Buddhist prophecy: When the Iron Eagle Flies

When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism for the West

We recognize you, Brother. You have returned.

Ayya Khema, with a foreword by the Dalai Lama, has 4.9 out of 5 stars after 16 ratings. When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism for the West is a complete meditation course from one of the West's most beloved Buddhist teachers.

In her usual direct style, German Jew Sri Lanka-trained and attained Buddhist nun Ayya Khema points us toward the Middle Path — a way of simplicity.

The great Ayya Khema, Buddhist nun

Her teachings unfold simply, free of jargon, and are ideal for a contemporary world where our fevered pursuit of pleasure and comfort leaves us "like children playing in a house on fire, refusing to let go of our toys."

This is a practical guide to building meaning through awareness: When the Iron Eagle Flies contains a wealth of exercises and advice to help readers along the path.

A Westerner trained in the East, Ayya Khema grounds her teaching in our ordinary, everyday experiences and gradually shows us how to gain access to liberation and freedom in this life under these conditions.

• When the Iron Eagle Flies: Buddhism for the West

"When the Iron Eagle Flies"?

Nazis had medal eagle, the Iron Cross medal.

What does it mean to say, "An iron eagle will fly"? There's no way an iron eagle can fly -- unless we throw it off a cliff and redefine flying as "falling from the sky."

This ancient Tibetan Buddhist prophecy -- like those of the strangely related (Edward Vining, 1885, Rick Fields, 1992, 2022) ancient Hopi and other Native Americans in the Southwest United States -- states that the Dharma will reach the West when the "iron eagle flies." Of course, what metal bird flies? Airplanes of all kinds, traversing the skies as could be known but not quite understood when the vision was received.

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What did Ayya Khema realize in the tumult?

Ayya Khema, a German Jewish immigrant trained in Sri Lanka under an eminent Theravada Buddhist monk, learned meditation (jhana), and revived the defunct nun's order in the country and the tradition in other allied countries. We owe a great debt to Ayya Khema not only for the revival but for teaching in the West to those hungry for liberation from suffering.

Interestingly, the prophecy is slightly more specific or may be interpreted as such. Karma (deeds with the power to bear subsequent results) is a strange, strange thing. How it will work out is unfathomable. That working out (vipaka, phala) is one of the Four Imponderables, so complex and intricate that it would drive one to madness to repeatedly ponder.

When worlds collide...

Empire Beneath the Ice: How Nazis Won WWII (S. Quayle)

The Nazis have an "iron eagle" on their Iron Cross insignia, as if to represent the conquest of snakes (nagas, dragons, reptilians) by eagles (garudas, suparnas, avians), just as Americans and other Western powers seem to promote.

The dragons (serpents, vipers, dinosaurs, Silurians) may not be ALL bad, but they have certainly been cast as such. The eagle is majestic, but originally the symbol of the USA was a snake on a flag warning, "Don't tread on me."

Of course, now the flag of the country is the pretty and all-inclusive Rainbow, but between these two banners (and after the CSA), it used to be the bloody Stars and Stripes.

An Iron Eagle is now military slang for an American military officer attained to the rank of colonel who will not be promoted to the rank of general, the term referring to the rank insignia a colonel wears, which resembles an eagle.

Ayya Khema, as a German Jew, had to flee the comfort and familiarity of Germany because of WW II, which saw the Nazis come into power. The Nazis, and Ayya Khema could almost certainly not have known this, were very interested in Tibet and esoteric Vajrayana Buddhism, with its deep history of Bon black magic and Vedic Hindu influences. The myths of Aryan supremacy and of a world monarch (chakravartin), converted into racial terms and a role for Fuhrer Hitler by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joe Goebbels.

Smithsonian covers up ancient Egyptians in US

"Burning airlines give you so much more," Brian Eno observed. Of course, he was being facetious, but when iron eagles fly and worlds collide, we can hardly comprehend what would have been otherwise. Karma is just that way. Few know that the Nazis won WWII because we are told the opposite. The U.S. does not admit to admitting Nazis into the U.S. and U.S. military, to set up NASA, the CIA (the new OSI/Gestapo), intercontinental missile programs, nuclear weapons, and top secret UAP/vimana vehicles.

