3. The four Great Deva Kings (cātumahārājika) descend to the expectant mother’s chamber and stand constant guard with drawn swords over the Bodhisatta and his mother.
4. After the Bodhisatta has entered her womb, his mother becomes completely virtuous and keeps the precepts flawlessly.
5. While the Bodhisatta is in her womb, no sensuous thoughts of sexual desire enter into the mind of his mother. Should any man attempt to approach her with desire, his feet become rooted to the spot, as if bound by divine chains.
6. Nevertheless the Bodhisatta’s mother fully enjoys the pleasures of the five senses in the form of music, food and costly garments and ornaments which, due to the great kamma of the Bodhisatta, stream in as gift offerings from all directions.
7. While she is bearing the Bodhisatta in her womb, his mother is free of all disease and distress. Furthermore, the fetus is fully visible to her. She sees him seated cross-legged within her womb in peaceful repose.
8. Seven days after the Bodhisatta’s birth, his mother dies. The commentary says this is because, having borne the Bodhisatta, her womb is now like a sacred chamber and must not be defiled by the entrance of any man’s seed. And since she is still in the prime of her life and very beautiful, it would be impossible for her to guard her womb.
9. Whereas the period of gestation for most women is somewhat variable, for the Bodhisatta’s mother it is always precisely ten months.311
10. The Bodhisatta’s mother always gives birth while standing up.
11. When the Bodhisatta emerges from his mother’s womb he is received on a golden net by suddhāvāsa brahmās.312 He is then passed to the Four Great Kings who receive him on a cloth of cheetah hide (ajinappaveṇī313 ). He is only then handed over to the human attendants.
12. The newly born Bodhisatta therefore does not come into contact with the earth. He is laid out on a piece of pure white cloth and the Four Great Kings announce, “Rejoice, devī, a son of great power is born to you!”
13. The Bodhisatta emerges pure and clean from his mother’s womb, undefiled by blood or mucus.
14. Two streams of water appear from the sky, one warm and one cool, and ceremonially bathe the Bodhisatta and his mother.
15. The Bodhisatta immediately after his birth takes seven steps and, standing under a white parasol, announces “I am the highest in the world, I am supreme in the world, I am the eldest in the world. This is my last birth, for me there will be no more becoming.”
16. A great light fills the ten thousand-fold world-system as it did at the time of his conception.314
In the passage describing each of these wondrous events, the text concludes with the refrain ayamettha dhammatā which may be rendered, “this here is the natural order.” The life of a Buddha follows a fixed pattern as an unfolding of natural law. Perhaps nothing illustrates the archetypical pattern of a Buddha’s career so evocatively as an incident following his meal of milk-rice received from the girl Sujatā just prior to his awakening. When the Bodhisatta had finished his meal, he placed the golden cup into the stream of the Nerañjarā River where it came to rest with a clinking sound upon a pile of three other golden cups left there by the three previous Buddhas of this kappa. The sound wakened the ancient nāga king Mahākāla who exclaimed his surprise that another Buddha had come into the world.315
The great cosmic significance of the key events in the Buddha’s life is shown by the manifestation of many signs and wonders. These occur when a Bodhisatta is conceived, born, awakened and when as a sammāsambuddha he preaches the first discourse and when he enters parinibbāna (i.e. dies). Besides the great light mentioned in the sutta, the commentaries embellish the list with many more. Musical instruments spontaneously begin playing by themselves. Everywhere those in bondage are freed as chains and prison walls burst asunder. The blind can see, the deaf hear and the crippled walk. Trees burst into fruit and flower, and even the fires of niraya go out temporarily.316
The single most important moment in all of cosmic history is not the awakening of a Buddha; rather, it is the moment when he successfully passes his teaching on and the first of his disciples has his “dhamma eye opened” (i.e. he attains sotapātti, the first of four stages of awakening). This moment is called the “Turning of the Wheel of Dhamma” (dhammacakkaṃ pavattita). For Gotama, the historical Buddha of our epoch, this occurred when, shortly after his own awakening under the Bodhi Tree, he spoke a discourse on the Four Noble Truths to his five former companions in austerity. One of them, Kondañña, declared, “That which is subject to arising, is subject to cessation.” The content of this utterance is significant because it does not follow from the content of the Buddha’s talk in any obvious or logical way. Kondañña had attained to the first stage of awakening and had an independent glimpse of ultimate truth. The Buddha declared “Kondañña knows!” and a great cry of rejoicing spread upward through the cosmos, beginning with the local bhūmma (“earth-bound”) devas and spreading from them from realm to realm all the way to the brahmā worlds. “The Bhagava (“Blessed One”) at the deer park of Isipatana in Bārāṇasi has turned the supreme Wheel of Dhamma; it cannot be turned back by any samaṇa or brahmin or māra or deva or brahmā whatsoever in the world!” (SN 56:11) At that moment the cosmic game of saṃsāra changed. There was now a way out, a door to the deathless had opened for all beings.
