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Spacemac Junior Artist Username: Spacemac Post Number: 227 Registered: 05-2012 Posted From: 49.43.219.167 Rating: N/A |
Sakka's praises reported by Pañcasikha Once Pañcasikha, a celestial musician, messenger, and attendant on the deva planes, appeared before the Buddha. He reported that Sakka, king of the gods of the Thirty-three, especially honored the following qualities of the Buddha and his teaching: 1. The Lord has striven out of compassion for beings, like no other teacher they can find. 2. The doctrine he teaches is "well proclaimed by the Blessed One, visible here and now, immediately effective, inviting inspection, onward leading, to be experienced by the wise for themselves." 3. He distinguishes and proclaims what is good and what is bad. 4. He explains the path to Nibbana. 5. He has taught beings to become learners (i.e., stream-enterers, once-returners, and non-returners) and arahants. 6. Gifts to the Buddha are well-given (because they bear great fruit) and are accepted by him without any conceit. 7. He practices what he teaches and teaches what he practices. There are absolutely no contradictions between his verbal and physical actions. 8. The Lord has gone beyond all doubt and accomplished his aim in regard to the goal and the supreme holy life. | ||
Spacemac Junior Artist Username: Spacemac Post Number: 226 Registered: 05-2012 Posted From: 49.43.219.167 Rating: N/A |
Sakka's questions Sakka, king of the devas in the heaven of the Thirty-three, played many roles in the Buddha's mission. He attended on the Bodhisatta at his final birth and at the Great Renunciation, visited the Buddha under the Bodhi Tree, and several times proclaimed his confidence in his unique qualities. A discourse called Sakka's Questions (DN 21) took place after he had been a serious disciple of the Buddha for some time. The sutta records a long audience he had with the Blessed One which culminated in his attainment of stream-entry. Their conversation is an excellent example of the Buddha as "teacher of devas," and shows all beings how to work for Nibbana. For these reasons we will study Sakka's Questions in depth to see what message it has for us today.[7] From his vantage point in the Tavatimsa plane, Sakka was a keen observer of the behavior of humans and other beings. He saw that while beings would like to live with each other peacefully, they rarely succeed. Thus his opening question to the Buddha attempted to unravel this contradiction: "By what fetters, sir, are beings bound — gods, humans, asuras, nagas, gandhabbas, and whatever other kinds there may be — whereby, although they wish to live without hate, harming, hostility or malignity, and in peace, they yet live in hate, harming one another, hostile and malign?" The Buddha explained that two mental factors — jealousy and avarice — cause all this trouble; from these two qualities almost all the aggression in the world arises. In this way the Buddha began a step-by-step lesson in Buddhist psychology: causes and conditions govern everything that happens in the universe. Sakka next asked about the origin of jealousy and avarice. Behind jealousy and avarice, the Buddha said, lie liking and disliking, and the source of both liking and disliking is desire. As this is such a basic problem, Sakka wanted to understand even more deeply the causes of desire. The Buddha told him that desire is triggered by thinking. Although he did not specify what sort of thinking, he must have been referring to unsystematic mental activity, the random thoughts in which the untrained mind indulges. When Sakka asked about the cause of thinking, the Buddha said it is the "tendency to mental proliferation." This is what brings about random thinking, which leads to desire, which in turn culminates in like and dislike. These in turn condition jealousy and avarice, from which arise the conflicts in our daily lives. Sakka next shifted to a more directly practical issue: "How does one destroy this sequence that leads to so much misery?" He requested the Buddha to explain what should be done to eliminate this tendency to endless proliferation of mental activity. The Buddha replied that one should not blindly follow after every feeling that arises in the mind. Rather, meditators should pursue a feeling — whether it be a pleasant, painful, or neutral one — only if doing so contributes to the growth of wholesome qualities. If we are alert to our reactions and see that pursuing a feeling strengthens unwholesome tendencies, then we should relinquish that feeling. We will not get carried away by desire for more enjoyable feelings or by aversion towards pain and unhappiness. Sakka once again was very appreciative of the Buddha's words and he next asked more specifically about the practice of bhikkhus. The deva knew that monks practice the Dhamma to the highest degree, in the purest form. As a god he could not become a monk, but he wanted to discover how monks acquire the restraint required by the monastic disciplinary code. The Buddha replied that the good bhikkhu pursues only bodily conduct, conversation, and goals which are conducive to the growth of wholesome qualities, to the attainment of Nibbana. He rigorously restrains himself from everything detrimental to these aims. Sakka had one more question about mind training: "How do bhikkhus control their senses?" Again the Buddha spoke of