Buddhism for the West (Ven. Khema)

All of that is kept is kept secret from us. So are we working with Draconian reptilians from far away, or the reptilians who have long been here inside the planet? Are we aware of the Hollow Earth civilizations discovered by Admiral Byrd (Operation Highjump, called "Iron Sky" as a distraction and diversion for plausible deniability). A great deal is going on. And, of course, this is all nonsense that no one can seriously believe, no matter how much research bears it out or what whistleblowers have to say.

And this confluence brings us right back around to the arrival of immigrant out of Nazi Germany and into the welcoming arms of Buddhist Asia. Ayya Khema arrived in Sri Lanka, learned meditation, excelled, restarted the Nun's Monastic Community (Bhikkhuni Sangha), and came to the United States and Europe to teach from time to time. She was not the only Jew to ride the war out outside of Germany.

War and peace

Buddhist Dictionary

One of the great early Western monastics and translators of the Buddhist Pali language canon of ancient Buddhist texts was also a Jew, who while in Sri Lanka and India was arrested and sent to an internment camp in Dehra Dun because foreigners from Germany and/or other belligerent countries had to be detained, even if they were monks. He was the great compiler of the Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Buddhist Terms and Doctrines, Ven. Nyanatiloka Thera. He wrote of his life in the foothills of the Himalayas at that time and continued to the study the Dhamma (Dharma). This influx of Jewish Germans was a great boon and gives us the wealth of English translations we now enjoy and build upon. This is the story of his life:

• The Life of Nyanatiloka Thera (Buddhist Publication Society)
• Operation Highjump? Operation Mockingbird?
• Ayya Khema; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Shauna Scwhartz (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Buddhist Women at the Time of the Buddha

Hellmuth Hecker, Sister Khema (trans.) © 1994; Amber Larson (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

The following stories, written in German by Hellmuth Hecker, have been translated from the German Buddhist magazine Wissen and Wandel, XVIII 3 (1972), XXLI 1/2 (1976).

While every effort has been made by the translator, Sister Vajira, to conform to the original writing, some changes had to be made for the sake of clarity.

The stories of the famous Buddhist nuns Bhadda Kundalakesa and Patacara have been enlarged and filled in.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Australian monk Ven. Khantipalo for his assistance in improving the style and content of this narrative.

His new translations of verses of the Therigatha and the Dhammapada from the original Pali language have helped to make these stories come alive.

It is hoped that this booklet will serve as an inspiration to all those who are endeavoring to tread in the Buddha's footsteps.

• Sister Khema, Wat Buddha Dhamma, Wisemans Ferry, N.S.W. 2255, Australia, Jan. 1982
• Hellmuth Hecker (dailynews.lk/line/hellmuth-hecker)
  

Bhikkhuni Sujata's Verses of Final Knowledge

With subtle veils adorned,
Garlands and sandalwood bedecked,
Covered all over with ornaments,
Surrounded by my servants,
Taking with us food and drink,
Eatables of many kinds,
Setting off from the house,
To the forest grove we took it all.

Having enjoyed and sported there,
We turned our feet to home
But on the way I saw and entered
Near Saketa, a monastery.
Seeing the Light of the World
I drew near, bowed to him;
Out of compassion the All-Seeing One
Then taught me Dharma there.

Hearing the words of the Great Sage,
I penetrated Truth:
The Dharma passionless,
I touched the Dharma of Deathlessness.
When the True Dharma had been known,
I went forth to the homeless life [as a nun];
The three True Knowledges are attained,
Not empty are the Buddha's Teachings!