A sammāsambuddha is the ultimate state possible for a human being; he is the “best of bipeds (dvipadaṃ seṭṭho)” (SN 1:14). Indeed, having transcended saṃsāric becoming he is, in a sense, beyond the entire cosmos.
Just as a lotus is born in the water, grows in the water but stands above the water undefiled by the water; so is the Tathāgata born in the world and grows up in the world, but has overcome the world and stands undefiled by the world. (SN 22:94)
Some schools of Buddhism were unwilling to allow the Buddha human status at all. One of the controversies in the Kathavātthu records a refutation of the view that the Buddha never really took human birth at all but remained in the Tusita devaloka and merely sent a mind-made body (nimmitarūpa) to the earth to teach the Dhamma.317 This docetic approach is quite contrary to the spirit of the original texts. While the Pali texts exalt the state of Buddhahood, they never deny the human state from which it was achieved. In the Buddha’s last days, he suffered from the ravages of age like any other mortal: “this body is like an old cart held together with straps.”318 A large part of the wonder of the Buddha’s extraordinary accomplishment is that it was done here, in the ordinary human realm.
CHAPTER TWO – THE ANIMAL REALM
3:2:1 TIRACCHĀNA—THE ANIMAL REALM
In Buddhist cosmology, animals are considered a separate gati or destination of rebirth. The most common term in Pali for “animal” is tiracchāna which derives from tiraccha “across, obliquely” conveying the idea that animals go about on all fours with their spines horizontal to the ground (See PED). The word tiracchāna is sometimes used as an adjective meaning “debased or lowly” in such compounds as tiracchānakatha “idle chatter”, lit. “animal talk” or tiracchānavijjāya “low knowledge” referring to such arts as astrology, palmistry etc (DN 1). In the Vinaya rule forbidding the killing of animals, (Vin Pāc 61) tiracchāna is defined as equivalent to pāṇa which means “breathing thing”. The animal realm is often referred to collectively as the tiracchānayoni, “the animal womb.”319
The tiracchānayoni is said to be the most diverse of the five gati (SN 22:100) (destinations of rebirth). In the commentary to the Vinaya rule cited above, when an example is needed for the very smallest and most inconsequential animal, bed-bug eggs (maṅgulabījaka) are mentioned (Vin-a Pāc 61). On the other end of the scale, the largest animals of all are certain giant sea-monsters which can be as big as one thousand yojana from head to tail (Jāt 537). A birth as an animal is considered one of the unfortunate ones, better than niraya but worse than becoming a peta (MN 97). The particular suffering of the animals is described as being subject to capture
in nets and traps or to being forced to pull carts by use of a whip or a goad (AN-a 1: 418). Immoral behaviour in general leads to rebirth as an animal, (AN 10: 176) but certain actions are specifically cited, including the holding of false-views (micchādiṭṭhi),320 cruelty, (AN 6:18) breaking precepts (AN 8: 40) and concealing offences (AN 2: 26). A person who sneaks around to commit misdeeds is said to be subject to rebirth as a creeping animal such as a snake, scorpion, centipede, mongoose, cat, mouse or owl (AN 10: 216).
The Bālapaṇḍita Sutta (MN 129) attributes birth in the animal world to greediness for flavours (rasādo) and to the doing of evil deeds (pāpāni kammāni karitvā). The text especially mentions brahmins who eagerly chase after offerings, being reborn as those animals who chase after the flavour of dung, cocks, pigs, dogs and jackals. The sutta goes on to elaborate on the suffering endured in the tiracchānayoni:
There are, bhikkhus, living beings arisen among the animals (tiracchānagatā pāṇā) who live in darkness, grow old in darkness and die in darkness. These include moths, maggots and worms, among others. Those fools who are greedy for flavours and commit evil deeds here, when their time comes and the body breaks up after death arise in companionship with those beings that live in darkness.