avoiding whatever leads to evil while cultivating the positive, this time referring to all kinds of objects — forms, sounds, odors, tastes, tactile objects, and ideas. This is a basic Dhamma theme: always avoid unwholesome actions while one works to create wholesome kamma. Sakka wanted to take full advantage of his lengthy audience with the Blessed One, so he embarked on another series of queries. These deal with the variety of religious teachers he had seen in the world. Even a deva can be confused by the range of doctrines taught by "holy" people. He genuinely sought to learn: (1) if these teachers all taught the same thing, and (2) if they are all liberated. How often do we hear today, "All paths lead to the same goal," or "All spiritual teachings are the same beneath their superficial differences." But the Buddha, the Fully Self-Awakened One, replied negatively to both of Sakka's questions. He explained that spiritual teachers do not all teach the same thing because they have different perceptions of the truth. From this it logically follows that they cannot all be fully liberated. Proclaiming where true liberation lies, the Buddha instructed Sakka that only those "who are liberated by the destruction of craving are fully proficient, freed from the bonds, perfect in the holy life." When evaluating spiritual teachers, bear in mind that liberation means destroying desire. Sakka approved of the Buddha's statement and remarked that passion pulls beings to repeated rebirth in happy or unhappy circumstances. Sakka was so at ease with his Teacher that he then related a story which shows an unexpected aspect of deity-human relationships. Long ago he had gone to various human ascetics for advice on these matters with utterly unilluminating results. None of the yogis that Sakka had hoped to learn from had told him anything. In fact, as soon as they realized he was the king of the devas, one and all decided to become his disciples. Ironically, Sakka found himself in the awkward position of having to tell them what little Dhamma he understood at the time. They had no teachings to give him. Sakka had been delighted with this whole conversation. He declared that it had given him a unique happiness and satisfaction "conducive to dispassion, detachment, cessation, peace, higher knowledge, enlightenment, Nibbana." This was the direction he had longed to travel, literally for ages. He had at last made substantial progress with the guidance of the Blessed One. Inviting Sakka to delve further into his mental processes, the Buddha then asked him what thoughts contribute to this great satisfaction. In his final reply, Sakka declared he was joyful because he foresaw six facts about his future: (1) As king of the devas he had gained "fresh potency of life." (2) At the end of this life, he would mindfully choose where to be reborn, in a human or higher realm. (3) In that future life too, he would follow the Buddha-Dhamma with wisdom, clear comprehension, and mindfulness. (4) He might attain arahantship in that existence. (5) But if not, he would become a non-returner (anagami) and, after dying there, be reborn in the highest Pure Abode. (6) Finally Sakka knew that that existence would be his last; before it ended he would become an arahant.[8] The king of the devas then spoke a verse in gratitude to the Buddha: "I've seen the Buddha, and my doubts Are all dispelled, my fears are allayed, And now to the Enlightened One I pay Homage due, to him who's drawn the dart Of craving, to the Buddha, peerless Lord, Mighty hero, kinsman of the Sun!" The sutta then indicates that Sakka gained the stainless "vision of the Dhamma" by which he became a stream-enterer. All his uncertainties about the path to final awakening had been dispelled by the Buddha's masterly replies to his questions, and his own past merits bore their proper fruit. There is another discourse with Sakka as questioner (MN 37). It is set later on, at the monastery built by the woman lay devotee Visakha for the Buddha in Savatthi. This time Sakka asked the Buddha: "How in brief is a bhikkhu liberated by the destruction of craving... one who is foremost among gods and humans?" In reply, the Buddha summarized the sequence that leads a bhikkhu to liberation: "A bhikkhu has heard that nothing is worth adhering to. When a bhikkhu has heard that nothing is worth adhering to, he directly knows everything... he fully understands everything... whatever feeling he feels, whether pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, he abides contemplating impermanence in those feelings, contemplating fading away, contemplating cessation, contemplating relinquishment. Contemplating thus, he does not cling to anything in the world. When he does not cling he is not agitated... he personally attains Nibbana. He understands 'Birth is destroyed, the holy life has been lived, what had to be done has been done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'" The cycle of dependent origination (paticca-samuppada) explains that contact leads to feeling which in turn conditions craving, and craving causes clinging, which leads to rebirth and suffering. So by contemplating feeling and by seeing it as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and non-self, the bhikkhu gives up all craving and clinging. That is Nibbana here and now. Delighted, Sakka paid respects to the Buddha and returned to the Tavatimsa deva plane |