(Therigatha 145-150) Verses of the Elder nuns. More

CONTENTS

• Foreword
• Abbreviations
• The Verses of Final Knowledge of Bhikkhuni Sujata
• Queen Mallika
• What Cannot Be Got: The Buddha's Words to King Pasenadi on Queen Mallika's Death
• Khema of Great Wisdom
• Bhadda Kundalakesa, the Former Jain Ascetic
• Kisagotami, the Mother with the Dead Child
• Sona, With Many Children
• Nanda, the Half-sister of the Awakened One
• Queen Samavati
• Patacara, Preserver of the Vinaya

 

Abbreviations of Source References 

A .... Anguttara Nikaya
D .... Digha Nikaya
Dhp .... Dhammapada
M .... Majjhima Nikaya
S .... Samyutta Nikaya
Sn .... Sutta Nipata
Thag .... Theragatha
Thig .... Therigatha
Pac. .... Pacittiya (Vinaya)
J. .... Jataka
Ud. .... Udana
Mil. .... Milindapañha
Jtm. .... Jatakamala
Bu. .... Buddhavamsa
Divy..... Divyavadana
Ap. .... Apadana

Instructions for Absorption (Leigh Brasington)

Leigh Brasington (leighb.com), Insight Journal, Fall 2002; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

These instructions have been taken from a nine-day retreat offered by Leigh Brasington [student of enlightened Western nun Ayya Khema] at the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies in April of 2002.

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Instruction for Entering Jhana by Leigh Brasington

The Pali word jhana (Sanskrit dhyana) is sometimes simply translated as "meditation," but more accurately it refers to an "absorption" into a very focused, very stable state of concentration.

In the classical tradition, there are several [eight] stages of jhana, each one more focused than the previous.

Some people will experience some of the jhanas on this retreat; some people will not. The likelihood of you experiencing a jhana is inversely proportional to the amount of desire that you have for it.

• [Reread this key line. The more desire you have, the less likely you are to experience absorption. Why? Desiring, wanting, longing for, craving jhana hurts the chances of it happening. So let go. Instead, just let it happen by persevering in practice without generating desire, however subtle and in the background.]

After all, the instructions given by the Buddha in the early texts (sutras) for practicing jhana begin with "Secluded [apart, separated] from sense desire, secluded from unwholesome [defiled] states of mind [like desire, aversion, wrong views], one approaches and abides in the first jhana."

In order to experience a jhana, it is necessary to temporarily abandon the Five Hindrances [sensual desire, ill-will, bodily sleepiness and mental lassitude, worry and flurry, skeptical doubt].

However, if you are craving a jhana, you've got sense desire [kama-tanha] and an unwholesome state of mind. You have to set those aside to be able to enter the jhana.

[The method]

Sariputta: Come, Kolita, let us leave the world.

The method for entering jhana begins with generating access concentration.

You begin by sitting in a comfortable, upright position. It needs to be comfortable, because if there is too much pain, aversion [manifesting as resistance, annoyance, or anger] will naturally develop in the mind.

You may be able to sit in a way that looks really good, but if your knees are killing you, there will be pain and you will not experience any jhanas.

So you need to find some way to sit that is comfortable. But it also needs to be upright and alert, because that tends to get your energy going in a beneficial way that keeps you awake.

If you are too comfortable, you will be overcome with sloth and torpor [sleepiness/laziness and low motivation/mental energy], which is an unwholesome state of mind that is totally useless for entering the jhanas.

[1] So the first prerequisite for entering the jhanas is to put the body in a position that you can just leave it in for the length of the sitting without having to move. If you have back problems or some other obstacle that prevents you from sitting upright, then you need to find some other alert position that you can maintain comfortably.

Now this is not to say that you cannot move. [You can move.] It may be that you have taken a position and you discover, "My knee is killing me; I have to move because there is too much aversion."

If you have to move, you have to move. Okay, be mindful of moving. The intention to move will be there before the movement.

• Notice that intention,
• then move very mindfully,
• and then re-settle yourself into the new position,
• and notice how long it takes for the mind to get back to that place of calm that it had before you moved.
• It is very important that you [move mindfully and do] not move unmindfully.