There are animals that live in water, grow old in water and die in water. These include fish, turtles and crocodiles … There are animals that live in filth, grow old in filth and die in filth. They live in rotten fish, stinking corpses, rotten food, cesspools and sewers. Those fools who are greedy for flavours and commit evil deeds here, when their time comes and the body breaks up after death arise in companionship with those beings that live in filth.
I could speak in very many ways, bhikkhus, about the sufferings in the tiracchānayoni. It is not easy to find a parable to express it, so great is the suffering of the tiracchānayoni.
Suppose, bhikkhus, that a person was to throw a yoke with a single hole into the great ocean, and it was carried about in all directions by the winds. Suppose there were a blind tortoise that emerged from the ocean once every hundred years. What do you think, bhikkhus, would that tortoise put his neck through the hole in the yoke? − He might, bhante, after some very long period of time. − Sooner, bhikkhus, would that blind turtle put his neck through the yoke than would a fool escape back to the human realm once having fallen to a lower realm (vinipāta).
Why is that? Because there is no dhamma-faring there, no peace, no doing of good deeds or making of merit. There is only mutual devouring there; there the strong consume the weak.
If, bhikkhus, that fool after some long time regains the human state it is into a low family that he is born; a family of outcastes, hunters, bamboo gatherers, carters or refuse cleaners. Among such clans is he reborn. There he is poor; he finds little food with much difficulty. There clothing is hard to come by. He is of bad colour, ugly, deformed, sickly, blind or crippled or palsied. He gets no food, drink, clothing, vehicles, garlands, dwelling, bedding or lights. There he misconducts himself by body, speech and mind and at the break-up of the body he arises after death in a lower birth, even in niraya. Such is the nature of the total and utter fool. (MN 129)
Thus it is easy to fall into the animal realm, but difficult to escape it. The number of humans and devas who fall into the lower realms is greater than the number who take a better rebirth, (SN 56:97 f, Eng. 56:102 f.) and the number of animals who are reborn as humans or devas is small (SN 56:105, Eng. 56:123 f.). The number of beings in the animal realm is very great indeed. “The number of ants or termites in a single mound is beyond count” (MN-a 122). The number of beings in the seas, presumably all to be counted as animal, is greater than the total number of beings on land (AN 1:322, Eng. 1:333). Making escape difficult also is the possibility of repeated rebirth as an animal. We hear of several cases of beings being reborn five hundred times in sequence as an animal. A brahmin was reborn as a goat and killed five hundred times because he had committed animal sacrifices (Jāt 18). A greedy-minded bhikkhu who cheated an arahant out of his meal suffered multiple lower rebirths, including five hundred times as a dog who could never find enough food (Jāt 41). The only sure way to escape from an animal birth is to become a sotāpanna, one who has attained the first stage of awakening (SN 55:1).
Although an animal birth is in general one of great suffering, some animals, relatively few in number, enjoy a more pleasant existence. For example, a royal elephant that lives in the king’s household and enjoys good food, lodging and adornment, (AN-a 4:232) or other elephants, dogs, horses and cattle that live among humans and are treated well (AN 10:177). This would include those animals we nowadays refer to as “pets”. These cases are said to be the results of mixed kamma: when previously human they misconducted themselves by body, speech and mind but were generous and gave food and drink to ascetics and brahmins (ibid.). It should also be noted that powerful beings such as nāgas and supaṇṇas are counted as tiracchāna. When aspiring to rebirth as a deva, the nāga prince Bhūridatta scorned his present state as “a frog-eating animal existence” (Jāt 543).
In Buddhist cosmology, beings may be born in one of four ways: womb-born, as for example humans and other mammals, egg-born as in the case of birds, moisture-born, which is the way insects and worms were thought to arise and the spontaneous birth of devas and some other non-human beings, who simply appear fully formed at their new birth.321 Animals can take any of the four kinds of birth (Vism 17:154). Maggots and other such small beings that live in filth are said to “moisture-born.” Some of the higher nāgas and supaṇṇas are born spontaneously, fully formed, like the devas. The Aṅguttara Commentary mentions in passing that there are cases of animals giving birth to humans and vice-versa, but without giving examples (AN-a 1:275). We might cite Jātaka 523 in which a female deer eats some grass on which an ascetic has urinated, and by swallowing some of his semen gives birth to a human boy. Also, in the Bhūridatta Jātaka, a nāga female takes a human prince as her lover and gives birth to two children described as human, albeit with a somewhat “watery” nature. Later in the same story, one of these children, a girl, marries a nāga king and gives birth to nāga children (Jāt 543).
