesakha or May) and came to be the most revered tree in the world, the original Bodhi tree. It is the oldest documented tree in the world, even if California has noble bristlecone pines that are much older, according to scientific tests (the counting of rings) rather than human records.
This place is in what is now called Bodh Gaya in Bihar, India, at that time just a breathtaking grove near a river in the Kingdom of Magadha. The area came to be called the state of Bihar because there sprouted up so many
viharas, Buddhist monastic complexes, for the many male and female wandering ascetics who came to join his
sangha and find the same enlightenment. The specific location is now called "Enlightenment Grove" (Bodhi Gaya), a Buddhist pilgrimage destination of great importance, site of the
Maha Bodhi Vihar or "Temple of the Great Awakening."
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| This is a descendent of the original Bodhi tree the Buddha sat under when he gained enlightened and first touched nirvana. The original parent tree was felled maliciously by marauding Muslims angry that people were venerating a tree. |
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| The Maha Bodhi Temple built next to the tree |
He ordained followers of the Path, turning them from the home-bound life into wandering ascetics of the left-home life. They did not live anywhere but wandered through forests for meditation and towns for alms, walking far from their former homes to shake any sense of parochialism, leaving their family ties and petty involvements to dedicate themselves to realizing the ultimate truths. Buddhism began as a forest tradition in the refuge of the woods.
It didn't end there with so many events happening in this forest or that after long foot journeys through the woods. When, 45 years later, it was time to call it a life and be done with rebirth, the Buddha and his attendant monk, Ananda, set off for the woods, into the middle of nowhere (near modern-day Gorakhpur, India, near the border with Nepal). When Ananda understood that the end was near, he asked the Buddha to get out of there and go to a big kingdom instead of the boondocks of
Kushinagar.
The Buddha responded that what was now a wilderness was in ancient times a great city and state. Moreover, it was at the crossroads, a no man's land, of various kingdoms. In this way, no one could claim his body. Instead, it was partitioned, and stupas (burial mounds) were built to house the relics (shariras) by various kings and even some devas from space.
When it came time for the Buddha to lay down the burden, he walked a long way into the wood (now Kushinagar) and looking for a suitable place, he saw twin sal trees and reclined between them to enter final nirvana. His last act was entering the absorptions (as if he were visiting those worlds corresponding to those meditative states to take his leave of them just as he was doing for the human plane).
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| The Awakened One, the Buddha Gautama |
DETAILS, DETAILS: Nirvana is achieved only while alive. Glimpsing it is called stream entry, the first stage of enlightenment. There are further stages, traditionally four but actually there are more. Stream enterers at most must endure up to seven more rebirths. But there are different kinds of stream enterers, as defined in the Path of Freedom (Vimutti Magga). That number of rebirths gradually declines with progress until it is one more rebirth. That is the second traditional stage, the once returner, which refers to more rebirth on the human plane. But one might, by not laying down the burden and achieving full enlightenment in that life, would be reborn again but now in the rarefied Pure Abodes and attain final liberation there. The next stage is the non-returner, who will never be reborn anywhere but the Pure Abodes and attain final liberation there. The final stage is full enlightenment, the arhat (arahant), achieved while living, even in this very life. At that point one is done with all rebirth and suffering. Although, due to the limits of language, this is called "full" enlightenment, it is not actually the highest form of enlightenment. There are two superior forms, which are extremely rare. In essence, all enlightenment entails full enlightenment, it's just a matter of when: within seven rebirths, within two rebirths, within one rebirth, here and now with no further rebirth at all. The two superior forms are supreme enlightenment (samma-sam-bodhi) with the power to teach and supreme enlightenment without that ability (pacceka-buddhahood). What does a Buddha know that an arhat does not? Everything essential for final liberation is present in all three kinds of "full" enlightenment. So one way we like to think of it is that there are three kinds of buddhas: Supreme Buddhas, Silent Buddhas, and Personal Buddhas, that is, Self-Awakened Teachers, Self-Awakened Non-Teachers, and Enlightened Disciples. We can become any one of these; however, Silent Buddhas are extremely rare and Supreme Buddhas are so extraordinarily rare that they arise occur in a world-system (cakkavala) a few or fewer times in an aeon (kalpa). If we had forever, and in a sense we do, we might choose to be just like the Buddha and know all that he knew. We do not have forever, in another (in an ultimate) sense, because we do not even have two consecutive moments to string together, such is the radical impermanence (anicca) of the universe. There is tremendous suffering (dukkha) in choosing the path of supreme awakening with or without the ability to teach the path for others to awaken -- which entails establishing the Dharma in the world again and establishing a fourfold noble sangha, of male and female monastics and lay disciples who have awakened to at least the first stage. That is what "noble" (aryan) means -- having experienced a "change of lineage" (gotrabhu), becoming one of the "noble ones." Many think this refers only to buddhas or only to arhats. It, in fact, includes all of those who by way of insight have awakened to the Truth and glimpsed nirvana. For having glimpsed it, one might re-experience that ultimate bliss of the deathless in life many times over, spontaneously, confirming that the path-and-fruits (magga-phala) have been realized. This is not something one would wait for death to know, because death always entails rebirth until one makes an end of all further rebirth and suffering by the path culminating in arhatship or "full" enlightenment.- Scientists find structure older than humanity
- Ancient humans made expeditions to this 750,000-year-old workshop
- TEXT: Dhr. Seven; Pat Macpherson and Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly
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