This process encourages you to find a position where you don't have to move, because you'll notice the amount of disturbance that even a slight movement generates.

And in order to get concentrated enough to have the jhanas manifest, you need a very calm mind.

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Generating access concentration can be done in a number of ways.

Today I will mostly talk about generating it using the breath, a practice known as anapana-sati.

The first word, anapana, means "in-breath and out-breath," while the word sati means "mindfulness."

The practice is therefore "mindfulness of breathing." When practicing anapana-sati, you put your attention on the breath.

It is probably better if you can observe the physical sensations of the breath at the nostrils or on the upper lip, rather than at the abdomen or elsewhere. It is better because it is more difficult to do; therefore, you have to concentrate more.

Since we are trying to generate access concentration, we take something that is do-able, though not terribly easy to do -- and then we do it. When watching the breath at the nose, you have to pay attention very carefully.

In doing so you will watch the sensations, and then your mind will wander off. [It doesn't have to, but it will...until it doesn't. When that is may be a million attempts from now or the very next breath.]

Then you'll bring it back, and it will wander off, then you'll bring it back [again], and it will wander off.

Eventually though -- maybe not in the next sitting, maybe not even in the next day -- but eventually [in its own time, not yours], you'll find that the mind sort of locks into the breath.

You've been going first to one side and then the other, and finally you're there, and you know that you're there. You're really with the breath, and the mind is not wandering off. Any thoughts that you have are wispy and in the background. The thoughts might be something like "Wow, I'm really with the breath now" as opposed to [discursive thoughts like], "When I get to Hawaii, the first thing I'm going to do is…"

When the thoughts are just slight, and they're not really pulling you away [so you are no longer distracted], you're with the sensations of the breath. This is the sign that you've gotten to access concentration.

Whatever method you use to generate access concentration, the sign that you've gotten to access concentration is that you are fully present with the object of meditation.

So if you are doing metta bhavana ["loving-kindness meditation"], you're just fully there with the feelings of metta; you're not getting distracted.

If you're doing the body sweeping practice [like on Goenka free 10-day retreats], you're fully there with the sensations in the body as you sweep your attention through the body.

You're not thinking extraneous thoughts, you're not planning, you're not worrying, you're not angry, you're not wanting something. You are just fully there with whatever the object is.

If your practice is anapana-sati, there are additional signs to indicate you have arrived at access concentration. You may discover that the breath becomes very subtle; instead of a normal breath, you notice you are breathing very shallow.

It may even seem that you've stopped breathing altogether. These are signs that you've arrived at access concentration. More: Instruction for Entering Jhana (leighb.com)

Euphoric Meditation with Leigh Brasington

Dr. Lori Marsh live from Southern Dharma, Dhr. Seven, Ven. Aloka  (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Leigh Brasington in conversation with Stephanie Nash (nasharts.com) about the jhanas

Leigh Brasington

To enter the Buddhist meditative absorptions (zen states, jhanas, dhyanas), one has to be meditating regularly enough to reach "access concentration." Jhana Expert Leigh Brasington says two hours per day.

Now one rests/focuses on in-and-out breathing (anapana) until awareness does not drift: Thoughts are no longer pulling attention away. And if there are thoughts, they tend just be wispy and in the background -- like clouds passing through a vast, clear sky.

Brasington says this always takes at least 30 minutes to get to. Stay here for 10 minutes before moving into the absorptions:

First

Serenity has made all the difference!

To enter the first absorption, after access concentration is achieved and sustained for a good 10 minutes, find and move the attention to a pleasant sensation in the body.

Place attention on the pleasantness of the pleasant sensation, dropping in-and-out breath awareness.

Leave (keep) awareness on the pleasantness of the pleasant sensation, and the absorption will find you.

The first absorption is accompanied by piti-sukha. Piti (rapture, joy, bliss, zest, effervescence, euphoria) is "nervous energy," somewhat like having a finger in a light socket.

Sukha is "happiness" (pleasure, contentment, satisfaction, abiding calm). It is in the background, whereas piti is very much in the foreground.