Animals take a wide variety of nutriment:
Compared with the food of a crocodile, that of a peacock is subtle. Crocodiles eat even stones; they do not find them vile but digest them. Peacocks eat snakes, scorpions and such animals. But compared to the food of the peacock, the food of the hyena is subtle. They eat horns and bones abandoned even three years ago. Moistened with saliva, these become as soft and tender as tuber roots. Compared with the food of hyenas, the food of elephants is subtle. They eat the branches of various trees. Compared to the food of elephants, the food of buffalo, elk and deer is subtle. They eat even the sapless leaves of various trees Compared to these, the food of cattle is subtle, and they eat moist or dry grass. Compared to these, the food of hares is subtle. Compared to the food of hares, the food of birds is subtle. Compared to birds, the food of village rustics is subtle.322
Animal consciousness is called ahetuka, “rootless” (AN-a 4:21). This term from the Abhidhamma is defined as follows:
The word ahetuka means without roots, and qualifies those types of consciousness that are devoid of the mental factors called hetu, roots. These types do not contain any of the three unwholesome roots—greed, hatred and delusion—nor do they contain the three bright roots—non-greed, non-hatred and non-delusion—which may be either wholesome or indeterminate. Since a root is a factor which helps to establish stability in a citta (“consciousness-moment”), those cittas which lack roots are weaker than those which possess them323 …
This means in practice that an animal goes through life experiencing the results of previous kamma and has little ability or opportunity to make fresh kamma. This should be considered a matter of degrees. For example, considering the potential for negative kamma, while a higher animal like an elephant is capable of some degree of trickery and deceit, this is not to be compared to the tan
gled level of corruption of which a human being is capable (MN 51). Escape from this realm is generally possible only as a result of old kamma made in a higher birth coming to a delayed fruition. There are, however, exceptions to this rule. It is said that when “animals such as deer or birds hear a Dhamma talk, pay homage to the saṅgha or to a cetiya (“stupa”, presumably by circumambulating it) they make skilful (kusala) kamma whether they know it or not … And when cows, dogs, biting flies or lions and tigers harass a bhikkhu or deprive him of life, they make unskilful (akusala) kamma, whether they know it or not” (AN-a 4:171). An example of a humble animal escaping to a better rebirth is the frog who listened to the Buddha’s teaching:
The Buddha was teaching Dhamma to the four-fold assembly by the banks of a pond near the city of Campa. At that moment, a frog emerged from the pond thinking, “This is what is called Dhamma.” Settling down at the back of the crowd, he grasped the sign of Dhamma (dhammasaññāya nimitta) in the sound of the Buddha’s voice. Just then a certain shepherd came to listen to the Dhamma. Without seeing the frog, he planted his staff on the ground to lean on, and crushed the body of the frog. With his mind gladdened by the sign of Dhamma, the frog died and was reborn in Tāvatiṃsa as a deva in a twelve yojana golden vimāna, as if waking from a dream. Finding himself surrounded by a company of accharās (heavenly dancing girls) he wondered, “From whence did I come to this place?” Examining his previous life he asked himself, “By what kamma did I obtain this present state of enjoyment?” He saw no cause other than grasping the sign of Dhamma in the Buddha’s voice. (Vv-a 51 & Vism 7.51)
Another story which illustrates the same principle concerns the five hundred bhikkhus who were Sāriputta’s students and to whom he entrusted the Abhidhamma:
When the Buddha taught the devas in Tāvatiṃsa daily for an entire rainy season, each afternoon he would return to earth and pass on the synopsis of the teaching to Sāriputta. These became the seven books of the Abhidhamma and Sāriputta first taught these to a select group of five hundred bhikkhu disciples. They had all been small bats living in a cave at the time of Kassapa Buddha. As they hung from the ceiling of the cave, two bhikkhus were reciting the Abhidhamma aloud as they did walking meditation. The bats grasped a sign in the sound of the bhikkhus’ voices. They did not understand the meaning, “these are the aggregates, these are the elements etc.” but simply by grasping the sign after death they were reborn in a deva world. They remained enjoying the bliss of a deva existence for the entire period between Buddhas and were then reborn as householders in Sāvatthi during the time of Gotama Buddha. (Dhp-a 14:2)
The Buddhist Cosmos Page 21