Personally, I didn't like this excited piti state much. I'm sure I "fell into it" on a 10-day Goenka retreat when I started insight (vipassana) meditation.

Second

The second absorption is sukha-piti, when happiness comes into the foreground and piti takes a backseat.

To arrive at here, one takes a big in-breath and lets it out with a good sigh. By doing so a lot of the nervous energy drops away, and mostly sukha remains.

Third

Stay here a bit then take another deep breath, let it out, and imagine dialing back the happiness until it is contentment. This is the third absorption. 

Fourth

For the fourth absorption, just imagine dropping into stillness and silence. This is as far as I got. 

These first four are called the "material absorptions," and the next four the "immaterial absorptions."

The instructions to getting to the final four are just as easy, like skipping a stone across a placid lake, moving deeper and deeper into the coolest and deepest absorption.

Retreats

Right Concentration Guide

Leigh Brasington is leading a meditation course in Lake Tahoe, Nevada (DharmaZephyr.org: 9-night residential retreat on the jhanas/insight) this month and another at Southern Dharma next fall. He regularly teaches at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center in Washington/Oregon (photos). 

It is possible for ordinary Americans with little to no experience to experience jhana. His knowledge of Buddhist sutras is impressive. The commentarial Abhidharma (the "Higher or Ultimate Teachings"), which came later as a systematic presentation of the Buddha's Dharma, sort of discounts the jhanas as being too hard to access.

by Sayalay Susila, edited by Seven

It instead promotes "dry insight," or vipassana, as somehow more accessible. [But insight without deep concentration is inaccessible.] Brasington also says the Abhidharma attempts to make the Buddha's teachings into one consistent Teaching, which is an impossible goal because the Buddha taught different things to different people, effectively reaching them where they were. More

EDITOR'S NOTE: Theravada tradition, particularly in Burma, states that the Buddha composed the Abhidharma while in Tavatimsa, the celestial "World of the Thirty-Three." It is a systematic summary of the Dharma in ultimate terms, meticulously and uniformly breaking down subtle subject matter into its constituent elements. For this reason some choose not to believe it represents what the Buddha taught, preferring the sutras and monastic code as if they had not also been systematized. The three great divisions of the Buddha's Teaching, called the Tripitaka or "Three Baskets," are the "Sutra Collection" (Sutta Pitaka), "Higher Teachings" (Abhidharma), and "Discipline" (Vinaya).

Beset by birth, illness, death (Ayya Khema)

German Theravada Buddhist nun Sister Ayya Khema, All of Us: Beset by Birth, Decay, and Death (accesstoinsight.org); Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

A celestial scene, as from the space World of the Thirty-Three (Chantip Ditcharoen/flickr)

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I. The Dharma of the Blessed One is Perfectly Expounded

The Dharma of the Blessed One
is rightly expounded,
[visible] here and now,
not dependent on time

[i.e., immediately effective]. 

 

Western Theravada nun Ven. Ayya Khema

The first line of this Buddhist chant proclaims real confidence in the Dharma/Dhamma (capitalized to signify the Buddha's teachings). It is not about believing without inquiring, but an inner relationship of trust. When one is faithful to someone, one trusts, one places oneself in that person's hands, has a deep connection and an inner opening.

How much more is this true of the confidence and faith in the teachings of the Buddha? Those aspects of the Dharma which we do not yet understand can be set aside for the moment. That does not shake our confidence, faith, and trust.

 

If we feel the teaching is completely, perfectly, and "rightly expounded," we are very fortunate, for we know that one thing in this universe is right. There is nothing else to be found that is without blemish, nor is there anything that is becoming perfect.

If we have that trust, faithfulness, and love towards the Dharma and believe it to be rightly expounded, we have found something beyond compare. We are blessed with inner wealth.

 

The results "to be seen here and now" are up to each of us. The Dharma has been made clear by the Enlightened One, who taught it out of compassion. We have to see it for ourselves with inner vision.

• Buddhist Masters and their Organizations: Ayya Khema
• AUDIO (Dharma Seed): Ayya Khema's Dharma Talks 
• Ayya Khema American student: Leigh Brasington

"Here and now" needs to be stressed because it means not forgetting [the very definition of sati or "mindfulness, memory, vigilance, watchfulness, conscientiousness], being aware of phenomena (dharmas)/the Dharma in each moment. 

This awareness helps us to watch our reactions before they result in unskillful intentions, words, or deeds (the three kinds of karma) -- seeing the positive within us and cultivating it, seeing the negative and substituting it. 

When we believe all of our thoughts and claim justification for them, we're not seeing the Dharma, the Truth. There are no justifications, there are only arising phenomena which quickly cease again.

 

"Not a matter of time" or "not dependent on time" means that we are not dependent upon the Buddha or any buddha being alive in order to practice the Dharma. Although this is a widespread misconception, we can undertake the path-of-practice right now.

Some people think there has to be a perfect situation or a perfect teacher or perfect meditation technique. None of that is true. Mental and physical phenomena (dharmas) are constantly coming, changing, and going (arising, turning, and falling), altering without pause. When we cling and try to hang onto them or consider them our own, we will believe any story our mind tells us without wise discrimination.

We consist of body (form), feelings (sensations), perceptions, mental formations (fabrications), and consciousness, which we grip tightly believing them to be "I," "me," and "mine." We need to take a step back and be a neutral observer of the whole process. These are processes, not things.
 

Inviting one to come and see,
leading inwards.

 

The understanding of the Dharma leads to inner depths of awareness. We are invited to "come and see" what is really there. We are not being asked to "come and see" a meditation hall, Buddha statue, stupa (dagoba), or shrine. We are invited to "come and see" the phenomena (dhammas) arising within us. The defilements as well as the purifications are to be found inside one's own heart and mind. More

• Glossary
• II. Accepting Oneself
• III. To Control One's Mind
• IV. Be Nobody
• V. War and Peace
• VI. Non-duality
• VII. Renunciation
• VIII. Ideal Solitude
• IX. Dukkha for Knowledge and Vision
• X. Our Underlying Tendencies
• XI. Sorrowless, Stainless and Secure
• XII. Path and Fruit

Buddhist SPORTS: "brainball" at Sera (video)

Dhr. Seven and Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; KL.Lau (wiki); TricycleMag (video)

"When the Iron Bird Flies: Buddhism for the West" (with Richard Gere) from BPS/Sera:

The Fix Is In (Brian Tuohy)

The pitch (field) was crackling. Everyone was suited up. Game books in hand, teams formed, star players and cheerleaders, then it was game on.

  

Take that! No, you take that! Click and clack, fripp and frap, with vorpal sword (vajra) in hand. Now you've gotten yourself in a bind you'll never be able to get out of! Here's my retort; now you're trapped! Bam, take that right back! Lama on lama and the rinpoche can referee.

Sacred thunder bolt: Vajra

Here is a poetic play-by-play of an idealized match for The Phörpa (Cup):

One, two! One, two! And through and through,

The vajra hand goes snicker-snack!

He left him slumped, and with his head held high,

He went galumphing back.

- Lewis Carroll's imagination

Diagram of the pitch (mandala) for a match (debate) in the head space of reality.

The debate is on. Bam (hand clap)! Try to get yourself out of that one! (KL.Lau)

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Debating Buddhist scriptures － Tibet's Sera Monastery 西藏色拉寺 

They'll get it when they meditate (KL.Lau)

Sera Monastery (gompa or Himalayan lamasery) is one of the great three Gelukpa sect university monasteries in Tibet. It is located 1.25 miles (2 km) north of the capital, Lhasa. The other two are Ganden and Drepung.

 

Sophistry? The only way to debate is to study, question, and contemplate (KL.Lau)

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Gamble? Larceny Games

The origin of the name "Sera" is attributed to the fact that the site of the monastery was once surrounded by wild roses (Tibetan se ra) in bloom. The original Sera was located in Lhasa about 3 miles (5 kms) north of the Jokang and is responsible for some 19 hermitages, including four nunneries, all located in the foothills north of Lhasa.

Sera Monastery is a complex of structures with a Great Assembly Hall and three colleges, founded in 1419 by Jamchen Chojey of the Sakya Yeshe of Zel Gungtang (1355-1435), a disciple of Tsongkhapa.

During the 1959 revolt in Lhasa, Sera suffered severe damage, its colleges destroyed, and hundreds of Buddhist monks killed. After the Dalai Lama escaped and found asylum in India, many of the Sera monks who survived the Chinese invasion moved to Bylakuppe in Mysore, India.

When Iron Bird Flies (Ayya Khema)

After initial tribulations, they established a parallel Sera with Sera Me and Sera Je colleges and a Great Assembly Hall similar to the original monastic complex with help from the Indian government. There are now more than 3,000 monks living in India's Sera, and the community has spread its missionary activities to several other countries by establishing Dharma centers propagating knowledge of Bon shamanism and  Buddhism known as Himalayan Vajrayana, Indian Tantra, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism, and Lamaism. [This is what was bound to happen "when the iron bird flies," according to Tibetan lore.]
 

Ven. Trijang, Dalai Lama's tutor, Sera Mey

The Sera in Tibet and its counterpart in Mysore, India are noted for their dramatic and very animated "monastic debates." This stylized form of intellectual combat is meant to enhance learning and reflection on the Dharma, the teachings of the Buddha and elaborated, Hindu-synthesized Buddhist philosophy (aka Mahayana). Sera developed over the centuries as a renowned place of scholarly learning, training hundreds of scholars, many of whom have attained fame in Buddhist countries.
   

After the match everyone gathers for a group photo at Sera Me Tratsang College  "stadium"

The Fruits of Recluseship (sutra)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Tipitaka Network (Digha Nikaya 2)

Golden Buddha cloth hanging on city street (Georgie_girl/flickr.com)

  

(Matthew Ahmet/dailymail.co.uk)

The Samannaphala Sutta [samana = recluse, shaman, hermit, wandering ascetic, Buddhist monastic; phala=fruit; sutta=sutra, discourse] is second among the Long Discourses of the Buddha. 

This sutra gives the background and explains how an ancient Indian royal, King Ajatasattu, became a Buddhist lay disciple. It starts with the king in his palace seeking advice from his Brahmin ministers about which wandering ascetic or Brahmin to go see.

 

Ignoring the recommendations of those six ministers, the king turns to the royal physician Jivaka Komarabhacca for advice. Jivaka informs him that the Buddha is staying at a Mango Grove in Rajagaha, the capital of Magadha, and suggests visiting him there. 

Monks and novices in Theravada Thailand (T.O. Johnson/T.O.OtisPhoto/flickr.com)

Accepting this suggestion, Ajatasattu sets out on his royal mount together with Jivaka, a large number of women on elephants, and a procession of torch-bearing attendants.

 

Later, we learn that the king had already spoken to the other six ascetics his ministers recommended and was not pleased with their teachings.

 

According to the Buddha, on hearing the Dharma (the Buddha's teaching), King Ajatasattu would have become a stream-winner -- if it were not for his "heinous" karma, patricide, as he had recently killed and deposed his father, the beloved Buddhist King Bimbisara, who was himself a stream-winner. Such action is especially weighty karma with results that are certain to ripen in the very next rebirth. (Killing a stream-enterer is also very heavy karma to bear but is not among the Five Heinous Actions: harming a buddha, killing one's mother, killing one's father, killing an arhat, or creating a schism in the Sangha).

 

Japanese Zen (Arashiyama)

It is the night of Komudi, the full-moon day in the month of Kattika, at a time after Ajatasattu has already deposed his father Bimbisara, former king of Magadha, who was a devoted noble disciple of the Buddha (a stream enterer, the first stage of sainthood).

 

The dialogue is mainly between the Buddha and young Ajatasattu. Other personalities mentioned are Queen Vedehi, his mother, Prince Udayibhadda, his newborn son, and the six rival ascetic teachers of the Buddha's day. The six includes the founder of Jainism, Mahavira, who is known in Buddhist texts as the Nigantha Nataputta ["Possessionless Son-of-Nata"], whose family name is Aggivessana.

The Six Rival Teachers

The rival teachers mentioned are characterized as representative of various Indian philosophical movements at that time. They are Purana Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala, Ajita Kesakambala, Pakudha Kaccayana, Sancaya Belatthaputta, and Nigantha Nataputta (Mahavira, which like the name "the Buddha" is simply a title meaning "Great Hero," an epithet used for the Buddha in earlier times).

This discourse opens a window into their individual teachings, as reported by King Ajatasattu to the Buddha. Unfortunately, each of these accounts is very brief.

Respect of Ascetics

Novice with candle in Shwe Yan Pyay, Burma (UrsulasWeeklyWanders.com)

 

Indian culture respects ascetics. Here an "ascetic" (samana) refers to a person who has given up his or her family and social life to search for greater happiness by finding answers to the ultimate questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life?

 

This goal of asceticism was later expanded in Buddhism to include the greater happiness of the world. King Ajatasattu, one of the most powerful royals of the day in India, expressed his respect for recluses, even if that person was formerly his servant.

Prior to Mahavira and the Buddha accepting female disciples into their wandering ascetic orders (sanghas), all samanas were male. Mahavira was first to admit them. But the Buddha, whose mission was to establish the Dharma with male and female monastics and male and female lay disciples, was the first to do so as a world-religion, a universal teaching that spread all around the world. 

Jainism, on the other hand, though slightly older, never traveled beyond India to become a universal teaching. Jains did travel and therefore there are communities elsewhere but not Mahavira's teaching itself. 

Females were given the same duties and responsibilities as their male counterparts  in the Buddhist monastic order. (The widespread belief that the Buddha imposed eight additional rules on his stepmother, the first Buddhist nun, is not the case, as a textual analysis of the Bhikkhuni Vinaya reveals, according to Ven. Ayya Tathaaloka).

Fruits of becoming a Buddhist recluse

Theravada Buddhist nuns of California, with Ayya Tathaaloka, fourth on the right (AFB)

 
The title of the sutra literally means "recluseship-fruits," the benefits of becoming an wandering ascetic, a Buddhist monk or nun.

Basic rewards

When asked what these fruits are, the Buddha provides the king with satisfactory answers on the many rewards of practicing in accordance with the Buddha's Dharma and (Monastic) Discipline.

• One is respected even by kings, as well as being provided with one's basic necessities, safety, and protection.
• One is endowed with restraint and virtue (as explained in the The Net of All-Embracing Views).
• One remains with guarded sense faculties.
• One is mindful and clearly aware (sati-sampajana).
• One is contented.

Intermediate rewards

Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist nuns with prayer wheel and beads (colunas.epoca.globo.com)

 

By withdrawing and detaching from the Five Hindrances, further spiritual benefits arise as one succeeds in the practice of "meditation" (bhavana, jhana, jhaneti, kammathana):

1. the first four meditative absorptions (rupa-jhanas),
2. insight-knowledges (vipassanā-ñāṇa),
3. advanced capacities.

The Highest reward

The highest reward, which is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist path, is the realization and full penetration of the Four Noble Truths, which leads to enlightenment and NIRVANA, which is complete freedom from samsara (the otherwise endless round of death and rebirth and suffering).

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The title of this sutra is from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation. Other translations are "The Fruits of the Homeless Life" (Maurice Walshe), "The Fruits of the Life of a Recluse" (Rhys Davis), "The Fruits of the Life of a Samana" (BPA), and "The Rewards of Spiritual Practice" (by Ayya Khema in German as Die Früchte des spirituellen Lebens and Visible Here and Now in English), another German version is available from Pali Kanon.